Population Decline and Delayed Recovery in Bunyoro, 1860–1960

Abstract

RAPID population growth is commonly depicted as one of the greatest problems facing modern Africa. For decades, the tendency of birth rates to exceed mortality rates has prompted predictions of land shortage, resource depletion and mass starvation. Underlying causes of high fertility are hypothesized to have been an unusually high demand for human agricultural labour, ‘traditional religious pronatalism’ and a ‘horror of barrenness’, while in some areas the later colonial period saw a shortening of the durations of post-partum sexual abstinence and lactation. Mortality decline from the 1920s is commonly linked to the establishment of cash crop economies, networks of roads and railways, and the diffusion of western medicine, maternity facilities, missionary activity and primary education. Yet the empirical evidence supporting this model of population growth is contradictory. Areas such as Buhaya, Buganda and Bunyoro should have experienced rapid demographic expansion by natural increase in the colonial period according to dominant theories but instead experts in the early decades of this century feared the extinction of the Haya, Ganda and Nyoro. This paper will attempt to explain why population decline among the Nyoro was more severe than anywhere else in colonial Uganda, and probably East Africa.

The exploitation of manganese-rich ‘ore’ to smelt iron in Mwenge, western Uganda, from the mid second millennium AD

“…Once established in the region, iron production played a prominent role in the later history of western Uganda and the growth of the kingdom of Bunyoro, with iron becoming a cornerstone of industry, regional trade and social power through the second millennium AD. Mwenge, located towards the southwest extent of the kingdom's control (Figure 1), is reputed to have been one of the most prolific iron producing areas of western Uganda (Buchanan 1974;Doyle 2000).…”

The development of iron technology in precolonial western Uganda

“…Colonialism and nationalism have greatly influenced research agendas across sub-Saharan Africa, and archaeology in the Great Lakes and western Uganda is no exception (Robertshaw 2003: 149). As a consequence, only a few early foreign-led expeditions ventured into the heart of Bunyoro, preferring instead to visit just the outer reaches of this 'uncivilised backwater' (Doyle 2000) and for considerably less time. The historical sources that do exist, whether written by local dignitaries or foreign visitors, were ossified at or after the point of colonial contact and are heavily influenced by the contexts that frame them.…”

Reconstructing the iron production technologies of western Uganda: reconciling archaeometallurgical and ethnoarchaeological approaches

“…This, alongside the "destructive war of colonial conquest" (Robertshaw et al 2004: 542) and a rinderpest epidemic, almost completely depopulated the kingdom (Doyle 2000). Epidemic disease spread unusually easily due to conditions forced upon the population because of war: anti-famine measures (grain storage, trade networks) had been broken down, and British forces destroyed crops and livestock to subdue disloyal villages.…”

“…As a further consequence of this, only a few foreign-led expeditions ventured into the heart of Bunyoro, preferring instead to visit only the outer reaches of this 'uncivilised backwater' (Doyle 2000), and for considerably less time. The early twentieth century 'missionary anthropologist' John Roscoe (Ray 1991: 17), although sympathetic to Nyoro interests, spent only four months in Bunyoro (as compared to the many years he spent in Buganda), although this was much extended from the three weeks that he had originally planned (Deane 2007: 37).…”

“…Such war, coupled with climatic insecurity, was a major cause of famine for Bunyoro in the late nineteenth century (Doyle 2000;Robertshaw et al 2004: 542). Ultimately, "the kingdom of Bunyoro, once the most powerful state in the region, declined significantly in territory and power" from this period onwards (Robertshaw et al 2004: 542), with Buganda and Rwanda emerging as the new 'superpowers' of the Great Lakes (Webster et al 1992).…”