The road to 1966
May 03, 2007
A writer of a letter in The New Vision recently complained that all I write about in this column is Dr. Apollo Milton Obote and since he disapproved of this he threatened to stop reading the column.
A writer of a letter in The New Vision recently complained that all I write about in this column is Dr. Apollo Milton Obote and since he disapproved of this he threatened to stop reading the column.
Unknown to this writer, I have also been criticised from some quarters that I write about nothing else but Buganda.
The truth is that history is about events and the people who helped to shape those events and both Obote and Buganda dominated certain phases of our history and as such cannot be ignored in any historical analysis.
Events of the first 25 years of our independence were either directly or indirectly shaped by Obote, first as prime minister and, then, twice as president with an eight-year spell in between as Amin’s main protagonist.
While Obote dominated the national events after independence, Amos Kalule Sempa was the centre of events in Buganda during the run-up period from 1955 to 1962 as the mentor of the neo-traditionalist political stream at Mengo.
Indeed the clash between the two men’s ideologies was in some ways responsible for the 1966 constitutional crisis.
Early on in his political career, Obote wrote a letter in the Uganda Herald of May 5, 1952 appealing to the colonial power not to grant self-government to Uganda because, as he put it, only Buganda would gain from it.
Eight years later, at the first UPC rally at Jinja, Obote made clear that his new party’s first duty was to fight the Mengo clique and once in power he made it clear that Buganda’s development should be put on hold while other areas caught up. At the other end of the political spectrum was Amos Kalule Sempa who believed in Buganda’s autonomy.
In 1958 Sempa visited the United States and on his way back stopped over in Switzerland.
What he saw about the governments of these two countries convinced him that federalism would be the best system for Uganda and announced his views in a press conference.
From that point he became the force behind demands for a federal arrangement in Uganda The clash between the two men became apparent when Obote openly accused Sempa to be the instigator of a rebellion in Buganda in May 1966.
In a statement to Parliament on May 25, 1966 Obote accused Sempa of having instigated an obscure member of the Lukiko to move the famous resolution requiring the government to leave Buganda land.
He went on to allege that Sempa organised hooligans to get into the Lukiiko chambers whose duty was to shout down any member who dared speak against the motion.
“It was simply impossible for the Speaker to speak, it was simply impossible for the Katikiro to speak. The hooligans were conducting the deliberations in the gallery,†said the President.
In view of this clear evidence from the President himself that the Lukiiko never passed the said resolution, or at best passed it under duress, it is difficult to understand Obote’s subsequent punitive actions unless viewed from the standpoint of his earlier declared anti-Buganda’s sentiments.
For this he bears a heavy cross for having needlessly destroyed the country.
It is even more painful to reflect that there were options open to Obote other than use of force in that there were groups he could have worked with to solve the problem which was created by Sempa if the President’s statement to Parliament were to be believed.
According to Professor A.B.K Kasozi’s book, The Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, there were four political groups in Buganda on the eve of independence namely, the nationalists, the neo-traditionalists, the educated elite and the educated Catholic elites.
Sempa was the titular leader of the neo-traditionalists, a group which comprised about 12 families of the successors of Protestant chiefs who wanted to keep their positions and privileges as chiefs, sit in the Lukiiko and thereby control policy and maintain Buganda as a state without losing an inch of it.
These are the people Obote attacked in Parliament and Professor Kasozi remarks quite correctly that a shrewd politician should have worked with the other three groups rather than discrete the kingdom as a punishment for the actions of a few.
We all know how Obote came to be President but how did Sempa come to be his nemesis? Both men shared a determination to control others and they held tenaciously to their core beliefs as well as being vindictive.
From the way they behaved both Obote and Sempa suffered from the failure to see the bigger picture while pursuing their core ideas.
Sempa manoeuvred to become the voice of Buganda and head of the neo-traditionalists who controlled the government at Mengo even before he became minister.
In 1953 Sempa who was a well-educated man with a passion for classical music was eclipsed from his invisible job as secretary to the Lukiiko when he was appointed to be secretary to the delegation which was sent to London to fight for the return of the Kabaka from exile.
One of the outcomes of this delegation’s work was the Hankock constitutional committee which comprised 12 highly-educated people.
Knowing that the neo-traditionalists would reject any new constitutional changes introduced by the educated elites, Sempa wisely opted out of the committee.
When the committee’s report came out, Sempa championed the attack on it and this resulted in the appointment of a new committee chaired by a neo-traditionalist to review the original report.
Overnight the educated elites had been eclipsed by the neo-traditionalists who put the kingdom on a reckless course of isolationism. To protect any challenge to hi perch as the leader of all thought in the Lukiko, Sempa blocked the other groups who were labelled enemies of the Kabaka, traitors and turn coarts.
From 1955 Mengo started persecuting political party leaders and completely isolated Buganda from the rest of the country.
