Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:00:43 +0100 Subject: THE ROOTS OF EDUCATION SYSTEM BY THE BRITISH IN UGANDA AS AN EXAMPLE YET . From: [email protected] To: [email protected] CC: [email protected] Addressing the issue of Education. I will start by going back into time, into the colonial era and ask what was the purpose of colonial education and schools ? THE BRITISH TROPICAL EDUCATION SYSTEM In brief the purpose of colonial education was to train some clerks, a few technicians to administer the colonial apparatus in the colonized countries. These clerks recorded things so that the colonial officials ( in the case of the British) could take the right decisions and send them to the colonial office in Britain. The other side of the education system was the training of the military which went under the name of the Kings African Rifles (KAR). The headquaters was in Nairobi East Africa, the other branch was in South Africa and the office responsible for the boundaries was in Sierra Leone, Free Town. In brief colonial education was meant to transform the colonized peoples into British subjects.Some examples as how this was actually done was for example through syllabuses – and how this was used to indoctrinate the people into submitting,people becoming subjects The British had what they called the British Tropical Africa Education System. That was the base of it. The first step was use of the British Language. In order to erase in peoples minds their culture, traditions and ways of life. The Program of learning was in 2 parts. The first part was primary education which was 6 years. You were taught in your mother tongue which was called the ”vernacular”. You where taught this from primary 1 to primary 4. The last part which was primary 5 and primary 6 was called Full Primary. This was taught in English. Preparing you for the Junior Secondary Education which was always boarding school. There you would go for 3 years after which you would go for Senior Secondary Education. This was an ordinary level. After that you would take a Cambridge School Certificate. The teachers, lessons etc all came from England and it was also combined with religion. The leaders of the colonized had to be Anglican and Protestant, legal issues could be handled by a Catholic. In the case of Uganda, you could not be Prime Minister, Minister of Finance or Foreign Affairs if you were not Anglican Protestant. To be considered educated, to pass full primary to go to Junior Secondary School and Senior, you had to pass English. If you failed English, you failed everything. It did not matter whether you got 100% in mathematics, to be educated was to speak English. So you can see for 6 years you were Brainwashed, then you spent an additional 3 years in Junior Secondary School and 3 in Senior Secondary School, 12 years in all. On top of that you are seperated from your tribal ethnic group and kept in a boarding school. After 12 years of this a person is left with practically no respect for his culture. Some do not even speak their own language. For example in Protestant schools the girls were taught that to make native beer was sinful yet they could drink coca cola and British beer which was not sinful. So you will find, almost all protestant educated women of my age do not know how to make beer. Yet in Lugbari culture for example in Lado where I come from it is an industry. A young women can make beer, sell it and get money. Now they are not doing it, then what will they get ? Nothing. So you will find, using English Language as an instrument for Brainwashing and being taught in all Secondary Education by white teachers (predominantly English) with only primary 1 to 4 or may be 6 taught in an African Language what can you expect. Allow this to go on for a generation and what can you expect ? You have been oppressed, insulted, taught to respect the British adore them and if you do not, you don`t pass and therefore you are not educated. We have to clear this, we have to introduce our own languages. There is no African University today in Africa which uses a native language. Everything is either in English, French, Italian, Portugeese or Spanish. So the Brainwashing is still going on today. The first thing we have to do to counter this is to go back to our primitive African Languages whether they are called ”vernacular”, ”ethnic”, it does not matter. Language is the identity of a people. It makes you think. It is an instrument of culture, to carry culture, to preserve culture, to think about your way of life. Subjects like Economics or Law were not taught in the British Education System. You had to go to England, there was nothing in Africa. So when they said they are teaching you did History,Geography, Mathematics and may be Medicine. Another thing in the case of Uganda was that the brightest children in Junior or Senior Secondary were all taken to England so that they finish Secondary Education in England. So what can you expect of such persons, trained by foreigners, educated by foreigners what can you expect of them ? So I do not blame the present so - called educated Africans, because they are not educated they are Brain How the Colonial System destroyed already existing sytems of education, governance and production in the societies they imposed themselve Colonial still continues : Colonialism had 3 stages the first was what they called influence. Where you see through missionaries explorers they came pretending to be friends. They were the NGO`s of the day. The NGO`s replaced the missionaries and the explorers. So the missionaries where instruments of the Colonial Administration. Another group was the anthropologists. You find they came pretending to live among villagers distorting and twisting their culture in their writings. You then had the administration starting with the lowest ranking the district