What do bin Laden and Kabalega have in common?

By Matthias MugishaKabalega, the 23rd Omukama of Bunyoro, was a powerful king, a war genius whose power and wealth posed danger to the establishment of colonialism.In 1893, the British invaded Bunyoro so as to assert their supremacy in the region. However, Kabalega’s tunnels and underground granaries, which he used for military campaigns, seemed to have prolonged and worsened the destructive war for seven years.He proved tougher than expected. As a genius of guerrilla warfare, he used caves and tunnels like Osama bin Laden.As Bunyoro was plundered to starve Kabalega and break his resistance, the underground food stores came in handy.Last week, we discovered the long forgotten underground granaries in Bujawe forest reserve, 20 km from Hoima along the road to Buseruka.A pit with a diameter of about one metre and three metres deep, would be dug. It would be widened and extended at the base, giving it an appearance of a pot with a long neck.Siira Byembandwa, 84, a resident of Buseruka, over an hours drive from the pits, appears to be the only one knowledgeable about the history of the granaries. He says the pits used to be smeared with cow dung to make them water proof.According to Siira, the pits are called embiso though Banyoro erroneously refer to them as enkerenge. “Enkerenge is a crater like hole left behind by an old fallen palm tree,” The old man explains. “The embiso were designed based on that crater, but compartments were added to store different crops and to prevent the pit from falling in. Banyoro kings including Kabalega used stored food there,’’ Bwembadwa he concludes.The pits, which used to be in gardens were always sealed and disguised by planting crops on top of them. In case of discovery of the pit, one would peep in and see nothing. The food was in the underground extensions.For fear of snakes, we did not go down into the two granaries, though I wondered how they could still be intact after more than 100 years.The British later discovered the granaries and found the war cheap to conduct because they got free food to feed their army at the expense of the population.In a copy of the diary of military operation of Unyoro ( Bunyoro), printed for the cabinet, in London in June 1894, page 20 shows that stock of 270,000kg of cereals and legumes stored in underground granaries were found on January 8, the next year.Records in the original handwriting of the British commanders in the field in Bunyoro show that Kabalega’s wealth and food fed their entire British forces for all the years they occupied the kingdom.“Had I been obliged to depend entirely on bananas, I do not know how I should have provisioned the forts...in Unyoro, but, thanks to the nice little stores of beans and grain which we found buried about the country,” wrote Colonel Henry Colvile, then acting Commissioner and Consul General in Uganda. More food and treasure including ivory were discovered over the years.Another historical site used by Kabalega is Katasiha Fort, three kilometres Northwest of Hoima town on the road to Butyaba. Katasiha has an under-ground tunnel whose size is not known because its entrance got blocked over the years. It was Kabalega’s strong hold because of its central location. The front of the entrance of the caves is surrounded by trenches dug in straight lines that were originally used by Kabalega. There is also a stream flowing past the cave.In 1893, Colville was convinced that only a military invasion of the kingdom would make Kabalega accept British supremacy. He therefore invaded Bunyoro with an army of Sudanese and Baganda under Semei Kakungulu numbering 30,000.Kabalega retreated northwards, abandoning Katasiha, which the British occupied. Afterwards, they used it as a base for military operations against him. Kabalega waged a guerrilla war from the north.In 1898, his chiefs, Kikukule and Ireta, attacked and burnt down Katasiha. It was later rebuilt to became Bunyoro district headquarters in 1900.Katasiha was abandoned when the district offices moved to their present location.In 1967, the government made Katshina a historical sight but the entrance had been blocked by soil over the years.The fort is now under Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industries.It is believed that weapons are still buried inside the fort. Residents claim that ghosts roam the area at night. Bunyoro Kingdom plans to make the sites tourist attractions.When Kabalega was finally captured together with Buganda’s Mwanga in April 1899 by Kakungulu forces, over 30,000 of his cows had been pillaged, and over 1,000,000 people were killed. The British and their allies celebrated.Five days after the arrest, Kakungulu and the Baganda generals who had led the attack were given a special reward for a job well done. “Your Lordship will approve of my action in giving them each a sum of rs1000 (rupees) and a Martin Henry rifle as a special reward for their services.’’ then commissioner of Uganda Trevor Ternan wrote to his bosses in London. Rs1000 rupees then was an equivalent of 476.70 pounds.Before the war, Capt. F.D. Lugard had estimated the population of Bunyoro to be over 2.5 million. The Uganda Protectorate Census returns of 1911 and 1921 showed a population figure of 98,533 people then. Up to the late 1930s, the death rate remained high compared to the region’s birth rate. A study done by Shane Doyle in 1994 showed that people died because of excessive malnutrition.“The greed of Baganda chiefs for territory and spoil kept Kabalega at par with the British... The British were misled by Baganda and persisted in regarding Kabalega as an implacable enemy,’’ Dunbar writes in his book about Bunyoro Kingdom history. “No man can say that Kabalega was a wise man. He brought war and ruin to himself,” Lugard said while installing Kabale-ga’s son Tito Winyi as King of Bunyoro. His father died in 1923 on his way back to Bunyoro.The Baganda allies were rewarded with large tracts of land that hitherto belonged to Bunyoro. To date the Banyoro live on those lands as squatters.But Emin Pasha, a Doctor who spent a long time in Bunyoro as an agent of Khedive Ismail of Egypt, had another view of Kabalega.“I cannot charge Kabalega with begging. He gave me an impression of being a thorough hospitable and intelligent man..... We were brothers A.R. Dunbar quotes Pasha in his book about Bunyoro kingdomAs you move through Bunyoro today, you only see bushes along the way.“The Banyoro learnt a bitter lesson. The British and their army left no homestead standing along their trail. And that was more than 1,000 years ago. Even today, homesteads are hidden behind bushes,’’ the Private Secretary to the Omukama of Bunyoro Yolamu Nsamba explains.