Historical Research in Eastern Uganda: Local Archives

Extract

Conducting historical research in countries with few resources necessary for the maintenance of documents and other sources on which we, as historians, depend is an exercise commonly fraught with difficulty. It need hardly be said that different problems confront us according to the themes and chronology of our studies, and so this paper cannot hope to be a comprehensive guide to any and every researcher working on Uganda. It can, however, illustrate some difficulties and successes of my particular research experience, which has been based overwhelmingly on the perusal of archival data. That experience was gained on two separate trips, one between January and August 2003 and one for the month of September, 2004. My research topic concerns the political history of two colonial districts in eastern province between 1945 and 1962. More particularly, it has set out to explore how political identity related to issues of class and class conflict in what was supposedly the first nationalist era. While I settled on these two districts, I initially began with three, and so conducted research at local archives for what were in the 1950s three districts of eastern province. Those districts were Teso, Busoga, and Bukedi, whose archives are at Soroti, Jinja, and Tororo respectively.

Attaining research permission in Uganda is a straightforward affair. Applications are made to the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), a body based in Uganda House on Kampala Rd., the main artery running through the city center. Their application forms can be downloaded from the internet at www.uncst.co.ug, or they can be telephoned at 00256 41 250499. The Council requires a brief research proposal, which is usually processed within a month of submission. On arrival in Kampala, they also require that one is ‘attached’ to a local institution before research papers are released. One can choose from Makerere University's Makerere Institute for Social Research (MISR) or the Centre for Basic Research (CBR) in Kololo, a research center for social sciences established by Mahmood Mamdani some years ago. Both institutions are in Kampala, are easy to access, and each charge around $US100 for annual membership.