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SIR � On February 25, Mr Peter Mulira wrote an article entitled �forgotten heroes of our independence�. he was largely against the view that Uganda received her independence on a silver platter. He identified the main players in the struggle for Uganda�s independence and laid much emphasis on Ssekabaka Edward Mutesa II. Mulira�s assertions are wrong. He traces the events which ended in the granting of Uganda�s independence to Mutesa�s exile (1953-1955). But the connection between that crisis and the independence of Uganda, if it exists at all, is very remote and indirect. although the Kabaka was later to become the president of Uganda, it would not be very correct to consider him a hero in the country�s struggle for independence. On the contrary, as events show, before and after the Kabaka crisis, one could assert that we received our independence on a silver platter.
First, the Kabaka was the leader of the Mengo government and that same government was a stumbling bloc
k to the
independence of Uganda as a unitary state. federation apart, the conflict between the Kabaka and the governor, Andrew Cohen stemmed from the fact that Cohen�s reforms threatened the former�s own position as an individual and that of Buganda within Uganda. The Kabaka particularly feared that the planned reforms would involve a transfer of power from him to his ministers and to the Lukiiko. allowing the elected majority to the Lukiiko would open it to the influence of those who were hostile to the incumbent ministers. The Kabaka again looked at the planned reforms in the local government as a means to weaken Buganda feeling that the policy of developing a unitary system of government on parliamentary lines would inevitably result in compromising the importance of Buganda in future. Therefore, the kabaka�s adamant behaviour and his refusal to guarantee to Cohen that he would not oppose government policy was not that he was pushing for the independence of Uganda but for the priv
ilege of
Buganda. And that placed him and Buganda in direct opposition to the movement towards an independent Uganda. This alone removes him from the list of the heroes of Uganda�s independence!
What is on record is that the Kabaka�s main attempt was to secure Buganda�s independence separate from Uganda. over the issue of federation, the Kabaka made his claim very clear � separation from the protectorate. In his letter to Cohen on August 6, 1953, he not only asked for the transfer of the affairs of Buganda from the colonial office to the foreign office but also for �the preparation of plans by the government for the independence of Buganda. The formation of the UNC in 1952 had roused fears in Mengo that some enlightened Muganda might lead a movement towards an independent unitary Uganda in which the Kabaka and the Lukiiko might be of no substance! Buganda stood alone against the rest and that could not have been in the interest of Uganda�s independence.
Niwampa Mbaga
Kampala
Published on: Monday, 26th April, 2004 |
