Nationalism, Popular Uprising and the Un-Doing of Martial Race Concept in Uganda, 1971 to 1986
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Global Advanced Research Journal of History, Political Science and International Relations ISSN: 2315-506X Vol. 2(3) pp. 041-052, October, 2013 Available online http://garj.org/garjhpsir/index.htm Copyright © 2013 Global Advanced Research Journals Review Nationalism, popular uprising and the un-doing of martial race concept in Uganda, 1971 to 1986 Charles Amone Department of History in Gulu University, Northern Uganda. And Guest Researcher of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. E-mail: [email protected]; Tel: Office: +256 0471432922, Mobile: +256772462901 Accepted 07 October, 2013 When, on 19 th June 1979, newly installed President of Uganda Professor Yusufu Lule, announced plans to reform recruitment into the armed forces to reflect the ethnic composition of the country, he was ousted by the army the next day. His successor, Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa, made a similar mistake and attempted to end the hegemony of northerners in the military, by removing army Chief of Staff Brigadier Oyite Ojok. He also suffered a coup. The lesson Ugandans learned was that the century old military ethnocracy in the country could not be ended by a mere stroke of the pen. It required a protracted people’s struggle, which explains why Yoweri Museveni succeeded in 1986 where Lule and Binaisa had failed in 1979 and 1980 respectively. This paper illustrates the growth and metamorphosis of a military ethnocracy in Uganda, and how it was defeated through a popular people’s resistance. Keywords : Nationalism, Military, Ethnocracy, Bantu, Nilotics, Acholi INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The different communities that British colonial forces Martial race was a designation created by army officials amalgamated to form Uganda were of three different of British India after the mutiny of 1857, where they ethno-linguistic groups namely the Sudanic, Nilotics and classified each ethnic group into one of two categories, Bantu (Lwanga-Lunyigo, 1987: 2). The southern half of 'martial' and 'non-martial'. The ostensible reason was that the country had Bantu communities while the north a 'martial race' was typically brave and well-built for composed of Nilotics and Sudanic societies who were fighting while the 'non-martial races' were those whom closer in affinity to the peoples across the border in the British believed to be unfit for battle because of their Sudan than the Bantu societies of the south with whom sedentary lifestyle (Gavin, 2006: 1–20). The British they were combined. This amalgamation was done by regarded the 'martial races' as valiant and strong but way of military expeditions and repressions. The military intellectually inferior, lacking the initiative or leadership remained a key factor in the politics of Uganda before, qualities to command large military formations. They during and after British colonialism. In this exceptional were also regarded as politically subservient or docile to military history, the Acholi became the ‘martial race’ of authority. The British came to East Africa using the same Uganda. The colonial army as recorded by Brett (1995: colonial tactics they had perfected throughout their 135) was recruited from northern tribes using physical empire: consolidating power through divide- and- rule rather than educational criteria. It expanded rapidly after policies that irrevocably changed identity, politics and 1962, but the rank-and-file continued to come belonging in the territory now known as Uganda predominantly from Acholi. (Finnstrom, 2003: 62). “Every institution touched by the 042 Glo. Adv. Res. J. Hist. Polit. Sci. Int. Relat. hand of the colonial state”, wrote Mahmoud Mandani profile. In daring to shape the new Ugandan (1984: 10), “was given a pronounced regional or army, the vital constituency, he was inadvertently nationality character. It became a truism that a soldier trying to cut some raw nerves and it is because must be a northerner, a civil servant a southerner and a he dared talk about the future of Uganda army merchant an Asian”. This policy meant that, with time, that Lule was actually overthrown. The other soldiering in Uganda became a preserve of the northern reasons were a mere smoke-screen. ethnic communities especially the Acholi. A British Protectorate over Uganda was formally Lule’s proposal to disband the National Liberation Army proclaimed on 19 th June 1894. In a dispatch to the to replace it with a newly-created National Army was colonial office in London dated 4 th December 1894 viewed as a malicious move to sideline those who formed Colonel Colville made recommendations for the formation the bulk of the liberation force. of Uganda Rifles. In September 1895 the Uganda Rifles Prof. Edward Rugumayo was elected to replace Lule. Ordinance was approved by Parliament (Uganda Rifle However, Rugumayo’s election sparked off massive riots Ordinance: FO2/176). The man chosen for the task