{UAH} The NRM and the Uganda People's Congress
|
1:15 PM |
No comments |
The NRM and the Uganda People's Congress
by Yoga Adhola
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) is a movement to resist UPC or what UPC stands for i.e. national-democratic liberation. The earliest incidence of this resistance is given to us by none other than the founder of the NRM, Yoweri Museveni. He recounts: "We were staunchly anti-Obote. On 22 February 1966, the day he arrested five members of his cabinet, three of us, Martin Mwesigwa, Eriya Kategaya and myself went to see James Kahigiriza, who was the Chief Minister of Ankole, to inquire about the possibility of going into exile to launch an armed struggle. Kahigiriza discouraged us, saying that we should give Obote enough time to fall by his own mistakes. We saw him again a few weeks later and he gave us the example of Nkrumah, who had been overthrown in Ghana by a military coup two days after Obote's abrogation of the Uganda constitution. Kahigiriza advised us that Nkrumah's example showed that all dictators were bound to fall in due course. Inwardly we were not convinced. We knew that dictators had to be actively opposed and that they would not just fall off by themselves like ripe mangoes. Later I went to Gayaza High School with Mwesigwa to contact Grace Ibingira's sister in order to find out whether she knew of any plans afoot to resist Obote's dictatorship. She, however, did not not know of any such plan. We came to the conclusion that the old guard had no conception of defending peoples rights and we resolved to strike on our own." (Museveni, Y. 1997:19)
Museveni does not give us the reason why they were staunchly anti-Obote. However, given the background of the three, it is not difficult to figure out. Museveni himself tells us the background of the three: "I had been with Martin Mwesigwa since primary days in 1953. He was quite outstanding in school work and was head prefect at Ntare School. He came from a cattle keeping background like myself, but his father had been a sub-county chief in Ankole, which put him in a slightly different social group from ours. People who became chiefs tended more towards Christianity than ordinary ants. He was very gentle and mild-mannered, with a quiet sense of humour, ,t also very determined and courageous, which is how he had managed to join us. When we had political debates within our group, he put forward a lot of ideas but he was not as effervescent as I was. I had not known Mwesigwa Black for as long as I had known Martin. We had met at Mbarara High School. Mwesigwa was nicknamed 'Black' because he was very dark-skinned, but his real first name was "William. Like Martin, he was quiet and mild-mannered. He was also from a cattle-keeping background and his parents were born-again Christians. By contrast, Valeriano Rwaheru was from a farming background, short and stocky, and he was Roman Catholic. He too was quiet but noticeably courageous in the skirmishes ,to come. He was, therefore, a very valuable person to have around in difficult times. All three of these men were to lose their lives in the 1970s, in the struggle against Amin. Eriya Kategaya, whom I have known since our first year in primary school, is the only one of the four who is still alive today. His origins are in a mixed background of cattle-keepers and cultivators. He is quiet and reserved, but enormously courageous, as he was to prove in his clandestine work in the years ahead." (Museveni, Y. 1997: 17)
From this quote it is clear that all the three were Bahima (or Bahima-related as in the case of Kategaya) a characteristic which Museveni seeks to obscure by calling it the cattle-keeping background. Museveni has cause to obscure the true character of their identity. As Bahima, they belonged to the dominant identity or better still caste in Ankole. In simple words, they were part of the oppressors. For millenia the Bahima had dominated the Bairu. When British colonialism came, it only rationalised the dominance of the Bahima and then used them as the administrators of Ankole. However, from around 1949 the Bairu began to resist this domination. They formed an organisation called Kumanyana which they used to demand equality with the Bahima. On the eve of independence, Kumanyana members became the leading figures in the Ankole branch of Uganda Peoples Congress. Because of this, much as virtually all Bahima were Protestant, the overwhelming majority of them joined the Democratic Party. The Bahima saw UPC as a threat to their privileges. It is in that vein that Museveni and his group hated both UPC and its leader Milton Obote. They might have had cause to dislike Obote and his UPC for eventually Obote got rid of the privileged position of the Bahima. (Doornobos, M.R. 1970: 1096-1109)
References:
Doornobos, Martin R: "Kumanyana and Rwenzururu: Two Responses to Ethnic Inequality," found in Rotberg, R.I and Mazrui A.A. (editors) "Protest and Power in Black Africa," Oxford University Press, New York, 1970.
