The Bakooki in Buganda: identity and assimilation on the peripheries of a Ugandan kingdom

Abstract

The traditional conception of the Ugandan Kingdom of Buganda as a highly centralised entity has often masked the histories of peripheral communities within the polity. Moreover, where the politics, culture and identity of Buganda's peripheries has been considered, it has tended to be analysed through the sole example of the Kingdom of Bunyoro's “Lost Counties”. This article seeks to redress this lacuna in Buganda historiography through a discussion of identity alteration in the south-western Buganda county of Kooki. It argues that Kooki was politically and culturally distinct from Buganda before its incorporation within the kingdom in 1896 and, consequently, that the assimilation of an indigenous population into Ganda cultural norms within the colonial period represents ethnic change. Furthermore, it posits that the processes of identity alteration by which “Bakooki” became “Baganda” differed significantly as a whole from those which have been documented within the “Lost Counties”. In the latter, forced ethnic assimilation was apparent through the suppression of Nyoro customs, names, and language. In Kooki, by contrast, the imposition of ethnic hegemony was undermined by a centre–periphery relationship in which the status and importance of the Kooki territory declined post-1900. This lack of a central Ganda concern for assimilation resulted in a momentum for identity change originating from within the peripheral community itself. The article further explores how these different historical processes of ethnic association may offer insights into the contrast between the vociferously Ganda populations of Kooki and the continued irredentism of certain communities of the former “Lost Counties” in the present day.

Keywords:

• ethnicity
• Buganda
• Kooki
• assimilation
• identity
• periphery

Acknowledgement

A version of this paper was first presented at the African Studies Association UK Conference 2010, Oxford.

Notes

1. “Kooki Kingdom Gets Flag/Anthem,” New Vision, May 17, 2010.

2. All respondents have been granted anonymity through mutual consent. M.T.B., Oral Interview (OI), Kitembe, Kooki, July 8, 2010.

3. See, Doyle, “Immigrants and Indigenes”; Green, “Ethnic Change”; Beattie, The Nyoro State.

4. Mafeje, Kingdoms, 50–5; for key Kiganda histories see, Kagwa, The Kings of Uganda, and Zimbe, Buganda ne Kabaka; For an early ethnographic account see, Roscoe, The Baganda.

5. Kodesh, “Beyond the Royal Gaze,” 5; for other works considering Buganda beyond the centre see, Hanson, Landed Obligation.

6. Medard, La Royaume du Buganda.

7. Kodesh, “Beyond the Royal Gaze,” iii.

8. Green, “Ethnic Change”; Doyle, “Immigrants and Indigenes.”

9. Roscoe, The Baganda, 234.

10. Twaddle, Kakungulu, 4.

11. Medard, La Royaume, 162.

12. Medard, La Royaume, 215.

13. E. Linnant Bellefonds cited in, Twaddle, Kakungulu, 4; Sir J. Gray, “The Diaries of Emin Pasha,” 88.

14. Richard Burton cited in Rowe, “Political Administration,” 65.

15. Kagwa, Ekitabo, 14.

16. Medard, La Royaume, 216.

17. Uganda National Archive (hereafter UNA) A2/3 “Letter to Colonel Colville,” September 26, 1894.

18. Kisayire, “Kooki Under Ndaula,” 19.

19. Medard, La Royaume, 154.

20. Medard, La Royaume, 472–86.

21. “Katikiro” was the office of Prime Minister within Buganda. Kagwa, Customs of the Baganda, 168.**

22. Kisayire, “Kooki Under Ndaula,” 3–6; “A Comparative Study of Traditional and Contemporary Social Services,” 4–5; M.K., OI, Mbirizi, Kooki, July 7, 2010.

23. “A Comparative Study of Traditional and Contemporary Social Services,” 4; Roscoe, The Baganda, 187.

24. Shoenbrun, A Green Place, 38–47.

25. “A Comparative Study of Traditional and Contemporary Social Services,” 4; S. M.S., OI, Dwaniro, Kooki, July 6, 2010.

