![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
This article explores the intellectual project of dissenting Protestant Ignatius K. Musazi, a key organiser of social protest in late colonial Buganda. Scholars of Uganda have positioned dissenting politics in the 1920s and 1940s alongside Bataka activism. But there were no less than two bodies of political dissenters in the 1940s: Bataka protesters and Musazi's Farmers’ Unionists. While Musazi and Bataka both sought to push Buganda's colonial chiefs toward the margins, their projects were conceptually different in one important respect: whereas Bataka used Buganda's pre-monarchical past to critique Buganda's hierarchy and colonial power, Musazi imagined a distinctly royalist past where moral kings ruled Buganda with equity. Looking closely into Musazi's project, this article uses biography and emerging methods in global intellectual history to suggest new ways of enriching Uganda's social history. In particular, it uses Musazi's annotated library to show how global history and theological text were conterminously used to inform a certain moral philosophy of monarchy that was conceptually shaped by Bulemeezi's royalist past, Harold Laski and the biblical prophets.
Acknowledgements
An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the African Studies Association (UK), Annual Conference, Oxford, 2010. Research funding was provided by the British Institute in Eastern Africa, the Royal Historical Society and the Smuts Commonwealth Fund. In Uganda, research was conducted under the auspices of the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology and the Makerere Institute of Social Research. I wish to thank Derek Peterson, John Lonsdale, Joel Cabrita, John Iliffe and the two anonymous readers for critical commentary. For their assistance, I thank George Mpanga, Jennifer Earle and Jennie Lovell. I am especially indebted to the family of I.K. Musazi, particularly Edward N. Musazi, whose interest alone has made this research possible. Any mistakes are my own.
Notes
1. For the most useful economic analysis see: Jørgensen, Uganda.
2. Uganda National Archives, Secretariat Minute Papers (hereafter UNA SMP) A46/1054/224–25 P.E. Mitchell, Governor, to Malcolm MacDonald, Secretary of State for the Colonies, August 3, 1939. Cf., UNA SMP A45/199 “Report on the Cotton Growing Industry in Uganda,” June 11, 1909; and UNA SMP A43/346 “Cotton and Its Cultivation in Uganda (Botanical and Scientific Department),” 1907.
3. UNA SMP A45/422 Acting Superintendent, Cotton Department, to Chief Secretary to the Government, December 30, 1909.
4. UNA SMP A45/422 Acting Superintendent, Cotton Department, to Chief Secretary to the Government, December 30, 1909. For further discussion: UNA SMP A46/1054/210–13 “Notes on the Cotton Situation in Uganda,” June 1938.
5. UNA SMP A43/200/1 Leakey to Deputy Commissioner, August 27, 1907.
6. British National Archives, Colonial Office Records Series (hereafter BNA CO) 536/216/1/11 Musazi, Bwete and Sonko to A. Creech Jones, May 6, 1948.
7. British National Archives, Colonial Office Records Series (hereafter BNA CO) 536/216/1/11 Musazi, Bwete and Sonko to A. Creech Jones, May 6, 1948. Cf., BNA CO 536/216/1/66 Musazi to Jones, February 11, 1949.
8. For fuller treatment see: Mulira, Troubled Uganda. Cf., Pratt, “The Politics of Indirect Rule”; Apter, The Political Kingdom in Uganda; Fallers, The King's Men; Low, Buganda in Modern History.
9. “Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances which Occurred in Uganda during January,” 14.
10. “Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances which Occurred in Uganda during January,” 14.
11. “Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances which Occurred in Uganda during January,”, 15.
12. “Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances which Occurred in Uganda during January,”, 15.
