1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Uganda
UGANDA, a British protectorate in Eastern Equatorial Africa, lying between Lakes Victoria and Albert and between the Mountain Nile and Lake Rudolf. The same name was originally applied to the Bantu kingdom of Buganda, which is one of the five provinces of the protectorate, but which is now styled officially by the correct native name of “Buganda.” The Swahili followers of the first explorers always pronounced the territorial prefix, Bu, as a simple vowel, U; hence the incorrect rendering “Uganda” of the more primitive Bantu designation. It was first applied to the kingdom of Mutesa, discovered by J. H. Speke in 1862, and in time came to include the large protectorate which grew out of the extension of British influence over Buganda.
Boundaries and Area.—On the north the frontier of the protectorate is an undetermined line running between Lado (which lies a little north of 5° N.) on the Mountain Nile and the watershed of Lake Rudolf. This northern boundary is in any case conterminous with the southern boundary of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. On the east the limit of the Uganda Protectorate in 1901 was the thalweg of Lake Rudolf and a line drawn from the south-eastern coast of that lake south along the edge of the Laikipia and Kikuyu escarpments to the frontier of German East Africa.. The southern frontier of Uganda was the 1st degree of S. lat.; the western was the 30th meridian of E. long., from the German frontier on the south, across Albert Edward Nyanza and the Semliki River to the line of water parting between the systems of the Congo and the Nile (in the country of Mboga); thence northwards this western boundary descended to the north coast of Albert Nyanza at Mahagi, and then followed the main stream of the Nile to about 5° N. In 1904, however, it was found that the 30th meridian had been placed some 25 m. west of its true position in the maps used when the frontier was agreed upon, and that if it was maintained as the dividing line it would cut off the Uganda Protectorate from access to Albert Edward Nyanza while giving a corner of the Congo forest to Uganda. A survey commission was subsequently dispatched, and in 1910 British, Belgian and German delegates met in Brussels to draw up a new frontier line. Germany was interested in the dispute, inasmuch as the southern frontier of the Uganda Protectorate coincided with the northern frontier of German East Africa.
Moreover Germany, Great Britain and Belgium (as inheritor of the Congo State) had conflicting claims in the region N.E. of Lake Kivu. On the 14th of May 1910 a protocol was signed defining the new frontier as follows: From the north end of Lake Kivu the Congo-German frontier turns east by north, traversing the volcanic region of Mfumbiro and crosses the summit of Mt Karissimbi to the summit of Mt Sabyino, where the British, Belgian and German frontiers meet. From Mt Sabyino the frontier between Belgian Congo and the Uganda Protectorate goes in a direct line north to Mt Nkabwe, and thence along the Ishasha River, to its mouth on the S.E; shores of Albert Edward Nyanza. Thence it crosses that lake in a straight line and afterwards the Ruwenzori to its highest point, Margherita peak, whence it follows the Lamia River to its junction with the Semliki. From that point the frontier is formed by the Semliki to its mouth and the middle of Albert Nyanza to a point opposite Mahagi, where it meets the Congo-Sudan frontier.
Meantime in 1903 the then Eastern province of the Uganda Protectorate had been transferred to the adjoining East Africa Protectorate, the new eastern boundary being the west coast of Lake Rudolf, the river Turkwel, the eastern flanks of Mt Elgon, the Sio River, and a line running south from the mouth of the Sio across Victoria Nyanza to 1° S. The area of the protectorate, approximately 150,000 sq. m. in 1901, has been reduced by these changes to about 110,000 sq. m.
Physical Features.–The protectorate, with a singularly diversified surface of lofty plateaus, snow-capped mountains, vast swamps, dense forests and regions of desolate aridity (valley of Lake Rudolf), offers a remarkable variety of climates. The Rudolf province lies low-an average altitude of not moreClimate. than 2000 ft.—is extremely hot, and has a very poor rainfall. In some of its districts no rain falls for two years at a time, elsewhere scarcely as much as 10 in. per annum. The Eastern province is abundantly watered near Victoria Nyanza and around Mt Elgon and the noble Debasien mountain (about 50 in. to 100 in. annuall); elsewhere, in Karamojo and the northern regions, the rainfall lessens to about 20 in. Busoga and the western part of the Elgon district in this province have a regular West African climate—hot, moist and not over-healthy. These are the conditions of Buganda, a country with an annual rainfall of from 60 to 80 in., a regular West African climate, and severe and frequent thunderstorms. Much the same may be said about the Western province, except for the cooling influence of the Ruwenzori snow range, which pleasantly affects Toro and northern Ankole. The rainfall on Ruwenzori and the central Semliki valley is quite -100 in. per annum. Along the Ruwenzori range are glaciers and snowfields nearly 15 m. in continuous length and some 5 m. in breadth. The Northern (formerly called the Nile) province is perhaps the hottest part of Uganda. Like the districts round Lake Rudolf, the average altitude (near the Nile) is not more than 2000 ft., but the rainfall is more abundant than in the terrible Rudolf region, being an average of 30 in. per annum.
The surface of the protectorate is diversified. Mount Elgon (q.v.) just outside the Eastern province is one of the leading physical features of the Uganda and East Africa protectorates. It consists of the vast crater—some 10 m. in diameter—of an extinct volcano, the rim of which rises in severalMountains, Lakes and Rivers. places to over 14,000 ft. Terraces and buttresses extend and ramify in all directions from the central crater, so that the giant volcano and its surrounding heights form a mountain country (notable for its innumerable cascades and dense forests) the size of Montenegro. The mass of Elgon can be seen from the north-east coast of Victoria Nyanza, from near the main Nile stream, from the heights overlooking Lake Rudolf and from the Kikuyu escarpment. The Eastern province consists of well-forested, undulating land (Busoga) on the coast of the lake, a vast extent of marsh round the lake-like backwaters of the Victoria Nile (Lakes Ibrahim or Kioga, Kwania, &c.) and a more stony, open, grain-growing country (Bukedi, Lobor, Karamojo). The Turkana country west of Lake Rudolf has been of late years terribly arid. A little vegetation is met with in the stream valleys, but most of the rivers marked on the map have ceased to show running water in their lower courses. A good deal of high land-rising in some peaks to near 10,000 ft.—is found in the eastern part of the Northern province, and these heights attract moisture and nourish permanent streams flowing Nilewards. But much of the lower ground is stony and poor in vegetation, while the lowland near the main Nile is exceedingly marsh.
