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Uganda Buganda and the Kingship
At independence the kingship controversy was the most
important issue in Ugandan politics. Although there were
four
kingdoms, the real question was how much control over
Buganda the
central government should have. The power of the king as a
uniting symbol for the Baganda became apparent following
his
deportation by the protectorate government in 1953
(see Power Politics in Buganda
, ch. 1). When negotiations for
independence
threatened the autonomous status of Buganda, leading
notables
organized a political party to protect the king. The issue
was
successfully presented as a question of survival of the
Baganda
as a separate nation because the position of the king had
been
central to Buganda's precolonial culture. On that basis,
defense
of the kingship attracted overwhelming support in local
Buganda
government elections, which were held just before
independence.
To oppose the king in Buganda at that time would have
meant
political suicide.
After the 1967 constitution abolished all kings, the
Ugandan
army turned the king's palace into their barracks and the
Buganda
parliament building into their headquarters. It was
difficult to
know how many Baganda continued to support the kingship
and how
intensely they felt about it because no one could express
support
openly. After a brief flirtation with restoration, Amin
also
refused to consider it. By the 1980s, more than half of
all
Baganda had never lived under their king. The Conservative
Party,
a marginal group led by the last man to serve as Buganda's
prime
minister under a king, contested the 1980 elections but
received
little support. NRM leaders could not be sure that the
Baganda
would accept their government or the Ten-Point Program.
The NRA
was ambivalent in its response to this issue. On the one
hand,
until its final year, the guerrilla struggle to remove
Obote had
been conducted entirely in Buganda, involved a large
number of
Baganda fighters, and depended heavily on the revulsion
most
Baganda felt for Obote and the UPC. On the other hand,
many
Baganda who had joined the NRA and received a political
education
in the Ten-Point Program rejected ethnic loyalty as the
basis of
political organization. Nevertheless, though a matter of
dispute,
many Ugandans reported that Museveni promised in public,
near the
end of the guerrilla struggle, to restore the kingship and
to
permit Ronald Mutebi, the heir apparent, to become king.
Many
other Ugandans opposed the restoration just as strongly,
primarily for the political advantages it would give
Buganda.
Controversy erupted a few months after the NRM
takeover, when
the heads of each of the clans in Buganda organized a
public
campaign for the restoration of the kingship, the return
of the
Buganda parliament building (which the NRA had continued
to use
as the army headquarters), and permission for Mutebi to
return to
Uganda. Over the next month, the government struggled to
regain
the political initiative from the clan heads. First, in
July 1986
the prime minister, Samson Kisekka--a Muganda--told people
at a
public rally in Buganda to stop this "foolish talk."
Without
explanation, the government abruptly ordered the
cancellation of
celebrations to install the heir of another kingdom a week
later.
Nevertheless, the newspapers reported more demands for the
return
of Mutebi by Buganda clan elders. The cabinet then issued
a
statement conceding the intensity of public interest but
insisting the question of restoring kings was up to the
forthcoming Constitutional Assembly and not within the
powers of
the interim government. Then, three weeks later, the NRM
issued
its own carefully worded statement calling supporters of
restoration "disgruntled opportunists purporting to be
monarchists" and threatening to take action against anyone
who
continued to agitate on this issue. At the same time, the
president agreed to meet with the clan elders, even though
that
gave a fresh public boost to the controversy. Then, in a
surprise
move, the president convinced Mutebi to return home
secretly in
mid-August 1986, presenting the clan elders with a fait
accompli.
Ten days later, the government arrested a number of
Baganda, whom
it accused of a plot to overthrow the government and
restore the
king. But while Museveni managed to take the wind from the
sails
of Buganda nationalism, he was forced to go to inordinate
lengths
to defuse public feeling, and nothing was settled. The
kingship
issue was likely to re-emerge with equal intensity and
unpredictable consequences when the draft for a new
constitution
was presented for public discussion.
Data as of December 1990
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