13. Ssewagaba, “Lwaki Katikkiro.”
14. BNA CO 536/223/4 I.K. Musazi, “Some Observations on the Kingdom Report,” May 1950.
15. Hanson, Landed Obligation, 203 and 217.
16. Hanson, Landed Obligation, 212–16. Cf., Kodesh, Beyond the Royal Gaze.
17. Summers, “Grandfathers, Grandsons, Morality,” 428. Cf., Summers, “Radical Rudeness.”
18. Summers, “Grandfathers, Grandsons, Morality,” 428.
19. Summers, “Grandfathers, Grandsons, Morality,” 428.
20. Cf., la Hausse, Signatures of Nationalism.
21. Cf., Zachernuk, Colonial Subjects; Bayly, Recovering Liberties; Kapila, An Intellectual History for India.
22. “Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances which Occurred in Uganda during January, 1945,” 10.
23. Shortly after Musazi's birth, colonial reports recorded Bulemeezi's population at 78,881. In land, Bulemeezi constituted 1442 square miles, Buganda's fifth largest ssaza (UNA SMP A44/255 “Report of the Kingdom of Buganda,” 1907–08).
24. Reid, Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda, 183.
25. Reid, Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda, 209.
26. Reid, Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda, 209.
27. Royal Commonwealth Society Collections, University Library, Cambridge 126/IV/S1/318–25 “The Ancient Acts of the Rulers of Bulemezi,” Munno, n.d.
28. Royal Commonwealth Society Collections, University Library, Cambridge 126/IV/S1/318–25 “The Ancient Acts of the Rulers of Bulemezi,” Munno, n.d.
29. Reid, Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda, 117.
30. Reid, Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda, 37.
31. “Abalemeezi nkolo: ziremedde mu ntamu.” The stocks of the banana were typically eaten only during famine and not highly valued (Walser, Luganda Proverbs, no. 30).
32. Interview, Fred Guwedeko, February 25, 2010, Makerere University. See also: Karlström, “Imagining Democracy,” 486. The term also received considerable treatment in Munno in the early twentieth century and was generally thought of as “implying the possession of courtesy, compassion, good breeding, culture, etc.” (Murphy, Luganda–English Dictionary, 44). Cf., Mulira, Troubled Uganda, 7.
33. Summers, “Radical Rudeness.”
34. Walser, Luganda Proverbs, no. 1013.
35. Interview, Kangaawo Gideon Kisitu, January 14, 2010, Nakulabye.
36. Interview, Hugo Barlow, November 11, 2010, Munyonyo (Kampala).
37. Interview, Simba S. Kayunga, November 25, 2010, Makerere University. For Nakyama's account see: Shepherd, The Early Struggle for Freedom and Unity in Uganda, 36–38.
38. Interview, Hugo Barlow, November 11, 2010, Munyonyo (Kampala).
39. Interview, Hugo Barlow, November 11, 2010, Munyonyo (Kampala).
40. Interview, Nick Ssali, November 17, 2009, Radio One (Kampala).
41. Interview, E.N. Musazi, December 11, 2009, Timina (Luwero).
42. Interview, E.N. Musazi, December 11, 2009, Timina (Luwero).
43. Interview, E.N. Musazi, December 11, 2009, Timina (Luwero).
44. “Musazi ye President: Ab'e Bulemezi Bwe Batyo Bwe Bagamye,” Uganda Eyogera, October 9, 1956, 1. Cf., Interviews: Nick Ssali, November 17, 2009, Kampala; and Kangaawo Gideon Kisitu, January 14, 2010, Nakulabye.
45. UNA SMP A44/255 “Report of the Kingdom of Buganda,” 1907–08.
46. UNA SMP A44/255 “Report of the Kingdom of Buganda,” 1907–08.
47. Rubaga Diocesan Archives 99.2 “Bulange-Enju-Y'Olukiko Mmengo; Emitwe Egy'omwaka,” 1939.
48. Shepherd, The Early Struggle for Freedom and Unity in Uganda, 37.
49. Audrey Richards Papers, London School of Economics (hereafter ARP) 7/4/71 Audrey Richards, Field Notes, January 24, 1956. Cf., Reid, Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda, 209.
