Mr. Lyttelton and the Kabaka
HATCH, JOHN
MR. LYTTELTON AND THE KABAKA By John Hatch Author of "Dilemma in South Africa" The conflict between the British Government and the Kabaka (King) of Buganda, a territory in Uganda, sheds light on...
...The Lukiko delegation, after consulting with the Lukiko itself, returned to London determined to fight the monarch's arbitrary exile...
...They pointed out that, while 5.5 million Africans were to have only 14 representatives, 7,000 Europeans and 40,000 Asians were to be represented by 7 members each...
...Unless the Kabaka is returned to his country...
...The refusal to recognize the injustice of victimizing the Kabaka for presenting his people's policy may be laid at the door of the Governor...
...Lyttelton then denied the implications of his statement, but the damage was done...
...Ruganda's constitutional position is now in a state of transition, and the Kabaka is becoming a constitutional monarch...
...The cause of the dispute having thus disappeared, the return of the Kabaka would have left Britain in a strong position...
...Uganda's four provinces protested...
...After their first flush of confidence, however, Uganda's Africans began to have their doubts: Was industrial expansion planned with a view to increasing European and Asiatic immigration, as in the Rhodesias...
...White settlers were few--there are only about 7,000 there now--and color prejudice and racial discrimination were almost unknown...
...second, that white settlers throughout East Africa would succeed in establishing a federation of Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika patterned after the Central African Federation...
...But Lyttelton foolishly declared his exile permanent...
...3) to remain aloof from the new Legislative Council, and (4) to set a time limit for the attainment of self-government within the Commonwealth...
...Regardless of what one may think about the Lukiko's policy, it is obvious that the Governor and the Colonial Office failed to understand what prompted it...
...They were pleased, too, by the chance to receive increased political responsibility...
...Uganda was expected to progress steadily, with Britain encouraging industrial development and gradually giving the Africans administrative and political control...
...He was given the option of acting as the Governor's mouthpiece and being rejected by his own people, or of representing his people and losing British support...
...At the outbreak of the present dispute, nearly half the members of the Great Lukiko (Council) were elected, and by the end of the year 60 of its 89 members were elected...
...it seemed to promise them future control over their government...
...This action united the Baganda people into a nationalist community deeply resentful of the British action...
...Uganda Africans welcomed the prospect of industrial development that would raise their standard of living...
...The Kabaka, however, was still responsible for presenting his people's policy to the Governor...
...Its development pattern was seen as resembling the West African model rather than the East or Central African...
...It was not until after the Kabaka's deportation that Lyttelton published his assurance that federation would not be imposed and that the protectorate is to be developed as an African state...
...The most violent reaction came from the Baganda, Uganda's most advanced and socially conscious people and the inhabitants of Buganda, which holds the key to all economic development in the protectorate...
...The sum of this uneasiness revived two fears: first, that Uganda would be developed as a multi-racial rather than an African state...
...Would the skilled technicians needed to engineer their projects come, as in West Africa, to pass on their knowledge to the Africans, or would they establish a color bar to preserve their monopoly...
...On June 30, while these fears were at their height, Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttelton seemed to justify them by making a speech that forecast East African federation...
...The Colonial Secretary, however, is responsible for refusing to rectify the mistake...
...Concern was also expressed over the country's political direction...
...Buganda will become another source of African hostility to the British Government...
...Legislative reforms announced early in 1953 preserved the equality between African and non-African, but left the balance with London-appointed official members...
...Africans felt the latter would probably support a non-African point of view...
...Afraid of being swallowed up in a federation, the Baganda decided to press for a federal structure within Uganda which would allow them (1) to secede, if necessary, in order to escape domination by white settlers in other East African territories: (2) to demand a transfer from the Colonial to the Foreign Office--since the Sudan is achieving self-government under the Foreign Secretary...
...When the Governor refused to accept the Baganda policy, the Kabaka was placed in an impossible position...
...He chose the latter and was exiled from his country...
...The Legislative Council was balanced by an equal number of Africans on one side and Europeans and Asians on the other...
...Once this appeared, the Kabaka and the Lukiko delegation withdrew their demands, though they still insisted on a federal structure for Uganda...
...LYTTELTON AND THE KABAKA By John Hatch Author of "Dilemma in South Africa" The conflict between the British Government and the Kabaka (King) of Buganda, a territory in Uganda, sheds light on problems affecting British-African relations...
Vol. 37 • March 1954 • No. 9
