Written by Rogers Atukunda and directed by Dr Cindy Magara, a lecturer of Film and Literature at Makerere University, they explore the unifying geo-political and geolinguistics of 1870-1900 Uganda and the historical relationships between the peoples of the Great Lakes region.
The docuseries fosters cohesion since our pre-colonial history and our different tribes were geo-graphical mere emblems that should not divide us because pre-colonial his- tory shows that Uganda already existed in terms of politics and language.
Since February 13 when they started screening the docuseries, Dr Magara says they have been overwhelmed by the way Ugandans are turning up to listen to their histories.
“There is a mindset that few people watch documentaries but the fact that this is a story about who we are, where we come from, and where we want to go, many Ugandans have picked great interest. We have so far premiered four segments [Bunyoro, Buganda, Busoga and Ankole] of the 13-part series and people have been coming in large numbers to listen and learn their histories. We already have partnerships with television stations that want to show the documentary to their viewers, we are getting positive responses from kingdoms and schools that want to be part of the journey,” she says.
According to Dr Magara, the story is relevant to contemporary East Africa as the region struggles to foster unity through a confederation of states such as the East African Community and African Union.
“By retracing the historical footsteps of Omukama Kabaleega of Bunyoro- Kitara Kingdom, King Mwanga of Buganda Kingdom, Chief Awich of Payira and Queen Muhumuza of Kigezi etc, as some of the major players, especially in the resistance against British imperialism from 1870s to 1900, we learn about the origin of the people of Uganda and the nations (kingdoms) they belonged to that later morphed into Uganda.”
She went on: “The film tackles key issues the continent is grappling with including; democracy, neo-colonialism, integration, peace and stability.”
CONCEPTION
Tuko Pamoja started as a research journey in 2016 to look into the life and reign of Uganda’s most famous colonial resisters; Omukama Kabaleega of Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom and Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda kingdom.
According to Atukunda, the intention was to make an epic film of these two figures but they needed firsthand accounts from elders, historians and even people on the street, to see how they remember these two monarchs.
“As we delved deeper into their stories, we realised that to do justice to their legacies, there was a need to also recognize other Ugandans outside Bunyoro and Buganda who contributed to this history. For example, Kabaleega had relations with Chief Katuregye of the current-day Kigezi region, he got his weapons from the West Nile, and he married women from Acholi, Tooro and elsewhere. Both Kabaleega and Mwanga were sheltered and aided by Acholi warriors, especially Chief Awich Abok of Payira chiefdom and later, they were protected by the famous Lango warriors in Kangai (current Dokolo district). So, they were already working together as Ugandans,” he says.
“We also realised that the story of Kabaleega and Mwanga cannot be squeezed into a feature film of say three hours without omitting a lot of information which, as we discovered, was not even in formal history books. To preserve that history, we decided to make a documentary that would depict how we are one and how we are interconnected as Ugandans since pre-colonial times. So, this required more resources than we had anticipated. As such, we decided to use this documentary series as a fundraising campaign to raise resources. If every Ugandan gives us a dollar, we will be able to raise at least $5m (about Shs 19bn) to make a historical series of Kabaleega and Mwanga, which is the story of East Africa.”
Indeed, Magara and Atukunda acknowledge that varioues leaders of ethnic groupings have been instrumental in the compilation of the series.
“Some of them personally participated by being interviewed such as King Ndahura II Kashagama of Busongora, Wash Joseph Kanyanya of Babukusu, Acholi chiefs like Collin Mutu Atiko and the deceased Lugbara paramount chief His Highness Nason Avutia who died in January, 2023 as well as his successor Manase Amuku Yuma. In fact, some of the leaders who were unavailable for face-to-face interviews delegated their prime ministers, speakers or court historians to ensure that we access as much information about their communities as possible,” he says.
In the course of the production, Magara admits that they discovered that before migrations into East, Central and South Africa, all of us came from North and West Africa. In an interview with Dr Kihura Nkuba, a lecturer in classical African history, he says Africa was once one plain land called ‘Ethiopia’.
“At that time, we all shared one culture and spoke one language but when Arabs, Greeks, Romans and Malays started conquering North and West Africa, Africans were pushed down south. That is how we started to separate as we settled in different places, to mix, to intermarry and then consequently, to lose our original culture and language,” he says.
To bring it closer to home, Atukunda says that his ‘tribe’ was a Munyankore until he went to Kigezi and learnt, during the research, that his father was a Muhororo (of Mpororo Kingdom).
“My maternal grandmother was born in Kitagwenda district and I learnt that Batagwenda migrated from Buganda. My grandfather was a Muhumu (cattle keeper) from Tooro and had originally come from Bunyoro which is now ruled by Biito-Luos from Northern Uganda. So, I am a Muhororo, a Muganda, a Mutooro, a Munyoro and ultimately, a Luo. How then can you say I belong to a tribe called “Banyankore”? You may call me a Munyankore because I found myself in a geographical space called Ankole Kingdom but that has nothing to do with a tribe,” he says.
“We never had tribes before colonialism. You were a Muganda or Munyoro because you belonged to that geographical space called Buganda or Bunyoro. Tribe is a colonial creation to separate and divide us. This is why most of our history was altered and falsified by colonial masters who glorified themselves and vilified our heroes as villains.”
However, the project was not without challenges and according to Magara, they struggled to get sources of information, logistics and long distances they had to cover to gather information.
“First of all, most of the information gathered is outside the formal history books because the white man made it a point to distort, alter and omit our histories. Secondly, the project kept growing and expanding as we went along, which required more resources, which we didn’t necessarily have. Thirdly, we had to travel across the country to do these interviews and it was both strenuous and draining physically and emotionally,” she says.
“It has been a very expensive project. Unfortunately, we could not get funding from all possible sources we applied to. We had to rely on our meagre personal finances to execute the project. Where possible, we made partnerships for mutual benefit with individuals and business owners. When it came to premiering the docuseries, we made partnerships.”
She further admits that whereas it is an ongoing project, they have spent roughly about Shs 600m considering production costs, historical materials, staff and equipment acquired to execute the project.
Interestingly, Atukunda adds that beyond the expected outcome of providing historical relationships between the peoples of the Great Lakes region, this film aims to foster cohesion and is relevant to contemporary East Africa as the region struggles to foster unity through the East African Community and African Union.
“The docuseries will reduce ethnic tensions by exposing how the colonialists divided us on tribal lines. As already exemplified with my own story where I share the blood of about five ethnic groups, our pre-colonial history shows that ‘we are one’ and our so-called ‘tribes’ were geographical emblems that should continue to define but not divide us. This is because our pre-colonial history shows that Uganda already existed in terms of politics and language, although the people continue to propagate the division seed sowed by colonialists,” he says.
“For example, Bunyoro society was divided into three classes; Babiito (royals), Bahuma (cattle keepers) and Bahera/Bairu (agriculturalists and artisans). The same class system, which emphasised the activity one was engaged in, was found in Ankole and Rwanda. However, the colonialists misinterpreted it as ‘belonging to different tribes’ and sowed hatred among these groups, sparking the first genocide in Rwanda. But these were people who had lived together and co-existed peacefully because a Muhuma could become a Mwiru when he lost his cows and a Mwiru could climb the social ladder to become a Muhuma when he acquired the required herds of cattle. It wasn’t a permanent identity marker (the way we use tribes). It was just a social class.”
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