commissioners, then came the provincial comissioners who was the link between the District and the Protectorate, take Uganda as an example, which was a typical Colonial Protectorate compared to Kenya which was a Colony. In a Colony the whites would just come sit on the land, drive the Africans away and use them as slaves to work the Land. South Africa and Zimbabwe where other examples of this. You don`t move they kill you. Uganda was different, it was a protectorate. Here you were cautious, you had to move like a snake. You only bite when necessary. You started by influence, missionaries bringing Christianity, Education and all this, so that people have a better life. The people feel they are loved and all the havoc is then done through that. Then there was the Military. When a Tribe or Chief was resisting the British Administration a military expedition would be sent. Some of the Chiefs would be executed publicly like in Acholi Land where some Chiefs were hanged in Public in 1910-11. Some where deported commonly to the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. Now the Chiefs had to work under the district commissioner. This was called indirect rule. Ruling people through their own Chiefs which is exactly what happens today when they rule Africans through their Presidents. There is no difference. Back then they were Chiefs today they are called Presidents. So, who made the rules ? For British Colonies they were made in England, for the French in Paris and for the Portugeese in Lissabon etc. Egypt (in 1517), Sudan (in 1821) and Lado (1871) were occupied initially by the Ottoman empire and therefore the method here was different at the time. So the British used the Church missionary society to do all their ground work whereas the French used the Catholic Church as did the Portugeese. There is no difference as to whether it was Catholic or Protestant. For example in Uganda there was fight between Britain and France over the Kingdom of Uganda. The Protestants fought for Britain and the Catholics for France. In the Local language it became baenglesa and bafrance (the English and the French) but they were not English or French. Except they were Catholics and Protestants. It was even on the application form when joining the military that you must show your religion. You were given jobs according to your religion. There was no Central Bank, all banks were controlled by the British. In administration from Executive position up to permanent Secretary it was the British, or Canadians, or Australians, or New Zealanders and sometimes South Africans, some of the Boers were brought to work there in Uganda as a typical example. No black man was above even an Asian. The clerks, the big clerks were Asians from Indian, Pakistan – at this time Bangladesh was known as East Pakistan. The Asians were above the blacks. They were between the whites who were top and Africans who were on the bottom. So this was the Colonial structure until 1960 in the case of Uganda which was a Protectorate. In the Army no African was above the rank of Sergent Major. Anybody black was down. When the Ladoan ( Present Agofe of Lado ) became Lieutenant in the Kings African Rifle - 4th Regiment - at the age of 18 , He was the first (in 1960). Then Amin – Idi Amin from Lado - became a lieutenant in 1961 with a fellow man Shaban Oplot from Teso. The military was used always to subdue the people, the Chiefs who refused people who didn`t want to obey the British. It was worse than what they are pretendig to say about Zimbabwe today. There was no Democracy, no Elections, no Political parties. This is to remember of a situation in Western Uganda around 1958 – 1961, the Colonial Secretary of Uganda Peagram – this was in1961 - ordered the drinking water of the Catholics to be poisoned so that on election day the Catholics would be sick and would not vote. Fortunately somebody saw this and alerted the commender military Officer who was the Captain commanding in the Western Area( by then was the ( the present Agofe of Lado ) . The water was tested there was found enough poison not only to make people sick but to kill. The Catholic population of Ankole was high, so was managed to prevent the plan. This was one of the reasons why the the Lado Leader to have become was imprisoned for 7 years in 1962. Though He didn`t finish the term. He was forced to be realeased . Another example of this was in Bunyoro. An election took place for Prime Minister, what they call Katikiro but a Catholic man won. The British said no, we are not going to appoint a Catholic to be Prime minster. Elections are irrelevant. And today we find the British Prime Ministers shouting about Justice and Elections. And in 1961 Democracy did not exist. How can it exist today in Uganda and elsewhere where European Interests is Iceberg ? The same thing happened in a district called Toro. Bunyoro is a Kingdom, Toro is a Kingdom, Ankole is a Kingdom and Buganda is a Kingdom. These where all kingdoms which were messed about and made one through of the Agreement 26th December 1890, then alot of other agreements where done ending with the agreement of 10th March, 1900 – the Uganda Kingdom Agreement. For Ankole it was 1891, for Toro it was 1893. But Bunyoro refused. King Kabarega of the Bunyoro was therefore deported to the Seychelles Islands until 1923 and was brought back and died the same year. Whether natural or poisoned nobody spoke of it. They then forced his son to sign to become part of Uganda 10 years later (1933). In the case of Lado we never signed to become part of anybody ,and that is why we are fighting, up to today. You will find in that unfortunate fight we fought with the British the five years war (1914 – 1919) . The next war we fought was from 1931 – 1937 was called the Kakua war. The final war we fought with the British was when the Agofe of Lado was killed 1948. The war