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Uganda The Issue of Independence
In 1949 discontented Baganda rioted and burned down the
houses of progovernment chiefs. The rioters had three
demands:
the right to bypass government price controls on the
export sales
of cotton, the removal of the Asian monopoly over cotton
ginning,
and the right to have their own representatives in local
government replace chiefs appointed by the British. They
were
critical as well of the young kabaka, Frederick
Walugembe
Mutesa II (also known as Kabaka Freddie), for his
inattention to
the needs of his people. The British governor, Sir John
Hall,
regarded the riots as the work of communist-inspired
agitators
and rejected the suggested reforms.
Far from leading the people into confrontation,
Uganda's
would-be agitators were slow to respond to popular
discontent.
Nevertheless, the Uganda African Farmers Union, founded by
I.K.
Musazi in 1947, was blamed for the riots and was banned by
the
British. Musazi's Uganda National Congress replaced the
farmers
union in 1952, but because the congress remained a casual
discussion group more than an organized political party,
it
stagnated and came to an end just two years after its
inception.
Meanwhile, the British began to move ahead of the
Ugandans in
preparing for independence. The effects of Britain's
postwar
withdrawal from India, the march of nationalism in West
Africa,
and a more liberal philosophy in the Colonial Office
geared
toward future self-rule all began to be felt in Uganda.
The
embodiment of these issues arrived in 1952 in the person
of a new
and energetic reformist governor, Sir Andrew Cohen
(formerly
undersecretary for African affairs in the Colonial
Office). Cohen
set about preparing Uganda for independence. On the
economic
side, he removed obstacles to African cotton ginning,
rescinded
price discrimination against African-grown coffee,
encouraged
cooperatives, and established the Uganda Development
Corporation
to promote and finance new projects. On the political
side, he
reorganized the Legislative Council, which had consisted
of an
unrepresentative selection of interest groups heavily
favoring
the European community, to include African representatives
elected from districts throughout Uganda. This system
became a
prototype for the future parliament.
Data as of December 1990
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