The question of Buganda in contemporary Ugandan politics

Submitted by Webadmin on 26 November 2015 - 7:05pm

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

Joe Oloka O

Source:

The Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Volume 15, Issue 2, p.173-189 (1997)

URL:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589009708729610#.U7vMxECLXFo

Keywords:

Buganda Kingdom, Kabaka, politics, President, Sir Edward Mutesa

Abstract:

My first twinge of foreboding had come at midnight on 9 October, 1962, as I watched Milton Obote raise the flag of independence. My anxiety had no precise form or cause. It was more the sense of an unfamiliar shift of emphasis, a gap between what was fitting and what was not. Sir Edward Mutesa II, 1968.No dead man has any right to rule over the living directly through his own ghost or indirectly through heirs …Justice, love of common men, rule by representatives were the ultimate values treasured most by Obote. Hence Milton and Sir Edward could not get along at all. Naphtali Akena Adoko, 1969.I have been emphasizing to them     that it would be better if they confined their activities to culture without trying to get involved in politics or administration. Some have listened but others have not. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, 1993.IntroductionFew subjects in recent Ugandan history have attracted such varied, conflictual and deep emotions as the question of Buganda. At the beginning of the decade, save for the lone voices emanating from the nondescript Conservative Party (CP), the rather incongruous ranting of a visiting American professor, and the strident calls of Makerere University don, Apollo Nsibambi, to respect  ‘culture’ and the support federalism, 1 little else was heard about the issue. 2 Then in a flurry of activity culminating in the coronation of Prince Ronald Muwenda Mutebi as 36th Kabaka (King) in the middle of 1993, the question of Buganda dramatically returned to centre-scene in Uganda. It has not left the stage since and is likely to become even more intricate and conflictual before it does. Indeed, Sir Edward Mutesa’s concluding words in his autobiography written as Kabaka in exile were poignant: “In the end I shall return to the land of my fathers and to my people “.3 The Kabaka’s return— in the form of Mutesa’s son and designated heir, Mutebi— is having a far greater impact than either Mutesa or former President Milton Obote could ever have imagined.  At the same time, the reincarnation of Obuganda 4 raises numerous questions about the extent to which Uganda can avoid another crisis over the issue.