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The Monitor, 9 October 1999

Kabaka Mutesa feared that the feudal political powers which had been preserved by the treaties signed between Uganda and their colonial masters would not survive independence, Siraje Lubwama writes:-

It had become a familiar occurrence. Ghana opened the way in 1957 and in a series, one country after another in Black Africa wanted to break away from the shackles of European colonialism.

Much dancing and feting usually accompanied these mid- night occasions and so were the weeks and months that followed them. On October 9, 1962, it was Uganda's turn to celebrate.

Thousands of excited crowds kept vigil in Kampala as the blue, white and red Union Jack of the colonial powers went down and in its place, the Crested Crane-centred black, yellow and red stripped flag was placed to identify a newly independent Uganda.

If after 37 years of independence, Uganda has one person whom some people love to hate or hate to love, for good or bad reasons, then the person is none other than Opeto's son Dr Apollo Milton Obote. Obote who was then Uganda People's Congress president become the first prime minister on independence.

Born in 1925 in Akokoro village in the then Lango district, Obote is third born in a typical peasant family of nine children.

He had had his first stint in politics in Nairobi under the tutelage of Tom Mboya, with whom he worked on the People's Convention Party (NPC) in pre-independence Kenya. He conceived political ambition for his country then.

October 9, 1962 was an occasion worth celebrating. It was the birth of a new nation and several Ugandans were happy to be associated with. It is actually alleged that the children born on that day had special birthday parties hosted for them every year.

But Edward Kabaka Mutesa II, unlike other Ugandans perceived the occasion with a pinch of salt. A few years later, he wrote in his book, The Desecration of My Kingdom, that his later troubles had begun with midnight October 9, 1962.

"As I watched Milton Obote raise the flag of independence, my anxiety had no precise form or cause. It was more sensing on an unfamiliar shift of emphasis, a gap between what was fitting and what was not," he wrote.

The Kabaka's fear of independence was not groundless. He represented the feudal political element which had been preserved and protected under the British occupation of Uganda.

Agreements signed between the British government and Uganda Protectorate between 1900 and 1933 guaranteed autonomous powers to the kingdoms and certain privileges to traditional rulers.

The contention against feudalism did not begin with Obote but emerged with the first political party activity in the country, as far back as 1952 when Uganda National Congress was founded.

The early demand for a unitary state, which meant abolition of kingdoms was significantly supported by the British colonial governor in Uganda, Sir Andrew Cohen. But Kabaka Mutesa II opposed it and it was on that account that he was deported to Britain in 1953. He came back in 1955, after his successor Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II was born.

Other political parties were subsequently formed in Uganda. Benedicto Kiwanuka founded the Democratic Party (DP) in 1954 and the radical Augustine Kamya's Uganda National Movement came into force in 1959.

It was on the account of this background that Obote was concerned with the dialectic between feudalism and democracy while he opted for and championed the latter.

Joining active direct politics in Uganda in 1956, Obote joined hands with the Uganda National Council which however disintegrated in 1960.

One wing of UNC led by Obote then joined with the Uganda People's Union to form UPC with Obote as leader. This means Obote has so far spent half his years on earth as UPC president.

The persecution of Christians by Kabaka Mwanga at the turn of the 19th century was one of the first expression of conflict between the people of Uganda and the colonial powers.

Buganda's later conversion to the Anglican ( Protestant) faith was however so complete that by 1963 Catholic Benedicto Kiwanuka, though an ethnic (Muganda) and related to the Kabaka of Buganda, would not see eye to eye with the king.

Kiwanuka and his DP were trounced in the 1962 elections mainly because the Kabaka Yekka (the King alone) party threw its weight against any Catholic.

The alliance between Mutesa's KY and Obote's UPC in 1962 was forged most likely because Obote and the Kabaka were Protestants. In spite of their political differences and basic adversary positions, Obote and Mutesa allied in the 1962 elections against the Catholic Benedicto Kiwanuka.

The heavy Protestant population of Uganda rallied massively behind UPC/KY alliance to ensure that DP won only 22 seats in parliament while the KY/UPC alliance had between them 58 members.

Ironically, Kabaka Mutesa and the prime minister (Obote) were at the very onset united in their mutual fears, mistrust and were suspicious of each other. A Republican by ideological orientation, Obote had seen the demise of colonialism and ethnic loyalties in the country. He set out to deprive the regime of privilege in Uganda.

In his turn, the Kabaka, a Feudalist by traditional experience, and hence inclination, had seen the rise of the independent government as an ardent supporter of republicanism which he would have to destroy first if his privilege and kingdom had to survive.

Strange bedfellows indeed, but in their astute resort, the two men agreed on a truce, however temporary and precarious, as they engaged in a marriage of political convenience.

The early years of Uganda's Independence therefore realised a coalition between Obote and the feudalists. Obote accepted to have the Kabaka, Sir Edward Mutesa II, as president of Uganda and Sir Wilberforce Nadiope, the Kyabazinga of Busoga as vice president.

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