Colonialists turn to the money economy

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KAMPALA - In the fourth part of the 62nd independence series, Joshua Kato examines how the colonialists, having secured the political leadership, turned to the money economy,  by introducing cash crops.

When the British completed the conquest of Uganda, they started setting up administrative systems across the country. 

Of course, at first they used the element of ‘indirect rule’, by deploying mainly Baganda officers to these areas. 

For example, many Baganda were sent to Bunyoro and parts of Busoga. Particularly in Bunyoro, the Baganda colonial administrators used a lot of power, some of it demeaning the local population.

Many Banyoro in the lost counties were forced to drop their Kinyoro names and adopt Kiganda names.

This is why up to today, there are many Banyoro in Buyaga and Bugangaizi who have  Kiganda names. Names like Ssekitoleko, Ssekiziyivuand Nabbanja etc are common in Bunyoro and yet they are actually Kiganda names.

By the 1920s, however, the resentment by locals against some of the Baganda colonial leaders had reached peak levels, and the British feared new rebellions could emerge because of this.

Subsequently, the British started deploying locals as their administrators. With the administrative question settled, the colonialists now turned to the main objective of scrambling for Africa.

Historians believe that beyond political and territorial control, the colonialists had economic benefits and natural resources plunderism hidden under their religious cloaks.

While elephants were being killed for ivory in Karamoja, they decided to use the vast pieces of land they had got under the various treaties to grow what they termed as  ‘cash crops’.

Cash crops introduced 

In 1903, cotton was introduced commercially in Uganda as the first major cash crop by Kristen Borup. However, a Bishop of Rubaga,  Streicher, had introduced it to a few farmers as a fun crop back in 1897.

Now that it was commercial, the crop was mainly grown in Busoga, parts of Lango and some parts of Buganda.  

But while the Ugandans grew the cotton, they benefited less, because all the value addition was carried out away from Uganda.  

Ginning was done in Kenya before the lint from cotton was transported to Liverpool, England to service the British  Cotton Industry. Towards 1920, however, ginneries were constructed in Uganda. 

According to the Cotton  Development Authority, initially, cotton was grown in the central region, which explains the many now defunct. Cotton ginneries littered areas like Luwero,  Mpigi, Mityana, Mubende and parts of Busoga, most of which were run by Indians.

Coffee aroma comes 

Coffee too was introduced in the early 1900s. Emphasis was put on parts of the central region, including Mukono,  Masaka, Luwero and later the highlands of Bugisu and  Rwenzori.

The Uganda Coffee  Development Authority (UCDA) explains that by  1914, European and Asian farmers had been established.

135 plantations of coffee, occupying 58,000 acres of land across the country. However, the crop was abandoned when prices fell in the 1920s.

Farm workers picking cotton in Soroti in 1964.

The Coffee Board was set up in 1929, later becoming the  Coffee Industry Board in 1943  and the Coffee Marketing  Board in 1959, to commercialise, regulate and marketing coffee.

Coffee production among  African farmers was low and the acreage was insignificant.

By 1931, only 17,000 acres were under cultivation. Other than Uganda (Buganda), other countries included Nyasaland  (Malawi), Kenya and Rwanda.  

In Uganda, coffee growing was spread in the greater Masaka area, Luwero, Mubende, parts of Bushenyi, parts of West Nile, Mukono and Elgon.

“Historically, the colonial government used to enforce coffee production by using chiefs who used to inspect households to ensure compliance of production and maintenance of quality in harvesting and drying coffee beans.

“As a result, coffee was named ‘kibooko’ (coffee grown after being caned),” John  Kibirige, a farmer, says. Today, coffee is grown in 117 districts of Uganda out of  146, with 83 of these growing robusta, 17 districts growing Arabica, and 17 growing both  Arabica and Robusta. 

“There are 330 million trees of coffee, and out of these,  robusta has 240,000, while  Arabica has 40,244 trees,”  UCDA says.  

Arabica is mainly grown in the Elgon and Rwenzori sub-regions, including Kapchorwa,  Bukwo, Mbale, Manafwa and parts Bulambuli, Bundibugyo and Ntoroko, Kabarole and  Nebbi.

Robusta is grown in the central and parts of the west,  including Masaka, Kalungu, Ssembabule, Gomba, Mpigi,  Wakiso, Luwero, Nakaseke,  Mukono, Nakasongola,  Buikwe, Kayunga; parts of the east including  Mayuge, Kamuli, Luuka and  Namayingo.  

Over the years, production has grown from around 2.2  million bags of 60kg in the  1960s to around seven million bags today.

Tea and sugar

Tea was initially an  Indian crop. In 1908,  the first plants were introduced in Uganda by Indian traders.

It was quickly adopted as a cash crop by the colonial government.  But while coffee and cotton were grown by large estates established by investors linked to the colonialists, huge tea estates were set up in Mukono, Mityana/ Mubende and Kabarole areas, all owned by either Indians or British.

These estates offered manual labour to the locals, who plucked the leaves before they were transported to Mombasa for processing.

But over the years, and after the expulsion of the Asians, local processors who took over the formally Indian-owned factories emerged.

Although sugar goes with tea, the first commercial sugar factory was only established in Uganda in 1924. This was the  Mehta factory at Lugazi.  

According to Radha  Mehta, a granddaughter of the pioneer owner, N.K Mehta, they bought  2,000 acres of land in Lugazi around 1920 but only commenced production four years later.  

Over the years, the Madhvani group joined in Jinja and today,  there are over 50 sugar processing factories with a capacity of over  600,000 million tonnes annually.
 
More positively, the introduction of these cash crops was followed by the construction of the first organised regional agriculture centres across the country. Most of these are still in existence today.
Current research centres, such as Kituza in Mukono and Serere in Teso were set up to support cash crop production in the early half of the 1900s.