How religion paved way for colonialism in Buganda
As Uganda’s independence anniversary approaches, Joshua Kato traces how the arrival of Christianity and Islam reshaped Buganda’s politics, intensified rivalries at the royal court and ultimately created openings for British colonial influence.
Kabaka Mwanga. (File)
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🇺🇬 INDEPENDENCE
In the series of stories as the 64th Independence Day draws closer; Joshua Kato looks at the role played by religion in colonising Uganda. European engagement with Buganda became more significant following Henry Morton Stanley’s visit in 1875. This time, on top of the gun, Stanley also had a Bible. While Stanley’s visit was undoubtedly pivotal, historians generally acknowledge earlier European contacts through explorers, traders and coastal networks.
Kabaka Muteesa accepted the introduction of Christianity in his kingdom. Hence, members of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) arrived in 1877, followed by the Roman Catholic Missionaries in 1879.
However, Muteesa kept both religions at arm’s length near his palace, but when he died, the conflict between religion and the political leadership widened.
Competing for court influence
The colonialists may have looked at the Bibles, the Quran and of course, the gourd and backcloth used by traditionalists as loopholes that they adopted to divide the kingdom's subjects. In Buganda, at first, the Bible and the Quran ganged up against the traditionalists who they called ‘pagan’ or Kafirs. Then later, followers of Christianity and Islam increasingly competed for influence at the Buganda court.
The diini (religion) of the whites gradually took root, especially among the young, ambitious Baganda. They were called abasabi. Because of this, heavy devotion, many of them abandoned palace work to read the Bible. The Kabaka became increasingly concerned about their growing religious commitments.
Christian converts killed
Kabaka Muteesa was more tolerant of the young devotes; however, his successor, Kabaka Mwanga, ordered the killing of 45 Christian converts after he accused them of disobedience. Both Catholic and Anglican, were executed between 1885 and 1887, with 22 Catholic martyrs later canonised by the Catholic Church. He thought that they were spending more time on religious affairs than on kingdom issues. These were later named as the Uganda Martyrs, and every June 3, they are celebrated across the country.
Religious wars
With Mwanga obviously or seemingly anti-religion, Christian factions, particularly Protestants and Catholics, joined political and military coalitions that challenged Mwanga and temporarily removed him from power.
He was later re-instated by a faction of Muslims and Protestants. Some historians argue that external powers exploited or intensified religious divisions, making it easier to establish colonial influence. And indeed, it was as a result of the chaos from these wars that the Buganda protectorate agreement was made.
Uganda protectorate
The religious confusion directly helped the British creep into the political leadership and decision-making of Buganda. Down south in Tanganyika, German colonialists had taken control of certain parts. Britain, in retaliation, also seized parts of Kenya.
In 1889, Carl Peters, who had seized Tanganyika on behalf of Germany, came to Buganda and, in a bid to increase German influence in the kingdom through Catholics to sign a Friendship treaty with the Germans. But this treaty was seriously opposed by the Protestants, who immediately invited the Imperial British East Africa (IBEAC) to come to Uganda.
However, to avert a clash, a meeting was held between the two powers, and through the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1890, a wider exchange of spheres of influence between Britain and Germany was undertaken. Under the agreement, Germany recognised Uganda as falling within Britain’s sphere of influence.
Apparently, the British used the island of Heligoland off the coast of Germany as a bargaining chip to convince the Germans to leave Uganda and Zanzibar to the British.
