Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
Among all the African kingdoms to survive the Partition intact, Buganda is conspicuous for the way in which European overrule, so far from obstructing, positively accentuated the pattern of her pre-Colonial history. With regard to Buganda's political development, this continuity has already received a good deal of comment. Less emphasized, but intimately related to her internal continuity, is the perpetuation of Buganda's imperialist past, especially in the guise of Ganda participation in the extension of British influence throughout the Protectorate of Uganda.
1 My research in Uganda was carried out in 1960–1 on a Leverhulme Overseas Research Scholarship. Dr Roland Oliver and Professor K. Ingham drew my attention to the topic here considered, and I am grateful to Dr Oliver, Professor Philip D. Curtin, and Mr M. J. Wright for their helpful criticism.Google Scholar
2 E.g., Apter, D. E., The Political Kingdom in Uganda (Princeton, 1961);Google ScholarLow, D. A. and Pratt, R. C., Buganda and British Overrule: Two Studies (Oxford, 1960);Google ScholarLow, D. A., The British and Uganda, 1862–1900 (Oxford D. Phil. thesis, 1957).Google Scholar
3 Lugard to I.B.E.A. Coy., 7/1/91. Parliamentary Papers (P.P.), 1892, LVI.Google Scholar
4 Ford, J. and Hall, R. de Z., ‘The History of Karagwe’, Tanganyika Notes and Records, 12 1947; Fallers, L. A., Bantu Bureaucracy (Cambridge, 1956), 38.Google Scholar
5 Low and Pratt, op. cit., 36, 72.Google Scholar
6 Cf. Berkeley to Anderson, 18/12/95. Entebbe Secretariat Archives (E.S.A.), A34/I.Google Scholar
7 Berkeley to Teman, 15/9/96. Further Correspondence relating to East Africa (F.C.), XLVII, 270–1.Google Scholar
8 Cf. Apter, op. cit., 86.Google Scholar
9 Cox, A. H., ‘The Growth and Expansion of Buganda’, Uganda Journal, xiv (1950), ii;Google ScholarSouthwold, M., Bureaucracy and Chiefship in Buganda (Kampala, 1960).Google Scholar Cf. also Fallers, L. A., ‘Despotism, Status Culture, and Social Mobility in an African Kingdom’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, ii (1959–1960), i.Google Scholar
10 Low, D. A., Religion and Society in Buganda, 1875–1900 (Kampala, 1957);Google ScholarWrigley, C. C., ‘The Christian Revolution in Buganda’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, ii (1959–1960), i.Google Scholar
11 Low and Pratt, op. cit., 128–38.Google Scholar
12 London Gazette, 3/7/196;Google ScholarJohnston to Salisbury, 1/2/00. F.C., LXXI, 1.Google Scholar
13 Low and Pratt, op. cit., 45–6.Google Scholar
14 ‘Preliminary Report on the Protectorate of Uganda’, enclosed in Johnston to Salisbury, 27/4/00, P.P., 1900, LVI;Google ScholarLugard, F. J. D., The Rise of our East African Empire (London, 1893), 649–50.Google Scholar
15 Thomas, H. B., ‘Capax Imperii’, Uganda Journal, vi (1939), iii;Google ScholarLawrance, J. C. D., The Iteso (Oxford, 1957), 17–22.Google Scholar
16 Welbourn, F. B., East African Rebels (London, 1961), 218.Google Scholar
17 Gibb to Colvile, 10/6/94, E.S.A. A2/2.Google Scholar
18 Johnston to Salisbury, 6/4/00, F.C., LXII, 156;Google ScholarJohnston to Fowler, 25/5/00, E.S.A. A5/10.Google Scholar
19 Fowler, memo., 25/6/00. E.S.A. A4/29.Google Scholar
20 Jackson to Lansdowne, 25/2/02, F.C., LXVIII, 196;Google Scholarcf. Kakunguru to Sadler, 3/8/02, E.S.A. A10/1.Google Scholar
21 List by Walker of December 1901, E.S.A. A10/2.Google Scholar
22 Tucker, A. R., Eighteen Years in Uganda and East Africa (London, 1908), 11, 316.Google Scholar
23 Boyle, memo., 19/1/04; Boyle to Sadler, 15/2/04, E.S.A. A10/3.Google Scholar
24 Boyle to Sadler, 7/5/04, E.S.A. A10/3.Google Scholar
25 Sadler to Cubitt, 2/9/05, E.S.A. A11/2.Google Scholar
26 Baskerville, 13/7/94, Church Missionary Intelligencer, Jan. 1895.Google Scholar
27 Fallers, L. A., in Richards, A. I. (ed.), East African Chiefs (London, 1960), 85.Google Scholar
28 Welbourn, F. B., op. cit., ch. 3, passim.Google Scholar
29 Correspondence between Boyle and Wilson, March and April 1907. Entebbe Secretariat Minute Papers (S.M.P.), 07/82.Google Scholar
30 Lawrance, op. cit., 33–4.Google Scholar
