{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: We all love the Kabaka today, because Uganda has left ethnic hatreds - Comment
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We all love the Kabaka today, because Uganda has left ethnic hatreds
There was a carnival air about Kampala city last Sunday as thousands turned out on the streets to celebrate the Kabaka's 61st birthday with a marathon run. It is interesting to note how the Kabakaship is no longer such a divisive institution in the Republic of Uganda as it was in the past.
British colonialists created the Ugandan state around the ancient kingdom of Buganda after their military conquest of the area in the final decade of the 19th century. They deposed Kabaka Mwanga, who had fought them throughout his reign, replacing him with a baby prince managed by regents.
The British then used the Baganda collaborators who had betrayed their king to establish their administration over the rest of Uganda. The colonialists thus killed several birds with one stone for not only did they establish an effective administration on the cheap by replicating Buganda structures, they also drove deep their divide-and-rule knife by turning other Ugandans against the Baganda, who were as much victims of colonialism as them.
And in the final days of the Independence struggle, the colonialists sided with the opportunists who took power and cemented ethnic divisions by coining slogans like, "The only good Mganda is a dead Mganda."
Ironically, the anti-Kabaka ideology was ended by the military dictatorship that ruled for most of the 1970s. This dictatorship terrorised all Ugandans without discrimination, starting with the Acholi and the Langi in 1971, following up with all persons of Indian origin in 1972 and then everybody and anybody who was not close to the ruling junta.
That disastrous period of the country's history woke Ugandans up; Luos entered the trenches side by side with Bantus, helping bring down the dictatorship in April 1979 with the help of Tanzanian forces.
Besides the wild military era, another evil that helped dissipate ethnic hatred in Uganda was corruption. The rotting health infrastructure that kills mothers and babies and the substandard schools that entrench ignorance are evenly distributed around the country, courtesy of corruption.
In fact the joke among intellectuals last week in Kampala was that no Ugandans featured in the leaked Panama Papers because our corrupt guys don't need to hide their loot; they in fact flaunt it, so entrenched is the culture of impunity in our society.
That traditional leaders like the Kabaka have nothing to do with this rot has helped dilute the negative stereotypes created by the colonialists and immediate post-Independence rulers.
It is therefore not an accident that an event like the Kabaka's birthday is embraced by Kampalans of all ethnic groups. Celebrating the Kabaka today is coming full circle to the old days when his grandfathers were revered in Kampala.
In Uganda, we are struggling to get one million tourists against a population of 36 million! C'mon guys, just lock up Besigye again and the visitors can flow.
Joachim Buwembo is a social and political commentator based in Kampala. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com
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