50. Archives of the Bishop, Uganda Christian University Archives (hereafter UCU BA) 1/66.2 Knight, St Augustine's Warden, to Bishop Willis, October 15, 1927. For additional discussion on St Augustine's College see: Carey, God's Empire, 271–86.
51. UCU BA 1/66.2 I.K. Musazi to Bishop Willis, March 16, 1927.
52. UCU BA 1/66.2 I.K. Musazi to Bishop Willis, March 16, 1927.
53. UCU BA 1/66.2 I.K. Musazi to Bishop Willis, March 16, 1927.
54. UCU BA 1/66.2 “Examination for Priests' Orders,” 1929. For example, students were asked to translate Acts 3.21 from Greek to English: “
” The passage speaks to a universal social and political restoration of heaven and earth, a theme Musazi notated in his personal Bible (Ignatius K. Musazi Library, copies in personal possession (hereafter IKML) English Bible/Revelation 20.4–5, annotation).
55. UCU BA 1/66.2 “Examination for Priests’ Orders,” 1929.
56. Carey, God's Empire, 279.
57. Carey, God's Empire, 279.
58. Carey, God's Empire, 279.
59. Carey, God's Empire, 279.
60. IKML English Bible/Acts 2.1–4, annotation.
61. IKML English Bible/Acts 2.1–4, annotation.
62. IKML English Bible/Acts 4.18–20, annotation.
63. IKML English Bible/Acts 8.1–4, annotation.
64. IKML English Bible/Daniel 12.4, annotation.
65. Musazi's formal studies of early Church history were complimented by his extensive interaction with a global Church. From its founding in the nineteenth century, St Augustine's had been a training ground for colonial diocesan clergy and “native” ministers (Carey, God's Empire, 275–6), a tradition the school upheld at least until the mid-twentieth century. For instance, in 1953 St Augustine's student body was comprised of students from no less than 13 countries from around the world (UCU BA 1/179.9 K. Sansbury to Anglican Archbishops and Bishops, December 1953. Students were represented from: East, West and Central Africa, Canada, Ceylon, England, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Mauritius, New Zealand, Pakistan and the United States). And it is reasonable to suggest that St Augustine's student body constituted a diverse international body during Musazi's time of study (Cf., Carey, God's Empire, 285).
66. Carey, God's Empire, 272–3.
67. Interview, Hugo Barlow, November 11, 2010, Munyonyo (Kampala). Cf., “Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances which Occurred in Uganda during January, 1945,” 9 and 11.
68. Interview, Hugo Barlow, November 11, 2010, Munyonyo (Kampala).
69. Interview, Hugo Barlow, November 11, 2010, Munyonyo (Kampala).
70. UCU BA 1/66.2 Knight, St Augustine's, to Bishop of Uganda, October 15, 1927.
71. Jensen, Emile Zola's J'Accuse!, 5.
72. Interview, Hugo Barlow, November 11, 2010, Munyonyo (Kampala).
73. George Shepherd to Jonathon L. Earle, January 24, 2010.
74. ARP 7/4/71 Audrey Richards, Field Notes, January 24, 1956. Richards noted that the woman in question was English, whereas family members recalled Musazi identifying the woman as a daughter of a British parliamentarian (interviews: Hugo Barlow, November 11, 2010, Munyonyo (Kampala); and E.N. Musazi, December 11, 2009, Timina (Luwero).
75. UCU BA 1/66.2 E.S.D., CMS, to Bishop of Uganda, n.d. Musazi was asked to read two works by John Paterson Smyth: The Bible in the Making in the Light of Modern Research (1914) and A People's Life of Christ (1920). Additional readings included: on biblical studies, commentaries on St Matthew's gospel and I Corinthians; on prayer, Charles Neil and J.M. Willoughby (eds.), The Tutorial Prayer Book: For the Teacher, the Student, and the General Reader (1912/13); on doctrine, Griffith Thomas, The Catholic Faith: A Manual of Instruction for Members of the Church of England (1920); on church history, Henry Melvill Gwatkin, Early Church History to A.D. 313, Vol. II and Edward L. Cutts, Turning Points of General Church History. In mid-January 1930, Musazi requested the Bishop of Uganda to bring the required books to him at Budo (UCU BA 1/66.2 I.K. Musazi to Bishop of Uganda, January 13, 1930).
