{UAH} Changes in land tenure in Bunyoro and repercussions

The colonial policy also affected land tenure in Bunyoro as in Buganda.

Here is part of the story as told by Nyangabyaki Bazaara: "The Thomas and Rubie Commission appointed to investigate into the land issue in Bunyoro discovered in 1931 that the best lands in Bunyoro were taken up in Obwesengeze [official land holding] and bibanja estates….

"These developments changed the land tenure considerably and had negative consequences for production. The control over land shifted from clans to chiefs. The role formerly played by clan leaders.... passed on to chiefs that has been predominant ever since…. Free peasants became tenants whose access to land was conditional to payment of rent to the kibanja or obwesengeze owner. The rent was in the form of cash payments, labor services, beer, agricultural produce etc. This rent was an additional burden to the producer besides the various state demands such as taxes, forced labor etc. The landlord/tenant relation structure made it difficult for the producer to innovate and expand on his/her production.

"By the 1930s… It was obvious that a politically powerful landlord/chiefs class was emerging on the basis of this tenure and that this was not in the best interests of production. The Thomas and Rubie Commission, echoing the argument of the Secretary of Colonies made in 1916, recommended that the landlord-tenant relations be abolished and the security of the tenant restored"(Mahmood Mamdani and Joe Oloka-Onyango 1994). What lesson can we draw from this recommendation?

Eric Kashambuzi

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