Peripheral Identities in an African State: A History of Ethnicity in the Kingdom of Buganda Since 1884

Peripheral Identities in an African State: A History of Ethnicity in the
Kingdom of Buganda Since 1884
Aidan Stonehouse
Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Ph.D
The University of Leeds
September 2012
The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has
been given where reference has been made to the work of others.
This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no
quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor Shane Doyle whose guidance and
support have been integral to the completion of this project. I am extremely grateful for his
invaluable insight and the hours spent reading and discussing the thesis. I am also indebted to
Will Gould and many other members of the School of History who have ably assisted me
throughout my time at the University of Leeds. Finally, I wish to thank the Arts and Humanities
Research Council for the funding which enabled this research.
I have also benefitted from the knowledge and assistance of a number of scholars. At
Leeds, Nick Grant, and particularly Vincent Hiribarren whose enthusiasm and abilities with a
map have enriched the text. In the wider Africanist community Christopher Prior, Rhiannon
Stephens, and especially Kristopher Cote and Jon Earle have supported and encouraged me
throughout the project. Kris and Jon, as well as Kisaka Robinson, Sebastian Albus, and Jens
Diedrich also made Kampala an exciting and enjoyable place to be.
This research has drawn on the expertise of individuals at numerous institutions and I
am indebted particularly to archivists at the Church Missionary Society Archives at the
University of Birmingham, the Archives of the Mill Hill Fathers in Liverpool and the White
Fathers in Rome, the National Archives in London and Entebbe, Cambridge African Studies
Department and Makerere University Library. I would also like to thank Linda Roberts for her
kindness in assisting with translations. In addition, the research could not have been carried
out without the help of numerous people within Uganda. Godfrey Assimwe welcomed me to
Kampala, provided practical assistance and intellectual encouragement, and made time in his
busy schedule to show me the country on which he is so knowledgeable. I enjoyed our field
trips immensely. The process of interviewing and translating documents was made possible
through the work of several excellent research assistants including Phiona in Kampala, Freddy
in Buvuma, and 10M. Majanja Zaalyembikke in Ssese. Most importantly of alii owe a huge and
sincere thank you to Gerald Lubega, a brilliant researcher and friend, for his commitment,
intelligence and companionship.
Finally, I can't let this opportunity pass to thank friends, family and everyone else who
has helped me in one way or another over the last four years. I am particularly indebted to my
parents, Chris and Neil, sister, lona, and grandparents Les, Des and Doris for their patience,
encouragement and inspiration, and to my gran, Connie, who is no longer with us. I am
sincerely grateful also to the Warren family for their support, and especially Pat and Fran.
Most of alii would like to thank Saskia Warren without whom the project would never have
been completed. For her wisdom, tolerance and intellectual insight I am eternally grateful. She
has been my confidant and my best friend and I dedicate this thesis to her.
I should conclude by saying that if I have received invaluable assistance from many
individuals throughout this project, all mistakes are entirely my own.
Abstract
This thesis examines how the expansion of the Ugandan Kingdom of Buganda in the late
nineteenth century stimulated complex and contrasting processes of assimilation and ethnic
attachment. Re-orienting Buganda's history away from its frequently studied political and
cultural heartlands, it analyses how incorporation within the kingdom's extended colonial
boundaries shaped the experiences and identities of communities on the kingdom's
peripheries.
This work engages with and builds upon new themes in Buganda's long historiographical
tradition which have begun to critically address the importance of history from beyond the
centre. Through extensive archival research as well as the use of oral histories, the thesis
draws upon peripheral histories to provide fresh perspectives on the colonial Ganda state. By
considering Buganda through its relationship to newly incorporated peoples, this thesis
develops understandings of the relationship between the kingdom and British authorities, as
well as of the often cited Ganda ability to incorporate strangers. This research further
contributes to the significant literature surrounding identity in Africa arguing that the relatively
autonomous position of Buganda within Uganda's colonial framework provides a distinctive
setting in which to reassess notions of "invention" and agency in the development of
twentieth-century African ethnicities.
Focusing on several regions brought into the kingdom at the outset of British imperial
intervention, this thesis argues that variations in Buganda's responses to the populations of
these territories encouraged disparities in the readiness of individuals and communities to
accept participation in the Ganda ethnic sphere. Where assimilative processes were imposed
in a coherent or oppressive manner they actively challenged continuity in "tradition" and
identity and were less effective in facilitating ethnic adaptation.
