'Namugongo' in the context of an economic and spiritual analysis

By Kajabago ka Rusoke

"Namugongo" is an area in a central province of the Uganda territory known as Buganda. By the time Britain colonized Uganda, Buganda was an independent Kingdom.

A king in Buganda is referred to as "Kabaka". The first British group that arrived in Buganda was received with courtesy by the then Kabaka who wanted to know where they had come from and who their ruler was. They told him their country was Britain being headed by a lady referred to as "Queen". He therefore proposed that it would be good and appropriate if he would marry that lady so that he would unite the two countries into one, namely Buganda and Britain. Later, one of those British visitors commented that when they looked at his throne, it was an item that could not even fit in the kitchen of their Queen.

However, they introduced their own type of belief to the local kingdom. In their teachings, they said there was a God that could not be seen by ordinary human eyes, but just through belief. That one must just believe that that God exists and that he or she must ask what he or she requires through that God and that that God would grant what is needed by anybody on Earth as He was above everything on Earth and after all was the very creator of the entire world.

Subsequently people began following the teachings of these newcomers much as the Kabaka's domestic servants were also converted to this type of belief.

A type of prayer was introduced in the Kingdom illustrating the superiority of this type of a new God. It ran as follows:

"Our Father which art in Heaven. (Kitafe ali mu gulu)

Hallowed be thy name. (Erinya lyo litukuzibwe).

Thy Kingdom come. (Obwa Kabaka bwo bujje).

Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. (Ebyoyagala bikolwe munsi nga bwebikolwa mu gulu).

Give us this day our daily bread. (Tuwe olwaleero emere yaffe ya buli lunaku.)

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. (Tusonyuwe ebibi byaffe nga ffe naffe bwetusonyowa abo abatusobyako).

For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory (Songa bwakabaka bwo, obiyiza nekitiibwa)

For ever and ever. (Emirembe ne naku )

"Amen" Amiina  (bwekityo kibe) meaning "As it should be"

The Kabaka himself heard his own domestic servants pray above his own head that another king comes and takes over from him.

On top of all this, people were told that apart from this very earth there was another world called "Heaven" which had no economic problems but full only of peace and comfort. In that world there were also people called "Angels" who had wings and could fly anywhere in the universe looking for friendship and peace. Third, that this "Heaven" world had a very beautiful and peaceful city called "Zion" where all human- beings would live together in harmony and friendship for ever and ever after death.

The Kabaka internalized all this and concluded as follows:

That there is really another "Kabaka".

Stronger and more powerful than him

He is being asked by his own domestic servants to come and take over his Kabakaship.

The Kabaka then developed concentrated economic emotions and sentiments to make sure his kingdom was not usurped.

He therefore arrested forty of this group of his domestic servants and decided to kill them.

He led them to Namugongo, let them collect a lot of firewood which he could use to burn them alive. They saw the punishment extremely harsh and yet irreversible! So they also, according to their own spiritual conviction which was also irreversible, could not repent to the Kabaka as if they had wronged him. They therefore produced the following utterances in a form and content of a hymn as follows:

"Singa mbadde n'ebiwaawa nga malaika, nandibuuse, naandibuuse, eri mu sayuuni!"

(Meaning)

"If I had wings, like an angel, I would fly. I would fly, there to Zion!"

They walked spiritually courageously and succumbed to an inevitable furnace and died.

LESSONS:

"Andrew Kaggwa", (burnt), was "Kaahwa" captured by Buganda military force in a war between Bunyoro and Buganda and his name turned into "Kaggwa" in Luganda as a domestic servant in Kabaka's palace.

War is a continuation of politics where when peaceful means of solving problems fail, people resort to mutual slaughter. That is unfortunate.

Politics is an expression of concentrated economic emotions and sentiments between classes struggling for state power. The Kabaka therefore was struggling for state power on the basis of economics concerning his territory.

Classes are groups of people which differ one from another according to how they are related in terms of labor and property ownership.

The state is a weapon in the hands of a ruling class to:

(i)Reflect economic aims of that class.

(ii) Implement those aims

(iii) Suppress the aims of the ruled class which are considered incorrect

(iv) Suppress the economic aims of the ruled class

The state is inevitably accompanied by Law. Law is the sum - total of obligatory and compulsory standards of behavior and conduct acceptable only to the ruling class to:

Reflect social aims of the ruling class

Implement them

Suppress the considered incorrect behavior of the ruled class.

Need for proper spiritual life

There can never be a proper spiritual life in the world without a mutually acceptable economic system.

 Owning a man or a woman in a home and make him or her work without pay is wrong.

 Owning land above others and making them pay rent is wrong and abominable

(c) Making men and women work at a very low wage level with    the aim of gaining profits from them is very incorrect.

(d) Colonizing other territories is incorrect.

Answers:

All those systems above should be abolished from each national territory on the globe. Each country should establish a welfare state where all are for each and each is for all. The people at Namugongo were killed under slave - ownership in Buganda where land -rent is again practiced against peasants. This is unfortunate.

 Political Economy should be taught in all academic institutions in order to liberate people from ignorance concerning labor and property ownership as sources of spiritual life vis - a - vis superstition.