UGANDA@50: The roots of the oldest political party in Uganda: Part I

To understand how Catholics became a dominated identity in Buganda we need to go to the late 19th Century when the two major religions, Catholics and Protestants, arrived in the Kingdom of Buganda. The Church Missionary Society, whom we now call the Protestants, arrived in 1877 and the Society de Notre-Dame d’Afrique, the so-called White Fathers whom we call Catholics, in 1879.

Far ahead of the Christians were the Muslims: the first Arab to set foot in Buganda did so in 1844 and by the time of the arrival of Christians, the Arabs, and therefore Islam had made substantial in roads into Buganda society. The court of their master, the Sultan of Zanzibar, had become the model of that of Kabaka Mutesa.

When the explorer, Stanley, arrived at Mutesa’s court in 1875 he found that the assembled Baganda chiefs, with their fezes, robes and scimitars were almost a replica of Zanzibar and Oman. Kabaka Mutesa had also established what they called the kibulisi of Busiro. These were bodyguards so-named after the Sultan’s bodyguards. They were required to wear beards just like the bodyguards of the Sultan.

A number of Arabs, who had established homesteads in the countryside, were marrying local women and like Africans from other tribes, had become integrated into Kiganda society. The advice of the Arabs was heeded at court and the Kabaka greatly appreciated and used their charms and medicines.

Some Arabs like one ldi had become Mutesa’s scribe (the Arab script was already in use at court by the time of the Stanley visit) got appointed to chieftainship. By the end of Mutesa’s reign, the Baganda Muslims led by Muguluma had been appointed to high offices.

On several occasions Mutesa had ordered all his subjects to adopt Islam. In 1867 he observed the fast of the month of Ramadhan and in 1875 proclaimed Buganda to be a Muslim state. The Arab influence eventually became so pervading that even those who held aloof such as Katikiro Mukasa adopted Islamic style and manners.

Such was the disadvantageous situation in which Christians found themselves on arrival in Buganda; further, things were not made better when they had to submit to surveillance by Mutesa by living in and around his court.

The stringent demands of Christianity, such as dissociation from polygamy upon converts also did restrict conversion. Thus by the end of Mutesa’s reign, Christians could not boast of chiefs of influence like Muguluma who was the Kalabala or deputy chief of Buddu.

A Christian who attained some measure of eminence was Yozefu Nsigirisa who was Mutesa’s Mutanda of Bulemezi; but even his modest eminence profited the Christians very little as in the crisis of Mwanga’s reign he spent the two years before the 1888 revolution in the stocks.

However, among the royal pages, chiefs’ servants and minor officials at the capital, Christians made a tremendous headway, to the point of Christian pages outnumbering Muslim ones. And this fact was to be of great value in the long run especially as pages were youths usually presented to court by clan heads and from their ranks were to be chosen future leaders.

The competition between the two faiths apart, the historical context was of immense uncertainty and Buganda was ripe for major social changes. Clans as a form of social organisation and structure out of which the Kiganda monarchy arose, was on the decline and giving way to nationality and territorial forms of organisation.

This was giving rise to intense struggles between the Kabaka and his appointed chiefs, the Bakungu, on the one side, and, the hereditary clan heads, the Bataka, once peers of the Kabaka on the other.

What appeared to be the assertion of authority by the Kabaka over the hereditary clan heads was actually the ascendancy of a larger social entity, the Ganda nationality over clans. The period under review, 1877/1914, was the one during which the Kabaka finally asserted his authority, and the Bakungu chiefs eclipsed the Bataka.

It was in these circumstances that Mwanga ascended the throne in October 1884. The times were extremely difficult and confusing, with far too many forces operating. This required great insight, statesmanship, strong character and firm will. Mwanga was seriously deficient in these qualities.

Mwanga deposed
On the night of September 9, 1888, Christian and Muslim leaders met at Nyonyintono’s headquarters (14) and resolved to depose Mwanga. He was deposed the following day and his brother, Kiwewa, installed Kabaka.

The process of composing new administration was not easy: there were wrangles on the apportioning of offices according to religion, giving rise to considerable friction. The two main parties in the revolt, the Muslims and Christians, eventually arrived at a tenuous agreement in which the best jobs, the Kabakaship and the accompanying palace offices went to the Muslims.

Muslims were also appointed to the post of Kimbugwe (the second minister) and held not only two of the four largest in chieftainship but also two of the largest Batongole positions. For the Christians, as the equivalent of the Kabakaship and Kimbugweship they acquired the Katikkiro (first minister). The Christians also received the other two important Bakungu offices and the two other major Batongole chieftainships.

Considering the relative military strength of the two forces in September, where the Muslims had an edge over the Christians, the settlement was satisfactory to both forces.