The Ripon Falls, in the centre of the northern coast of the Victoria Nyanza, at the head of the exquisitely beautiful Napoleon Gulf, mark the exit of the fully born-'Nile from the great lake. The Victoria Nile tumbles over 50 m. of cascades and rapids (descending some 700 ft. in that distance) between Ripon Falls and Kakoge. Here it broadens into Lake Ibrahim (Kioga) (in reality a vast backwater of the Nile discovered by Colonel Chaillé Long in 1874), and continues navigable (save for sudd obstacles at times) right through Lake Ibrahim and thence northwards for 100 m. to Foweira and Karuma Falls. Between Karuma and Murchison Falls the Victoria Nile is unnavigable. At Fajao the navigation can 'be resumed into Lake Albert. The main Nile stream when it quits Lake Albert continues navigable as far north as Nimule (3° 40′ N.). Between Nimule and Fort Berkeley the river flows through a deep gorge and falls nearly 1000 ft. Navigability really only begins again at Gondokoro on the Sudan frontier, from which point steamers ply to Khartum (see Nile).
The geography of the Western province includes many interesting features, the in many ways peculiar Albert Nyanza (q.v.), the great snowy range of Ruwenzori (q.v.), the dense Semliki, Budonga, Mpang and Bunyaraguru forests, the salt lakes and salt springs of Unyoro and western Toro, the innumerable and singularly beautiful crater lakes of Toro and Ankole, the volcanic region of Mfumbiro (where active and extinct volcanoes rise in great cones to altitudes of from 11,000 to nearly 15,000 ft.), and the healthy plateaus of Ankole, which are in a lesser degree analogous in climate and position, and the Nandi plateau, on the east of Victoria Nyanza. Ruwenzori is a snowy range, and not a single mountain. Its greatest altitude—the Duke of the Abruzzi's Mt Stanley (Margherita Peak)—is 16,816 ft., and therefore the third highest point on the African continent. The Uganda Protectorate is a land of great lakes, and includes partially or wholly the water areas of Victoria Nyanza (about 2,000 sq. m.), Lake Rudolf (about 3500 sq. m.), Lake Ibrahim-Igioga-Kwania (800 sq. m.), Albert Nyanza (2700 sq. m.), and Lakes Albert Edward and Dweru[1] (1500 sq. m.), besides the small crater lakes of Toro and Ankole (singularly beautiful), the lake-swamps Salisbury and Kirkpatrick in the Eastern province, Lakes Wamala in Buganda, and Kachera in Ankole. The water of Lake Victoria is per ectly fresh. This is the case with all the other lakes except Rudolf, Albert Nyanza and Albert Edward, in which the water ranges from salt to slightly brackish.
Geology.—Wide tracts remain geologically unexplored. Archean rocks-gneiss, schist and granite-cover large areas through which the Nile cuts its way in alternate narrow gorges and open reaches. In Ankole and Koki rocks consisting of granular quartzite, schistose sandstone, red and brown sandstone, and shales with cleaved killas rest on the Archean platform and possibly represent the Lower Witwatersrand beds of the Transvaal. No traces of the Karroo formation have been detected. Volcanic rocks occur in Usoga and elsewhere. The Nile at the Ripon. Falls leaps over a basalt dike. The rocks on the verge of the Kisumu province of East Africa are mainly volcanic (basalt, tuff, lava, kenyte). West of the volcanic region, nearer to Lake Victoria and the Eastern province, ironstone, granite, gneiss and schistose formations predominate, with phonolite in places.
Iron ore (haematite) is abundant. In the Eastern province the rocks are mainly quartz, gneiss and granite, with sandstone in Busoga, basalt round Mt Elgon, slate (Busoga) and ironstone (Busoga and Bukedi). In the Rudolf province there are the basalt, lava, tuff and kenyte of the volcanic Rift valley, overlying a formation of granite, gneiss and quartz. Gold-in some cases alluvial—is found in the mountainous country to the north-west of Lake Rudolf. Gneiss, granite and quartz-the decomposed granite giving the red “African” clay -are the leading features in the formations of the Northern province, of Buganda, and of the Western province, with some sandstone in the littoral districts of Buganda and in Ankole, and eruptive rocks and lava in south-western Ankole and on the eastern flanks of Ruwenzori. There are indications of copper in Busoga, of gold in Unyoro. Iron is found nearly everywhere. Graphite is present in Buganda and Unyoro.
Flora.—The vegetation is luxuriant except in the Rudolf region, which has the sparse flora of Somaliland. In the Western province, Busoga and the Elgon district the flora is very West African in character. The swampy regions of the Nile and of the Eastern province are characterized by an extravagant growth of papyrus and other rushes, of reeds and coarse grass. There are luxuriant tropical forests in the coast region of Buganda, in Busoga, west Elgon, western Unyoro, eastern Toro, the central Semliki valley and north-west Ankole. The upper' regions of Mt Elgon, Mt Debasien and Mt Agoro are clothed with forests of conifers—juniper and yew—and witch-hazels (Trichocladus). There are also giant yew-trees (Podocarpus) on the flanks of Ruwenzoriand the Mfumbiro volcanoes between 7000 and 9000 ft., but no junipers. The alpine vegetation on all these lofty mountains is of a mixed Cape and Abyssinian character-witch-hazels, senecios, lobelias, kniphofias, everlasting flowers, tree heaths and hypericums. The really tropical vegetation of Buganda is' nearly identical with that of West Africa, but there is no oil-palm.
