ROGER SCOTT'S m'jzi "MiWITi THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE UNIONS IN UGANDA ROGER SCOTT The history of the labour movement in East Africa has been unjustly neglected. This book is the first full- length study in this field. Roger Scott has brilliantly analysed the complex development of Uganda's Trade Union structure and its relationship with the political drive for independence. Shs. 27/50 IN EAST AFRICA an eaph publication for THE EAST AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH OTHER EAISR PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING IN EAST AFRICA BY PAUL CLARK 16/- THE COMMON MARKET AND DEVELOPMENT IN EAST AFRICA BY PHILIP NDEGWA 15/- THE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN EAST AFRICA BY CHARLES FRANK 15/- TAXATION FOR DEVELOPMENT BY DHARAM GHAI 20/- (F\ write for our list: • EAST AFRICAN PUBLISHING HOUSE • KOINANGE STREET, P.O. BOX 30571, NAIROBI Is /O - iz The Development of Trade Unions in Uganda The Development of Trade Unions in Uganda by ROGER SCOTT East African Publishing House EAST AFRICAN PUBLISHING HOUSE Uniafric House, Koinange Street P.O. Box 30571, Nairobi First published 1966 Copyright © East African Institute of Social Research, Kampala, 1966 Made and printed in Kenya by Kenya Litho Ltd., Cardiff Road, Nairobi PREFACE This book is a product of three years' research as Rockefeller Foundation Teaching Fellow of the East African Institute of Social Research in Kampala. Field work, in the sense of exclusive con- centration on primary research, was conducted in two sections: a four months' visit immediately preceding Uganda's independence in October 1962 and the twelve months from July 1963. The material used in the case studies of individual unions was prepared at the beginning of 1964 although an attempt has been made to take account of subsequent changes by revision at the editorial stage. Because of the almost total absence of published records, apart from press reports, the book depends heavily upon interview material and unpublished files. The nature of the information being sought excluded the possibility of using a standard pattern of questionnaire. This raises the general problem of identification of sources and documentation. In defence of my failure to produce specific references for many statements, I would subscribe to the view on this propounded by William Foltz: "Because of the conditions imposed on many of the interviews and even more in consideration of the use to which such information might be put, I have, as a general rule, not identified my respondents. Similarly, I was granted privileged access to some private and governmental documents not normally available to the public, and have felt obliged not to reveal these sources. I am certain that any- one who has done recent political research in Africa will appreciate the need for such reticence." (Foltz, 1965, p. viii). I must, however, acknowledge my debt to several people whose advice was especially valuable at various stages in the writing of this work. Professor Colin Leys, now of the University of Sussex, first interested me in the possibility of doing this type of study; Mr. Martin Byers (Uganda Labour Commissioner), Mr. George Foggon (Labour Adviser to the Ministry for Overseas Development), Dr. Walter Elkan of Durham University, Mr. George Bennett and Mr. Allan Flanders of Oxford University all read the early drafts of what was then a doctoral dissertation; Dr. Joseph Gugler and Professor James Coleman have provided a number of useful sug- gestions in their capacity as Directors of Research at the East African Institute. Finally, I must thank my wife for typing and correcting innumerable drafts and for acting as my most trenchant critic. A work of this sort could not have been written without the active and willing assistance of a very large number of people who gave up their time to submit to interviews and also made available written sources of information. The opinions and errors herein remain my responsibility but I freely acknowledge my great debt to Ugandan hospitality. R. D. Scott Kampala December, 1965 Contents Preface 1 THE UGANDAN SETTING 2 THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE UNIONS .. 3 PROBLEMS OF UNION ORGANISATION 4 THE ADMINISTRATION OF COLONIAL LABOUR POLICY 5 INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCES 6 THE RAILWAY AFRICAN UNION 7 GENERAL UNIONS 8 COMPANY UNIONS—TEXTILES AND TOBACCO 9 THE NATIONAL UNION OF PLANTATION WORKERS 10 THE UGANDA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES UNION 11 THE UGANDA TRADES UNION CONGRESS 12 UNIONS AND NATIONALISM 13 UNIONS AND THE INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT 14 A WIDER PERSPECTIVE List of abbreviations References APPENDIX A The Ugandan Industrial Relations Charter APPENDIX B Biographical notes Map of Uganda Inside back Chapter One THE UGANDAN SETTING Uganda is isolated geographically from non-African influences, a fact which helps to explain the relatively late contact with European