Boniface Byanyima: A statesman whom money could not buy

By Prof. Semakula Kiwanuka

Mzee Boniface Byanyima, one of Uganda's pioneer pre-independence politicians, died on May 16 at Nakasero Hospital.

He was, until 2005, the national chairman of the Democratic Party. Here below, Prof. Semakula Kiwanuka analyses his political journey.

There has been an out pouring of praise and respect for the late Boniface Byanyima because of his steadfastness as an upright and honest politician.

He was truthful to his principles in an age when principles are trampled under foot because the end justified the means.

Who was Byanyima? What where the principles that governed his life? Byanyima was born in privilege and was an automatic member of the Uganda political establishment, because of his religion. Yet he behaved differently. Why did he behave so differently from so many of his contemporaries?

In this article, I try to answer those questioning by giving a back ground in which Bwanyima was born and bred, a back ground of privilege buttressed by religion. In this regard, the reader must, therefore, understand the politico-religious forces which influenced the acquisition of Uganda as a British colony. The second consideration among many others was the pre independence global politics of the 1950s, when the world was divided between the so called East and West, between Communism or Socialism and Capitalism.

God's country

The following is a brief back ground of how Uganda became a British Colony, a back ground which is relevant to Byanyima's life.

In British Colonial Africa, Uganda was unique and special: special in its acquisition, special in its administration and special in the crafting of its Independence Constitution. At every stage, the role of the Church of England was heavy and thick. In 1892, when the Baganda religious parties fought each other for dominance, Captain Lugard, the then representative of the British East African Company did not hide his religious prejudices and partisanship.

He used his Maxim gun to ensure the victory of the weaker Protestant Party, which he installed and there by determined the direction of Uganda's politics for generations. To this we can add one other example. Namely, the heavy involvement in the Uganda Constitutional Conference in 1962 by Lord Fisher, the then Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Church of England. He got involved and lobbied heavily in support of the UPC/ Kabaka Yekka alliance. These examples of the involvement of Church of England in the affairs of Uganda made it truly God's Country.

Byanyima the anti-establishment 

The brief historical background of Church and State in Uganda helps to understand the heavy politico religious terrain in which Byanyima grew up, lived and later operated as a politician of unusual principles.

The expression "The Establishment" has a predominantly political connotation. It refers to a dominant elite group which wields political, military and financial power. In England, politics, religion, birth, education, i.e the schools you go to were important qualifications for belonging to the Establishment.

When one stands against the accepted social, economic and political order and acts against the ruling class and its norms at the centre of which was the Church of England, such a person was described as being Anti-Establishment. Every political system has its establishment which makes up the ruling elite, whose base and power of influence can be attributed to the financial, military, birth, ethnic, political or religious or the school tie.

At various times in the history of nations, individuals have espoused anti-establishment behaviour sometimes through violence. For example, the French Revolution or the Communist Revolution in Russia were followed by the so called revolutionary constitutions abolishing monarchies, the aristocracy etc.

Colonial Uganda like the UK, had a clearly defined establishment at the centre of which was religion. Religion influenced and sometimes determined a Ugandan's place in the social and political order.

Byanyima was born in privilege and had all the credentials not only of birth, but also of religion. Prime facie, therefore, he belonged to the establishment. But there were aspects of his life, especially the political life and beliefs which were clearly anti establishment. In that case, Byanyima was anti-establishment.

Byanyima the non conformist

The literary meaning of the word non conformist is not to conform to the accepted norms which include religion, if a country has a dominant religion prescribed by laws or by the accepted political order.

In England, a Non Conformist was a person though Protestant in religious beliefs, but did not conform to the norms of the Established Church of England. Legally, Uganda did not have an established church. But there was what in law is called custom usage. Custom and usage made the protestant religion, the established religion of Uganda. Byanyima though born and bred with impeccable religious credentials, he behaved differently at a time when men and women of his background were neither expected nor supposed to join the Democratic Party, a so called Roman Catholic Party. What this background tells us is that Byanyima was an extra ordinarily principled man which characteristic made him a non-conformist.

Delivering opposition parties and their leaders, but not Byanyima

Recently, the press has been awash with speculative accusations of opposition party leaders hobnobbing with the ruling parties as a prelude to the delivering of their followers to the ruling party.