Abbreviations Glossary
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Fire at Kasubi 1.2 The argument 1.3 Ethnicity in African history 1.4 Reorienting Ganda history 1.5 Sources 1.6 Thesis structure
Contents
Chapter 2: Cultural, political and geographical frontiers; borders and boundaries in pre-colonial Buganda
2.1 Introduction 2.2 Kkooki, Kabula and Mawogola: Buganda's new south-west 2.3 Buruli and Bugerere: the eastern "Lost-Counties" 2.4 The Buvuma Isles: an autonomous archipelago 2.5 The Ssese Islands: a case apart 2.6 Conclusion
Chapter 3: An identity imposed? Assimilative processes in the colonial Ganda state
3.1 Introduction 3.2 The "Lost Counties": attempting absolute assimilation 3.3 Forces for assimilation in Buganda's non-Nyoro peripheries 3.4 Assimilation in the "Acquired Counties": an incoherent application 3.5 Conclusion
Chapter 4: Understanding variables in ethnic change: adaptation and resistance in the peripheries
4.1 Introduction 4.2 Rethinking the "limits to ethnic change" 4.3 Acculturation and peripheral momentum in the "Acquired Counties" 4.4 Conclusion
Chapter 5: Peripheral momentum towards "being Ganda": "modernity", ethnic participation and identity layering
5.1 Introduction
5.2 'Civilisation started in Buganda': "modernity" and ethnicity in the "Acquired Counties" 5.3 Understanding ethnic attachment 5.4 Conclusion
Chapter 6: Conclusion 223-234
6.1 Concluding remarks 6.2 Buganda today: the peripheries in modern politics
References 235-256
Figures 257-259
Fig.I. Photograph handed to author with the apparent depiction of Governor Sir Andrew Cohen and Kabaka Mutesa II signing the 1955 Buganda Agreement. Unknown, 1955.
Fig. 2: Map of Buganda prior to 1964 with the regions of study highlighted. Author: Vincent Hiribarren. Reproduced with permission.
Fig. 3: Map of Buganda after the 1964 referendum which returned Buyaga and Bugangaizi to Bunyoro. Author: Vincent Hiribarren. Reproduced with permission.
Fig. 4: Map of Bunyoro's "Lost Counties". Reproduced with permission from Elliott Green. Fig.5. Map of Buganda population density. Author: Vincent Hiribarren, 2012. Reproduced
with permission. Fig. 6: Kabaka Yekka membership card obtained by author during field research in Kkooki.
The card was filled out with my details by a former KY organiser. Author: Aidan Stonehouse, July 2010.
Abbreviations
Rome
Rhodes House, University of Oxford
British National Archives
Kew Gardens, London
Church Missionary Society Archive
Copies in Personal Possession
Makerere University African Library
Uganda Protectorate Unmarked Papers
Makerere University Africana Library
Freshfield
Entebbe
Buganda chiefships created in the late 1700's
Buganda sub-county
Buganda parliament
King of Kkooki, pre-1896; County chief of Kkooki, post- 1896
prime minister
deity, hero-god
Buganda parish
1.1: Fire at Kasubi
On the evening of the 16th March 2010 an intense fire swept through the royal enclosure at
Kasubi Hill. As the flames spread across straw thatching and engulfed the immense grass hut
structures housing the tombs of four of the Kingdom of Buganda's recent kings and their
descendants, news of the loss of the UNESCO world heritage site filtered across the Ugandan
capital, Kampala. Carried on radio airwaves and in the reports of mobile Boda-Boda drivers
initial information was confused. By the time news reached a fellow researcher and myself
around four miles from the scene, rumours had already begun to circulate as to the origins of
the fire. There were suggestions of arson and even intimations as to the involvement of the
national government of President Yoweri Museveni.1
On the morning of the 1 i h huge crowds of Ganda gathered at the location of the tombs to
express their grief and anger over the loss of one of Buganda's key spiritual sites described by
Buganda minister, Medard Ssegona Lubega, as the 'second biggest tragedy' in the kingdom's
history.2 The importance of ancestors and royal shrines in Ganda culture makes Kasubi a place
of ritual and religious significance to the kingdom's population.3 The public spaces of the main
building housing the four tombs, the Muzibu-Azaala-Mpanga, also held the regalia of Ganda
royal authority, while in common with other shrines royal spirits were traditionally believed to
inhabit the rear area or Ekibira (forest) of the structure. The Muzibu-Azaala-Mpanga itself also
embodied the interconnected roles of Buganda's clans in the overall collective through their
contribution of specific 'reed rings' in the building's construction.4 In short, the tombs are a
1 At the time of the events in question radio call-ins, comments on newspaper web sites and conversations with Ganda within the city revealed a willingness to believe accusations of Ugandan government involvement. 2 Quote from Ssegona taken from an interview with BBC Africa recorded in the article, 'Protestors Killed at Uganda's Kasubi Tombs,' BBC Online, 16.04, Wednesday 1ih March, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8572588.stm> (accessed, 18
th March 2010); the first great
tragedy being the abolition of the Kingdom by Milton Obote in 1966. 3 For purposes of clarity, and following conventions used in other works, this thesis will follow a rule of dropping the prefix describing singular, plural or adjective. For example, where one might refer to a 'Muganda' (sing), 'Baganda' (plural), or 'Kiganda' (adj), this thesis deploys the term 'Ganda'. Similarly, when referring to the areas of study, 'Mukkooki', 'Bakkooki', and 'Kikkooki' become 'Kkooki', and so on. 4 Benjamin Ray, Myth, Ritual and Kingship in Buganda (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 139; Remigius Kigongo and Andrew Reid, 'Local Communities, Politics and the Management of the Kasubi Tombs, Uganda,' World Archaeology, 39.3 (2007), pp. 375- 378.
