Omukama Kabalega was a hero
Jul 10, 2006
SIR — The Sunday Vision magazine of June 15 insinuated that Omukama Kabalega of Bunyoro Kitara might have been a villain! This is misleading and unfair and was an insult to the Banyoro. <br>Kabalega is held in high esteem not only in Bunyoro-Kitara, but in Uganda and in the whole of Africa becaus
SIR — The Sunday Vision magazine of June 15 insinuated that Omukama Kabalega of Bunyoro Kitara might have been a villain! This is misleading and unfair and was an insult to the Banyoro.
Kabalega is held in high esteem not only in Bunyoro-Kitara, but in Uganda and in the whole of Africa because he resisted British colonialism on behalf of Africans.
His 23-year incarceration, after a nine-year war against the British forces in which he was shot and lost an arm, and where over two million Banyoro were killed, not to mention the total destruction of his country, makes him an African worth of praise.
The article ignored the unparalleled, brutal and unjustified British colonial conquest exacted on Bunyoro-Kitara which resulted in the loss of two-thirds of Bunyoro-Kitara territory which is unrecovered 120 years later!
Successive governments in Uganda since independence have not addressed this historical injustice. However, the Uganda Constitution article 32 swears, “the state shall take affirmative action in favour or groups marginalised on the basis of gender, age, disability or any other reason created by history, tradition or custom, for the purpose of redressing imbalances against themâ€.
Therefore, due to this injustice created when Kabalega resisted British colonialism on behalf of Uganda, Bunyoro-Kitara deserves 51 per cent of the proceeds from the oil discovered on her territory.
Uganda must avoid falling into the same trap like Nigeria, Angola and Chad where the discovery of oil ended in bloodshed and generally became a curse. The fears of the banyoro that immigrants want to grab their wealth should not be confirmed.
Henry Ford Miirima
Press Secretary of the Omukama of Bunyoro-Kitara
Kabalega is held in high esteem not only in Bunyoro-Kitara, but in Uganda and in the whole of Africa because he resisted British colonialism on behalf of Africans.
His 23-year incarceration, after a nine-year war against the British forces in which he was shot and lost an arm, and where over two million Banyoro were killed, not to mention the total destruction of his country, makes him an African worth of praise.
The article ignored the unparalleled, brutal and unjustified British colonial conquest exacted on Bunyoro-Kitara which resulted in the loss of two-thirds of Bunyoro-Kitara territory which is unrecovered 120 years later!
Successive governments in Uganda since independence have not addressed this historical injustice. However, the Uganda Constitution article 32 swears, “the state shall take affirmative action in favour or groups marginalised on the basis of gender, age, disability or any other reason created by history, tradition or custom, for the purpose of redressing imbalances against themâ€.
Therefore, due to this injustice created when Kabalega resisted British colonialism on behalf of Uganda, Bunyoro-Kitara deserves 51 per cent of the proceeds from the oil discovered on her territory.
Uganda must avoid falling into the same trap like Nigeria, Angola and Chad where the discovery of oil ended in bloodshed and generally became a curse. The fears of the banyoro that immigrants want to grab their wealth should not be confirmed.
Henry Ford Miirima
Press Secretary of the Omukama of Bunyoro-Kitara