EAST AFRICAN STUDIES m <8 RAILWAYS AND DEVELOPMENT IN UGANDA A. M. O'Connor EAST AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS RAILWAYS AND DEVELOPMENT IN UGANDA A Study in Economic Geography A. M. O'CONNOR LECTURER IN GEOGRAPHY AT MAKERERE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, KAMPALA Published on behalf of The East African Institute of Social Research by OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS NAIROBI 1965 Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C.4 GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA CAPE TOWN SALISBURY NAIROBI IBADAN ACCRA KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG © East African Institute of Social Research 1965 RAILWAYS AND DEVELOPMENT IN UGANDA Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C.4 GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA CAPE TOWN SALISBURY NAIROBI 1BADAN ACCRA KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG © East African Institute of Social Research 1965 RAILWAYS AND DEVELOPMENT IN UGANDA MAPS 1. Uganda: Cotton Production 2. Uganda: Sugar Movements 3. Uganda: Petrol Prices 4. Mukono Area: Settlement Pattern. 5. Western Uganda: Mean Annual Rainfall 6. Western Uganda: Density of Population .. 7. Western Railway: Anticipated Traffic 8. Western Railway: 1960-1962 Traffic 9. Northern Uganda: Mean Annual Rainfall 10. Northern Uganda: Density of Population East Africa: Railways Uganda: Transport Facilities, 1960 Uganda: Transport Facilities, 1964 PREFACE VISITORS to Uganda often see the country as a green oasis in a predomi- nantly brown continent, even as a land of plenty where man does not have to struggle against a harsh environment as in much of Africa. Yet Uganda is by no means a rich country: its people have an annual cash income of only about £15 per head, and the figure is not rising at all at present. Amongst the problems facing the country that of inadequate transport facilities is often considered especially serious, and it is frequently claimed that developments in this field must inevitably bring increased prosperity to the people of Uganda. This study aims to examine this claim in respect of rail transport, and to assess the importance of rail facilities as a factor influencing the distribution of economic activities in Uganda. The subject was inspired mainly by the fact that much new railway construction has recently been undertaken and particular attention is given to the recent extensions to the rail system. Primary sources have been used for the greater part of the work, for little has been written about Uganda, and virtually nothing about its economic geography or its transport facilities. Published material has been used mainly for Chapters 3 and 8, concerned with railways built in the earlier part of the century and with road transport respectively. In the case of the former the material was obtained mainly from Annual Reports of the various Uganda Government Departments and of the Railway Administra- tion. Road transport was the subject of a study by an economist from Britain, sponsored by the Uganda Government, and use has been made of his report. Official publications have been used as the source of much of the statistical information given elsewhere in this study, although much unpublished material has also been used. Unless otherwise noted, statistics for any economic activity have been obtained from the appropriate Govern- ment Department. The primary sources which were tapped most extensively were the records and files of East African Railways and Harbours, of Uganda Government Departments, of public organizations such as the Lint and Coffee Marketing Boards and the Uganda Development Corporation, and of private firms. The remainder of the material is original, being gained from individuals engaged in the various economic activities discussed and from personal observation during travel in every District of Uganda: this is almost entirely of a qualitative rather than a quantitative nature. The reliability of statistics quoted varies very greatly. Those concerned with rail movements are generally accurate, for detailed records are kept in Nairobi of all traffic handled, and there is no reason to doubt their vii reliability. The Hollerith records provide a most valuable statement of all freight traffic, and summarized figures for Uganda have been included as an appendix since they are the result of calculations which had not pre- viously been undertaken even within the Railway Administration. Some of the production figures quoted are equally reliable, but this is not true of crop acreage figures, and among the statistics used in this study these must be regarded as the most suspect. In 1960 a revised method of cotton acreage estimation was tried, and the results for some Districts were figures 50% above or below those obtained using the old method. In some cases, therefore, the picture here presented may be that indicated by the available figures rather than that existing on the ground. It is hoped that this applies in only a few cases, and that the bulk of the information obtained is consider- ably more reliable, but it has not been thought appropriate to make elaborate calculations on the basis of data such as is available for crop acreages. The research upon which this book is based was undertaken between 1960 and 1962, and the results were presented as a thesis for the Ph.D. degree of the University of Cambridge. The work has subsequently been revised and shortened, and it is now based on the situation as it was in 1963. I should like to acknowledge assistance given from many quarters during the course of my research. For financial support I am much indebted to the managers of the Smuts Memorial Fund of Cambridge University and to the British Council, who supplemented a grant from the Ministry of Education. During the two years spent in Uganda I enjoyed the good fortune to reside in Makerere University College: more pleasant conditions for working could hardly be found, and I am most grateful to the college authorities for accepting me as a research student. Many people in the college, and especially in the Department of Geography, helped me greatly through the friendliness and encouragement they offered. I am most grateful to Mr. A. Serubiri and Mr. C. Odye, draughtsmen in the Department of Geography, for assistance with the maps included in this study. It would be quite impracticable to list all those who gave me assistance during the course of my inquiries in Uganda; but I must single out the officials of East African Railways and Harbours, and especially Mr. L. Brown in Kampala and Mr. J. Boumphrey in Nairobi, without whose willing co- operation the work would have been impossible. I am also most grateful to many officials of Uganda Government Departments and other public bodies, and to numerous individuals engaged in commerce and trade through- out Uganda, who gave of their time to answer my questions and to show me their records. Finally, I should like to record my appreciation of the encouragement and advice given by my research supervisors, Professor S. J. K. Baker of Makerere College, and Mr. B. H. Farmer of Cambridge University, who followed the work with far closer attention than I had any reason to expect. Kampala, January 1964. A.M.O'C. viii 1 INTRODUCTION TRANSPORT facilities are generally considered to be one of the most important factors influencing the pattern of economic activities in any area: and improvements in this field are often recommended as one way of tackling the problems of the underdeveloped countries of the world. One such country is Uganda, where the period from 1950 to 1970 is witnessing much new railway construction in addition to substantial expenditure on the road system. Lord Lugard was expressing a widely held opinion when he stated in 1922 that 'the material development of Africa may be summed up in the one word "transport"1, that 'the development of the African continent is impossible without railways, and has awaited their advent'2, and that 'any railway built reasonably cheaply through a populous country is bound to be remunerative'3. At that time railway construction was thought by many to be the key to prosperity for tropical Africa. Today views have generally been modified, but in 1956 Lord Hailey could still say of transport: 'There seems to be no other type of development which can effect so speedy a change in the economic and social conditions of a back- ward country'*, although he observed that road building may now be of greater value than rail construction. The idea that railway building will automatically bring economic development is continually being expressed in government circles in Uganda, as in many other countries. A committee appointed to consider the proposal to extend the railway westwards from Kampala observed that 'the development that must inevitably follow in the wake of a railway will provide new opportunities of incalculable value'5. And when the Minister of Commerce and Industry stated in Legislative Council in 1961 that the northern line now nearing completion 'will open up new areas for agricultural development'6, all subsequent speakers accepted this, although no evidence had been given to substantiate it. The role of rail transport in economic development should be a subject of academic interest as well as one of great practical importance. Yet it has been observed that 'transport and communications are prominent 2 Railways and Development in Uganda among the areas of study that have not yet received sufficient attention from economists or from geographers''. Such study as has been undertaken by either has generally approached the subject from the aspect furthest removed from the other discipline. Thus 'Transport Geography' has been concerned mainly with such matters as the relation between relief features and transport routes8, or with a description and also an explanation of traffic move- ments9.