Firstly was the Cwezi empire. Not much is known about it save for the mythology surrounding it and contemporary discourse from “some political formations” whose mystery is much the same as the collapse of the said empire.
Secondly was the rise of the Bito Luo empire that formed the royal court at Karuziika (ebibi) situated at Mparo in present day Hoima city.
The empire expanded to present day Northern Tanzania and parts of Rwanda, which itself was under different principalities (discussed later herein) and much of the present day geographical extent called Uganda. It had a standing army that continuously engaged in wars of expansion and conquest.
However, rivalry between princes over administration of its viceroy states such as Busongora, Tooro and Kooki as well as its expansive led to maladministration and consequently broke up, giving rise to Tooro and Kooki as distinct kingdoms.
In the ashes of these ruins, Buganda Kingdom organic and “meticulous” state resulted in rapid economic development spurred by stable agricultural, centralized administration, clan structures and contact with coastal trade caravans where from the nucleus counties of Mawokota, Busiro and Busunju and Kyaddondo was rapidly expanded at the expense of the falling Bunyoro Kitara.
These settings or state formations were grounded in expansionist “imperial” conqueror with war chest of victors and vanquished. The central thesis was basically narrow ethnic domination over the conquered.
Simultaneously, the Kingdom of Rwanda under Umwami Rwabugiri (reigned 1865-1895) an expansionist in as much a military genius as well as an adventurer, expanded too at the expense of the crumbling Bunyoro Kitara.
At its height, the Rwanda Kingdom extended to Bumpaka (present day Busongora in Kasese and the adjoining areas), North and South Kivu of the DRC and Karagwe in North West Tanzania. The state doctrine that was birthed (and still survives) flowing from Rwabugiri’s expansionism was that of military subjugation, annihilation and establishment of viceroy states as well as predatory economies.
Contemporaneously was the rise of Khediev Ismail wars of conquest pushing from the Equatorial province of the Sudan with Emin Pasha, a Turkish General, establishing a Fort at Patiko and headquarters at Gondokoro. It’s momentum was check by a counter revolution led by the Mahdist revolt (1881-85) an Islamic brotherhood formation in the Sudan.
Lastly were the attempts by the “external” invaders firstly in the form of socio religious wars pitying the Arab Muslims at some point against the Christians and at another the Protestants against Roman Catholics jostling for control of Buganda and surrounding areas. These historical foundations have influenced the development of the state that came to be known as Uganda.
In the aftermath of the Berlin Conference of 1886, where the frontiers of European colonial interest were delimited, Uganda was “confirmed” as a British sphere of influence. To consolidate their position, Capt Frederick Lugard, one of the foremost British colonial administrators, took charge of Uganda as an enclave of British commercial designs formally taking charge of Uganda in 1892.
His advice to Prime Minister William Gladstone was critical in the British taking interest in the Nile Valley so as to secure Egypt and in particular the Suez Canal.
Britain had injected colossal amounts of money to expand the Suez Canal from 1869 onwards to secure its unfettered strategic access to the trade route to India and control of the East Mediterranean trade.
As such, the Nile became a major point of interest by the British and by extension its source and access to the Eastern Coast from Uganda, hence the Kenya colony (this was to play out later in the colonial administration under Andrew Cohen, as shall be shown later). France was at the same time expanding its area of influence from what is now known as French West Africa to the eastern coast.
In 1898, at Fashoda, the two forces clashed and an open war between the two powers since the Napoleon Bonaparte rule became ever so more a reality in the result that the powers entered an “Entente Cordiale” where diplomacy won and the two countries agreed not to fetter the others designs in Africa (this position is the forerunner to the increased French economic control from Dakar to Maputo and by extension the Total investments in Uganda as well military cooperation in Uganda and the region!).
By a 1902 Order in Council Uganda was declared a British protectorate that was run on the fashion and style designed by Lugard. An enclave economy, where divide and rule were applied to extract the maximum economic benefits for West Minister.
However, in 1952, the raise of the labour party caused a paradigm shift in British colonial outlook. They set the tone for possible self-governance.
In Uganda Sir Andrew Cohen, a leftist leaning administrator, took charge as governor. He championed a political Federation for British East Africa. The move was so popular but was met by stiff resistance from Buganda resulting in the exiling of Ssekabaka Mutesa II. (History records it as one that was purely for ethnic designs. However, my interactions with the Late Katikirro Mayanja Nkangi revealed it was principally over incorporation of the settler economy with its attendant land ownership alterations!).
The tensions in Buganda and subsequent signing in 1955 in which express provisions were enacted for the prohibition of the East African Federation under British rule.
The immediate post independent Uganda was dominated by Apollo Milton Obote whose position defined the state doctrine. He was grounded in the anti-colonial struggle from his days in the trade unions of the tea plantations in Kenya where he honed his political prowess.
He thus was among the founding members of the Organization of African Unity. He significantly, though this appears to elude chroniclers, with Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania crafted a “clandestine” operation under the Mulungushi club to prop the Lumumbists (rebels aligned to leftist ideas of Patrice Lumumba) in the Congo Libreville (now the DRC) against the official OAU position.
It will be recalled he was toppled over his firm stand on British relations with apartheid South Africa and the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe). To this end, the doctrine was grounded in anticolonialism.
Enter the Idi Amin administration. No particular doctrine appeared to define his time at the helm of Uganda save for various actions which were often conflicting and antagonistic. Initially the state was aligned to the powers that organized the coup de tat, whom he turned against and courted the Islamic Arab world with the result that Uganda was officially admitted as a member of the Organization of the Islamic Organization.
Amin took to the fancy of publicity stunts to attract media attention by profiling himself as an anti-imperialist occasionary staging mock bombings of the Golan heights and Capetown!
The period between 1979 to 1986 as uneventful owing to the instability that characterized the epoch. At the time of capture of power after a protracted struggle by the NRM/A Uganda, was a candidate for peace keeping operations following the factionalized military administration that had removed Obote, by placing warlords in charge of their areas of control.
The post 1986 Uganda state doctrine can be traced back to the debates President Museveni, late Eriya Kategeya, Advocate John Kawanga, and other cohorts at University of Dar es Salaam under the tutelage of Walter Rodney, Peter Kanywani, Dani Nabudere, Issa Shivji and the indefatigable Nathan Shamuyarira the editor of the 1971 book “Essays on the Liberation of Southern Africa” in which President Museveni seminal treatise on Franz Fanon theories on political violence was published.
The central thesis of the doctrine was revolutionary struggles and Pan Afrikanism, with a bias towards home grown revolutions, interdependence of the Afrikan Peoples, interrelatedness of the Afrikans and at the higher, level integration through trade resulting in political federation.
This was the consideration in the support to the SPLM/A. The RPF/A (this was however, badly rolled out as it was seen as invasion with extremely pernicious), the Burundi peace process, Somalia Peace Keeping (rightly called Peace enforcement by President Museveni) and the struggles of the Congolese peoples.
The author is an advocate
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