UGANDA

THEMATIC ISSUES
Participants considered political, ethnic and religious divisions in society to be interlinked,
and another outcome of the colonial divide and rule policy. The development
of Pre-Independence political parties, allegedly stimulated by the British, tended to
be along both ethnic and religious lines; the first political party to be formed was the
Uganda National Congress (UNC) in 1952, with a predominantly Baganda leadership
and Protestant membership. The Democratic Party (DP), formed in 1954 and initially
Buganda based, was by contrast predominantly Catholic.
Ethnic divisions continued to pervade early political party formation in Uganda with an
element of “anti-Bugandanism” introduced in 1958 by the Uganda People’s Union (UPU).
The UPU was formed by established leaders outside the districts of Buganda sitting in
Legco. 16 Three factions of the UNC waged war on each other until March 1960 when one
wing of the UNC merged with the UPU to form the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) led
by Obote. 17
Divisions amongst political, ethnic and religious lines were influenced
during the Lancaster Constitutional Conference in London in 1961. The
Buganda delegation was led by Amos Sempa, who was against the Obote
led UPC. However, Lord Carrington of the British Home Office reportedly
told him during the Conference “Amos, we are aware that you do not like
Obote, but the Crown likes him. This means you have no choice but to go
with Obote.” 2 Lord Carrington also said that in the history of the British
Empire, authorities had never handed over power to a non-Protestant
and that Uganda was not going to be an exception. This unequivocal
position by the British would largely determine the Ugandan post-colonial
political landscape. 3
The formation of the Baganda Kabaka Yekka (“Only the King”) party in 1961 split the
Baganda between royalists who supported Baganda federalism (voting for Kabaka Yekka)
and anti-royalists who were in support of a democratic and unitary nation state (voting
for the DP).
CONFLICT BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY
Colonialism introduced an abrupt break with the past. Uganda’s subjugation by the
British and the arrival of new systems, norms and technologies introduced a tension
between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’. Participants referred to the introduction of ‘the
new’ or ‘modern’ as an “erosion of cultural values”, or “moral degeneration”. It was said
that colonialists and missionaries destroyed traditional institutions and values.
The introduction of money and foreign religion provoked the most fundamental
departures from traditional ways of life. Money was considered to set the stage
for greed and conflict over land ownership. In Acholiland, for example, land was
16 Legco is short for the Uganda Legislative Council, the predecessor of the National Assembly of Uganda
before Uganda gained Independence
17 In 1988, the President appointed Betty Bigombe as Minister of State for Pacification of Northern Uganda
to his Cabinet. This has been noted by some as an indication that while the NRM focused on “pacifying”
the north of Uganda, it focused on “development” for the rest of the country
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