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Killing Bwana: Peasant Revenge and Political Panic in Early Colonial Ankole*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Justin Willis
Justin Willis
Affiliation:
British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi
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Extract

The killing in May 1905 of Harry St. George Gait, a senior official of the Uganda Protectorate, has generally been treated in the literature as a political murder mystery. It can more usefully be seen as a window on two issues: the importance of clientship in relationships between agriculturalists and pastoralists in the kingdom of Ankole, and British reliance on pastoral allies to make real their power in Ankole. This paper suggests that Gait was killed by an agriculuralist frustrated by his own failure to advance in Ankole society; but that the repercussions of the killing were magnified by the fears and uncertainties of British officials on the spot over the reliability of their pastoralist allies. The British were, however, unable to dispense with these allies, and the crisis generated by Gait's death was resolved by a reaffirmation of the alliance between the British and the pastoralist elite, after the effective scapegoating of two minor chiefs.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , November 1994 , pp. 379 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 See for example Int Bu36a.

2 Morris, H. F., ‘The Murder of H. St. G. Galt’, Uganda Journal, xxiv (1960), 1–15Google Scholar; Steinhart, E., ‘The politics of intrigue in Ankole, 1905’, African Studies Review, xx (1977), 1–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mushanga, M. T. and Pirouet, L., ‘New evidence from mission archives on the death of Galt in Uganda, 1905’, History in Africa, v (1978), 121–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Sadler, Commissioner to Wilson, Deputy Commissioner, 29 May 1905, Uganda National Archives (UNA) A 27/15 B. Sadler expressed the same opinion to the Mbarara Collector; Commissioner to Knowles, Collector Mbarara, 26 May 1905, UNA A 27/15A.

4 G. Wilson, ‘Report of Commission of Inquiry into the Death of Mr Galt’, 4, 30 July 1905, UNA A 27/15B.

5 One suspect, arrested on 9 June, ‘confessed’ on 10 June that he knew the name of the murderer, and accused a petty chief. No further evidence came to light implicating either accuser or accused: ‘Rough diary of events’, 10 June 1905, UNA A 27/14.

6 Wilson, ‘Report of Commission of Inquiry’, UNA A 27/15.

7 ‘Rough diary’, 12 and 14 June 1905; Note by Knowles, 6 July 1905; all in UNA A 27/14.

8 One early report from the first British administrator in Ankole portrayed the agriculturalist population as entirely subject to the pastoralists, who refused any kind of work: Macallister to Ternan, 10 July 1899, UNA A 4/19.

9 Mbaguta told Knowles of his belief that‘the man Lutaraka was incited by someone in power’: Note, 13 June 1905, UNA A 27/14.

10 Wilson's last message before reaching Ibanda suggested his concern over this problem of communication: Wilson to Sadler, Commissioner, 7 June 1905, UNA A 27/15B.

11 Wilson, , ‘Report of Commission of Inquiry’, 26, UNA A 27/15B.Google Scholar

12 Note by Knowles, nd, UNA A 27/14; further mention will be made of all these names except Lyamugwizi, who was the pastoralist chief of a county neighbouring Ibanda, and no great friend of Mbaguta.

13 ‘Trial of Rwakakaiga Gabriyeli’, 24 June 1905, UNA A 27/14.

14 Rutaraka's neighbours, whose evidence was considered to be of great importance in this, had already obliged Wilson by implicating another suspect; but this statement was forgotten by all in the rush to incriminate Gabrieli and lsaka; Statement by Ndolere, 20 June 1905, UNA A 27/14.

15 As is suggested by the caution of the Commissioner's reply to the report; Sadler to Wilson, 21 Aug. 1905, UNAA27/15A.

16 A fee of £60 was eventually paid to this gentleman, after he complained that the initial offer of £30 was too little; Sadler, Commissioner to Lyttleton, Secretary of State for the Colonies [SoS], 16 Nov. 1905, UNA A27/15A.

