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A History of Uganda. Course Overview. Notes Uganda: The Basic Facts Before European Contact The Colonization Period World War I The Interwar Years and World War II Post World War II and Independence Obote , Amin, and Museveni. Notes. Used 2 texts Not a historian Hard to combine
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Course Overview • Notes • Uganda: The Basic Facts • Before European Contact • The Colonization Period • World War I • The Interwar Years and World War II • Post World War II and Independence • Obote, Amin, and Museveni
Notes • Used 2 texts • Not a historian • Hard to combine • Not my research • Focus on Buganda • Somewhat skimpy information on recent times – and little from the 2000s on
Uganda: The Basic Facts • Kingdom map • General location • Overview of geography and climate • The Ugandan border, as in many post-colonial nations, is the invention of European colonizers. • Unusually, however, is that the border corresponds to ancient kingdoms and political regions; it just smushed them all together.
The Emergence of Kingship In the Inter-lacustrine Region
Clans • Combine kinship, exogamy, shared symbols, & rules of solidarity • Members dispersed throughout the country • Clans do not consist of a true genealogical imprint • Social identities that allow one to be situated in relation to others, to find friends everywhere & benefit from their hospitality & support • Differs in form in different countries • Largely similar across the inter-lacustrine region; the exception is Buganda • Buganda: • Between 40 and 50 clans – ebika • Subclans – masiga • Major lineages – mituba • Minor lineages - enyiriri • Fulfill and integrating function • For a long time, the fundamental basis for identity • Prominence of the Lungfish Clan (Mmamba clan) – holds many ritualistic & political positions – canoe fleet admiral was from the Mmamba Clan; current Kabaka is from the Mmamba Clan; also Nyika Victor • Clans tied to the monarchy / central power • Bataka- clan heads – had a protective function, especially in regards to property; as clans dispersed, this became less real • Clan sanctuaries
Clan Names and Totems • Some names: • Nkima – Red-tailed Monkey • Mmammba – Lungfish • Nte – Cow • Ffumbe – Civet Cat (Walusimbi) • Nseenene – Grasshopper • Clan totems – primary & secondary • Clan prohibitions • Clan traditional roles • Clan mottoes • Last name reflects one’s clan: Namutebi belongs only to women of the Mmammba Clan • (First name often denotes whether one is Catholic, Protestant, or Muslim; Old Testament and Italian names tend to be Catholic; New Testament & British names tend to be Anglican; etc.)
The Cwezi Myth • Cwezi myth – similar origin stories amongst peoples of the inter-lacustrine region • Archaeological evidence the emergence of political poles or centers between the 11th and the 16th centuries at one point, some sort of somewhat cohesive political identity • 18th century – Bunyoro declines & Buganda expands
The Bugandan Origin Story • Buganda origin myth – Kintu • Placed at the head of around 20 sovereigns • That would place him around the beginning of the 13th century • See Chretien
Relationship Between the Clans and the Kabaka • “…the external origin of these two founders – the sky for Kintu and Kitara for Kimera – instead affirms the superiority of kingship, at the kabaka level, over the power of the clans.” • “…kingship emerged through a compromise between a new authority of a strongly religious nature, and a network of influential clans.” • Different characters in the origin myth represent different clans • Every new kabaka was proclaimed “father of the clan chiefs [sebataka]” • Certain clans had roles in the enthronement ceremony (Lungfish (Mmamba), Pangolin, Mushroom, Cercopith Monkey [Nkima = Tim] & Colobus Monkey); other traditional roles related to the monarchy • When a kabaka is enthroned, he is “slowly infused” with the force of his father under the supervision of the clan ritualists • Less reliance on clans as time goes by • Each kabaka belongs to his mother’s clan (opposite for the rest of society), so as to share power, at least symbolically, amongst the different clans (remember, exogamy = you can’t marry someone from your own clan) • Most clans in Buganda have had a turn as the Queen Mother / Kabaka’s clanship • Ceremonies stooped in the 18th century under the KabakaNamugala • Replaced with an initial ritual honoring Kintu on the ritual hill Naggalabi & managed by the Lungfish and Pangolin Clans • Milton Obote, the President (read: dictator) in the 1980s abolished the monarchies • Came into use again in 1993 when the monarchy was restored • “…the royal institution was everywhere embedded in a network that controlled the supernatural, managed by clans whose history went back…” (Chretien, 132) • Religion based on Buganda’s version of the Bacwezi cult bolstered kingship but also could be used as grounds to objecting to bad behavior (aka, it was a political “currency”) • Later on, after colonization, Buganda’s Christianized elites envisioned the Kabaka as a secular power, and this idea for many years eclipsed the religious dimension of this institution (153)
Managing the Kingdoms: Territories, Commands, and Prestations
The Search for the “Sources of the Nile”: A British Endeavor
The Colonial Partition: Diplomacy, Cartography, and Local Politics
Opening to the World and an Ecological and Demographic Crisis
The Rise of Nationalism and Independence 1939 - 1963
Independent East Africa 1960s to 1990s