Although the parties fought a sterling battle to keep Buganda as an integral part of Uganda, they were rendered toothless when the British government agreed to discuss Buganda’s constitutional issues only with Mengo and thus we started on the road which led to 1966.
Unknown to this writer, I have also been criticised from some quarters that I write about nothing else but Buganda.
The truth is that history is about events and the people who helped to shape those events and both Obote and Buganda dominated certain phases of our history and as such cannot be ignored in any historical analysis.
Events of the first 25 years of our independence were either directly or indirectly shaped by Obote, first as prime minister and, then, twice as president with an eight-year spell in between as Amin’s main protagonist.
While Obote dominated the national events after independence, Amos Kalule Sempa was the centre of events in Buganda during the run-up period from 1955 to 1962 as the mentor of the neo-traditionalist political stream at Mengo.
Indeed the clash between the two men’s ideologies was in some ways responsible for the 1966 constitutional crisis.
Early on in his political career, Obote wrote a letter in the Uganda Herald of May 5, 1952 appealing to the colonial power not to grant self-government to Uganda because, as he put it, only Buganda would gain from it.
Eight years later, at the first UPC rally at Jinja, Obote made clear that his new party’s first duty was to fight the Mengo clique and once in power he made it clear that Buganda’s development should be put on hold while other areas caught up. At the other end of the political spectrum was Amos Kalule Sempa who believed in Buganda’s autonomy.
In 1958 Sempa visited the United States and on his way back stopped over in Switzerland.
What he saw about the governments of these two countries convinced him that federalism would be the best system for Uganda and announced his views in a press conference.
From that point he became the force behind demands for a federal arrangement in Uganda The clash between the two men became apparent when Obote openly accused Sempa to be the instigator of a rebellion in Buganda in May 1966.
In a statement to Parliament on May 25, 1966 Obote accused Sempa of having instigated an obscure member of the Lukiko to move the famous resolution requiring the government to leave Buganda land.
He went on to allege that Sempa organised hooligans to get into the Lukiiko chambers whose duty was to shout down any member who dared speak against the motion.
“It was simply impossible for the Speaker to speak, it was simply impossible for the Katikiro to speak. The hooligans were conducting the deliberations in the gallery,†said the President.
In view of this clear evidence from the President himself that the Lukiiko never passed the said resolution, or at best passed it under duress, it is difficult to understand Obote’s subsequent punitive actions unless viewed from the standpoint of his earlier declared anti-Buganda’s sentiments.
For this he bears a heavy cross for having needlessly destroyed the country.
It is even more painful to reflect that there were options open to Obote other than use of force in that there were groups he could have worked with to solve the problem which was created by Sempa if the President’s statement to Parliament were to be believed.
According to Professor A.B.K Kasozi’s book, The Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, there were four political groups in Buganda on the eve of independence namely, the nationalists, the neo-traditionalists, the educated elite and the educated Catholic elites.
Sempa was the titular leader of the neo-traditionalists, a group which comprised about 12 families of the successors of Protestant chiefs who wanted to keep their positions and privileges as chiefs, sit in the Lukiiko and thereby control policy and maintain Buganda as a state without losing an inch of it.
These are the people Obote attacked in Parliament and Professor Kasozi remarks quite correctly that a shrewd politician should have worked with the other three groups rather than discrete the kingdom as a punishment for the actions of a few.
We all know how Obote came to be President but how did Sempa come to be his nemesis? Both men shared a determination to control others and they held tenaciously to their core beliefs as well as being vindictive.
From the way they behaved both Obote and Sempa suffered from the failure to see the bigger picture while pursuing their core ideas.
Sempa manoeuvred to become the voice of Buganda and head of the neo-traditionalists who controlled the government at Mengo even before he became minister.
In 1953 Sempa who was a well-educated man with a passion for classical music was eclipsed from his invisible job as secretary to the Lukiiko when he was appointed to be secretary to the delegation which was sent to London to fight for the return of the Kabaka from exile.
One of the outcomes of this delegation’s work was the Hankock constitutional committee which comprised 12 highly-educated people.
Knowing that the neo-traditionalists would reject any new constitutional changes introduced by the educated elites, Sempa wisely opted out of the committee.
When the committee’s report came out, Sempa championed the attack on it and this resulted in the appointment of a new committee chaired by a neo-traditionalist to review the original report.
Overnight the educated elites had been eclipsed by the neo-traditionalists who put the kingdom on a reckless course of isolationism. To protect any challenge to hi perch as the leader of all thought in the Lukiko, Sempa blocked the other groups who were labelled enemies of the Kabaka, traitors and turn coarts.
From 1955 Mengo started persecuting political party leaders and completely isolated Buganda from the rest of the country.
Although the parties fought a sterling battle to keep Buganda as an integral part of Uganda, they were rendered toothless when the British government agreed to discuss Buganda’s constitutional issues only with Mengo and thus we started on the road which led to 1966.