was fought from 1948-1952 until the Soviet Union under Stalin told Churchhill if he did not stop the Red Army would intervene in Lado. That is how the war stopped. This was because Lado had an agreement with Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1815 before the British came. The method to subdue people was on 3 levels. The first was through influence using explorers and missionaries (who are now replaced by NGO´s) the second stage was occupation. The military was brought whereby then tribes were attacked, their leaders killed to terrorise the society into accepting the authority of Britain. Occupation means military force. Like they did in Iraq recently. Where they went to overthrew the President Sadam, hanged him and said OK ”you people you are under us, there is freedom.” There is no difference. And elsewhere is going on in Africa yet . Lado will never Bend to and kneel to this Powers of the Demon . The final stage was what they called colonization. Which means after you had killed the people, subdued them you captured their leader (King or Chief), in the case of the Baganda the king was called the Kabaka, in Bunyoro it was the Omukama, in Toro OmuKama and for Ankole Omugabe. In Lado it was the Agofe. He had to sign and he was then under the British with his thumb print. The British Administrator would then sign as evidence to be shown in Berlin that the territory was now under the British. Without that fingerprint according to the Berlin Treaty of 26th February 1885 the other European countries would not recognize your authority. The whole issue had an international connotation. This was in article 6 and 15 of the Berlin treaty. Once you signed you became a European Colony or Protectorate. This is the problem for us the in the whole of middle Africa, Black Africa. We have to come together and help each other. Not to be taken by what they hear such as talk about human rights. Human rights never existed. The first time I heard about it was 1990. It never existed before. Election never existed before. Even in Parliament you had to be nominated. Approved by the colonial authorities. How do you expect people who have been treated like this for 2 generations, 70 years to run themselves. The Africans were not allowed even to make a needle, a knife or a hoe of their own. In the early days if you were found making something your hand was cut off. Our Mothers for example used to have a beer industry where she distilled alcohol with the same power as whiskey. It was an offence with a 7 year prison sentence as punishment. Still we did it in the mountains. If a people are not allowed to do anything, not by mistake, not because they are lazy but intentionally like today when the US says ”Oh Iran, North Korea you are not allowed to develop nuclear enrichment”. I am not surprised that Africans cannot even produce a pen. As they were not allowed to. You were now a defeated race you couldn`t do anything. This is the reality people do not know in Africa. Even the young Africans. Because they did not live in it. I lived in it. It is nothing strange to me. May be what makes Mugabe to be considered what he is today is the truth he lived with. 10 years in prison, being beaten, he himself knows what torture is in prison. These are the kind of things when put together when written correctly for our future we shall understand things more clearly. Africa from 1870 up to 1920 was a period of hell. Many of our people died and suffered, let their soul be in peace the Struggle must continue. The institution Makere University ? Makere university was formed in 1921 after the first world war. It was not a university it was teacher training college. I think it was the only one in East Africa. The Governor of that time was a man called Coridon. He was the private secretary of Cecil John Rhodes. He was brought to Uganda. Teacher training college was for 3 years. After that you went to teach in Junior Secondary.The teacher training college was called VTTC vernacular teacher training college. After completing this you could teach from primary 1 to 4. To teach from Primary 5 – 6 PTTC primary teachers training college, when passing this you could go to JTTC junior teachers training college. Makere was designed for that. An African was not allowed to teach in Secondary Education. There was no debate. The Catholics had Technical Colleges. For building, Carpentry and Mechanics. We had one in Lado called St. Joseph`s College. The VTTC was St. Johns College, Lodonga. The Senior was St.Aloysius College. The teachers where all from USA, Canada and Italy. There was no African. Makerere was founded to train the teachers for Junior Secondary Education for 3 years. This continued from 1921 to 1937. When Makere was transformed into a university college and became a part of London university planted in Uganda. The diploma or degree was given by London university. It would say on the actual certificate Makere college, the university of London. It was the only one for the whole of East Africa. For south Africa it was Fort Hare. The Africans as students were badly treated. There was a belief that the Africans were poor students who wouldn`t listen or learn unless they were caned, that is beaten. These were grown men – the youngest were 17 – 19 years, people like my father who went there were grown men. Some of them started primary education when they were 15 years old. This would have taken them 6 - 9 years. So we were dealing with adults Generally they were over 20 and some over 30 and they were being caned. One Agofe of Lado went to Makere between 1931 and 32. He had first attended a Catholic college in Nyapea, which was founded as a gift from the American President Thomas Woodrow Wilson , Who was a friend to the Agofe. He believed that education was important. So St Aloysius College was created and there was Immanuels college