I’m pretty disappointed with the quality of the media reports concerning the riots in Uganda. Articles from America’s most reputable news sources confuse facts, give insufficient background, and muddle the narrative—and that’s the case in numerous accounts in mainstream outlets. No story explains why “one of the kings” is behind the riots, and why there are multiple kings.

Regular ComingAnarchy readers shouldn’t be so confused—I explained the five constituent kingdoms of Uganda earlier this year, and you’ll forgive me if I say that post is probably the best concise explanation on the internet of these restored cultural institutions. In a nutshell, landlocked Uganda remained independent from European colonialism longer than most other parts of Africa, and several of its kingdoms survived through colonialism, only to be abolished upon national independence. Uganda restored the five kingdoms in 1993, but only as cultural entities and the kings are not allowed to participate in politics, which practically means they cannot tax and they must raise money through their own business.

The problem gets down to this—the borders of these kingdoms were never finalized, and basically reflect the kingdoms as their borders were at independence. Buganda is the largest kingdom due to its cooperation with the British authorities, who granted the Buganda large land concessions, whereas historically Bunyoro was the largest kingdom, and from which most modern kingdoms received independence.

Bugerere County is one of many places that is part of Buganda but wants to seced. Situated on the map above within Buganda territory south of the lake in the north, it is looking to join the neighboring Buyoro kingdom, and in the wake of its effective secession, the king of Buganda planned to visit there. The government blocked his visit and violent riots erupted in protest.

Bunyoro was the largest kingdom in Uganda from the 16th to 19th centuries, and most other kingdoms won independence from Bunyoro at some time in history. But Bunyoro is also the site of the recent oil discoveries in Uganda, and stands to profit enormously from the extraction—which is even more important for Uganda’s kings since they must finance their own cultural regimes. Bunyoro is respected among the citizenry and perceived by Buganda to receive favoritism from the government (the powerful President Yoweri Museveni has held the position for two decades and is himself a member of the Ankole kingdom).

That is the origin of the crisis, distilled down to a few paragraphs. Uganda has long seemed a peaceful nation when compared to the violence in neighboring Rwanda, DRC, Somalia, and Kenya—but the disputes between and inside the kingdoms of Uganda. Said one member of parliament representing a district inside Bunyoro: “Who says Bunyoro has ever been stable? This situation has been hibernating and now that it is out in the open, it is potentially explosive unless resolved. Of course, oil production will be affected.”

Uganda, as a landlocked African nation, experienced colonialism only in the late 19th century, well after European interests had taken control in most other regions of Africa. In the late 19th century it became a protectorate under the British, and unlike many other colonies, the kingdoms and nations within the protectorate retained a wide degree of self-determination. For example, many of the Bantu kings that ruled in the south continued to rule despite the British interests controlling many economic and inter-kingdom affairs. (Like most of Africa’s nations, Uganda’s political boundaries are nonsensical when looking at the peoples that make up its border—see a visualization of this phenomenon here.) Because of this, many aspects of late-nineteenth century African society and the ancient political system survived the colonial experience in Uganda, despite being wiped out in most other parts of the continent.

Perhaps ironically, the Bantu kingdoms that survived the British did not survive their departure. When Uganda became independent in 1963 and abolished commonwealth monarchy, it then proceeded in 1967 to abolish the remaining monarchies. In 1993, the government of President Museveni permitted the Bantu kingdoms to reincorporate, to the extent they were “cultural institutions,” not political insitutions. Of course, politics is inevitable in everything—but the real meaning of the restoration of the kingdoms was that the kings have no powers to tax, and recieve little funding from the government, requiring them to survive on their own business acumen and their connections.

The regions of the five restored kingdoms today look something like this:

There is very little information on the constitutent kingdoms of Uganda available on the Internet, so I’ve compiled this post from a variety of sources. You can read more on the pdf files here, here, and here. I’ve briefly explained the recent history of each kingdom below, referencing the (often very brief) wikipedia page on each kingdom. Read the rest of this entry »