African History Lecture Notes 4/12/03

Subject: East Africa, 19th Century, particular focus on Buganda

Made up of many Interlacustrine (‘between the lights’) kingdoms such as Buganda, Bunyoro, Busoga, Ankole (or Nkore), Rwanda, Burundi, Toro and Karagure

Buganda was one of the most successful kingdoms in East Africa, but also unusual in its relationship with land. In many parts of Africa there is normally lots of available land, but a shortage of labour. By contrast, the Buganda kingdom was characterised by land scarcity.

The Kabaka (ruler) controlled Buganda through distribution of land. He created a special class of chief called Batongole, who were given land, who in-turn gave the land to sub-chiefs, and ultimately peasants. This is an (extreme) example of a patron/client system of government.
-	it had the effect of the peasantry being tied to a particular area of land
-	loose comparisons can be made with European feudalism, although these are flawed

This system of land was linked to the key crop production bananas and plantains. They are important vegetables as they are an almost complete food nutritionally, forming a good basis of a subsistence economy. They are also very labour intensive to establish, but require little maintenance  thereafter.
-	this made it disadvantageous for peasants to migrate from area to area
-	the crop was also used for producing alcohol

therefore, the population of Buganda dense, stable, growing and self-sufficient

Note the contrast with Rwandan society, largely cattle-based, with much culture mythology etc being attached to the cattle, rather than Buganda, where the focus is on the land.

The Bungandan kingdom did not have direct contact with the coastal Swahili peoples, mainly due to the great geographical distance from the coast, but did interact through a mediated trade network, i.e. middle-men, 

The Bungandan state was expansionist, especially towards Bunyoro and Busoga
-	advantages – the more land acquire, the more power to distribute

These expansions led to Buganda controlling most of the trade route areas (at the top of the Great Lakes), but it still had little contact with the outside world.

In the Reign of Kabaka Mutesa (1850s-1884) Buganda suddenly encountered the outside world – with all of its religious, politics, trade and imperialisms

Mutesa, at the beginning of his reign, met lots of traders, and he was interested in their ideas and technologies

from the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba or the port of Mombassa (all Islamic), traders came. Mutesa was interested in their technologies such as clocks/other timepieces, and above all guns. He was also interested in the faith and culture of Islam. These things interested him intrinsically, as well as being potentially useful for his own enterprises.
-	not just novelty, but usable novelties

Mutesa was personally fascinated by theology, religion and belief, and he and his court became increasingly interested in these, and adopted certain Islamic practices, such as the Islamic calendar, with its permissions and prohibitions.

He ordered his pages to learn to read the al-Koran in either Kiswahili or Arabic. Teenage pages realised they could gain favour (and ultimately reward) by adopting Islam, and explaining the al-Koran to Mutesa. These people were highly pragmatic, as was as being competitive and ruthless. 

However, a crisis developed in this relationship with Islam:

To the north, Sudan was also dominated by Islam, but it was of a dramatically different form. The Sudanese version was Jihadic, emphasising purity, and the need for expansion, contrasting sharply with the tolerant, accommodating version practiced in the costal regions.

As the Sudanese threatened the Bugandans territorially, Mutesa appealed to Zanzibar for help, especially guns, but they were not able to assist.

The Sudanese attacks were not of particular significance territorially or militarily, but they introduced their version of Islam to the area.
-	this gave Mutesa and ideological challenge within his society, and his response was, in 1876, to massacre many of the most devout pages in his court, and to persecute those Muslims deemed to be overly strict//independent
-	although the massacred became martyred, it brought and end to Islamic influence within Buganda

Islam was soon replaced by European influences, as the Sultan of Zanzibar became a British client
-	Protestant missionaries, who wanted him to convert, visited Mutesa. He did not do so, but recognised that Protestantism was backed by super-power force, so he could not afford to throw them out

His response was to try and counter-balance the protestant influence by inviting Catholics (from France) to Buganda as well. This was a mistake, as it exposed his kingdom to overpowering external influences

Late in his reign, he realised this error, an attempted to purge the Christians from his kingdom, and reassert the authority of ancestral spirits.
[He died halfway through this process]

His successor, desperate and lacking experience, carried out massacres, in 1886, only this time he was dealing with superpowers; the French, but especially the British, with two results
-	1 – British attention was focused on the region, with British forces arriving and reducing the kingdom to a colonial territory – Uganda
-	2 – Buganda descends into political incoherence, but also religious upheaval.

In Buganda, (especially rural areas) the missionaries found fertile ground; the colonizers, who apparently possessed hidden powers, impressed the conquered populations who had seen their system liquidated.

Footnote/Aftermath

The conquered not only embraced Protestantism, but also the technologies of power, such as education and literacy; beginning participation in modernity.

This left Buganda with a peculiar self-view; that of British collaborators, not subjects, so in 1960, when the British left, they expected to inherit much of Uganda, which the did, in terms of civil positions. 

Military power, however was in the hands of those not from the Buganda areas, who much loathed the Bugandans.

This allowed Idi Amin to overthrow the independent government in a military coup, and carry out extensive massacres of Bugandan populations.

Important theme – once ‘the door is open’ to external influences, it cannot easily be shut.