17 Commissioner to SoS, 28 Oct. 1905, UNA A 27/15A.

18 Hunter, Prosecuting Counsel to Sadler, Commissioner, 31 Oct. 1905, UNA A 27/15A.

19 Subsequent commentators have shared this bias; Morris's lengthy account of the affair makes no mention of the court finding Rutaraka's ‘brothers’ guilty nor of Wilson's recommended sentence on them.

20 The comments of Judges Smith and Hamilton are recorded in UNA A 27/15A. Wilson had himself expressed doubts as to the suggested motives of the two: ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’, 54, UNA A27/15B. Gabrieli, an educated and relatively sophisticated Christian, had already himself eloquently rubbished the suggested motives; of resentment against Europeans, and a superstitious belief that one or more of his relatives had been poisoned: ‘Gabrieli in his defence states’, 17 July 1905, UNA A 27/14. Isaka was also an unlikely suspect: a pastoralist born in Buganda, he had come to Ankole as the right-hand man of an Anglican missionary and had served the mission for a number of years before joining the administration. H. Clayton to Church Missionary Society (CMS), 29 Nov. 1900, in ‘Extracts from the letters of the Rev. H. Clayton from Uganda’, Makerere University Library, MS 967. 61 CLA; and also ‘Journal of the Rev. J. J. Willis’, 12. 1901, Makerere University Library, MS 967. 761 WIL.Google Scholar

21 Wilson to Sadler, Private, 3 Jan. 1906, UNA A 27/15A.

22 Wilson, Ag. Commissioner, to Elgin, SoS, 22 Jan. and 10 Feb. 1906, UNA A 27/15A. Sadler, the former Commissioner, had been transferred to the British East Africa Protectorate, after the sudden death of the Commissioner there.

23 Steinhart rather inconclusively refers to a secret meeting and the possibility of a conspiracy, but then notes that the meeting in question could not have plotted Gait's death, for it occurred at the same time: Steinhart, ‘Politics of intrigue’, 14–15. Mushanga and Pirouet cite entries in the diary of the White Fathers at Mbarara as evidence of a conspiracy; yet this diary, of which only parts survive and which was written from recollection, is quite inaccurate as to the date of Gait's death and some of the detail of subsequent events, and its suggestions of conspiracy are evidently based on subsequent rumour: Mushanga and Pirouet, ‘New evidence on the death of Galt’.

24 Stanley, H. M., In Darkest Africa: Or the Quest, Rescue and Relief of Emin, Governor of Equatoria (London, 1890), 2 vols., 11, 355–59Google Scholar; Lugard, F. D., The Rise of Our East African Empire (London, 1892), 2 vols., 1, 425 and 11, 157–61.Google Scholar

25 Johnston, H. H., The Uganda Protectorate (2 vols. ) (London, 1902), ii, 570Google Scholar, says that the Bairu were ‘serfs’. Meldon, J., ‘Notes on the Bahima of Ankole’, Journal of the Africa Society, vi (1907), 136–53 and 234–49Google Scholar calls the Bairu ‘slaves’ (140). See also Gorju, J., Entre le Victoria, l'Albert et VEdouard: Ethnograpie de la Partie Anglaise du Vicariat de l'Uganda (Rennes, 1920), 27–31.Google Scholar

26 Cunningham, J. F., Uganda and Its Peoples (London, 1905), 6.Google Scholar Writings by missionaries of the CMS in the early years of their mission to Ankole suggested that they were almost exclusively concerned with the Hima, to the point that some accounts of their work did not even mention the Iru: see for example J. J. Willis's piece in Mengo Notes, Aug. 1902.