76. ARP 7/4/71 Audrey Richards, Field Notes, January 24, 1956. To date, Musazi's homily has not been located.
77. ICS 29/1/5/3 “Who's Who of Buganda's Troubles,” n.d. David Apter dated the founding of Abazzukulu to May 28, 1938 (Apter, The Political Kingdom in Uganda, 203).
78. Apter, The Political Kingdom in Uganda, 203.
79. BNA CO 536/197/16 Descendants of Kintu to Daudi Chwa, September 19, 1938.
80. BNA CO 536/202/4/53 A.H. Cox to Ministers, Mengo, October 4, 1938.
81. BNA CO 536/202/4/ 2 Descendants of Kintu to Secretary of State, December 17, 1938.
82. BNA CO 536/197/16/1 Descendants of Kintu to Daudi Chwa, September 19, 1938
83. BNA CO 536/197/16/1 Descendants of Kintu to Daudi Chwa, September 19, 1938
84. BNA CO 536/197/16/1 Descendants of Kintu to Daudi Chwa, September 19, 1938
85. BNA CO 536/197/16/1 Descendants of Kintu to Daudi Chwa, September 19, 1938
86. BNA CO 536/197/16/1 Descendants of Kintu to Daudi Chwa, September 19, 1938
87. Hanson, Landed Obligation, 217.
88. ARP 7/4/62–63 Audrey Richards, Field Notes, January 24, 1956; and Apter, The Political Kingdom in Uganda, 203. Cf., Hanson, Landed Obligation, 206–20.
89. By the mid-1940s, Spartas suggested that the Orthodox Church had approximately 4924 adherents in Buganda and an additional membership of 5367 in Busoga and Lango. In Buganda, Balemeezi devotees constituted 74% of Spartas' following (Revd Reuben Spartas Mukasa, “History,” 1946). I wish to thank Derek Peterson for providing me with access to his notes on Spartas' history.
90. Waliggo, “The Catholic Church in the Buddu Province of Buganda.”
91. UCU BA 1/41.12 Revd Canon Kezekiya Kaggwa to Bishop of Uganda, C.E. Stuart, August 8, 1938.
92. BNA CO 536/197/16/1 Descendants of Kintu to Daudi Chwa, September 19, 1938. God's “right hand” is associated with protection and favour in the Hebrew Bible.
93. BNA CO 536/197/16/1 Descendants of Kintu to Daudi Chwa, September 19, 1938. God's “right hand” is associated with protection and favour in the Hebrew Bible.
94. Kodesh, Beyond the Royal Gaze, 65.
95. Cf., Hastings, The Construction of Nationhood, 4; Peel, Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba, 155 and 288–9; Peterson, “The Rhetoric of the Word”; Magaziner, The Law and the Prophets. See also: Lonsdale, “Jomo Kenyatta, God and the Modern World”; and Cabrita, “Politics and Preaching.”
96. Zimbe, Buganda and the King, 1.
97. Rowe, “Myth, Memoir, and Moral Admonition,” 21–2; Twaddle, “On Ganda Historiography,” 91; Rowe, “Eyewitness Accounts of Buganda History,” 62; and Kodesh, Beyond the Royal Gaze, 33.
98. Cf., Kaggwa, Ekitabo Kye Kika Kya Nsenene, 136–8.
99. Cf., Kaggwa, Ekitabo Kye Kika Kya Nsenene, 122–33.
100. Zimbe, Buganda and the King, 8.
101. Kiingi et al., Enkuluze y'Oluganda ey'e Makerere, 844.
102. Welbourn, East African Rebels, 77.
103. Welbourn, East African Rebels, 77.
104. Welbourn, East African Rebels, 77.
105. Welbourn, East African Rebels, 77.
106. Welbourn, East African Rebels, 78–9.
107. Welbourn, East African Rebels, 84.
108. BNA CO 536/202/4/2 Descendants of Kintu to Secretary of State, December 17, 1938.
109. BNA CO 536/202/4/6 The Kintu Descendents to Governor of Uganda, August 30, 1939. Musazi's language, here, closely resembles Zola's (Jensen, Emile Zola's J'Accuse!, 14–28).