Museveni, Y. "Sowing the Mustard Seed: the struggle for freedom and democracy in Uganda," Macmillan Publishers, London, 1997.
by Yoga Adhola
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) is a movement to resist UPC or what UPC stands for i.e. national-democratic liberation. The earliest incidence of this resistance is given to us by none other than the founder of the NRM, Yoweri Museveni. He recounts: "We were staunchly anti-Obote. On 22 February 1966, the day he arrested five members of his cabinet, three of us, Martin Mwesigwa, Eriya Kategaya and myself went to see James Kahigiriza, who was the Chief Minister of Ankole, to inquire about the possibility of going into exile to launch an armed struggle. Kahigiriza discouraged us, saying that we should give Obote enough time to fall by his own mistakes. We saw him again a few weeks later and he gave us the example of Nkrumah, who had been overthrown in Ghana by a military coup two days after Obote's abrogation of the Uganda constitution. Kahigiriza advised us that Nkrumah's example showed that all dictators were bound to fall in due course. Inwardly we were not convinced. We knew that dictators had to be actively opposed and that they would not just fall off by themselves like ripe mangoes. Later I went to Gayaza High School with Mwesigwa to contact Grace Ibingira's sister in order to find out whether she knew of any plans afoot to resist Obote's dictatorship. She, however, did not not know of any such plan. We came to the conclusion that the old guard had no conception of defending peoples rights and we resolved to strike on our own." (Museveni, Y. 1997:19)
Museveni does not give us the reason why they were staunchly anti-Obote. However, given the background of the three, it is not difficult to figure out. Museveni himself tells us the background of the three: "I had been with Martin Mwesigwa since primary days in 1953. He was quite outstanding in school work and was head prefect at Ntare School. He came from a cattle keeping background like myself, but his father had been a sub-county chief in Ankole, which put him in a slightly different social group from ours. People who became chiefs tended more towards Christianity than ordinary ants. He was very gentle and mild-mannered, with a quiet sense of humour, ,t also very determined and courageous, which is how he had managed to join us. When we had political debates within our group, he put forward a lot of ideas but he was not as effervescent as I was. I had not known Mwesigwa Black for as long as I had known Martin. We had met at Mbarara High School. Mwesigwa was nicknamed 'Black' because he was very dark-skinned, but his real first name was "William. Like Martin, he was quiet and mild-mannered. He was also from a cattle-keeping background and his parents were born-again Christians. By contrast, Valeriano Rwaheru was from a farming background, short and stocky, and he was Roman Catholic. He too was quiet but noticeably courageous in the skirmishes ,to come. He was, therefore, a very valuable person to have around in difficult times. All three of these men were to lose their lives in the 1970s, in the struggle against Amin. Eriya Kategaya, whom I have known since our first year in primary school, is the only one of the four who is still alive today. His origins are in a mixed background of cattle-keepers and cultivators. He is quiet and reserved, but enormously courageous, as he was to prove in his clandestine work in the years ahead." (Museveni, Y. 1997: 17)
From this quote it is clear that all the three were Bahima (or Bahima-related as in the case of Kategaya) a characteristic which Museveni seeks to obscure by calling it the cattle-keeping background. Museveni has cause to obscure the true character of their identity. As Bahima, they belonged to the dominant identity or better still caste in Ankole. In simple words, they were part of the oppressors. For millenia the Bahima had dominated the Bairu. When British colonialism came, it only rationalised the dominance of the Bahima and then used them as the administrators of Ankole. However, from around 1949 the Bairu began to resist this domination. They formed an organisation called Kumanyana which they used to demand equality with the Bahima. On the eve of independence, Kumanyana members became the leading figures in the Ankole branch of Uganda Peoples Congress. Because of this, much as virtually all Bahima were Protestant, the overwhelming majority of them joined the Democratic Party. The Bahima saw UPC as a threat to their privileges. It is in that vein that Museveni and his group hated both UPC and its leader Milton Obote. They might have had cause to dislike Obote and his UPC for eventually Obote got rid of the privileged position of the Bahima. (Doornobos, M.R. 1970: 1096-1109)
References:
Doornobos, Martin R: "Kumanyana and Rwenzururu: Two Responses to Ethnic Inequality," found in Rotberg, R.I and Mazrui A.A. (editors) "Protest and Power in Black Africa," Oxford University Press, New York, 1970.
Museveni, Y. "Sowing the Mustard Seed: the struggle for freedom and democracy in Uganda," Macmillan Publishers, London, 1997.
_______________________________________________
"What you are we once were, what we are you shall be!"
An inscription on the walls of a Roman catacomb.
0 comments:
Post a Comment