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The Emergence of Politico-Religious Groupings in Late Nineteenth-Century Buganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Michael Twaddle
Michael Twaddle
Affiliation:
Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London
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Extract

This article reconsiders the emergence of politico-religious groupings in the kingdom of Buganda in the late nineteenth century, in the light of historical writings and research since 1952. It accepts J. M. Waliggo's view that the Christian martyrdoms of the mid-1880s need to be taken seriously by secular historians as an influence upon later Christian fanaticism. However, the link to later fanaticism was only politically established during the course of the Ganda succession war of 1888–90, when Kalema's establishment of an Islamic state in Buganda prompted the creation of rival Protestant and Roman Catholic politico-religious groupings. The present writer therefore accepts the stress upon the strategic importance of the Ganda Christian martyrs in Roland Oliver's pioneering study of The Missionary Factor in East Africa but questions the view of Oliver (and subsequent historians) that European missionaries were primarily responsible for the emergence of political competition between Anglican and Roman Catholic Christians in Buganda. Nonetheless, when politico-religious groupings did emerge in the kingdom during the succession war of 1888–90, both C.M.S. missionaries and the White Fathers were most important in ensuring that the two rival politico-religious groupings did not abort themselves as a result of Ganda Christian chiefs indulging in inter-personal strife along other lines of cleavage. That, however, is largely a later story, to which Oliver's Missionary Factor still serves as the essential introduction.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 29 , Issue 1: Special Issue in Honour of ROLAND OLIVER , March 1988 , pp. 81 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

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