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powerful cultural and spiritual symbol. s Within the context of continuing rumours over
government culpability then, the reaction of the Ganda crowd to President Museveni's arrival
at Kasubi might have been anticipated. Attempts to prevent the President from entering the
compound ended in violence as national security forces opened fire killing at least two
people.6
When I arrived at Kasubi on the morning of the 18th the compound was once again full
of people. The Ganda king, Kabaka Ronald Mutebi Ii, had declared seven days of mourning and
the atmosphere was charged. 7 The large structures of deformed metal twisted by the heat of
the fire were striking, as was the obvious emotion of many of the individuals present. The
memory that has stayed with me most from that morning, however, is of the things that I was
given. Moving with the crowd on the road outside the compound I was handed two items; the
first, a badge bearing the flag of Buganda, and the second a black and white photograph
relayed to me as showing the signing of the 1955 Buganda Agreement which officially
reaffirmed the position of the kingdom within the wider Uganda Protectorate following a
period of turmoil. While both items are undoubtedly available to tourists throughout the
kingdom their presence at that location, at that time, symbolises many of the themes upon
which this thesis will touch.
The simultaneous appearance of these two images at a site of cultural significance and
in a time of trauma evokes a powerful statement on ethnic identity, patriotism, and royalism
within the kingdom; key notions to be explored within this work. More than this, however,
they reveal significant insights into Buganda's twentieth-century history, eloquently
encapsulating the continued importance of historical events in contemporary collective
consciousness. The images purport to represent two momentous actions in the twentieth­
century Ganda historical record, two fixed points of renewal in a century long cycle. The flag,
with its blue and white stripes carrying two spears, a shield and a lion, the symbol of the
Kabaka , is a recent reincarnation of older ensigns designed for the restoration of the kingdom
as an official cultural entity in 1993.8 The kingdom was restored alongside other cultural
institutions by President Museveni following its abolition twenty six years earlier in 1966 by
former President Milton Obote. Mikael Karlstrom has analysed the growth of cultural and
royalist nationalism within the kingdom at the end of the twentieth century and it is clear that
5 Although Kigongo and Reid also demonstrate that conflicts over the governance of the site itself have simultaneously embodied fracture lines within the wider Ganda community, Kigongo and Reid, 'Management of the Kasubi Tombs,' p. 380. 6 'Protestors Killed at Kasubi Tombs,' BBC News Online, 1ih March, 2010. 7 Given the common usage of the term Kabaka in Ganda historiography and the frequency of its application within this thesis it is no longer italicised beyond this point. S The badge handed to me at Kasubi containing the Ganda flag was unfortunately damaged following my return from fieldwork and is not reproduced here.
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since 1993 Ganda ethnic patriotism has continued to develop, largely in response to increasing
difficulties in relations between the kingdom and the national Ugandan government which will
be explored later in the thesis. 9 The image of the flag handed to me outside of Kasubi may
therefore be understood as symbolising the continued importance of ethnic identity within
Buganda in the present day. Complementing this contemporary statement the second image
purports to capture a key moment in Buganda's colonial past. Governor Sir Andrew Cohen and
Kabaka Mutesa II lean forward side-by-side over a wooden desk; faces concentrated, they
appear to sign the 1955 Buganda Agreement as an audience looks on (See Fig. 1). It is a striking
picture which, if authentic, has much to tell about the relationship between Buganda and
Britain. Taken only two years after Cohen had personally signed a declaration withdrawing
British recognition from the Kabaka over Ganda opposition to a proposed East African
Federation, the image of Mutesa, now returned to his position, can be seen to illustrate the
durability and agency of Buganda in their dealings with imperialism. Acting once again in his
role as king and riding a royalist fervour which would last till independence, Mutesa's signature
reconfirms Buganda's privileged position within the wider Protectorate, renewing many of the
benefits accrued to the kingdom through their first official agreement with the British
Protectorate in 1900. Moreover, the continued circulation of the image reveals the extent to
which the history of the colonial era continues to reverberate with Ganda identity in the
present day.
