{UAH} Buganda's changing demographic landscape

Since the beginning of the 20^th century Buganda has become the country's economic and social development pole attracting many immigrants from within and without Uganda. At the moment some 80 percent of Gross National Income (GNI) is generated in Kampala and its vicinity with a population roughly of 2 million out of a total of 35 million thereby attracting massive immigrants.

This rapid immigration has become a matter of concern to Baganda who have not yet figured it out how to deal with it. Under what circumstances does someone become a Muganda: a long residence period, speaking local language fluently and/or adopting local names? Someone suggested that any person who does not belong to one of the Buganda clans is not a Muganda. But some immigrants figured that out a long time ago and already belong to some clans. Here is what research findings tell us about the magnitude of the challenge as early as 1948.

"… by 1948, 34 percent of the people living within the borders of the Buganda kingdom were immigrants, mostly from Rwanda and southern Uganda [sometime before independence the population of Banyarwanda immigrants in Buganda was about 40 percent]. Many of them were tenants… They adopted Ganda names – Kapere and Musoke were their favorites – and memorized the genealogies of Ganda clans in order to pass themselves off as clan members. … When the government announced its plans to take a consensus in 1948, Ganda editorialists demanded that census-takers be careful in their work. 'Unless a proper census of pure bred Baganda is taken separately', one editorialist worried, 'the Baganda will have totally disappeared among these foreigners in about ten years' time'.

"Ganda politicians thought themselves a world apart from the rest of eastern Africa, but laborers, wives, messengers, and migrants knew differently. In their travels, they linked Buganda's economy and culture securely into the circuitry of a wider East African world"(Derek R. Peterson 2012).

With time the number of assimilated immigrants increased in Buganda. Christine Obbo reported "Because some people could be totally assimilated, the Ganda make a further distinction between the Ganda and pure Ganda. There was fear that the assimilated Ganda might one day dominate the political structure"(W. A. Shack and E. P. Skinner 1979).

Is there a way out? For a start we need a comprehensive population census as soon as possible to determine who is who in Uganda for planning purposes. Then a determination would be made as to who should qualify to be a Muganda. This doesn't mean that those who are not Baganda will be thrown out of Buganda. Everywhere censuses are taken and ask questions about clan, race etc for information and planning purposes including disproportional allocation of resources and public service positions. Ugandans should therefore urge the NRM government to take a population census soonest which is already overdue.

As a demographer and experienced census-taker I have volunteered my services should they be needed.

Eric Kashambuzi

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