which was for protestants since the British were specific, Catholics and Protestants must never mix in education. The money which was given to the Agofe as a gift to build the school was actually meant to be used to send the Agofe to study in the US but the Agofe himself felt it was wrong just to take one child to educate there. Instead he insisted that if the Americans wanted to help the school must be in Lado In Uganda Kingdom there were 3 outstanding colleges. One was Kings college, Budo. This was a Protestant College. It was designed to educate the elites and noble peoples children to be rulers, clerks and so forth. The ordinary people did not count. Those were barefoot people. You had also to be Anglican. For educating their wives there was Gayaza High school. These were Protestant. For the Catholics there were 2 Schools. One was St. Mary`s college, Kisubi the other was Namilyango. There were 2 schools for the Catholic girls, one was Namagunga college, and the second was Nabbingo college. These were in Buganda Kingdom which actually is Uganda Kingdom. In Ankole you had Ntare college, in the Kingdom of Toro you had Nakasura, if you came to Busoga you had Mwri college – late former President of Uganda Obote was from here. In Teso you had the College Aloet. There was no British college in Lado. You only had Nyapea which was at the level of Kings college, Kisubi. So the Agofe of Lado went first to Nyapea then to Makere to train as a teacher. To his suprise students were being caned. Your name is called, you lie down and you are beaten. Caning , what was the purpose ? To discipline and educate them to obey. It was stated black and white. Obediance, to learn how to obey and be disciplined. The black man cannot understand words, they can understand pain. With pain they obey. Q: What was the African reaction to this ? Well for nearly 15 years there was no reaction. Until in 1937 when the Agofe of Lado was there in the college itself and it came to his turn. He just said no. ”No white man beats my mothers son”. Thats what he said. This was because the wife beat the British at the battle of Erea, and they called her the bad woman because of that. She was later assasinated 1927 on the 9th of May because of that. This is the same woman who`s baby was buried alive in October, 1916. So the Agofe said no English man will lay his hand on him. Who so ever dares, it will be life or death he shouted. When the English man came he punched him down. When the security people tried to act, his fellow students joined the fight. In particular his tribes men. A big fight erupted and in the end the army was brought on campus to stop the fight. The Govenor of the time was Philip Mitchell. A very educated and learned man. A good soldier too. He knew of the Agofe. He stopped the situation immediately. There was no court or legal proceedings. The Agofe was called to the Governors house where the matter was discussed. The Agofe told Mitchell, ”you are very lucky if he was dead there would be 100 white man would accompany him to his grave.” Makerere was from here on promoted to university college attached to London university and the beating stopped. The ramification was tha t- no more Agofe family - were forbidden to study in Makere university. So it was no surprise when the present Agofe of today was taken by force to Kenya after being stopped from taking Cambridge School certificate examination – in 1960. He was told he was not allowed to sit Cambriage school certificate because father and grandfather were anti English. He was taken to Nairobi and became a lieutenant in the army and placed in the Scottish 3rd Regiment. With this kind of drama how do you expect people to be able to function. In fact I should give credit to every current African president now. The struggle, with the little they have, with the inferiority complex he was subjected to, beaten physically let alone psychologically and still he stands. He is trying to say ”Eh” to the Europeans and Americans ”this is my country”. Despite the mistakes they have made. Compare him to a Danish Prime Minister who has from kindergarten led a life in a protected environment. Or Gordon Brown the son of a Pastor, what did he suffer ? He got everything served on a clean plate. I say the Africans should be proud of themselves, for surviving 70 years of subjection not to mention 500 years of slavery. You only learn to run away from your home to avoid being caught and when you are caught you are sold. Now the same person is today in his own country trying to fight the slave catchers who pretend nothing happen. These are the realities our grandchildren should know. We are not poor. But we have been oppressed, subjected to a situation where the pride of the human being has been lost. The only thing you could do was to allow yourself to become subject in order to survive. People like Mandela 27 year in prison, Mugabe 10 years in prison. What was there crime? In the case of Zimbabwe, the British whites said Rhodesia was to be divided into two. Northern Rhodesia now Zambia was to be for the blacks and Southern Rhodesia was to be for the whites. That is why they are fighting for them that is there land, not an African land. The same situation is reapting itself / or has reapted itself in Sudan now . If one was to ask a question one could say when the British came to Zimbabwe did they bring land from England ? They didn`t. Did they buy the land from them ? They did not ? And what did they do with the people ? They killed some and drove some away. Are the English not ashamed of this ? To say the land belongs to us and must be bought from us. Did they buy it from anyone ? This must be analysed. The best I can say to the Africans is knowledge is power. Once you have knowledge you cannot easily be defeated. AUTHOR : PARIO ANGUYO .
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