Okello,
I was only trying to put right the misinformation that the author was spreading around about our history, and this involved our King. I do not know exactly what you want from me. Do you expect me to give up my identity in order to save myself ? Isn't that a contradiction in terms ? Nowadays when you don't mention Gulu or Acholi, people like you assume that one is in slumber. No sir ! The Baganda can take care of themselves. I am also aware that the Buganda Kingdom is not static. If it was, the issue would have for example been whether all these non-Baganda putting up constructions in Buganda are on borrowed land or not, due to an old law that forbade non-Baganda from buying land in Buganda.
As for who put who in the chair, the saying goes that one hand washes the other. It is public knowledge that during the war, without Kabaka's support the NRM/A was finding it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to make any headway towards Kampala. Its only that some people tend to forget who got them there.
BTW Okello, I don't know how you are able to live with yourself, since the country you reside in still pays allegiance to "the outdated traditional path of 'our Queen'" !
Kasangwawo
From: okello <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Ugnet] The concept of Federo: A case study - Monitor -October17-23, 2004
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 11:34:11 -0500 (EST)
Jonah Kasangwawo,
You got some points. But, as long as you stick to the traditional system, that only cocoon people and put them to a state of slumber, when in fact people should be engaging, with ferocity, in economic and political hassles of today's world to have themselves mass awoken, in order to be able to fend off the growing threats to their land and livelihood, like the turks of the movement government now pushing off baganda from their land, you are bound to lose hands down. Politically and economically astute people are the ones who can secure, and protect whats theirs by birth for posterity. The Kabaka is in no position to save the baganda; only the baganda can save themselves. And as long as they, the baganda like you, still continue to traverse the outdated traditional path of "our King", and look at the world around them from the spectacles of the Kabaka and his chiefs, because that is fundamental traditional values to hold religiously, then only waking up one day and finding
your/themselves holder/s of these traditions, but merely squatters on the land, will make them learn; but, that will be just too late. The NRA/M put the Kabaka back in his so called chair for god sakes! What make you think the Kabaka can now turn around and tell the NRA/M what it can or can not do in Buganda? It is only woken people of Buganda, and Uganda in general who can stop these turks from the vision of creating a middle class in Uganda out of an ethnic group, in order to re-engineer the political direction of the country. Not the Kabaka; not traditions; not even any ineffective systems, be it a political party or not, in whatever nuances they may be.
Stick to this ineffective " our King", and you sure are going to learn the hard way when Uganda finally becomes too small for you to live in.
Good luck my fellow country man.
jonah kasangwawo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In "The concept of Federo : A case study" Kajabago-ka-Rusoke talks about
everything else - colonisation, land, et cetera - except about federo. Even
then, his understanding of mailo land and its origin leaves a lot to be
desired. He thinks that the Kabaka and his chiefs didn't own land until some
Europeans arrived and dished out some as a gift. Nothing can be further from
the truth. Even before the arrival of the colonialists, the Kabaka was
(infact he still is) the largest landowner in what is now known as Uganda,
in that he held in trust most of the land in Buganda. What the 1900
Agreement did was to reorganize the distribution of land in Buganda. The
colonial authority awarded itself 10550 sq. miles (1500 forests, 9000
uncultivated land and 50 for govt. stations); 350 sq. miles went to the
Kabaka; 8000 sq. miles went to one thousand private landowners who had given
great service for Buganda and who were actually already in possession of
these estates (calculated at an average of 8 sq. miles per individual); 320
sq. miles went to Ssaza chiefs and their official estates; the rest went to
Mbogo the moslem chief, Kamuswaga the chief of Kooki, the Kabaka's
relatives, the 3 regents at the time and to missionary societies. Altogether
19600 sq. miles. Therefore, for Kajabago to say that the objective of a
federal structure is for the Kabaka to extract money from individuals for
personal use, is preposterous and an insult to our King.
The land in contention is the afore-mentioned 9000 sq. miles of Buganda land
which was transferred from the colonial authority to the Buganda Land Board
in 1962 and then grabbed by Obote, who declared that it belonged to the
Central Government and moved it to the Uganda Land Commission. What Buganda
is saying is that it should revert to the Buganda Land Board where it
rightly belongs. On the other hand, this government is saying that they
don't know where this land is, although Kiwanuka Ssemakula at the same time
is saying that there are people with leases on it. Instead of questioning
the King's motive, Mr Kajabago should ask the NRM government to explain to
the public, exactly who sold leases to these people and where this land is,
since it is still in the hands of the Central Government.
The Baganda already had a sophisticated and well-organized system of land
tenure and ownership even before the arrival of the Europeans. The majority
of Buganda land was held as 'bibanja' under customary tenancy. All the
bibanja holders had security of tenure and their payment of 'busuulu' to the
landlord tantamounted to proof of ownership. That meant that a kibanja owner
could sell, transfer or inherit the said land. The bibanja holders were not
thrown off the land and were quite happy to keep things as they were. In any
case, one had the option to buy the land outright, thereby turning it into
freehold. Mailo land was therefore not a problem for the Baganda, that is,
until Amin came in with the 1975 Land Decree which took away bibanja
holders' rights.