110. BNA CO 536/202/4/5 The Descendents of Kintu to Governor of Uganda, September 29, 1939.
111. Interviews: E.N. Musazi, December 11, 2009, Timina (Luwero); Elizabeth Musazi, February 10, 2010, Kampala; and Mary Mulira, June 11, 2010, Kampala.
112. Musazi's library contains nine additional books from approximately the same period as Gwatkin's church history, and an additional 36 books published and/or autographed before 1966. As a frequent traveller who took books and papers with him, it is likely that Musazi kept portions of his library in various locations and then consolidated his collection after 1966.
113. In my analysis, one underscored unit constitutes an underlined sentence or cluster of sentences within a single paragraph. In instance of multiple underscore within a prolonged paragraph or section, numeration is topically interpreted.
114. Musazi's autograph indicates that the Bible was received in 1924. Two separate annotations are dated in 1946.
115. Cobley, “Literacy, Libraries and Consciousness”; Peterson, Creative Writing; Barber, “Introduction.” The methodology of historians of Africa tends to follow Roger Chartier's approach: Chartier, “Reading Matter and ‘Popular’ Reading,” 276. Cf., Chartier, L'ordre des livres.
116. For further discussion see: Brett, “What is Intellectual History Now?”; and Norval, “The Things We Do with Words.”
117. Brett, “What is Intellectual History Now?,” 119–20.
118. Heidegger, Being and Time, 1–39, 49–56, 219–40 and 341–63; and Gadamer, Truth and Method, 265–491.
119. Duffy, Marking the Hours, ix.
120. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, section 156.
121. Ricoeur, “History and Hermeneutics,” 692; and Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa, ix–xi. See also: Pocock, Political Thought and History, 108–10.
122. IKML Harold Laski Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time, pastedown, annotation.
123. Kramnick and Sheerman, Harold Laski. Cf., Morefield, “States Are Not People.”
124. Musazi's library contains a copy of P.A. Wadia and K.T. Merchant's Our Economic Problem (Bombay: New York Company, 1945), which he autographed in 1948.
125. Additionally, Musazi referenced “Uganda” in relation to the Atlantic Charter (IKML Laski Reflections, 190, annotation).
126. IKML Laski Reflections, 179, annotation.
127. IKML Laski Reflections, 185, annotation.
128. IKML Laski Reflections, 186, annotation.
129. IKML Laski Reflections, 190, annotation.
130. IKML Laski Reflections, 184, annotation.
131. For further discussion see: “Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances which occurred in Uganda during January, 1945.”
132. IKML Common Book of Prayer/Isaiah 58, annotation. In his Bible, Musazi recorded, “Revealed to me on 30/7/46 Kitgum Deportation.”
133. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore.
134. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 2.7.
135. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation.
136. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel, varied annotations.
137. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel, varied annotations.
138. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation.
139. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore.
140. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore./Isaiah 3.13–16, annotation.
141. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore./Isaiah 60, annotation.
142. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore./Jeremiah 31.23, annotation.
143. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore./Mark 6.20, underscore.
144. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore./Mark 6.21–28, annotation.
145. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore./Mark 6.21–28, annotation.
146. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore./Matthew 27.24, annotation.
147. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore./Matthew 27.24, annotation.
148. IKML English Bible/Isaiah 58.6–7, underscore./Amos 8.11–12, annotation./Daniel 9.14, annotation./II Chronicles, underscore./Matthew 26.15, 23 and 25, annotations.