Build UPDF museum in Bunyoro

“A technical team of researchers instituted by the steering committee is almost through with analysing information gathered from military officers, and civilians who were part of the Bush War. So, we hope this will enrich the museum with a satisfying and rich history,” Maj Gen Henry Matsiko, the UPDF chief political commissar, said. 

This means the steering committee for the construction of the museum is going to limit its remit to the heroics of the National Resistance Army (NRA) and its offshoot, the UPDF. 

Yet Uganda’s martial history stretches back to the 1890s, when Uganda, as a geographical expression, came into being. 

The great king Kabalega of Bunyoro Kingdom with the commanders of his Abarusuura (army) such as Ireeta, Rwabudongo, and Kikukule and his son Jasi valiantly fought British colonialism.
They were joined by Kabaka Daniel Mwanga and his mostly Muslim followers in attacking British positions, such as the Catholic mission at Bukumi. 

“Making full use of their knowledge of their own country, various groups of them, along with some Baganda Muslims, wove their way about, sometimes standing their ground against the Baganda and British-led forces ranged against them,” wrote one historian. 

In southwestern Uganda, the powerful cult of the Nyabingi, led by warrior-priestess Muhumza and emboldened by Ndochibiri, were so powerful an army that the British were only accepted as overlords after “they had shown themselves more potent than the Nyabingi”. 

Of course, we cannot forget the legendary Lamogi rebellion in 1911; whence the Lamogi people fought the British using arrows and bows, spears, Byeda and Tasa guns which they acquired from the Arabs in Sudan.

The museum should serve as a repository for this military history in order to rekindle a nationalistic spirit which is on the wane. 

This serves to undergird a patriotism that we need to build this country to a prosperous nation. 
For, let it not be forgotten, the Asian Tigers set in motion five factors of production to get to where they are: capital, land, labour, entrepreneurship and patriotism.

The museum, by chronicling Uganda’s military history, may foster greater reconciliation by dispelling ethnocratic myths.

It is widely and mistakenly believed that tribes from the south of Uganda, especially Baganda, were kept out of the army by the British. 

Yet, as records show, there were almost 12,000 Baganda in military service in 1943, during World War II.

This was three times the number of northerners in the army at the time.
Even before that, in 1939, the British colonial authorities sought to recruit Ugandans for a Uganda territorial battalion. After advertisements were made, 800 applicants for 100 places were received, 60 out of the selected 100 were Baganda.

Finally, the location of the museum should be in Bunyoro for, as alluded to earlier, its kingdom was the largest thorn in the colonialist’s flesh. And therefore, once again, this location can be used as staging ground for our patriotic rebirth.

Phillip Matogo is a professional copywriter  
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