Uganda before XVIIe
The first human inhabitants of the contemporary Uganda were hunters-gatherers. There exist still some people which preserved this wandering lifestyle, in particular the Pygmy S in the west of the country. The sources over the first historical period of the area are very few and rest mainly on the archaeological excavations. The most current assumption concerning the settlement of the area shows two waves of successive migrations. Enter, roughly, -2.000 and -1.500 before our era, of the populations of language Bantou, coming apparently from central Africa and the African west, migrated and settled in most of the south of Uganda. They are these migrants, who brought with them agriculture, the work of iron as well as new ideas of social organization and policy. There exists little of information on the period which follows the migrations and this until the 15th century. One then sees developing kingdoms whose characteristic is an early political centralization. Among these kingdoms, Bunyoro-Kitara which then dominates the area, Ankole, the Sese Islands and the Buganda.
The nilotic populations, which include Luo and Ateker, entered the area by north, probably in the neighborhoods of the first century of our era. They are mainly shepherds and farmers who settled in north and is country. Certains Luo migrated in the area of Bunyoro then were assimilated with Bantous. They thus established the dynasty of Badiito of current Omukama of Bunyoro. The Luo emigration continued until the 16th century, some being established in the Bantu areas of the east while others were installed on banks of the Lake Victoria. Ateker (Karimojong people and Teso) were established them in the North-East and the east of Uganda. Some amalgamated with Luo in the areas north of the Lac Kyoga.
Uganda enters XVIIe and XIXe
XVIIe, XVIIIe and XIXe centuries are marked by the expansion of the kingdom of Buganda to the detriment of its neighbors. The strategy of different the Kabaka (kings) takes several aspects. The first consists in trying to then control trade route which connects the coast of the Indian Ocean to Bunyoro, shopping mall of the area. The second consists in benefitting from the quarrels of succession and the political bursting to intervene in an increasingly insistent way in the close kingdoms. The decisive rise of the kingdom intervenes under the reign of Kabaka Suna. The weakened kingdoms pass then under the dependence of Baganda. Those are subjected to tribes and are compared little by little to Buganda. Progressively of the conquests, the annexed kingdoms are not comparable any more but persist as dependant entities. Buganda will not manage in spite of its efforts to conquer Bunyoro. But by cutting down gradually the kingdoms under the domination of Bunyoro, this last loses at the same time its regional influence and its political power. Thus, Buganda, small kingdom at the beginning of the 17th century, became at the beginning of the 19th century the political and commercial power major of the area. One of the explanations of the success of Buganda would be the recasting of its political institutions at the XVIIe century: the authority of Kabaka continues while making move back those of the clans. It is as from this moment that one tends to assimilate the history of Buganda and the history of Uganda.
When the “Arab” merchants, left the coast of the Indian Ocean, enter Uganda in the Années 1830, they settle quite naturally at the court of Kabaka of Buganda. These merchants are followed in the Années 1860 by the British explorers to the research of the sources of the the Nile. Among the first, let us quote Richard Burton, John Speke and James Grant. They are then adventurers of whole Europe who arrive in this area. The political high level of centralization of the kingdom causes, coupled with the presence of the mythical river, a certain fascination of Europeans for what Winston Churchill will call “the pearl of Africa”.
It is necessary to await the arrival of the Protestant missionaries in 1877, followed catholic missionaries in 1879, so that Europeans settle in the country. The establishment of the two missions marks the beginning of an intense evangelization campaign, in Buganda first of all then in the dependant kingdoms. However, the Christian missionaries run up quickly against the older presence of the Arab tradesmen and Moslem Swahili. Kabaka of Buganda, Mutesa, never converts really with the one of these three religions. On the contrary, Baganda (inhabitants of Buganda) are converted into mass with Christianity and Protestantism. This new religious factor is quickly integrated in the organization of the kingdom into the point to become a stake determining in the civil wars of 1889 with 1895.
Colonial Uganda
In 1888, the part in the East of Kenya is given to Imperial British East Africa Company. It is una commercial company with charters. Arrangement is reinforced in 1890 by a Anglo-Germanic agreement which confirms the British domination on Kenya and Uganda. The strong cost of the occupation of the constrained territory the company to give up the management of Uganda in 1893. Administrative operation is then entrusted to one To commission British. It is finally into 1894 that the kingdom of Buganda signs a treaty with the representatives of the British Empire. A second treaty is signed in 1900. IT is known under the name of Agreement. Buganda and the kingdoms subordinates become officially a British protectorate. The country is unified under the name of Uganda.
Independence
The October 9th 1962, at the time of its independence, Uganda sees being posed, in an acute way, the problem of the political structures. The adopted solution, expressed in the first Constitution, is of federal type - it associates the four old kingdoms - but the Buganda maintains its preponderance until in the name of the new State, the Uganda, country of the Baganda. The king Mutesa II becomes the life president about it. However, Milton Obote, founder, in 1960, of the Congress of the Ugandan people, (UPC), Uganda People' S Congress, becomes Prime Minister. UPC, with the image of its leader, is the party of the nilotic populations of North, opposed to the domination economic and political of Bouganda and, therefore, favorable to centralization. Consequently, the tensions between nilotic North and the South bantou are exacerbated.
In May 1966, Milton Obote, in order to impose centralization, sends the army to Bouganda and deposits king Kabaka Mutesa II, with the support of its chief of staff, Idi Amin Dada, pertaining to a minority Moslem ethnos group of the North-West. Obote makes promulgate, the following year, a new Constitution abolishing the kingdoms, and instituting a presidential regime with sole party. The resistance of Baganda, whose interests are threatened by the policy of nationalization of the trade undertaken by Obote, economic degradation and accusations of corruption are combined to destabilize Obote.
The January 25th 1971, Idi Amin Dada seizes the power at the time of a coup d'etat.
In 1978, Uganda comes very close to bankruptcy, and the Ugandan government is helped financially by the friendly Arab States of Amin Dada. Its mode will end with the ougando-Tanzanian Guerre which sees the Uganda rebels taking the control of the country with the military aid of the Tanzania. Yusuf Lule seizes the capacity but eliminated soon by Godfrey Binaisa. In 1980 Obote takes again the capacity with the favor of disputed elections. After several years of conflict tribal, Yoweri Museveni seizes the capacity thanks to a coup d'etat.
The Museveni era
Dictator defrauding systematically with the elections, Museveni muzzles the opposition and continues the police state of his predecessor. In 1997 the Ugandan troops support the rebellion of Laurent Désiré Kabila in total Zaire.Succés, Kabila becomes president of Zaire renamed Congo.Mais the old allies are scrambled quickly.
See too
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