It was not long, however, before the events of September 1888 became “less significant in witnessing the replacement of one Ganda king by another than in creating circumstances favourable to more radical subsequent change”.

Problems arose when the religious freedom the reign of Kiwewa brought, enabled all worshipers, Muslim and Christians, to proclaim their faith openly. Though Muslim converts did the same, the Muslim leaders were shaken by the much larger number of Christians who now came to the open to proclaim their faith and increased the clientele of Christian chiefs to the extent that they overshadowed their previously more powerful Muslim colleagues.

It was apparent that increasingly the centre of political power was shifting towards the Christian party and this naturally became an issue of concern to the Muslims. Matters were made worse by Mutesa’s Katikkiro, Mukasa, who though then deposed, still wielded immense influence. He kept “taunting the Muslim leader Muguluma, the Kimbugwe who had been a powerful chief even under Mutesa, with the acquisition of the post of Katikkiro by Nyonyintono, a Christian, an upstart and a eunuch to boot.”
Evidently the situation was ripe for a showdown between the two parties.

The occasion for the confrontation was provided by one of the Christian leaders, Antoni Ddungu who was the Protestant Katikkiro of Kisalosalo. When Mwanga was being deposed, Ddungu was away levying tribute in the Bukoba chiefdoms. On his return he found that Kanta, the chiefdom which he coveted had been allocated to the Muslims. He was so disappointed that he is reported to have said that if Kiwewa continued to favour Muslims that much, then he would be replaced by a princess.

This was an extremely reckless statement to make, especially as fears already existed that ‘Christians wanted to crown a princess and one of the princesses, Nasiwa was mistress to one of the Christians. The Muslims used this incident to convince Kiwewa that the Christians were not loyal, deserve elimination and a plan was hatched to kill Christians when they next came to court. The outcome of this was another war. This time the war was between the Muslims and Christians. The Christians were defeated and were, swearing to come back and capture the capital, driven west to Nkore (the neighbouring kingdom).

Immediately, there followed another struggle with the pagans, the result of which was the replacement of Kiwewa by Kalema and the rise of Muguluma not only to the political leadership of the Muslims but also becoming Katikkiro.

This elimination of the Christians was an act of purification from then on the social force in power was exclusively Muslim. Refining the tendency which had begun when Mwanga was deposed, that is the social force or political grouping which wins forms an administration made up of men from its fighting ranks, the Muslims formed an administration exclusively of themselves. In power, like political parties which seek to shape the country according to their ideology, the Muslims proceeded to turn Buganda into an Islamic state modeled on what they imagined to be the Sultanate of Zanzibar.

The circumcision of all Baganda was decreed and at this point a large number of people of chiefly rank who had stayed rather than go into exile in Ankole were confronted by the gruesome choice of conversion, flight or death. The peasants in the villages also had it very rough; the Muslims ravaged the countryside, especially Singo which could not recover its previous prosperity for a long time.

Meanwhile in Ankole the Christians who were welcome, as a mark of gratitude, pledged that Ntare, King of Ankole must never be exposed to attack from the Muslim armies in Buganda. To allow for that possibility was to repay him evil for good and would also be the surest way to turn him against them. The surest way to prevent all this was to march into Buganda and demolish the Muslims when the time was ripe.

Christian military strength also increased as other Christian compatriots, fleeing the persecution in Buganda joined the others in Ankole. Eventually, the more adventurous Christian leaders could not be restrained any longer and the Christian army left for Buganda.

In Buganda, because the Muslims were extremely isolated, the Christian army was exceedingly welcome and largely because of this support, easily defeated the Muslims in October 1889.

The Christians returned Mwanga as Kabaka and, as what was originally a tendency had now become a tradition, proceeded to form a predominantly Christian administration. A refinement to this tradition was added: apart from the major officials being Christian, care was taken to see that the degree of service to the cause was rewarded. Thus “the original Christian leadership received the provincial and great chiefdoms, and the new men who had recently come to the fore took posts of lesser rank...”

This Christian edifice or party which had just scored victory over the Muslims, like every phenomenon, had its intrinsic internal opposites and contradictions. Some aspects of this dates back to the time of the Reformation, when the Anglican Church broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and other aspects were a legacy of the 17th Century war of religion, which by the 19th Century had assumed the form of competition for converts in the non-European new world.

By 1890 a pattern of hostility had been so entrenched that when new missionaries arrived or new Baganda converts got won over, they automatically became partisans in the contest between the two parties. In Buganda the origins of the hostility can be traced in the early 1880’s, to the rivalry for converts between the Catholics and Protestants.

In due course, influenced by palace intrigue, the pages of Kabaka Mwanga’s audience chamber were predominantly Catholic, while those of the store house largely Protestant. This tendency of religio-political division extended to the standing armies which Mwanga had created and which were led by his ex-pages.