Fauna.—The fauna also has many West African affinities in the hot, forested regions. In the Kisumu province of East Africa even, there are several West African mammals such as the broad-horned tragelaph and the forest pig. These are also found in part of the Semliki forests. As a rule, however, the fauna of the Upper Semliki valley, of parts of Ankole, Buganda and Unyoro, of the Northern, Rudolf and Eastern provinces, is of that “East African,” “Ethiopic” character which is specially the feature of South and East Africa and of the Sudan right across from Abyssinia to the river Senegal. Among notable mammals the chimpanzee is found in Unyoro, Toro and north-west Ankole, and has only recently become extinct in Buganda; the okapi inhabits the Semliki forests on the Congo frontier; the giraffe (the male sometimes developing five horn cores) is common in the Northern, Eastern and Rudolf' provinces; there are three types of buffalo-the Cape, the Congo and the Abyssinian; two species of zebra (one of them Grévy’s), the African wild ass, the square-li ped (“white”) and pointed-lipped (“black”) rhinoceroses, the elephant, hippopotamus, water tragelaph (“ Speke's antelope ”), Cape ant-bear, aard-wolf (Proteles), hunting-dog, and nearly every genus and most of the species of African antelopes. The birds are more West African than the mammals, and include the grey parrot, all the genera of the splendidly-coloured turacoes, the unique “whale-headed stork,” and the ostrich.
Inhabitants.—The inhabitants in 1909, numbered about 3,500,000 natives, 3000 British Indians and Arabs, and 507 Europeans (British, French, Germans, Italians and Maltese). Of these last 119 were women. The races indigenous to the protectorate are mainly of the Negro species (with slight Caucasian intermixture), and may be divided into the following categories: (1) Pigmy-prognathous (so-called “Congo” pigmies of Semliki forest, , of Kiagwe in Buganda, and of the western flanks of Mt Elgon and the types of Forest Negroes); (2) Bantu negroes (Banyoro, Bairu, Basese, Basoga, Ba, konjo, rBaganda, Masaba and Kavirondo); (3) Nite negroes (Aluru, Bari, Madi, Acholi, Gang, Lango, Latuka, Tesi, Sabei (Nandi), Turkana and Karamojo); (4) Hamitic (some tribes on islands and the north coast of Lake Rudolf; and the remarkable “Hima” or “Huma” aristocracy in Unyoro, Buganda, Toro and Ankole). The pigmies are generally known as Bambute or Bakwa in the Semliki forests. They are both reddish yellow and brownish black (according to individual variation) in skin colour, with head hair often tending to russet, and body hair of two kinds black and bristly on the upper lip, chin, chest, axillae and pubes; and yellowish and fleecy on the cheeks, back and limbs. Their faces are remarkable for the long upper lip and the depressed broad nose with enormous alae. Associated with these pigrnies is the “Forest Negro” type (Lendu, Lega, Baamba, Banande) of normal human stature, but short-legged and unusually prognathous. The Bantu negroes represent the future ruling race of the protectorate, and include the remarkable Baganda people. These last, prior to the arrival of Arabs and Europeans, displayed a nearer approach to civilization than has as yet been attained by an unaided Negro people. Their dynasty of monarchs can be traced back with tolerable certainty to a period coincident with the reign of Henry IV. of England (A.D. 1400). The first Buganda king was probably a Hamite of the Hima stock (from Unyoro). Until recent years the Baganda and most of the other Bantu peoples of the protectorate worshipped ancestral and nature spirits who had become elevated to the rank of gods and goddesses. The Baganda are now mainly Christian. There is also a “totem” system still in vogue. All the Baganda belong to one or other of twenty-nine clans, or “Bika,” which are named after and have as totem familiar beasts, birds, fish or vegetables. The Baganda are not a very moral people, but they have an extreme regard for decency, and are always scrupulously clothed (formerly in bark-cloth, now in calico). As a general rule, it may be said that all the Bantu tribes in the western half of the protectorate, including the Basoga, are careful to consider decency in their clothing, while the Nilotic negroes are often completely nude in both sexes. More or less, absolute nudity among men is characteristic even of the Bahima (Hamites). But in this aristocratic caste the women are scrupulously clothed.
The Nile negroes and Hima are tall people. The former are seldom handsome, owing to their flat faces and projecting cheek-bones. The Bahima are often markedly handsome, even to European eyes. In the Bahima the proportion of Caucasian blood is about one-fourth; in the Nile negroes and Bantu from one-sixteenth to none at all. The aboriginal stock of the Uganda Protectorate is undoubtedly the pigmy-prognathous, which has gradually been absorbed, overlaid or exterminated by better developed specimens of the Negro sub-species, or by Negro-Caucasian hybrids from the north and north-east.
The languages spoken in the Uganda Protectorate belong to the following stocks: (1) Hamitic (Murle and Rendile of Lake Rudolf); (2) Masai (Bari, Elgumi, Turkana, Sūk, &c.); (2a) Sabei, on the northern slopes of Elgon and on Mt Debasien; (2b) Nilotic (Acholi, Aluru, Gang, &c.); (3) Madi (spoken on the Nile between Aluru and Bari, really of West African affinities); (4) Bantu (Lu-ganda, Runyoro, Lu-konjo, Kuaniba, Lihuku, the Masaba languages of west Elgon and Kavirondo, &c.); and lastly, the unclassified, isolated Lendu and Mbuba spoken by some of the pigmy-prognathous peoples.
Towns.—The seat of the British administration is Entebbe (“a throne”) on the south shores of a peninsula projecting into the Victoria Nyanza in 0° 4′ 2″ N. 32° 27′ 45″ E. It contains a number of commodious official residences, churches, hospitals, a laboratory, covered market, &c. The port is protected by a breakwater and provided with a pier.-on which is the customs-house. The native capital of Buganda is Mengo (pop. about 70,000), situated some 20 m. N. by E. of Entebbe. It is a straggling town built on seven steep hills: on one hill is the royal residence; on another (Namirembe =the hill of peace) was the cathedral of St Paul, destroyed by lightning in September 1910, and other buildings of the Anglican mission. St Paul’s was a fine Gothic church of brick, built by the Baganda in 1901–1904. After its destruction steps were at once taken to rebuild the cathedral. On a third hill are the cathedral and mission buildings of the Roman Catholics. On still another hill, Kampala, the British fort and government and European quarters are situated. Some 712 m. S. by E. of Kampala, and connected with it by monorail, is Kampala Port, on" Victoria Nyanza. The capital of the Eastern province is Jinja, on the Victoria Nyanza, immediately above and east of the Ripon Falls. It is a thriving trading centre and port. Hoima is the administrative headquarters in Unyoro; Butiaba is a trading port of some importance on Lake Albert; Mbarara is the capital of Ankole. Kakindu, Mruli, Fowera and Fajao are government stations and trading posts on the Victoria Nile; Wadelai (q.v.), Nimule and Gondokoro (q.v.) are similar stations on the Mountain Nile. Bululu is a port on-Lake Ibrahim.
