{UAH} In praise of Buganda cosmopolitanism
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In praise of Buganda cosmopolitanism
- August 12, 2020
- Written by Yusuf Serunkuma
There is a viral clip circulating on social media where President Museveni blasts his Banyankore ethnic for not benefiting him as a young man.
Museveni says: "I actually got nothing from these Banyankore; they were just there saying, agandi agandi, buhooro buhooro. It is actually the Baganda that helped me go to school. Baganda traders bought my father's cattle, from which he got school fees. Not these Banyankore who were simply there shouting agandi agandi."
It is as if Museveni was telling off Banyankore as unfairly eating from his regime when they even never helped him! but they didn't invite themselves to the dining table, one might say.
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Anyways, my intention is not to follow up on Museveni's assaults on his kindred but, rather, the politico-cultural implications of these Baganda cattle buyers from Ankole. But let me start with the arrest of Bizonto comedy group for context.
The arrest of satirical comics, Bizonto over their skit that cleverly dramatized Museveni's tribalism has returned the question of tribe to the forefront. Perhaps the best [both aesthetically and politically] of their skits, Bizonto also excellently demonstrated the absurdity of the upcoming 2021 election – or generally, electioneering in Uganda under Museveni.
"Don't you think this election really needs prayers?" they rhetorically satirized. As if to ask, how will this cartel of tribesmen concede defeat and hand over power to a stranger, which also means losing their unrestricted access to livelihood and wealth.
See, despite Uganda having 56 "tribal communities", the election, the comics dramatized, is budgeted, counted, protected, and announced by "public servants" all of whom come from one part of the country.
However, quite inexplicably, there is a way anti-tribalism activists are often successfully disarmed by deafening noises of "promoting sectarianism."
Perhaps this is for the same crime for which our comics were arrested – promoting sectarianism. Sadly, the crime is not with doing but, rather, seeing and speaking out.
As cartoonist, Spire Ssentongo mocked recently, the problem is not the emperor's nakedness but, rather, in pointing out that the man is naked. Again, I'm not interested in Museveni's tribalism but, rather, the place of Buganda in this conversation.
Every time the question of tribe is tabled, Buganda/Baganda come under spotlight to explain themselves. In the words of journalist Timothy Kalyegira, they are also "made to feel that pride in their identity is a crime."
And Kalyegira is right: Presently, presidential aspirant, Robert Kyagulanyi is being maligned as a Buganda ethnic candidate. Jokey columnist Asuman Bisiika was subtly hostile recently writing that National Unity Platform (NUP) ought to be seen as a reincarnation of Kabaka Yekka (KY).
And itinerant analyst Charles Rwomushana was "scientific", making connections that Mayor Erias Lukwago, who recently joined the Forum for Democratic Change is the Buganda-ethnic candidate for FDC, and was planned to counter the other big Muganda contender, Robert Kyagulanyi.
In the same vein, mobilizing against imagined Buganda nationalism remains Nobert Mao's major talking every time his leadership malfunction as DP president is spotlighted.
There are also uneducated criticisms of Buganda for failing to mobilize as the "majority-member tribe" to take the presidency. Baganda are accused of being conspiratorial against one another, which compromises their chances of taking the reins of the country, which would be easy since they formed the majority.
During a Buganda grand conference at Hotel Africana sometime in 2011, one distressed academic chided Baganda for behaving like an "imperiled minority" – yet as the majority, they could simply mobilize!
Either side of this anti-Buganda rhetoric is uneducated and simply backward. Baganda have never been a tribal/ethnic category but, rather, a set of traditions, an idea, if you like. From the beginning, Buganda founded on an absolute cosmopolitan ethic. The eminent historian, A.B.K. Kasozi has noted that being a Muganda simply required learning and being able to speak Luganda, and paying allegiance to the king.
To this end, Buganda has come to stand for an idea, a dream, not an ethnic identity. This partly explains Baganda pride, and the absolute independence of the individual despite belonging to and cherishing clan and other cultural networks.
This is not weakness or confusion but, rather, indicative of intellectual/ cultural sophistication. As first to receive a Western education, and also advance in business and trade before their neighbours – as Museveni attested – Buganda cosmopolitanized way before the formation of Uganda.
Widely travelled and exposed, Baganda quickly learned that their sustenance did not necessarily derive from their ethnic affiliations but, rather, their circulation in a community of ideas. Indeed, way before independence, Luganda orthography was advanced to the extent that Baganda novelists freely expressed themselves in Luganda language.
Also note that the 1900 Buganda Agreement is not simply an agreement on land, but one that heralded and cemented an already ongoing cultural shift within Buganda. Earlier on, the Baganda had started transforming their cultural networks into market transactions.
Baganda quickly understood that their livelihood would be earned from the marketplace, that is production and consumption of labour, not through lineage/tribal networks. No wonder, in addition to cattle, they also consumed labour from Ankole.
Indeed, when Uganda gets formed, Baganda came as a proud majority moved by ideas, and not tribal affiliations. Tribally herding was not admirable, which explains why part of the political elite took sides of UPC and not KY.
It is minorities that cherish shepherding together, because this is the only way their livelihoods is guaranteed. Museveni and company still suffer a minorities' mentality, and find security in ethnic identities. Cosmopolitan Buganda should not be asked to tribalize – which they will never – but needs to be understood and appreciated. Buganda's cosmopolitanism is the aspiration of all Ugandans – a traditional, but non-tribalistic future.
The author is a PhD fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research.
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