Ugandans who seem to be alarmed by such political behaviour need to be reminded that it has been a historical fact in the political history of independent Africa, where opposition parties with unprincipled leaders and followers have been delivered to the stronger parties, which are often the ruling parties.

 The same politics of delivering the opposition party was also alive in Uganda, where in 1964, Basil Bataringaya, the Secretary General of DP and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, crossed to the ruling UPC, where he and several of his fellow DP were made ministers. Bataringaya himself was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs, a position he used to devastating effect as Obote's hatchet man. But because Byanyima was a highly principled man, he did not abandon DP, despite the fact that Obote would have appointed him a minister.

As the minister of Internal Affairs, Bataringaya unleashed such terror and persecution, imprisonment and detentions of his former DP colleagues in the Opposition. Among those he locked up was Ben Kiwanuka, the president of the DP.

When today Ugandans see what is happening to the opposition parties in general, it is a confirmation that history is repeating itself. Weak political leaders who lack principles and commitment have always been delivered to ruling parties.

That did not happen in the case of Byanyima because he was politically a principled man who for over 50 years, could not be politically bought. To appreciate and respect his uniqueness as a politician, the reader has been drawn to the pre colonial history of Uganda and to how the British wanted to create a Little England in Africa, some of whose values and politics, Byanyima refused to embrace because of his high principles. To this extent Byanyima was a non-conformist because he stuck to a political party which men of his religious beliefs were not expected to join and remain faithful.

Everywhere in colonial Africa, the departing colonial powers had a master plan which was sometimes hastily drawn and often politically unethical. The plan was to ensure that the newly independent nations were left in ideologically and politically, and in the case of Uganda, religiously safe hands.

One example is Jomo Kenyatta, who was unacceptable to the British and the White Settlers despite the great political impact of the Mau Mau, which he led. To circumvent a Kenya led by Kenyatta, the British adopted the ethnic or small tribes' strategy.

The British mobilised the small tribes to unite under the Kenya Democratic Union (KADU) led by Arap Moi. But such had been the charisma of Kenyatta that the small tribes strategy under KADU failed to ignite the majority of Kenyans.  Consequently, KADU and did not take off. Kenya was thus led to independence by Kenyatta, a man the British loved to hate.

Moi eventually delivered himself and followers in KADU to KANU, the ruling party. Whereas in Kenya, the British played what was essentially ethnic politics, elsewhere in Africa, ideological considerations were dominant. Nigeria is a good example. Chief Awolowo and his Action Group Party were side lined because they were suspected of leftist or communist leanings.

Independent Nigeria had to be handed to the safe hands of the conservative Northern People's Congress led by the Tafa Balewa. In Uganda, the once dynamic Uganda National Congress (UNC) party, began to suffer from damaging internal conflicts, which led to splits. One of the splinter groups was Obote's Uganda People's Congress. Like in the case of Chief Awolowo, Musaazi was suspected of having leftist or communist sympathies. The invisible hand of the departing British colonial power had identified Obote as a safe horse to put their money on. DP and its leader Bendicto Kiwanuka were unacceptable on account of Kiwanuka's religion.

Truth and Justice

What was it that drove Byanyima to remain true to his political principles in an age when principles where trampled underfoot? A few years ago when he was ill and was recuperating in a house in Kisugu, a suburb of Muyenga, I went to see him. I remember asking him why he chose to be a member of DP? He told me that before joining politics, he studied the characters of Kiwanuka and Obote.

He concluded that character and principles were important to him besides that DP's emphasis on Truth and Justice attracted him. This is why we conclude that because of his high principles, he was a non-conformist, sometimes full of disdain for the politico-religious establishment in which he was born and natured.

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

It is unlikely that Byanyima read the ancient Greek philosophers who included Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, men whom we know to have placed supreme value in the virtue of justice in any civilised society.

Aristotle himself went as far as to say that justice was the cornerstone of all ethics because it was the handmaid of truth. When truth dies, justice is buried with it, so Aristotle concluded. To the Uganda political scientists and Ugandan students of politics, I say this.

Besides studying Castro, Nasser, Nkrumah and Fanon etc, they should add the ideologically non revolutionaries such as Byanyima. He was not an ideologue.

He read no Philosophers; he wrote no political revolutionary tracts and did not preach or espouse revolution.  But his principled political life which money could not buy in an age when every politician had a price is worthy studying.