Agriculture and Trade.—A few plantations are owned and managed by Europeans. Otherwise agriculture is in the hands of the natives. Some Baganda chiefs have started cotton, rubber and cocoa. plantations, the botanic department assisting in this enterprise. Pará and Funtumia rubber trees are also cultivated by the department. (For the work of the botanic, forestry and scientific department, the government plantations, &c., see the Colonial Report Miscellaneous], No. 64.) A forest area of 150 sq. m. has been leased to a European company. Trade is mainly conducted by native (i.e. Arab, Somali and Negro) traders, by British Indians and by Germans. The value of the trade during 1901–1902 was a proximately £400,000 in imports (largely railway material) and $50,000 in exports. The articles exported were ivory, rubber, skins and hides, and livestock (for consumption in East Africa). These, except livestock, continue to be the main items of export. For the six years 1903–1904 to 1908–1909 the imports increased from £147,000 to £419,000, and the exports—produce of the protectorate—from £43,000 to £127,000. The imports included the transit trade (with the Belgian Congo and German East Africa), which grew from £8460 in 1903–1904 to £82,615 in 1908–1909. The transit trade in the last-named year included bullion valued at £33,000, being raw gold from the Kilo mines, Belgian Congo. Among the new industries are sugar and coffee plantations, while cotton, ground-nuts and rubber figure increasingly among the exports, cotton and cottonseed being of special importance. Cotton goods, chiefly “Americani,” are the chief imports, machinery, hardware and provisions ranking next. Large quantities of rice are imported from German East Africa. About 50% of the imports are from the United Kingdom and British possessions.
Communications.—In connexion with the railway from Mombasa to Victoria Nyanza a steamship service is maintained on the lake between Port Florence, Entebbe and other ports, including those in German territory. Government boats also ply on the Victoria Nile and Lake Kioga. (Ibrahim) and on Albert Nyanza and the Mountain Nile. A railway (begun in 1910), some 50 m. long, runs from Jinja to Kakindu, i.e. along the Victoria Nile from its point of issue from the Nyanza to where it becomes navigable above Lake Kioga. Good roads connect Entebbe and Butiaba (the steamboat terminus on Albert Nyanza) and other districts. There is a direct telegraphic service to Gondokoro and Khartum and to Mombasa. The postal service is well organized.
Administrative Divisions and Government.—The protectorate is divided into five provinces-Rudolf, Eastern (formerly central), kingdom of Buganda, Western, and Northern (formerly Nile)—and these again into a number of administrative districts. The kingdom of Buganda, which has a thoroughly efficient and recognized native government, is subdivided into no fewer than nineteen “counties” or districts, but the other provinces have as a rule only three or four subdivisions.
The protectorate is administered by a governor and commander in-chief, under the colonial office, residing at Entebbe, on the north-western coast of the Victoria Nyanza. He is assisted by a staff of officials similar to the f functionaries of a Crown colony, but there is at present no legislative council. The natives are ordinarily under the direct rule of their own recognized chiefs. but in all the organized districts the governor alone has the power of life or death, of levyin taxes, of carrying on war, of controlling waste lands and forests, and of administering justice to non-natives. In the case of Buganda special terms were accorded to the native king and people in the settlement dated the 10th of March 1900. The king was secured a minimum civil list of £1500 a year out of the native revenues; pensions were accorded to other members of the Buganda royal family; the salaries of ministers and governing' chiefs were guaranteed; compensation in money was paid for removing the king’s control over waste lands; definite estates were allotted to the king, royal family, nobility and native landowners; the native parliament or “Lukiko” was reorganized and its powers were defined; and many other points in dispute were settled. The king was accorded the title of “His Highness the Kabaka of Buganda,” and his special salute was fixed at eleven uns. By this agreement the king and his people pledged themselves to pay hut and gun taxes to the administration of the protectorate. Somewhat similar arrangements on a lesser scale were made with the king of Ankole, the kings of Toro and Unyoro, and with the much less important chieftains or tribes of other districts. The territories north and north-east of these Bantu kingdoms are inhabited by Nilotic negroes and up to 1909 were left almost unadministered, except in close vicinity to the Nile banks.
The education of the natives is confined to the schools maintained by the missionaries, who are doing an excellent work. Manual, technical and higher education is provided. In 1909–1910 there were in the Anglican schools over 36,000 scholars, of whom 17,000 were girls. Of the total number of scholars over 26,000 were in the kingdom of Buganda. The Roman Catholic schools had in 1909 over 11,000 scholars. (See the Col. Off. Report on Uganda, No. 686.)
The expenditure for 1902–1903 was fixed at £210,000, of which about £170,000 was furnished by an imperial grant-in-aid and the balance from local revenue. Between 1903 and 1909 the revenue increased from £51,000 to £102,000. Revenue is chiefly derived from hut and poll taxes, customs, wharfage dues, game licences and land tax.Expenditure and Revenue. The hut and poll taxes yield about £62,000 a year. The expenditure increased from £186,000 in 1903 to £256,000 in 1909. Denciencies are made good by parliamentary grants. The rupee (1s. 4d.) is the standard coin, with a subsidiary decimal coinage.
History.—The countries grouped under this protectorate were invaded at some relatively remote period-say, three to four thousand years ago-by Hamitic races from the north-east (akin to the ancestors of the ancient Egyptians, Gallas, Somalis), who mingled extensively with the Nile negroes first, and then with the aboriginal inhabitants of Buganda, Unyoro and Nandi. These Hamites brought with them a measure of Egyptian civilization, cattle, and the arts of metallurgy, pottery and other adjuncts to neolithic civilization. There was probably no direct intercourse with Egypt by way of the Nile, owing to the lake-like marshes between Bor and Fashoda, but instead an overland traffic with Ethiopia (the Land of Punt) via Mt Elgon and the Rudolf regions. In time even this intercourse with the non-negro world died away, and powerful kingdoms with an aristocracy of Galla. descent grew up in Buganda, Unyoro and Ankole.