That said, the obsession of this government, especially its leader, with Buganda land has not been lost to the keen observer. This government has tried to grab Buganda land using all sorts of dubious means and justifications. Instead of revoking Amin's decree, the NRM government aggravated the problem by legitimizing illegal settlement and unlawful occupancy by a minority that had used guns and their positions of influence to occupy the said land. The 1998 Land Act was directed at Buganda land and was intended to give illegal squatters the right to attain titles and registrable interests on this land. Incidentally, the time limit, 12 years, which was specified in the Act for legitimizing occupancy was exactly the number of years the NRM had been in power. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out who profited from this law.
All in all, Kajabago-ka-Rusoke's state of mind is very typical of so-called
cadres who can't imagine that a person can do something for the good of his
people and not just for personal gain. His standpoint is very telling of NRM
ideologues - their driving motive to join politics is to assert themselves
economically. I strongly doubt that the NRM reflects "the social and
economic will of the majority" as he wants to make us believe, rather the
aim, we are told, is to create a middle class (made up mainly of one ethnic
group and through embezzlement and robbing of state coffers). It is not
Uganda they are thinking about, it is about filling their stomachs.
Kasangwawo
>From: Omar Kezimbira
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [Ugnet] The concept of Federo: A case study - Monitor -
>October17-23, 2004
>Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2004 13:54:21 -0700 (PDT)
>
>The concept of Federo: A case study
>By Kajabago-ka-Rusoke
>Oct 17 - 23, 2004
>
>
>Federo is a concocted term from the word Federal by politicians from
>Buganda. Buganda is a nationality along other nationalities in Uganda,
>which nationalities were each conquered by Britain; beginning from 1890 by
>a British company called The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA)
>authorised by the then British government.
>
>This conquest is known in history as colonisation. Uganda was made up of
>these nationalities and became a British colony. Under colonisation, either
>a country or a group of countries is put together by political ties for
>economic purposes of that colonising power by force.
>
>The sovereignty of each nationality is automatically conquered. In the same
>way, the sovereignty of each tribe or nationality in a colonial Uganda
>amalgamation was conquered.
>
>Eventually, every colony in the world came to understand how wrong the
>colonial arrangement was. Every colony therefore began struggling for
>independence but without any tribe or nationality doing it on its own to
>separate from the colonial amalgamation.
>
>When the coloniser was faced with common, sometimes violent, political
>bargaining by the amalgamation they would give up their colonial
>arrangement without disturbing or disintegrating the boundaries of a given
>colony.
>
>So colonies became independent with boundaries, which were established at
>the time of being colonised. In May 1963 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, the
>Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was formed, to unite all independent
>African states and to support the anti-colonial struggle by African
>countries, which were still under colonial rule.
>
>But it was also agreed that boundaries left behind by colonial authorities
>should continue being respected and honoured by post-colonial
>administrators. That simultaneously meant that each tribe or nationality in
>a former colonial amalgamation continued losing its own sovereignty under a
>post independent state.
>
>However, some nationalities still feel sad to have lost their sovereignty.
>But, unfortunately, this is very much irreversible. If we tried it, the
>former colonies would find themselves in terrible turmoil.
>
>Buganda is one of the nationalities whose sovereignty was conquered. But it
>is not alone in this type of conquest. It is part of a Uganda commonwealth
>and a component of an African union. Society is never static but dynamic.
>There is motion both in nature and society. Buganda, Uganda and Africa are
>all in motion.
>There are people in Uganda who are opposed to Mailo land rent; Mailo land
>was a gift to Uganda Kings and chiefs for accepting and collaborating with
>colonial forces.
>
>The Kings in Uganda today are descendants of those Kings – at the time of
>colonialism. At the same time they want to restore what colonialism found
>them with plus what colonialism gave them against the ordinary people.
>
>Their aspiration for a federal structure in the superstructure is based on
>aspiration for an economic base; restore Mailo land from which they can
>obtain rent from the ordinary peasants – but not a federal structure for
>development.
>
>No one can extract money from individuals for personal use and then say
>he/she is extracting money from them in order to develop them. It is just
>ridiculous.
>
>Kings in Uganda have no political powers. So, their social and cultural
>position cannot allow them to assert themselves, as they would have wished
>to do so economically. Hence this explains the demand for political power,
>which they can use as an instrument for attaining economic goals.
>
>This makes them ignore the NRM government mechanism of decentralising
>political power through a council system, which goes down from the centre,
>down to the village in the hands of peasants from whom they want land rent,
>claiming that it will be the Federo structure that will develop the same
>peasants.
>
>Whenever they will fail in achieving these ends, they will always hate any
>government that will occupy seat of central government in Uganda. They have
>no friend. They only have a permanent interest.
>
>It is only a Ugandan who has Uganda at heart who should stand firm for what
>he/she thinks is ideal for Uganda, in whose hands the Uganda state
>apparatus should fall in order to apply the same apparatus: -
>
>to reflect the social and economic will of the majority; to implement that
>social and economic will; to suppress the considered incorrect social and
>economic will of the anti-people elements.
>
>All this should be done with neither fear nor compromising the ideal. But
>all cadres should undertake educate the population about the extreme
>pre-colonial conservative, neo-colonial tendencies and about those
>individuals who are losing direction in terms of class and social analysis
>so that we can put in place a correct Uganda socio-economic formation based
>on an objective academic anatomy of society.
>
>
>© 2004 The Monitor Publications
>
>---------------------------------
>
>
>
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