Uncovering Uganda’s history through photos

According to the curators, the core displays are drawn from the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation’s (UBC) photographic archive. The collection, comprising 70,000 images from between the 1950s and the 1980s, has been digitised only recently. It offers fresh insights into Uganda’s civic and political life.
The exhibition also draws from the rich newspaper archives of the Makerere University library, Uganda and the United Kingdom, as well as the private collections of Ugandans, who were there. Some pictures are displayed in Uganda for the first time in this exhibition.

The exhibition
The exhibition begins by bringing visitors into the moment of Independence. To achieve this, it draws on photographs, newspapers and archival documents to capture the excitement of the time.
The middle part of the exhibition focuses on the political controversies of the early 1960s, explaining how and why dissident movements challenged the independent government of Milton Obote. Here, the curators illuminate the debates that were central to public life—the relationship of Buganda with the rest of Uganda; the separatist ambitions of Konzo and Amba people in the Rwenzori mountains; the ‘Lost Counties’ controversy; the place of Karamoja; the student left and its political role.

The exhibition ends in 1966, a turning point in Uganda’s contemporary history. That is when the Uganda Army laid siege on the palace of the king of Buganda. This followed the passing of the Rwenzururu King—lsaya Mukirane—and when Obote made himself the central figure in Uganda’s public life. Much like history, which is never neatly contained, this is anything but a tidy stopping place.
“By juxtaposing the ceremony of Independence with historical materials created by marginalised communities, the exhibition gives voice to people who were not among the cheering crowds that starry night at Kololo,” the curators opine.

A 25-minute documentary film featuring interviews with Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Rhoda Kalema, and others who were centrally involved in the politics of the 1960s, also headlines the exhibition. 
Some of the people in the pictures at display have not been recognised by name. The curators are calling on the public to offer details around the people—and even occasions—on display. 
The exhibition also contains a film and some of the local music hits produced in the early 1960s.
There were two-panel discussions during the opening week of the show. On October 5, a panel involving Miria Kalule Obote, Martin Aliker, Joyce Mpanga, Bishop Emeritus Ochola, and others took centre stage. The panel discussed “memories of Independence.” 

On October 6, a panel comprising Maurice Kiwanuka, Jimmy Akena, Uthman Mayanja and others talked about the successes and failures of their parents’ generation. 
The exhibition builds on the success of “The unseen archive of Idi Amin”—a photographic exhibition which was on show at the Uganda Museum in 2019 and 2020.
‘Uganda at 60’ is curated by Dr Pamela Khanakwa (Makerere University); Dr Derek R. Peterson (University of Michigan); Dr David Ngendo Tshimba (Uganda Martyrs University); and Dr Edgar Taylor (Makerere University). It has also benefited from the input of Amon Mugume and Nelson Abiti.
While opening the exhibition on October 5, President Museveni commended the curators for unearthing and preserving Uganda’s heritage for the current and future generations.

“I want to congratulate all of you for taking on that assignment because if you had not taken on this responsibility, we could have lost a lot of information,” he said.
Col (Rtd) Tom Butime, the Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities minister, said the exhibition has come at a time when his ministry is planning “to develop a museum of international standards.”
“It suffices to note that Uganda Museum holds the finest ethnographic exhibition in the whole of Africa,” he said, adding, “The culture and history of the nation are kept in this national repository.”

 
Uganda’s Independence
The sovereign state of Uganda—as it was called at the time of Independence—was put together in haste. The Constitution was negotiated in London, UK, by men who British authorities saw as legitimate leaders of their people. In a space of a few weeks in 1962, Uganda’s legislature passed Bills concerning citizenship and immigration control, a penal code, a Bill establishing the national army, and a Bill defining the official flag and armorial design. 
In the Independence elections of April 1962, the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) and its parliamentary allies won a majority of the vote. Obote was made leader of government business, but under the Constitution that brought Uganda to Independence, the head of State was Frederick Muteesa—then king of Buganda.

Independence Day was full of ceremony—there were teams of musicians from Acholi and Buganda, pipers from the Scots Guards, and a dancing team from India. The programme included a message from then Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah. 
“The salvation of Africa lies only in unity, and local associations and regional groups are no substitute for the vital goal of African unity,” he wrote.
“The pomp and circumstances of Independence could not cover up the basic questions that needed to be resolved. As we shall see, Milton Obote and his colleagues did not inherit a politically unified nation-state from British officials. They inherited a host of irresolvable questions about the make-up of Uganda itself,” the curators point out.

Independence from the margins
According to the curators, for some Ugandans, national independence was a disappointment, a threat and even a danger to their way of life. Cultural and political minorities were alarmed at the prospect of majority rule. They feared that an emboldened African-led government would trample local communities, making everyone subject to an arbitrary and unanswerable power.
In part of the exhibition, the curators bring into view the movements that dissidents launched from the margins. Some hoped for a separate government, distinct from the rest of Uganda. Others demanded radical reforms within the economy. Still, others worked for a multicultural nation. 
Many of the people the curators focus on felt disempowered by the events of October 9, 1962. 
“By bringing those dissidents into view, we show that national Independence was—for many people—an ambiguous victory,” the curators hold.
 