The kingdom of Buganda especially dominated the lands of Victoria Nyanza in the 19th century. In the ’forties and ’fifties Egyptian officials, Austrian missionaries, and British, Dutch, Italian, and German explorers had carried our knowledge of the Nile beyond Khartum as far south as Gondokoro. In the same period of time the Zanzibar Arab traders were advancing from the south on the Bahima kingdoms of the western Victoria Nyanza and on Buganda. King Suna of Buganda first heard of the outer world of white men in 1850 from a runaway Baluch soldier of Zanzibar. Captains Burton and Speke, on their Tanganyika expedition, heard of Buganda from the Arab traders in 1857. Captain Speke in 1862 reached Buganda, the first of all Europeans to enter that country. In the early 'seventies Sir Samuel Baker (who had discovered Albert Nyanza) extended the rule of the Egyptian Sudan as far south as the Victoria Nile. General Gordon, who succeeded Baker, and who had Dr Emin Bey (afterwards Emin Pasha) as lieutenant, attempted through Colonel Charles Chaillé Long, in 1874, not only to annex Unyoro but also Buganda to the Egyptian dominions, and thoroughly established Egyptian control on Albert Nyanza. But owing to the indirect influence of the British government, exercised through Sir John Kirk at Zanzibar, the Egyptian dominions were prevented from coming south of the Victoria Nile.
Suna, the powerful king or emperor of Buganda, who was the first to hear of a world beyond Negroland, had been succeeded in 1857 by his still more celebrated son, Mutesa (Mutesa means the measurer). Mutesa had received Speke and Grant in a most friendly manner. Subsequent to their departure he had opened up relations with the British agent at Zanzibar. In 1875 he received an epoch-making visit from Sir H. M. Stanley. Stanley, in response to Mutesa’s questions about religion, obtained from that king an invitation to Anglican missionaries, which he transmitted to London through the Daily Telegraph.[2] Having made the first survey of Victoria Nyanza and confirmed Speke’s guesses as to its shape and area, Stanley passed on (half discovering Ruwenzori on the way) to the Congo.
Meanwhile the Zanzibar Arabs had reached Buganda in ever increasing numbers as traders; but many of them were earnest propagandists of Islam, and strove hard (with some success) to convert to that religion the king and chiefs of Buganda and adjoining countries. In 1877 the Rev. C. T. Wilson, one of a party of missionaries sent in answer to Stanley’s appeal by the Church Missionary Society of England, arrived in Uganda, and towards the end of 1878 was joinedChristian Missions, 1877–1879. by Alexander Mackay. In 1879 another party arrived by the Nile route; and Wilson, after thirteen months’ actual residence, left for England with Dr R. W. Felkin, who had arrived only three months before, taking with him envoys from Mutesa. In the same year the French Roman Catholic mission of the White Fathers of Algeria was inaugurated, and thus from 1879 dates the triangular rivalry of the creeds of Anglican and Roman Christianity and of Islam.
In 1882 Islam gained an ascendancy, and the French withdrew for a time. In the autumn of 1884 Mutesa died. A great change had been wrought in Uganda during the latter years of his reign. Calico, fire-arms and swords had replaced the primitive bark-cloth and spear, while under the teaching of the missionary-engineerMutesa succeeded by Mwanga, 1884. Mackay the native artisans had learnt to repair arms and use European tools. Mutesa was a clever man of restless energy, but regardless of human life and suffering, and consumed by vanity. He was succeeded by Mwanga, a cruel, weak and vicious youth. The intrigues of the Arabs led him to suspect the designs of the missionaries; He was alarmed at their influence over numbers of his people and resolved to stamp out Christianity.
In the early ’eighties the aspirations of several European powers turned towards Africa as a field for commercial and colonial expansion. The restless Arabs of Zanzibar had since 1857 steadily advanced Zanzibar influence to Tanganyika, Nyasa, and even through the Masai countries to the north-east coast of Victoria Nyanza and the “back door” of Uganda. In 1882 the Royal Geographical Society dispatched Joseph Thomson to discover through Masailand the direct route to Victoria Nyanza. Thomson succeeded (he also discovered Lake Baringo and Mt Elgon), but turned back from the frontier of Busoga in order not to provoke Mutesa to hostilities. Mr H. H. Johnston was dispatched on a scientific mission to Kilimanjaro, and concluded treaties on which the British East Africa Company was subsequently based. The vague stir of these- movements had perturbed Mutesa, and they were regarded with deep suspicion by his successor, Mwanga.
The annexations of Emin on Albert Nyanza, the visit of Thomson to the closed door of Busoga, the opposition of the Europeans to the slave trade, and, lastly, the identification of the missionaries with political embassies and their letters of introduction from secular authorities, added to Mwanga's fears, and early in 1885, simultaneously with the return of the French Fathers, the long smouldering hostility broke out, and the Christian converts were seized and burnt at the stake. Bishop Hannington, who attempted to enter BugandaMurder of Bishop Hannington. 1885. by the forbidden route from the east, was murdered, and the Rev. R. P. Ashe and Mackay only redeemed lives by presents. The Buganda Christians showed heroism, and in spite of tortures and death the religion spread rapidly. Mwanga now determined to rid himself of Christians and Mahommedans alike by inducing them to proceed to an island in the lake, where he meant to leave them to starve. The plot was discovered, and Mwanga fled to the south of the lake, and Kiwewa, his eldest brother, was made king. The chiefs of the rival creeds—British (Anglicans), French (Catholics), and Ba-Islamu, as they were called-divided the chief ships. The Mahommedans now formed a plot to oust the Christians, and treacherously massacred a number of their chiefs and then defeated their unprepared adherents. Kiwewa, refusing to submit to circumcision, was (afterReligious Feuds. reigning three or four months) expelled by the Ba-Islamu, who placed another brother, Kalema, on the throne and began a fanatical propaganda, forcing the peasantry to submit to the hated circumcision. The British and French factions, who had taken refuge in Ankole, could not agree even in their common exile, and nearly came to blows, but on the spur of threatened famine they agreed to combine and to take back Mwanga as their king and strike a blow for supremacy in Buganda. In May 1889 Mwanga, aided by the trader Charles Stokes, approached Buganda by water, and after several bloody battles captured the capital, but shortly afterwards was again defeated, and Kalema and the Ba-Islamu reoccupied Mengo (the native capital). Appeals for help were sent to Frederick John Jackson (subsequently lieutenant-governor of British East Africa), who had arrived on the east of the lake with a caravan of some 500 rides, sent by the newly-formed East African Chartered Company. He replied saying he would come if all the expenses were guaranteed and the British flag accepted. Pere Lourdel, who was Mwanga's chief adviser at this time, counselled acceptance of these terms, but Jackson at first marched in a different direction northwards. Returning three months later, he found that Dr Karl Peters, a German in command of an “Emin Pasha Relief” expedition, had passed through his camp, read his letters, and, acting on the information thus obtained, had marched to Buganda, arriving in February 1890, where with the aid of Lourdel he concluded a treaty which was kept secret from French and British Factions.the British party, who repudiated it. The Baganda Christians, before the arrival of Peters, had again engaged the Mahommedans and driven them to the frontier of Unyoro, where King Kabarega gave them an asylum and aid. Kalema died later in the same year—1890—and was succeeded by Mbogo, a half brother of King Mutesa. The posts of honour had been divided between the rival factions. Peters's treaty had given fresh offence and added to the disputes arising in the division of the offices of state, and the factions were on the point of fighting. Jackson arrived in April with 180 gun-men (a portion of his caravan having mutinied), and presented a new treaty, which was refused by the French. Feeling ran high, and Jackson withdrew his treaty, and, taking a. couple of envoys who should bring back word whether Uganda was to be French or British, he left the country, Mr Ernest Gedge remaining in charge of his expedition.
