Colonial Chiefs and the Making of Class: A Case Study From Teso, Eastern Uganda

Abstract

Opening ParagraphThis is a study of Teso District, eastern Uganda, during a period of colonial administration from 1896 to 1927. A group of appointed chiefs was brought into being and maintained within a local political environment in which neither traditional rulers nor a principle of hereditary succession to political office were recognised. The growth of the bureaucratic and authoritarian aspects of client chiefship is traced, along with changes in the relations of the chiefs with the colonial regime and with the people they ruled. In time, their increasing powers of coercion and their accumulative control of patronage led to the emergence of a class interest among them. This became crystallised in the mid-1920s when, as a body, they maintained a conservative stance within a colonial administration geared to change.

Land conflicts and social differentiation in eastern Uganda

“…While many clans organised violent resistance in different parts of Teso, the technological superiority of Baganda firearms, along with their more effective tactical and logistical structures, proved overwhelming (Vincent 1974; Karp 1978). Moreover, certain indigenous military leaders in Teso allied with the Baganda without mounting a fight (Vincent 1977). ‘Teso’, as the sub-region became named, was officially incorporated into the Ugandan Protectorate (established in 1894) as a district in 1912.…”

Regime de terras e cultivo de algodão em dois contextos coloniais: Uganda e Moçambique (1895-1930)

“…O exército britânico interveio para apoiar ao candidato a Kabaka (rei) dos missionários protestantes e estabeleceu um protectorado sobre o reino de Buganda em 1895 (Hansen 1984 Desde então, a monarquia Baganda e o seu séquito protestante fez as funções de aliado militar e auxiliar administrativo do estado colonial do Uganda (Vincent 1977;Tosh 1978;Nayenga 1979 Assim, exceptuando os moradores das 19.700 milhas quadradas concedidas em regime de propriedade plena, todos os demais habitantes do Uganda moravam em terras da coroa, administradas pelo governador-geral, a quem deviam pagar o imposto de palhota. Segundo Peter Nayenga, foi precisamente para ajudar a população a pagar este imposto que um chefe Baganda, Mukasa, propôs ao administrador do distrito o cultivo de algodão (Nayenga 1981: 175-176).…”