Land, taxes and the roots of Uganda’s early resistance
Over time, many of the original beneficiaries sold portions of their land. Some of the buyers were peasants who had begun earning money from coffee and cotton growing. They saw ownership of a Mailo title as both an economic asset and a source of social prestige.
Omukama Kabalega. (File)
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INDEPENDENCE DAY SERIES
Uganda’s road to independence did not begin with the nationalist parties of the 1950s. Its roots can be traced to the first decades of colonial rule when new land policies, taxes and administrative systems disrupted traditional institutions and created widespread resentment.
In Buganda, the most contentious issue was land. The 1900 Buganda Agreement created a new class of landlords, mainly chiefs and nobles, while many people already living on the land became tenants. Alongside ownership came power. Landlords could impose rents (Busuulu) and occupancy levies, while the colonial government collected poll tax, hut tax and gun tax.
According to historian Samwiri Lwanga Lunyiigo, the beneficiaries of the land settlement favoured heavily populated areas because they promised greater income from tenants. This partly explains why powerful chiefs, such as Apollo Kaggwa acquired land in areas like Gayaza and Nangabo near Kampala.
“The Buganda Land Law of 1908 granted the Mailo landowners powers to do whatever they wanted with their land; they could evict their tenants, they could give it away, but most important of all, they could sell it off at will,” Lunyiigo says.
Over time, many of the original beneficiaries sold portions of their land. Some of the buyers were peasants who had begun earning money from coffee and cotton growing. They saw ownership of a Mailo title as both an economic asset and a source of social prestige.
However, many tenants could not afford to purchase land and remained vulnerable to rents, eviction and insecurity. As frustration grew, resistance followed.
The Bataka movement
Under the 1900 Agreement, many clan leaders lost control over land traditionally associated with their clans. Their authority was increasingly replaced by a new class of chiefs, many of them Christian converts known as abasomi.
About 8,000 square miles were allocated to chiefs, private landowners and other beneficiaries under the agreement, giving rise to the Luganda expression kanana or “eight thousand”.
The Bataka Movement, therefore, challenged a system that had transformed many former occupants into rent-paying tenants while concentrating power in the hands of a new elite aligned to the colonial administration.
Other movements in Buganda that emerged around the same period were the Young Baganda Association and the Bamalaki.
Seeds of nationalism
Missionary education also helped create a new group that would eventually challenge colonial rule. Ironically, the same schools that supported the colonial order produced Africans who understood how colonial institutions worked and could organise more effectively against discrimination and exploitation.
One of the first organisations formed by this emerging elite was the Native Civil Servants Association in 1922. It campaigned for better working conditions and greater recognition for African civil servants.
Other associations, often based on regional or ethnic identities, emerged including the Young Basoga Association, Young Acholi Association, Young Lango Association, Young Bagwere Association and the Bugisu Welfare Association.
While these did not initially demand independence, they gave Ugandans valuable experience in leadership, organisation and advocacy.
Yet together, they laid the foundations for later nationalism. Leaders, such as Ignatius Kangave Musaazi would later transform local grievances over land, taxation, discrimination and economic exploitation into broader demands for self-government.
By the time Uganda’s nationalist movement gathered momentum in the 1940s and 1950s, it was drawing on decades of resistance.
The struggle for independence had begun long before the political parties emerged, rooted in a fundamental question that united many early protest movements: who would control Uganda’s land, economy and future?
Resistance beyond Buganda
In Bunyoro, resentment centred on Baganda agents and chiefs deployed by the colonial government after the defeat of Omukama Kabalega. This gave rise to the Nyangire-Abaganda movement, whose name roughly translates as “I have refused the Baganda”.
The Nyabingi movement in Kigezi and the Lamogi resistance in Acholi reflected opposition to colonial interference, forced administration and the erosion of traditional authority.
Though formed under different circumstances, these movements shared a common grievance: Dissatisfaction with a colonial system that altered local political structures and imposed new economic burdens.