27 Cunningham, , Uganda and Its Peoples, 6.Google Scholar

28 Johnston, , The Uganda Protectorate, 11, 630–1.Google Scholar

29 Roscoe, J., The Banyankole: The Second Part of the Report of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition to Central Africa (Cambridge, 1923), 2, 16–18Google Scholar; Oberg, K., ‘The Kingdom of Ankole in Uganda’, 122–6Google Scholar, in Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (eds. ), African Political Systems (London, New York and Toronto, 1966), 120–62.Google Scholar

30 Karugire, S. R., A History of the Kingdom of Nkore in Western Uganda to 1896 (Oxford, 1971), 50–5.Google Scholar The idea of the physical separation of pastoralist and agriculturalist was taken up by Elam, Y., Social and Sexual Roles of Hima Women: A Study of Nomadic Cattle Breeders in Nyabushozi County, Ankole, Uganda (Manchester, 1973), 5–7.Google Scholar

31 Karugire, , The Kingdom of Nkore, 47.Google Scholar

32 Steinhart, E., Conflict and Collaboration: The Kingdoms of Western Uganda, 1890–1907 (Princeton, 1977), 8–12.Google Scholar

33 Gorju, , Entre le Victoria, 29.Google Scholar

34 Steinhart, , Conflict and Collaboration, 13.Google Scholar

35 Note, Knowles, 27 June 1905, UNA A 27/14. Roscoe, The Banyankole, 130, mentions nothing of cattle-giving in other circumstances, but does say that the bridewealth expected of agriculturalists was a cow-calf and a young bull, though goats might be given instead. The implication, clearly, is that agriculturalists could own fertile cattle, and transfer ownership of them. Steinhart's description anyway raises an obvious practical question; why would anyone want to borrow an unproductive cow which they could neither slaughter nor give to anyone else?

36 Karugire grandly cites ‘all my Nkore informants’ as authority for his argument; The Kingdom of Nkore, 39.

37 For example, Ints Bu38a, Bu39a and Bu52a state that being Iru or Hima is a matter of descent; the family history in Int Busoa offers a clear example of the permeability of the boundary between these identities. There is some confusion in the literature on the question of clientship, which reflects the actual complexity of the issue: Oberg, , ‘The Kingdom of Ankole’, 135Google Scholar, suggested that clientship relations only existed amongst the Hima, but himself contradicts this by referring to Bairu seeking clientship through the king; Ibid. 149. The most recent publication on the inter-lacustrine states fudges this issue with regard to Nkore, while noting the importance of pastoralist-agriculturalist clientship relations elsewhere: P. Bonte, ‘“To increase cows, God created the King”: the function of cattle in intra-lacustrine societies’, in Galaty, J. and Bonte, P. (eds.), Herders, Warriors and Traders: Pastoralism in Africa (Colorado, San Francisco and Oxford, 1901), 73 and 77–9.Google Scholar

38 Ints Bu33a, Bu36a, Bu37a, Bu41a.

39 Int Bu54a, Lukyn-Williams, F., ‘Hima cattle, Part 2’, Uganda Journal, vi (1938), 17–42, esp. 24.Google Scholar These accounts accord well with the brief description of early Ankole in Doornbos, M. R., Regalia Galore: The Decline and Eclipse of Ankole Kingship (Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam, 1975), 27Google Scholar, which suggests that pastoralists were attended by a group of closely-dependent agriculturalist clients, amidst a larger population of politically subject but economically largely autonomous agriculturalists.

40 Some informants said that such a transition would involve several generations of intermarriage, with favoured Iru men being allowed to marry Hima women (Int Bu54a). Others say, and exemplify in their family histories, that Iru could become Hima in a single generation; Int Busoa. Ints BU39A and Bu39b suggest a failed attempt by an Iru (the informant's father) to become Hima.

41 Int Bu42a, Lukyn-Williams, , ‘Hima cattle’, Pt 2, 96Google Scholar lists a whole series of different kinds of cattle loan amongst Hima. Oberg's discussion of clientship seems to refer only to cattle loaning amongst Hima, ; ‘The kingdom of Ankole’, 128–30, 135.Google Scholar I have come across no example of an Iru being ‘lent’ cattle, and normative statements deny the possibility of this: Ints Bu37a, Bu41a.

42 ‘Description of Lutaraka’, Knowles, 14 June 1905, UNA A 27/14.

43 Statement by Ndolere, 14 June 1905, UNA A 27/14.

44 Statement of Kakende, 1 July 1905; Statement of Binagwa, 14 June 1905, UNA A 27/14. The periods of time given in Ndolere's statement do not all tally with other accounts - in particular, Rutaraka's stay at Nyabiseke was probably longer than a few months.