31 Driberg, J. H., The Lango (London, 1923),Google ScholarIngham, K., ‘British Administration in Lango District, 3909–35’, Uganda Journal, xix (1955), ii.Google Scholar
32 E.g., Bell, memo., 18/9/08, S.M.P. 08/1520.Google Scholar
33 Knowles to Chief Secretary, 16/3/09, S.M.P. 08/1520.Google Scholar
34 Postlethwaite, J. R., I Look Back (London, 1947), 31–4; Bukedi district report, Nov. 1912; Teso district report, March 1913.Google Scholar
35 Eastern Province annual and monthly reports.Google Scholar
36 Wright, M. J., ‘The Early Life of Rwot Isaya Ogwangguji, M.B.E.,’ Uganda Journal, xxii (1958), ii;Google Scholar ‘The Life of Yakobo Adoko … as told to Huddle, J. G.’, Uganda Journal, xxi (1957), ii.Google Scholar
37 Information from Mr E. P. Engulu, M.B.E.Google Scholar
38 Wright, A. C. A., ‘Notes on the Social Organization of the Iteso’, Uganda Journal, ix (1942), ii.Google Scholar
39 La Fontaine, J., in Richards, A. I., op. cit., 262–3; 265.Google Scholar
40 Information from Mr B. A. Ogot.Google Scholar
41 Lawrance, op. cit., 22;Google ScholarFallers, L. A., in Richards, A. I., op. cit., 84.Google Scholar
42 Perryman to Spire, 27/9/11. Mbale archives.Google Scholar
43 Information from Messrs Erongot, P., Kabazi, L., Mboga, S., and Gwambwa, M.— the last two former Baganda agents.Google ScholarCf. Melland, F. H. and Cholmeley, E. H., Through the Heart of Africa (London, 1912), 220–1;Google ScholarLawrance, op. cit., 33–5;Google ScholarBell to Crewe, 81/9/08, P.P., 1909, LIX.Google Scholar
44 Information from Mr Engulu; Bukedi district report, 1907–1908, S.M.P. 08/859.Google Scholar
45 Taylor, J. V., The Growth of the Church in Buganda (London, 1958), 64–6.Google Scholar
46 Gale, H. P., Uganda and the Mill Hill Fathers (London, 1959), 217–27, 315–16.Google Scholar
47 Tucker, op. cit. (2nd ed. 1911), 11, 343;Google ScholarGale, op. cit., 283.Google Scholar
48 Oliver, Roland, The Missionary Factor in East Africa (London, 1952), 191. Up to about 1950 most of the pastors in the Native Anglican Church in eastern Uganda were still Baganda, as is the present Bishop of Soroti, the Rt Rev. S. S. Tomusange, who kindly allowed me to consult a typescript ‘History of the Upper Nile Diocese’, by Miss A. M. Bishop and Miss D. Ruffell.Google Scholar
49 Tucker, op. cit., 11, 213–14;Google ScholarRoscoe, J., The Northern Bantu (Cambridge, 1915), 198.Google Scholar
50 Wilson to Johnston, 6/g/00, E.S.A. A12/1.Google Scholar
51 Wilson to Ternan, 8/2/99, E.S.A. A4/16, cited in Low and Pratt, op. cit., 147.Google Scholar
52 Bell, minute of 26/4/08. Ankole archives, Mbarara.Google Scholar
53 Wilson, to Sadler, , 28/9/05, E.S.A. A 12/7; The System of Chieftainships of Ankole (Entebbe, 1907), 10–11.Google Scholar
54 Wrigley, C. C., Crops and Wealth in Uganda (Kampala, 1959), 50.Google Scholar
55 Wilson to Jackson, 14/8/01, E.S.A. A12/1;Google ScholarKabazzi, J. K. Miti, A Short History of Buganda … (c. 1938; English translation in Makerere College Library and in that of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), 786.Google Scholar This source is especially valuable for Bunyoro and Toro in the early twentieth century. See also Lwanga, P. M. K., Obulama bw'Omutaka J. K. Miti Kabazzi (Kampala, 1954). I am grateful for information given by the present Omukama, Sir Tito Winyi, c.B.E., the Katikkiro, Mr Kwebiha, and Mr J. Nyakatura.Google Scholar
56 Wilson to Sadler, 20/3/04, E.S.A. A12/5;Google ScholarLwanga, op. cit., 13, 22.Google Scholar
57 Wilson to Sadler, 14/10/05, E.S.A. A12/7.Google Scholar
58 Mika Fataki to Apolo Kagwa, 7/3/07, S.M.P. 07/267.Google Scholar
59 Enquiry into Land Tenure and the Kibanja System in Bunyoro: Report of the Committee (Entebbe, 1935);Google ScholarBeattie, J. H. M., Bunyoro (New York, 1960), 37–9.Google Scholar
60 Galt to Sadler, 4/9/02, E.S.A. A15/2; Wilson to Wyndham, 31/10/02, E.S.A. A8/2. By 1911 there were at least 12,000 Baganda in Ankole (total population c. 225,000), and this number has remained fairly constant ever since.Google Scholar
61 Tucker, op. cit., 11, 239. I am grateful to Mr L. Kamugungunu, M.B.E., for information about Mbaguta.Google Scholar
