Mr Charles Onyango-Obbo
By this time 62 years ago, Ugandans were getting down to the business of being independent, and the big men were rubbing their hands, relishing the opportunity to be chiefs.
Having allied with the pro-monarchist and federalist Buganda-dominated Kabaka Yekka (King Only) Buganda-dominated party, Milton Obote’s Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) had cobbled together a majority, and he formed government as Uganda's first independence Prime Minister.
Uganda received independence on October 9, 1962, and on October 10, Obote was sworn in as executive PM, and Kabaka Freddie Mutesa as the country’s ceremonial president. We know that by 1964, the alliance unravelled dramatically, and in 1966 it all ended in political tragedy, with a confrontation between the Obote government and Kabaka’s palace.
The government stormed the Lubiri, and soon after Obote scrapped the 1966 federalist constitution, abolished the kingdoms, declared Uganda a republic, and became executive president with authoritarian powers. We have never looked back. Today the presidency is more powerful than anything Obote would have dreamed.
However, it is not the story of today that has seduced us. It is one of the little things that happened hours before October 9 and on October 10, 1962. We are probably making a mountain of an anthill, so you don’t have to read these silly thoughts – or if you do, you might make more sense of them by reading the paper upside down.
Derek R Peterson is Ali Mazrui Professor of African Studies, at the University of Michigan, in the US. He and Richard Vokes edited the 2021 book, The Unseen Archive of Idi Amin: Photographs from the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation. On October 9, 2024, on his social media, Peterson posted one of those telling little things.
“Here's the original version of the anthem by George Kakoma. The 1st phrase was 'Oh Uganda, thy people praise thee'. A week before independence, though, the Church of Uganda bishop protested that God was nowhere mentioned.
“Milton Obote hastily agreed to change the phrase to 'May God uphold thee'. The new version had to be printed in great haste. It is the latter phrase that Ugandans will be singing today.” It became one of the most consequential edits in Ugandan history, and just like that the power to confer honour on our country was taken out of our hands.
On October 7, 1962, the Duke and Duchess of Kent arrived in Uganda to represent the British Queen at Independence. They were welcomed at Entebbe by Obote and Kabaka Mutesa. A reception was held for them at Government House (State House), essentially by PM Obote. On October 8, the Kabaka threw a cocktail for them at his palace in Mengo.
A reception is more formal than a cocktail, and the one for the Duke and Duchess at Government House was a very structured sit-down event. The Kabaka’s cocktail at Mengo was a black-tie event, but more relaxed, and attended by some of his famously free-spirited friends. Both he and Obote wore conventional black tie.
The contrast between strictly structured and relaxed form could have been a signal about power that should have been picked up. On October 10, when both Obote and Mutesa were sworn in, in the evening there was a banquet and ball event. Obote liked balls. The Duke and Duchess were in the house. Obote danced with her. It was another black tie shindig, but this time Obote broke ranks, wearing a white dinner jacket. Not so the Kabaka.
For the next four years, the Kabaka and Obote carried forward sometimes very different, and other times subtly different, images defined by their dress choice. The Kabaka had a larger sartorial repertoire; he could do plain kanzu and jacket, don royal regalia, wear his military uniform (he had it in black, blue, and off-white), get up in black-tie, and even do safari wear, and business suits.
Obote’s choices were limited between a business suit, black tie, the occasional kanzu, and an open-neck UPC shirt. Who knows, maybe he had sartorial envy. Or, maybe, the Kabaka gave Obote style attitude. These style and image-based differences that possibly hinted at political divergence were right under Ugandans’ noses, but they didn’t smell them.
I like the Kawa website. It easily tells Ugandan history. It picked on these pregnant image and style issues: “This alliance [between UPC and KY) was seen from the beginning as shaky and a time bomb. Even during the 9th October 1962, independence celebrations at Kololo, two types of pictures were visible on the placards. That of UPC had a huge portrait of Obote in the middle and a small Mutesa in the corner. The other for KY had Mutesa in the middle and a small Obote on the sides. This was a mere sign of the fundamentally conflicting visions and interests of the leaders and their supporters.”
Little Ugandan things, that are big Ugandan political things.
Mr Charles Onyango-Obbo is a journalist, writer, and curator of the “Wall of Great Africans”.
X(Twitter): @cobbo3