45 Roscoe, , The Banyankore, 18Google Scholar, noted that ‘serfs’ were always free to move elsewhere; this alone suggests that the term was inappropriate.

46 This account is based on Karugire's description in The Kingdom of Nkore, 200–6. This account may be somewhat reified, and there is an apparent confusion over the role of the officials called abakungu. The description of the role of the abakungu in Oberg, , ‘The Kingdom of Ankole’, 146–7Google Scholar, also seems confused.

47 Steinhart, , Conflict and Collaboration, 134.Google Scholar

48 Ibid. 136; Karugire, , The Kingdom of Nkore, 228–9.Google Scholar A particularly devastating raid from Rwanda occurred in late 1894, and news of it reached British officials in Kampala: Wilson, Sub-Commissioner to Ag. Commissioner, 3 Jan. 1895, UNA A 4/1.

49 Steinhart, , Conflict and Collaboration, 140–6Google Scholar, gives a good account of the basic details of this dispute.

50 Ibid. 200; he based this presentation on interview information and the subsequent structure of the kingdom under British rule; despite his own caveat about the difficulty of projecting administrative structures back to the pre-colonial period: Ibid. II.

51 ‘May 1900 Report for Ankole’, Macallister, Sub-Commissioner Ankole to Johnston, Special Commissioner, 1 June 1900, UNA A 4/28. Since rather less than half of the archival material relating to Ankole in this period has survived, it is difficult to assess from the archives whether Macallister's new order built on any kind of existing territorial division.

52 There are several mentions of clients brought to Ibanda by Isaka: Knowles to Wilson, 10 July 1905; ‘Isaka Nyakiaga brought before the court’, 20 June 1905; ‘Note on inhabitants of Isaka's house’, 6 July 1905; all in UNA A 27/14.

53 Ndolere is described as such in Wilson, , ‘Report of the Inquiry’, 28Google Scholar, UNA A 27/15B. Ndolere's loan of goats to Rutaraka is not mentioned explicitly, but can be deduced (like much else) from otherwise incomprehensible comments recorded by the Inquiry, the import of which seem never to have troubled Wilson. In this case, the impoverished Rutaraka, staying with Ndolere, was said to have promised Ndolere that he would inherit his goats when he died: Statement by Ndolere's wife, 26 June 1905, UNA A 27/14. The confused statement in ‘Minutes of native council’, nd, UNA 27/15B also seems to refer to this issue.

54 Wilson, , ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’, 27Google Scholar, UNA A 27/15B.

55 Statement by Kaisagi, 17 June 1905; Statement by Kabungo, wife of Ndolere, 26 June 1905; Notes by Knowles, 14 June 1905; all in UNA A 27/14.

56 Statement by Ndolere's wife, 26 June 1904, UNA A 27/14.

57 Statement by Kwirigira, 18 June 1905; Statement by Kibanda, 27 June 1905; Statement by wife of Kibanda, 27 June 1905; all in UNA A 27/14.

58 Statement by Igumira, 26 June 1905, UNA A 27/14.

59 Int Bussa.

60 Int Bu55a.

61 Statement by Mugwisaki, 12 June 1905, UNAA27/15B. My thanks to Asiimwe Godfrey for help with this and many other linguistic problems.