62 Williams, F. Lukyn, ‘Nuwa Mbaguta’, Uganda Journal, x (1946), ii;Google ScholarMorris, H. F., ‘The Making of Ankole’, Uganda Journal, xxi (1957), i.Google Scholar
63 Knowles to Wilson, 25/7/04. Ankole archives, Mbarara.Google Scholar
64 Wilson, ‘Report on the Enquiry …’, 30/7/05, E.S.A. A12/6; Knowles to Watson, 9/9/06, E.S.A. A14/3; Ankole district report, 1925.Google Scholar
65 Grant to Chief Secretary, 13/8/13, in Appendices to Reports of the Committee [on] Native Land Settlement … (Entebbe, 1915); list in System of Chieftainships of Ankole.Google Scholar
66 Lloyd, A. B., Apolo of the Pygmy Forest (London, 1923), 27–8;Google ScholarTaylor, B. K., in Richards, A. I., op. cit., 135.Google Scholar
67 Johnston to Jackson, 10/7/00, E.S.A. A5/10.Google Scholar
68 For this and the following paragraph see Report on the Enquiry into the Grievances of the Mukama and People of Toro (Entebbe, 1926); and the relevant Western Province annual reports.Google Scholar
69 Richards, A. I., op. cit., 136, n. I.Google Scholar
70 Baxter, P. T. W., in Richards, A. I., op. cit., 281–2. I am grateful for information given by Messrs P. Ngorongoza, T. Rwomusama, and H. Seboa (the latter a former Muganda Agent). The annual district and provincial reports are the main documentary source for this and the following paragraph.Google Scholar
71 There was in fact one such attempt in 1958, but it proved impossible to find a Rukigaspeaking Muganda in Teso. Jervoise to D.C. Teso, 29/11/18 and 20/1/19. Teso archives, Soroti.Google Scholar
72 Baxter, in A. I. Richards, op. cit., 286.Google Scholar
73 E.g., Richards, A. I., op. cit., 41;Google ScholarIngham, K., ‘British Administration’, Uganda journal xix (1955), ii,Google ScholarFallers, Bantu Bureaucracy, 145–6.Google Scholar
74 Grant to Wilson, 6/5/07, S.M.P. 07/618. Though the stratification of chiefs introduced in northern Uganda was fundamentally the same as elsewhere the only Baganda to serve there were three agents in Acholi during the 1914–18 War. Cf. correspondence between District Commissioners of Teso and Chua, in Teso archives, Soroti.Google Scholar
75 Wilson, ‘Report on the Enquiry …’, 30/7/05, E.S.A. A12/6.Google Scholar
76 Mair, L. P., ‘Buganda Land Tenure’, Africa, vi (1933), ii;Google ScholarRichards, A. I., in Richards, A. I. (ed.), Economic Development and Tribal Change (Cambridge, 1954), 172.Google Scholar
77 The Kabaka's government disapproved of colonization as a loss of revenue. Fowler to Sadler, 7/4/04, E.S.A. A8/4.Google Scholar
78 Jackson to Lansdowne, 19/3/02, F.C., LXIX, 66.Google Scholar
79 Knowles to Sadler, 24/7/05, E.S.A. A14/2;Google ScholarCook, A. R., Uganda Memories (London, 1945), 210, 213.Google Scholar
80 See for this paragraph Powesland, P. G., in Richards, A. I. (ed.), Economic Development and Tribal Change, 17–22;Google Scholar A. I. Richards, ibid. 64–73.
81 Mair, L. P., An African People in the Twentieth Century (London, 1934), 11, cited by Powesland, loc. cit. 22.Google Scholar
82 Thomas, H. B. and Scott, R., Uganda (Oxford, 1935), 83.Google Scholar Despite a wave of purist indirect rule theory in the 1930's, there has been no successful attempt to replace the Buganda system by truly indigenous institutions. Cf. Lawrance, op. cit., 35–6;Google Scholar‘The Position of Chiefs in Local Government in Uganda’, Journal of African Administration, viii (1956), IV, 189.Google Scholar
83 One Lango chief in 1911 wished to become ‘Kabaka’ of Lango and in 1949 there was popular agitation for the creation of a Lango leader with the same status as the kings of western Uganda. Huddle, J. G., ‘Life of Yakobo Adoko’, Uganda Journal, xxi (1957), ii, 186, 188.Google ScholarCf. Pratt, R. C., ‘Nationalism in Uganda’, Political Studies, ix (1961), ii, ii, 177.Google Scholar
84 Thomas and Scott, op. cit., 97;Google ScholarSirHall, John to Colonial Secretary, 29/8/47, quoted by Apter, op. cit., 237.Google Scholar
85 Wallis, C. A. G., Report of an Inquiry into African Local Government in the Protectorate of Uganda (Entebbe, 1953).Google ScholarCf. Ingham, K., The Making of Modern Uganda (London, 1958), 262.Google Scholar