26. S.M.S., OI; M.T.B., OI.

27. M.E., OI, Kitembe, Kooki, July 7, 2010.

28. S.M.S., OI.

29. S.M.S., OI.; M.E., OI.

30. Roscoe, The Baganda, 82–97; Kagwa, Customs of the Baganda, 98–101; Mair, An African People, 78–103.

31. Kisayire, “Kooki Under Ndaula,” 7.

32. “A Comparative Study of Traditional and Contemporary Social Services,” 21.

33. Medard, La Royaume, 126.

34. K.I.M, OI, Rakai, July 6, 2010; S.M.S., OI; “A Comparative Study of Traditional and Contemporary Social Services,” 7–13.

35. Medard, Le Royaume, 127.

36. A.S., OI, Kitawanulirwa, Kooki, July 8, 2010; G.W.M., OI, Byakabanda, Kooki, July 6, 2010; S.E.S., OI.

37. E.M., OI, Byakabanda, Kooki, July 8, 2010.

38. “Ssabasajja Kabaka Visits Kooki,” Matalisi, October 2, 1943.

39. Roberts, “Lost Counties”; Green, “Ethnic Change”; Doyle, “Immigrants and Indigenes.”

40. Doyle, “Immigrants and Indigenes,” 292.

41. Evidence Given Before the Commission of Privy Councillors (hereafter ECPC) “Statement by Polycarp Kwebiha,” Kampala, January 6, 1962; ECPC documents designate unpublished legal papers in the possession of Dr Shane Doyle, University of Leeds.

42. The National Archives, Colonial Office Records Series (hereafter TNA CO) 822/1739 “Letter from Governor Crawford to Secretary of State for Colonies,” July 28, 1959.

43. Vail, “Southern African History,” 20; Ranger, “Invention of Tradition”; Ranger, “Tradition Revisited”; for discussions of missionary influence on consolidation of identity and language see, Ranger, “Missionaries, Migrants and Manyika,” and Peterson, “Colonizing Language?”; M.B., OI.

44. “A Comparative Study of Traditional and Contemporary Social Services,” 5.

45. Reference taken from a British official in Bukedi, 1919, cited in Twaddle, Kakungulu, 266.

46. Doyle, “Immigrants and Indigenes,” 292–5; UNA, Uganda Protectorate Census Returns, 1911.

47. Doyle, “Immigrants and Indigenes,” 290; See also, Richards, Economic Development and Tribal Change.

48. Doyle, “Immigrants and Indigenes,” 290; See also, Richards, Economic Development and Tribal Change.

49. UNA A46/668 “Letter from PC Healy, to Buganda Regents,” April 4, 1911.

50. Unpublished translation of the 1896 Kooki Agreement signed by Kabaka Mwanga, Buganda, Kamusaga, Koki, and Ernest J.L. Berkeley, Commissioner and Consul-General for the British Protectorate of Uganda; document discovered in a family archive within Kooki.

51. UNA A43/89 “Letter from Apolo Kagwa and StanislausMugwanga, to F.H. Leakey,” April 8, 1907.

52. UNA A46/668 “Letter From S.Browning, DC Masaka, to PC, Kampala,” March 27, 1911.

53. Doyle, “Immigrants and Indigenes,” 291.

54. ECPC “Statement by Eriya Kabyanga,” Kampala, January 6, 1962.

55. Kisayire, “Kooki Under Ndaula,” 25.

56. UNA A8/3 “Letter from D.C. Wyndham to H.M's D.C. Kampala,” October 9, 1902; UNA A43/43 “Buddu District Report for December, 1907,” January 3, 1908.

57. M.K., OI.

58. Unpublished translation, 1896 Kooki Agreement.

59. F.K.B., OI, Kibanda, Kooki, July 6, 2010.

60. S.E.S., OI; F.K.B., OI.

61. S.E.S., OI; F.K.B., OI.

62. Church of Uganda Archive, Rural Deaneries and Education Series 43/F6 “Report on Kooki Diocese,” December 13, 1955.

63. “Kkooki Will Not Be Merged,” Munno, February 15, 1964; “The Bakooki Raise their Concerns,” Munno, January 11, 1961.