civilisation and the retention of traditional institutions. Although Uganda forms the main basin and headwaters of the Nile, the country looks to the east rather than to the north. There is little contact with the Sudan or Congo (Leopoldville), and Uganda's main communication link is the 800 miles of railway line through Kenya to the Indian Ocean at Mombasa. Uganda is essentially an East African territory, linked to Kenya and Tanganyika by the common focus of Lake Victoria and a diminishing range of co- ordinated government services made possible by a common history of British administration. The country itself is comparable in size to Ghana or Great Britain, although its 91,000 square miles support a population of less than 7 million people. The bulk of the country forms a plateau just under 4,000 feet above sea-level, sloping away towards the north so that the River Nile drops 1,700 feet between Lake Victoria and the point where it crosses the Sudan border. The formation of the African rift valleys produced a string of shallow lakes and the towering Ruwenzori Mountains in the west of Uganda, while the volcanic Mount Elgon (14,000 feet) dominates the eastern boundary with Kenya. The altitude provides Uganda with an equable climate despite its location astride the equator. Although some mixing of cultures has occurred, especially in urban areas, a clear division can still be drawn between the Bantu around the Lake and in the west, and the Nilotic and Nilo-Hamitic in the north and east. In addition, over ten per cent of the popu- lation are recent immigrants from neighbouring countries. Most come from the over-populated and politically disturbed areas of Rwanda and the Southern Sudan to work as labourers in the more prosperous agricultural areas. An important group have also come The Ugandan Setting wage-earning: the short-term migrants (or "target workers"), the long-term migrants more committed to a working life of wagee-arning and the resident workers. In all three types, the dominant factor is the complex relationship between the Africans and their land. Short-term migration remained the dominant feature of the labour structure in Uganda until recently because, in the words of the East Africa Royal Commission: "it appears as the most economic choice which the African can make ... the only system through which a considerable section of the African population can meet its needs, because the economic opportunities for specialisation have either been absent or have been seriously circumscribed by legal and customary restrictions." (CO, 1955, p. 154). In Uganda, the main restriction was the continued existence of customary land tenure practices. Two very different types of labourer were more committed to the wage-earning labour force in Uganda than these short-term migrants (Elkan and Fallers, 1960). The first group was the Ganda. They enjoyed three important advantages over other tribes. Because Buganda was the base from which both the colonial admini- stration and the missions operated, the Ganda had greater edu- cational opportunities and consequently occupied more skilled clerical positions. Another legacy of the colonial regime was the special mailo land tenure system which provided 9,000 square miles of African freehold under the Agreement of 1900 between the British Government and the Kabaka. Buganda is naturally well endowed, so this special freehold tenure system allowed the alienation of land lights to raise fluid capital and also the development of agricultural enterprise beyond the simple peasant level. Finally, the Ganda were able to join the urban labour force without leaving home because the major centres of employment were within easy reach of their tribal territory. This meant that the Ganda could move easily between agriculture and urban employment and simultaneously combine the two sources of income. As a result they tended to stay in employment for longer periods because there were fewer pressures to leave the job. As wages rose, the incentive to leave the town decreased, so it might have been expected that wage employment would become a perpetual necessity. Yet, sooner or later, most did leave. They used the capital they had THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE UNIONS IN UGANDA 5 After the Ganda, the Luo and Luhya from Kenya were the most stable members of the labour force. Like the Ganda, they had integrated long periods of town labour into their pattern of socio- economic behaviour. But, unlike the Ganda who commuted daily or weekly, the Luo and Luhya had to travel long distances to find a market for their labour. Their tribal territory (above Kisumu in the Nyanza Province of Kenya) provided insufficient jobs because that area was not as naturally well endowed, and was twice as densely populated, as Buganda. Consequently, they travelled widely over East Africa and often stayed away for periods of twenty years. Kampala and Jinja cou'd be reached quickly and cheaply by rail or lake steamer and attracted a large number of Luo and Luhya migrants.