62 Morris, , ‘The Murder of H. St. G. Galt’, 4.Google Scholar

63 Wilson, ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’, I, UNAA27/15B.

64 Ibid. 1.

65 Ibid. 55.

66 Steinhart, , Conflict and Collaboration, 149–56, 200–04.Google Scholar

67 Ibid. 206–8.

68 Ibid. 211–24.

69 Memo, Wilson, Sub-Commissioner to Commissioner, 31 July 1895, UNA A 4/2.

70 Macpherson, o/c Troops Ankole to Commissioner, 16 Apr. 1898, UNA A 4/10.

71 Wilson to Commissioner, 4 Sep. 1898; Wilson to Tighe, OC Troops, 25 Sep. 1898; UNA A 4/12.

72 Wilson to OC Troops, 13 Aug. 1898 UNA A 5/4; Wilson to Commissioner, 17 Oct. 1898, UNA A 4/13.

73 Macallister to Commissioner, 18 Jan. 1899, UNA A 4/15.

74 Ternan, Ag. Commissioner, to Macallister, 18 June 1899, UNA A 5/6.

75 Macallister to Commissioner, 22 Feb. 1899, UNA A 4/16.

76 Macallister to Ag. Commissioner, 19 June 1899, UNA A 4/18.

77 Macallister to Ag. Commissioner, 16 Oct. 1899, UNA A 4/22.

78 Ibid. Ternan apoplectically minuted ‘Damned cheek!’ in the margin.

79 Approving references to Mbaguta's energy and loyalty abound; see for example Ankole District Annual Report, 1904–05, copy in UNA A 27/15B.

80 Johnston, Special Commissioner to SoS, 25 May 1900, UNA A38/2.

81 Steinhart, , Conflict and Collaboration, 197–9.Google Scholar

82 Ibid. 199. Reference is made to the report on Racey in Wilson to Sadler, 16 June 1905, UNA A 12/6; unfortunately no copy of this report is extant. The CMS missionaries in Ankole recorded Racey's abrupt departure, but not its cause: H. Clayton to CMS, 18 Aug. 1901, contained in ‘Extracts fom letters of Rev. H. Clayton from Uganda’, in Makerere University Library Africana section, MS 967. 61 CLA.

83 In the collection of papers relating to Gait's death, there are several fine specimens of the British euphemism: ‘Mr Racey's affair’ (‘References in the evidence to Buhweju’, UNA A 27/14), ‘an unfortunate encounter’ and ‘certain old-time punitive measures already alluded to’ (Wilson, , ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’, 4 and 31Google Scholar, UNA A 27/15B).

84 Wilson to Commissioner, 2 Feb. 1902, UNA A 12/2.

85 Ankole District Annual Report, 1904–5, UNAA57/15B.

86 Statement by Kategira, 14 July 1904, UNA A 27/14.

87 Wilson, , ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’, 41, UNA A 27/15B.Google Scholar

88 Long hours at the Inquiry are mentioned in the ‘Rough diary of events’, 12 June 1905, UNA A 27/14; Wilson referred to rumours of planned attacks on the camp in ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’, 41, UNA A 27/15B.

89 Statement by Mbaguta to Knowles, 25 June 1905, UNA A 27/14. The same statement revealed that Macallister had similarly wrestled with the dilemma of Mbaguta's unpopularity as against his willingness to serve: ‘Mr Macallister sent me to Ngarama for a month because natives did not like me to be Katikiro. In about a month's time Mr. Macallister found the natives would not work and sent for me again’.

90 Wilson, , ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’, 37, UNA A 27/15B.Google Scholar

91 ‘Rough diary of events’, 21 June 1905, UNA A 27/14.

92 Wilson, , ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’, 26Google Scholar, UNA A 27/15B.

93 The cattle of this man, Bitawi, had been impounded as part of an investigation into allegations as to the involvement of another chief.

94 Several notes accusing Gabrieli and Isaka were subsequently passed to the Inquiry; signed not only by Mbaguta, but also by Igumira and Lyamgwizi, members of the royal clan whom Wilson had suspected as conspirators and malcontents. Only one of these notes is dated, to 6 Aug. 1905; UNA A 27/14.

95 Wilson, , ‘Report of the Inquiry’, 40Google Scholar, UNA A 27/15B.

96 Ibid. 51.

97 Ibid. 55.

98 Watson, Ankole District Monthly Report for Jan. 1906, UNA A 12/6.

99 Wilson, , ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry’, 40Google Scholar, UNA A 27/15B.

100 Ibid. 37.

101 Lyttleton, SoS to Sadler, Commissioner, 10 Nov. 1905, UNA A27/15A.

102 Western Province Annual Report, 1905–6, UNA A 42/99.

103 Ankole District Report for Sep. 1906, UNA A 42/101.