The flag and the photograph also demand further questioning. If they represent symbols
of unity and durability, they also offer the opportunity to interrogate these ideals; to ask
questions of the construction of the Ganda people. And that, in a sense, is the purpose of this
thesis. The great public outpouring of grief over the fire at Kasubi which seemed to unite the
kingdom in mourning and ethnic pride came only a little over seven months after serious riots
within Buganda marked the culmination of increasing tensions between indigenous
communities. Indeed, two groups, the Nyala and Ruuli, have sought to break out from Ganda
cultural control and establish their own ethnic autonomy. In 1955 when Mutesa signed the
Buganda Agreement the Nyala and Ruuli populations inhabiting the geographically peripheral
northern counties of Bugerere and Buruuli were essentially considered to have ceased to exist;
the historical record has shown such beliefs to be false. Indeed, while often spoken of by the
colonial government, subsequent historians and even the Ganda themselves as an archetypal
centralised and ethnically unified polity, Buganda's twentieth-century ethnic story is a much
more complex account than has previously been imagined. Encompassing themes of
attempted assimilation, centre-periphery relations and the motivations for ethnic change in a
9 Mikael B. Karlstrom, The Cultural Kingdom in Uganda: Popular Royalism and the Restoration of the Buganda Kingship, PhD Dissertation (Chicago, 1999).
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colonial African context, analysis of this multi-layered narrative forms the key component of
this dissertation.
1.2: The argument
The Kingdom of Buganda lies on the north-western shore of Lake Victoria and its inhabitants
form the largest ethnic group within Uganda (See Figs. 2, 3, and 4 for maps of Buganda). Since
1993, the role played by the kingdom within the wider Ugandan state has come under
increasing scrutiny. A trial of strength has developed as Buganda's representatives seek
greater power through calls for a federal system of government and increased control over
Ganda lands, while the national government of Yoweri Museveni has sought to block
devolution of political authority and reinforce the official position that Buganda, and other
kingdoms, are exclusively cultural institutions. One consequence of this internal conflict has
been a resurrection of interest in Buganda's non-heartland counties. The kingdom has accused
the National Resistance Movement (NRM) of attempting to weaken its cultural and territorial
integrity by fostering secessionist movements in its border territories. The culmination ofthis
policy is considered to be embodied by the case of Nakasongola and Kayunga districts in north­
eastern Buganda where Ruuli (Nakasongola) and Nyala (Kayunga) communities have elected
their own leaders and sought to declare autonomy from Buganda's cultural sphere. In
September 2009 Nyala groups prevented the Ganda Kabaka from visiting Kayunga; an action
which resulted in Ganda counter-riots and conflict with security forces which claimed the lives
of twenty-seven individuals. The obvious tension in these two areas, however, has obscured
the extent to which fears of similar movements in several other counties have proved without
foundation. In the county of Kkooki, for example, the introduction of a Kkooki flag and anthem
has found little popular support and has instead provoked a pro-Buganda backlash.
The contemporary interest in Buganda's "peripheral counties" has opened an
opportunity for a timely reassessment of Ganda history, particularly within the period of
colonial rule, but also stretching both before and beyond this timeframe. In particular, the
current contrasts in allegiance to a Ganda ethnic and cultural identity demands historical
investigation; for while contemporary politics have undoubtedly played a significant role, to
understand Buganda's present day concerns it is necessary to address its past ethnic narrative.
In doing so it is clear that a significant event in Buganda's history, one which continues to
directly affect both Buganda and wider Ugandan society today, has been greatly understudied.
Despite the weight of historiographical tradition which has surrounded the kingdom since its
first indigenous historians began to write in the early twentieth century, only a partial and
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limited scholarly gaze has addressed the expansion of the kingdom in the last decade of the
nineteenth century as a result of which Buganda nearly doubled in size. During this process a
significant number of non-Ganda peoples were incorporated within the kingdom.
This rapid extension of Ganda power and the subsequent experience of those
communities brought into the kingdom's immediate sphere have been analysed only in
relation to its newest northern counties. Taken from the neighbouring Kingdom of Bunyoro in
joint Ganda-British expeditions in the early 1890's, these territories, known as the "Lost
Counties", remained vigorously contested by Bunyoro throughout the colonial period and have
consequently been the subject of significant scholarship. In reality, however, only two of these
seven counties, Buyaga and Bugangaizi, have received substantial attention, while the…