While these events were happening in Uganda the Anglo-German treaty of July 1890 had assigned Uganda to Great Britain, and in October 1890 Captain F. D. Lugard, then at Kikuyu, halfway between the coast and the lake, received instructions to go to Uganda. He had with him Messrs De Winton and W. Grant, some 50 Sudanese Lugard’s Arrival, 1890. soldiers, and about 250 porters, armed with Snider carbines. Marching with unprecedented rapidity, he entered Mengo on the 18th of December. Lugard, by introducing the names “Protestant” and “Catholic”—till then unknown—and by insisting that all religion was free, endeavoured to dissociate it from politics, and urged that as Uganda was now under Great Britain there could be no hostile “French” faction. This attitude was welcome to neither faction, and for some days the position of the new arrivals on the little knoll of Kampala was very precarious. Lugard's first object was to obtain a treaty which would give him a right to intervene in the internal affairs of the country. The hostile French faction was much the stronger, since at this time the king (whom the whole of the pagan party followed) was of that faction; but after some critical episodes the treaty was signed on the 26th of December. Lugard then endeavoured to settle some of the burning disputes relative to the division of lands and chief ships, &c., and to gain the confidence of both parties. In this he was to some extent successful, and his position was strengthened by the arrival in January 1891 of Captain (subsequently Colonel) W. H. Williams, R.A., with a small force of Sudanese and a maxim. In April Lugard, hoping to achieve better results away from the capital, led the combined factions against the Mahommedans, then raiding the frontier, whom he defeated. Seeing that the situation in Buganda was impossible unless they had a strong central force, which the company could not provide, Lugard and Williams had formed the idea of enlisting the Sudanese who had been left by Emin and Stanley at the south end of the Albert Lake. Taking with him Kasagama, the rightful king of Toro, he traversed the north of Ankole, with which country he made a treaty, and passing thence through Unyoro, along the northern slopes of Ruwenzori, reached Kavali at the south end of Lake Albert, defeating the armies of Unyoro who opposed his progress. He brought away with him 8000 Sudanese men, women, children and slaves, under Selim Bey (an Egyptian officer). Some of these he left at the posts he established along southern Unyoro. After an absence of six months from Buganda, Lugard reached the capital at the end of the year (1891) with 200 or 300 Sudanese soldiers and two or three times that number of followers. Lugard little thought that in bringing these Sudanese, already (some of them) infected with the sleeping-sickness of the Congo forests, he was to introduce a disease which would kill off some 250,000 natives of Uganda in eight years. Meanwhile Williams, amid endless difficulties, with a mere handful of men, had managed to keep the two factions from civil war, though righting had actually occurred in Buddu and in the Sese Islands.
After Lugard's return a lull occurred till the coast caravan left, when lawlessness again broke out and several murders were committed. On the 22nd of January the killing of a Protestant at the capital (Mengo) produced a crisis. Lugard appealed to the king to do justice, but he himself was treated with scant courtesy, and his Civil War, 1891. envoy was told that the French party would sack Kampala if Lugard interfered on behalf of the murdered man. In spite of strenuous efforts on the part of the British administrator to avert war the French party determined to fight, and finally attacked the British, who had assembled round Kampala. The king and French party were defeated and fled to the Sese Islands. The king and chiefs (except two ringleaders) were offered reinstatement, and they appeared anxious to accept these terms, but the French bishop joined them in the islands, and from that day all hopes of peace vanished. Fighting was recommenced by a “French” attack on “British” canoes, and Williams thereupon attacked the island and routed the hostile faction. After this the “French” slowly concentrated in Buddu in the south, the Protestants migrating thence. Williams then led a successful expedition against the Sese islanders and went on to the south of the lake to obtain one of the young princes—heirs to the throne—who were at the French mission there. But the Fathers were hostile, and though Mwanga was eager to accept Lugard's offers of reinstatement, he was a prisoner in the hands of his party. He succeeded eventually in escaping, and arrived in Mengo on the 30th of March (1892). A new treaty was made, and the British flag flew over the capital, while the French party were given a proportion of chief ships and assigned the province of Buddu. These conditions they themselves said were liberal, nor could they have ventured to assume their old positions throughout Uganda.
The Mahommedans had all this time refrained from attacking the capital as had been expected. They now clamoured for recognition, and Lugard went to meet them, and after a somewhat precarious and very difficult interview he succeeded in bringing back their king Mbogo to Kampala, and in assigning them three minor provinces in Uganda.[3]
Lugard on his return to Uganda at the end of 1891 had received
orders to evacuate the country with his whole force, as the
company could no longer maintain their position.
