Last century, one M.S.M (Matia Semakula Mulumba) Kiwanuka concluded that the effects of succession wars were not as great as believed then in causing the decline of Bunyoro-Kitara.
More recently (in the 2000s), some American (?) lady did a dissertation on the causes of the decline of Bunyoro's population in the 19th & 20 centuries. Her conclusion was that venereal diseases, esp. gonorreah & syphllis apparently spread by (Swahili-speaking) Arab slave-traders was the main culprit.
According to her, the population did not recover even during the 1950s when favorable agricultural-economic conditions prevailed and reasonablly good health care was available. She documented high infant-mortality rates, high-pre-natal death rates, etc and some of the ensuing cltural changes, e.g. names like Byamukama, etc supposedly came into vogue.
A little bit earlier, the Omukama of Bunyoro, too, had lamented the declining population of his kingdom. He wrote to this effect under the nom-de-plume of "K.W." in the Uganda Journal. However, as I recall, he seems to have blamed emigration and he urged his subjects not to ran away and to come back and develop their motherland. Can'nt say I have any idea of how many of his subject were readers of the Uganda Journal, or even now.
I don't suppose that the Crown's lawyers will ignore these and other such documents, but one never knows.
Ssemakula Ssaalongo Mulindwa Luzuka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: Ugandan king sues Britain for colonial reparations KAMPALA - A Ugandan king is demanding a �1-trillion in compensation from the British monarchy for decimating the population of his kingdom in the late 1890s, a spokesman for the king said yesterday. Solomon Gafabusa Iguru, head of Uganda's Bunyoro kingdom, also accuses British soldiers of plundering property, cattle and crops from his land during the British military occupation from 1894-1900. While military occupation ended in 1900, the British stayed as a colonial power in Uganda until 1962. In a lawsuit, to be filed with the Hague-based International Court of Justice this month, and with the British Commission in Kampala, he claims that British colonial forces wiped out Bunyoro's two- million-strong population in just six years. "We are seriously suing the Queen of England and the British government for atrocities committed and the genocide carried out during the invasion of Bunyoro Kitara. Our grandfathers never took it up because they were dehumanised, lost glory and pride," the king's spokesman, Ernest Kiiza, told DPA. The British Commission here confirmed it had received a copy of the lawsuit, but said it would seek legal advice before releasing an official reaction. - Sapa- DPA DAILY DISPATCH
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