1959-1960 boycott
In 1960, there were more than 100,000 Africans living in Kampala. Only one out of every 20 lived in a building with brick walls and a concrete floor. Anywhere between six and eight people slept in a room. Many people lived on less than Shs50 a month, at a time when the minimum living wage was estimated at Shs80.
On February 28, 1959, activist Augustine Kamya organised the largest rally that had ever been held in Kampala. Kamya told the crowd that no one should buy anything from European- or Asian-owned shops. He was joined by dozens of other activists, including Hajji Busungu, an auto mechanic, who was known for his forceful rhetoric.

Kamya and Busungu instructed Africans to refuse to sell food to anyone who continued to buy from Asians. Colonial authorities detained Kamya and Busungu, but the boycott soon became widespread. There were hundreds of cases of crop-slashing, arson, assault and even murder by the boycott’s zealous enforcers. 
The boycott of 1959-1960 expanded the political field and confronted all forms of centralised authority. The Kabaka (Frederick Muteesa), ruler of the Buganda Kingdom, was appalled. When he visited the neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city, residents shouted “Freedom” at him. The Kabaka reported: “There is a hostile feeling towards government and authority in Kampala, and something [has] to be done to clear up the kibuga (city).
“People on the margins of Uganda’s political and economic life found a voice in the boycott. While the British planned an orderly exit from Uganda, and while African nationalists preached unity, the unruly crowds of Kampala and other urban centres were expanding the terms of Uganda’s decolonisation,” the curators observe.

 
‘Okwefuga’ in Buganda
In late September 1960, the Buganda Parliament (Lukiiko) called for a separate independence for the kingdom. The resolution argued that “it would be asking too much of Baganda to trust the destiny of their kingdom to the hands of political party leaders.”
Independence Day was set for December 31, 1960. For the kingdom’s well-connected elite, the prospect of a separate independence was a means of protecting the power of privileges they enjoyed.
It was Augustine Kamya and other populists who set the agenda for secession. In November 1960, Kamya formed an organisation called Omwoyo gw’Egwanga (Heart of the Nation). In this loose organisation were several people with whom he had organised the boycott of 1959-60. 

On December 31, 1960, when Buganda’s Lukiiko gathered to decide whether or not to declare the kingdom’s independence, the gallery was packed with Kamya’s men. They cheered boisterously for any speaker who advocated for Buganda’s independence and loudly booed anyone who spoke against secession.
At the last minute, the Kabaka sent a message to the speaker, telling him to adjourn the session. The speaker refused, saying “it would have meant the overthrow of the Kabaka.” When the vote was called, the measure passed with a 79 to 8 majority. All those voting in opposition were members of the Democratic Party.
According to the curators, there followed a campaign to work out exactly how to make Buganda independent. Ganda activists were – like the Rwenzururu contemporaries – looking toward a political future that did not culminate in October 9, 1962. 

1966: Foreclosures 
On April 15, 1966, prime minister Obote came before the National Assembly and announced the abrogation of the 1962 Constitution. The new constitution deprived the Buganda government of its budgeting subsidy and eliminated the ceremonial presidency, which had been occupied by Buganda’s king. The following month, Ganda parliamentarians resolved that the Uganda government should remove itself from the kingdom’s soil. Obote declared a state of emergency, and on the morning of May 24, sent the army—under the command of Idi Amin—to arrest the Kabaka at his palace.
The attack took place at dawn. The army overran the palace. Some say as many as 1,000 people were killed. 
The Kabaka himself escaped the palace to Burundi. 
On June 23, the Kabaka and two aides travelled on a freight airplane to exile in London.

In 1967, Obote pushed for a new constitution through the National Assembly. It concentrated power in his hands, giving him the power to dissolve the legislature, detain people without trial, and appoint and dismiss public officials. President Obote called it an ‘about turn’ in history.
According to the curators, there are no photographs in the government archives depicting the events of May 24, 1966.
“We note that the median age in Uganda is just over 16 years. The vast majority of Ugandans have no living memory of British colonialism; neither do they have knowledge about the political debates that attended Uganda’s Independence,” the curators observe. “We hope, through this exhibition, to drive attendance at the Uganda Museum and to furnish Ugandans and friends of Uganda regionally and internationally with an occasion to learn about, and discuss, the country’s national history.”

The Lost Counties

The most pressing political question of the early 1960s concerned the ‘lost counties’—a vast territory that British officials had carved out of the conquered kingdom of Bunyoro as a reward for their allies in the Buganda kingdom. From the 1920s onwards, the Mubende Banyoro Committee had advocated for the region’s return to Bunyoro. Buganda’s politicians refused, insisting that the lost counties had been ‘bought with the blood of the sons and daughters of Buganda.’ 

At the end of 1961, the British government appointed a commission of the Privy Council to investigate the matter. Hundreds of people gave evidence. In June 1962, at the end of the last session of the Constitutional Conference, the colonial secretary imposed a solution. Two counties—Buyaga and Bugangaizi—were to be excised from the kingdom of Buganda; after a period of two years, the independent government of Uganda was to organise a referendum on their governance. According to the curators, “the British thereby handed the most difficult of Uganda’s political problems of Obote’s government.”

A referendum was held in November 1964. It resulted in an overwhelming defeat for Buganda. There were protests in Kampala as Ganda patriots angrily condemned the referendum’s results. In the two disputed counties, departing Ganda chiefs carried away moveable government equipment and stripped dispensaries of medicines, beds and furniture. Nyoro chiefs were appointed to replace them. Erisa Kalisa, the president of the Mubende Banyoro Committee, was made chief in Buyaga; Joseph Kazairwe, the committee’s leading firebrand, was made chief in Bugangaizi.