of in Buganda with chants of ‘No Lule, No work’. To win building the Uganda Rifles was Major Ternan who had Buganda’s support, another Muganda, Godfrey distinguished himself in service in Egypt. He arrived in Lukongwe Binaisa, was called to replace Prof. Rugumayo Uganda late in 1895 and the following year was (Mutiibwa, 1992: 132). Binaisa’s plans to reform appointed commandant of Uganda Rifles. The core of recruitment into the armed forces were also seen as Uganda Rifles was the Nubian force of Emin Pasha, undermining the army. It was also viewed as a threat to Governor of Equatorial Province, who was cut off from the dominance of the so-called traditional areas for army Egypt by the Mahadist revolt of 1881 to 1885 (Holger, recruits such as Acholi and Lango (Mutiibwa, 1992: 135). 1991: 562). After he was rescued by H. M. Stanley in When Binaisa removed the army Chief of Staff, Brigadier 1889, his army was absorbed into the British colonial Oyite Ojok, he was himself removed from office on 12 service by Captain F. D. Lugard. When Nubian forces May 1980 by the Military Commission, a powerful organ mutinied in 1897, the British began to sideline them in of the UNLF. The country was then led by the preference for the Acholi who then dominated the military Presidential Commission (set up a few days after the terrains of Uganda until the coup of Idi Amin of 1971, coup) with among others Paulo Muwanga, Yoweri momentarily, halted their hegemony. Museveni, Oyite Ojok and Tito Okello as commissioners. In April 1979, Tanzanian army assisted by Ugandan The Presidential Commission organised the disputed nationalist forces based in exile, ousted Idi Amin. Yusufu elections of December 1980 in which Uganda People’s Lule was made President. He was of the Buganda, and Congress (UPC) of Milton Obote emerged winner. Brett therefore Bantu, ethnic stock, yet the army to which he (1995:129-130) has argued that government by consent was commander in chief was dominated by Nilotics. is impossible where force is not subjected to civil There was intense power struggle between the two major authority or is divided between warring factions. Once Ugandan groups involved in the ouster of Amin-Fronasa autocratic power exists, opponents will be eliminated or and Kikosi Maluum. At liberation the former was much compelled to take up arms, and people will have to the larger force, when Museveni was made Minister of choose between submission to arbitrary authority or a Defense. However, Tito Okello and Oyite Ojok were ‘war of all against all’. Early in 1981, Yoweri Museveni given command of the unified Uganda National Liberation took to the bush to build a protracted peoples war against Front (UNLF), Front for National Salvation (Fronasa) Obote’s government and the involvement of the army in officers and men were sidelined, and new recruitment politics. In January 1986, his forces marched triumphantly was confined to traditional northern areas (Brett, 1995: into Kampala city. 141). In the opinion of Oloka-Onyango, (2004: 30): On June 20, 1979, the army staged a coup, removing Lule as president for allegedly making wide ranging The notion that the period from mid 1980s and appointments in government without consulting the mid 1990s generated a new breed of African military high command. But, according to Mutiibwa (1992: leadership captured popular imagination, official 130), discourse, and academic writing. Leaders like Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Isias Aferworki in Lule was removed from power in 1979 mainly Eritrea and Paul Kagame in Rwanda were young, because of an attempt to shift the ethnic dynamic and willing to break discredited composition of the army away from the Acholi. predecessors’ taboos. Among these bretheren, The unfortunate Lule had talked about what kind no personality better exemplified the new breed of army Uganda should have. He had mentioned than Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of basic academic and literacy requirements; he Uganda. When the National Resistance’s had stressed the importance of recruitment Movement/Army (NRM/A) assumed power in the policies which took into account the nationalities wake of Uganda’s second civil war in the 1980s, Amone 043 the leadership of the movement very quickly same orientation, the same weapons, only different assumed an almost Guevaran posture in the uniforms”. According to Ruddy Doom and Koen discourse on African democratization and Vlassenroot (1999: 5-36), the Acholi, far from being born recovery. Nearly two decades, Museveni still warriors, were transformed into a military ethnocracy. dominates Uganda’s popular and intellectual Their opinions differ from that of Grove (1919: 163) who imagination. states that the Acholi were already a fighting race and war was their constant occupation before the government The war in the Luwero Triangle is one of the forgotten took over their country and it usually took the form of wars. In the bipolar world order of the 1980s, Uganda night raids on other villages. possessed no particular strategic importance.