A reprieve till the end of 1892 followed, funds having
been raised through the efforts of Bishop Tucker
the Church Missionary Society and friends.
The
Question of Evacuation, 1892.
The lives of many Europeans were at stake, for anarchy
must follow the withdrawal, and it seemed impossible to
repudiate the pledges to Toro, or to abandon the Baganda
who had fought for the British. In June 1892, therefore,
Lugard determined to leave for England to appeal against
the decision for abandonment. Williams remained in Uganda,
where the outlook was now fairly promising, and every effort
was made to reduce expenses. On arrival in England Lugard
found that the British Government had decided not to come
to the help of the company, and Uganda was to be left to
its fate. A strong movement was set on foot for the “retention
of Uganda,” and on the 10th of December Lord Rosebery
despatched Sir Gerald Portal to report on the
best means of dealing with the country, and a
subsidy was given to the company to enable them
to retain their troops there till the 31st of March 1893.
Captain (afterwards General Sir) J. R. L. Macdonald, who had
been in charge of a railway survey to Uganda, was directed to
inquire into the claims put forward by France for compensation
for the priests. His report was set aside by the government,
which, without admitting liability, but to close the controversy
with France, agreed to pay £10,000 to the French priests, and
the foreign office published a categorical reply by Lugard to
the accusations made. Portal and his staff reached Uganda
in March, and Williams left soon afterwards with the original
troops of the company, leaving Selim Bey and the Sudanese
and Portal’s large escort in Uganda. The country on Portal’s
arrival bore every mark of prosperity and revival. By increasing
the territory of the Roman Catholics, and giving
them estates on the road from Buddu to the capital, Portal
gave effect to projects which the Protestants had violently
opposed. He added also to their chief ships, and on the 1st
of April hoisted the British flag, made a new treaty with
Mwanga, and sent Major Roderick Owen to enlist 400 Sudanese
from the Toro colonies. He recommended to the imperial
government the retention of Uganda (i.e. Buganda), the abandonment
of Unyoro and Toro, and the construction of a railway
half-way only to the lake. He departed after two and a half
months’ residence, leaving Macdonald in charge. During
Macdonald’s administration the Sudanese under Selim Bey
began to conspire against the British control. The movement
was checked and Selim Bey was deported to the coast.
In November 1893 Colonel (Sir Henry) Colvile arrived to take charge, and at once led the whole of the Baganda army against King Kabarega of Unyoro. Major R. Owen defeated the hostile army, first in the south and later in the north, and the Baganda chiefs scattered the main body, while Colvile occupied the capital and built a line of forts from Buganda, to Lake Albert, of which he left Major A. B. Thruston in command, This officer fought a number of brilliant actions, and aided by Major (later Colonel) G. G. Cunningham, Captain Seymour Vandeleur, William Grant and others, he overran Unyoro and broke down all resistance. In June 1894 Uganda (i.e. the kingdom of Buganda) was declared a protectorate, and at the end of the year Sir Henry Colvile was invalided. Mr F. J. Jackson now took temporary charge, pending the arrival in June 1895 of Mr E. J. L. Berkeley, the first administrator.
At this time also it was decided to construct a railway to Uganda, but work was not begun till December 1896. Peace seemed assured in Uganda; territorial limits to religious teaching were abolished, English Roman Catholic priests were added to the French Fathers, and the material progress of the country was very marked. European traders settled in the country, good permanent houses were built, roads were made and kept in repair, and many new industries introduced, chief among which were the expression of oil from various oilseeds and the cultivation of coffee. Trees were imported and land set aside for planting forests. The success of these efforts at progress was largely due to Mr G. Wilson, C.B., who had been sent to Uganda from East Africa as an assistant administrator in 1896. In this year also the protectorate was extended -over Unyoro and Busoga.[4]
In the middle of 1897 this era of peace was rudely interrupted. Colonel Trevor Ternan was acting commissioner, and Macdonald had returned to East Africa in command of an exploring expedition, for which Ternan had been ordered to supply 300 Sudanese. In June Wilson discovered a plot to revolt, and in July Mwanga fled to the south of Buddu and raised the standard of rebellion. The rebels were defeated, while Mwanga was made a prisoner by the Germans. Ternan, unaware of the disaffection of his men, now sent three companies to Macdonald, selecting those who had been continuously fighting in Unyoro, Nandi and Buddu. This caused great discontent, which was increased by the fact that their pay was six months in arrears and their clothing long overdue. The men, too, resented the fact that their pay was but a fifth of that given to Zanzibari porters and to those of their own body enlisted in the adjoining protectorate. They were sore at again being sent on service without their wives, and complained of harsh treatment from their officers. Necessaries had been delayed in the attempt to import steamers from the coast before the railway was made.
After Colonel Ternan’s departure on leave, the three companies who had joined Macdonald broke out into revolt in the Nandi district (East Africa) and set off to Uganda, looting the countries they passed through. Macdonald and Jackson followed with a force of Zanzibaris. Meanwhile Major Thruston—a man justly loved by his soldiers, in whom he had complete confidence—hurried to the garrison at Lubais, near the Ripon Falls, relying on his personal influence to control the men, and risking his life in the heroic attempt. He and two other Europeans were seized and made prisoners. On the 19th of October a battle was fought between the mutineers and Macdonald’s force, in which the former were defeated. The same night the Sudanese leaders, fearful lest their men might submit, murdered Thruston and his companions and sent letters to Uganda to incite their comrades to mutiny. Wilson, however, had already disarmed the troops in Kampala, who remained loyal, as also did Mbogo, the ex-king of the Baganda Mahommedans. A large Protestant army now went to the assistance of Macdonald, and from the 19th of October to the 9th of January the siege of Luba’s continued, with constant skirmishes, among the killed being the Rev. G. Pilkington. Early in January Mwanga escaped from the Germans, and, declaring himself a Mahommedan, reached Buddu with a large force, which Major Macdonald defeated with the aid of the Baganda army. He then disarmed the Sudanese garrisons in Buddu. The garrisons in Unyoro (about 500) and in Toro remained loyal. Meanwhile the Sudanese at Luba’s (numbering 600, with 200 Mahommedan Baganda) escaped, proceeded up the east bank of the Nile and crossed the river, making their way to Mruli. It appeared probable that if they reached that point the Sudanese garrisons in Unyoro would revolt as well as the Baganda Mahommedans, and the last hope of the Europeans would be lost. Leaving a small column to deal with Mwanga’s force in the south, and another with Kabarega, Macdonald pursued the mutineers, overtook them in the swamps of Lake Kioga, and after a couple of successful skirmishes returned to Kampala, leaving Captain (afterwards Colonel) E. G. Harrison in command. That officer, crossing a swamp supposed to be impassable, attacked the rebel stockade at Kabagambi, and carried it with great gallantry. Captain Maloney was killed and Lieut. Osborne wounded, but the crisis was past. A large number of Indian troops arrived early in 1899, and in May Colonel C. G. Martyr inflicted another heavy defeat on the mutineers at Mruli. Mwanga, however, managed to get through and join Kabarega and the rebels in the north. These were dealt with in a series of engagements, but it was not till June 1899 that Colonel J. T. Evatt had the good fortune to capture Kings Mwanga and Kabarega, who were deported to the coast and subsequently removed to the Seychelles, where Mwanga died in 1903. Colonel Martyr at the close of the year (1899) undertook an expedition up the Nile, and extended the limits of the protectorate in that direction. Major H. H. Austin, who had come up to Uganda in 1897 with Macdonald and had fought through the mutiny operations, revealed the regions north of Mt Elgon. Colonel C. Delmé-Radcliiie finally subdued the last Rebellion of remnant of the Sudanese mutineers in 1900'1901. The year 1899 had been a costly one, £329,000 being voted in aid. In the autumn of 1899 Sir Harry Johnston was sent out as special commissioner to Uganda, being also given the rank of c0mmander-in-chief. By extensive reorganizations, and in spite of having to cope with a rising in Nandi, his commission resulted in the reduction of expenditure and increase of local revenue. He gave the kingdom of Buganda a definite constitution, settled the land question in the provinces of Buganda, Busoga, Unyoro, Toro and Ankole, and also the question of native taxation. By the treaty of Mengo, signed in March 1900, the young king of Buganda, Daudi Chwa, a son of Mwanga, born in 1896, was accorded the title of his Highness the Kabaka. During his minority the kingdom of Buganda was governed by regents. In 1900, the Uganda Protectorate was divided into six provinces, but in 1903 the Eastern and part of the Central provinces were transferred to the British East Africa. Protectorate.
In 1902 the Uganda railway, begun in 1896, was finished. Its terminus is at Kisumu (Port Florence) on Kavirondo Gulf, Victoria Nyanza. It is some 580 m. long, ascends in places to altitudes of 7000 and 8000 ft. (highest point 8300 ft.), but has only one tunnel. Its cost was about £5,300, o0o. (See British East Africa.)
Colonel Sir James H. Sadler succeeded Sir Harry Johnston in 1902 and was transferred to East Africa in 1905. His place in Uganda was taken by Sir Henry Hesketh Bell, who was made the first governor of Uganda in 1906. The ravages of sleeping sickness between 1901 and 1909 destroyed upwards of a quarter of a million people, and the whole of the native population had to be removed from the lake shores and the Sese Islands; but nevertheless the protectorate continued to make steady progress in civilization and in the development of its material resources. Its transit trade, especially with the Belgian Congo, became of great importance. To facilitate commerce with the Congo and with the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and to open up the Busoga region the British government in 1910 voted money to build a railway from Iinja to Kakindu. The work was carried out under the superintendence of Captain H. E. S. Cordeaux, who became governor of the protectorate in 1910. Authorities.-J. H. Speke, Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863); Sir H. M. Stanley, Through the Dark Continent (1878) and In Darkest Africa (1890); Sir Richard Burton, Lake Regions of Central Affrica (1860); Sir Samuel Baker, Albert Nyanza (1866); Em.n Pas a, Journals (1886 edition); C. Chaillé Long, Central Africa. Naked Truths of Naked People (1876); Colonel Gordon in Central Africa (1881), edited by G. B. Hill; C. T. Wilson and R. W. Felkin, Uganda and the Egyptian Sudan (1882); R. P. Ashe, Two Kings of Uganda (1889) and Chronicles of Uganda (1894), Sir H. Colvile, The Land of the Nile Springs (1895); P. Kollmann, The Victoria Nyanza (1899); Sir F. D. Lugard, The Rise of Our East African Empire (1893); G. F. Scott-Elliot, A Naturalist in lllid Africa (1896); Joseph Thomson, Through tllasai Land (1885); ]. Ansorge, Under the African Sun (1899); Count Telcki and Lieut. Hohnel, Discoveries of Lakes Rudolf and Stéphanie (1894); F. Stuhlmann, Mil Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afri/za (1894); Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (1902); and The Nile Quest (1903); A. B. Thruston, African Incidents (1900); J. F. Cunningham, Uganda and its Peoples (1905); H. H. Austin, With Macdonald in Uganda (IQ03) and Among Swamps and Giants in Equatorial Africa (1902); Winston Churchill, lily African Journey (1908); Bishop Tucker, Eighteen Years in Uganda and East Africa (1908); articles on ethnology by the Rev. H. Roscoe in the Journal of the Royal Anthropologlical institute between 1909 and 1908; the duke of the Abruzzi, “ he Snows of the Nile, ” in The Geographical Journal (February 1907); De Filippi, Ruwenzori (1908); I. E. S. Moore, The Tanganyika Problem (1903), and To the Mountains of the Maori (1901); A. F. R. Wollaston, From Ruwenzori to the Congo (1908); Seymour Vandeleur, Campaigning on the Upper Nile and Niger (1898).
- ↑ In 1909 Albert Edward Nyanza was renamed by British geographers (with the consent of Edward VII) Lake Edward, and Lake Dweru Lake George, in honour of George V.
- ↑ The letter was entrusted to Linant de Bellefonds, a Belgian in the Egyptian service, who had been sent to Buganda by Gordon. On his return journey Bellefonds was murdered by the Bari. When his body was recovered Stanley's letter was found concealed in one of his boots and was forwarded to England.
- ↑ Since reduced to one.
- ↑ Toro, Ankole, Bukedi and, the other countries now included in the protectorate were added by Sir Harry Johnston in 1899–1901.