Mwanguhya Charles Mpagi and Izama Angelo
The Monitor (Kampala)
March 2, 2004
Uganda: Bunyoro Kingdom has formally announced it is ready for a major showdown with former colonial masters, Britain. The anticipated legal battle could be like the biblical David versus Goliath affair, where the small, impoverished kingdom stretches her muscles against the mighty.

Patched on the mid-west of Uganda, Bunyoro was a kingdom to envy, prior to the coming of the white man.

The case

According to Mr Henry Ford Mirima, the spokesman of Bunyoro’s king Solomon Gafabusa Iguru, two cases will be arraigned before the courts of law.

They stem from the injustices allegedly committed by the British colonial administrators some 100 years ago.

The British government is accused of pillage, rape and murder of the former Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom.

On February 6, a notice to sue was served to the British government through their High Commission in Kampala.

Similar notices were served to the Attorney General of Uganda, the Buganda kingdom Government at Mengo and Baganda absentee landlords who own land in Buyaga and Bugangaizi.

The case is being filed by seven Banyoro on behalf of the people of the lost counties of Buyaga and Bugangaizi.

The seven are Mr Kyabangi Katta Musoke, Mr Karoli Sentalo, Mr George Endayange, Mr Dodoviko Batwale, Henry Ford Mirima, Mr Tom Araali Kavubu and Mr Kazairwe Kandole.

The suit is seeking Pound Sterling 100million Pound Sterling (about Shs320bn) compensation.

"The intended plaintiffs shall aver and contend that the intended defendant [the UK] with the collaboration of the three intended defendant [the Kingdom of Buganda] used brute and savage force to subdue the forefathers of the intended plaintiffs and to decimate the population and destroyed crops, livestock and other resourceand the intended plaintiffs have since perpetually suffered the full brunt of lagging behind other nationalities generation after generation in the social, economic and political evolution of this country."

The Queen of England, Elizabeth II

A second suit is being instituted exclusively against the government of the Queen of England for crimes committed by British agents during the colonial days.

The suit, Mirima says will feature the King Solomon Gafabusa Iguru as the main complainant on behalf of his people.

"This is a bigger case, It will go to the International Court of justice while the other case is being filed in the Constitutional Court of Uganda," Mirima told The Monitor in an interview.

A kingdom official, Mr Ernest Kiiza says Bunyoro is putting together a team of top class lawyers from England, Israel, and the United States against the Queen of England.

" We are issuing instructions early next week," said Kiiza.

The coalition of lawyers is expected to bring the UK government to account for the plunder of Bunyoro during Britain’s colonial rule of Uganda. While in other colonies, the British hounded Africans out of the prime fertile lands for white settlement, in Bunyoro, the land was "donated" to Baganda.

"Colonial efforts to reduce Bunyoro to a non entity were numerous, and continued over a long period of time.

They included invasions where masses were massacred; depopulating large tracts of fertile land and setting them aside as game reserves; sanctioning looting and pillaging of villages by invading forces, importation of killer diseases like syphilis that grew to epidemic proportions etc," reads a paper on the Kingdoms website.

Many Banyoro say that the British/Buganda invasion has made them a subject of ridicule. They claim the invasion made them lose identity, property and their natural wealth and thus impoverished them.

When the British arrived in Uganda in the later part of the 19th century, they were not welcomed in Bunyoro.

The then King of Bunyoro, King Chwa II Kabalega called the colonial representatives, agents of doom and mobilised his people to reject their invasion.

But the British were prepared for such resistance. Having secured base in Buganda, they mobilised the Baganda, traditional enemies of the Banyoro, hired Sudanese mercenaries and with the help of the gun, they descended on Bunyoro.

Kabalega who was commanding the Nyangire rebellion armed only with arrows and spears was defeated and eventually exiled.

One may ask how a mighty empire, like Kitara, became whittled away to the present under populated and underdeveloped kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara.

"This is the result of many years of orchestrated, intentional and malicious marginalisation, dating back to the early colonial days," reads a page on the kingdom’s website.

On April 9th, 1899, Kabalega was captured by the invading colonial forces and was sent into exile on the Seychelles Islands.

The Banyoro now claim that in the subsequent 1900 Buganda agreement signed on March 13, after Kabalega’s defeat, the British donated large chunks of land to Buganda Kingdom and various Banyoro chiefs that had helped in the subjugation of Bunyoro.

Buyaga and Bugangiazi were, according to the agreement, annexed to Buganda from Bunyoro. About 104 years later, Bunyoro now says it can seek redress from the courts of law.

Bunyoro’s claims for compensation come at a time when internationally Africa and her descendants in other parts of the world are demanding for among other things; apologies and reparations from the advanced west.

From South Africa to the West Coast, new demands are emerging each day.

In the United States where many of the former African slaves were taken to work on plantations, the African Americans have come up with a project to support their African brothers in their quest for justice.

The new demands include explicit apologies from individual countries, including Britain, and reparations including debt cancellation and the funding of health care.

Those who feel unfairly treated are demanding an "explicit apology" by countries "which practised, benefited or enriched themselves from slavery, slave trade and colonialism to all victims".

To be able to move on, it needs its former oppressors to acknowledge the hurt they have caused and help the Kingdom to fulfil its ambitions for a better future.

International support

In 2001, the United Nations organised the first major racism conference in South Africa as a means to try and bridge the gap between Africa and her former colonial masters.

The conference, the UN hoped, would be a step towards healing the wounds of colonialism and slave trade and help in forging a new relationship.

However, the conference nearly broke up. The organisers soon realised that bitterness runs deep.

The US, one nation many believe got its riches out of slave labour and free resources boycotted the conference only sending a low powered delegation.

Like the rest of Africa, Bunyoro’s bitterness is born out of the treatment that the colonialists exhibited as they came here.

Many European colonialists believed they had a mission to civilise Africa. Europeans believed they were a superior breed that had a duty to save Africans from savagery.

The Americans and their allies were saving Africans from the evils of communism.

Namibian president Sam Nujoma said in 2001 of his support for reparation demands, "My government’s position, which is in line with the African position, is that those states, which were involved in the enslavement of the African people must recognise slavery as a crime against humanity. These states must therefore endeavour to pay compensation and reparation to the victims and descendants of the slave trade,"

Whether Bunyoro will reap anything from her latest actions remains to be seen.

But as former Attorney General, Mr Abubaker Mayanja says, the task ahead is a big one. Mayanja says that if Bunyoro succeeds, then all the areas (countries) that were colonised should demand compensation. A fact he thinks is ridiculous.

Setting a precedent

If Bunyoro pulls through with her case, it will mark a major step for other groups that have long demanded reparations.

In South Africa, the Zulu have indicated that they intend to take Britain to court over colonialism.

In the US, where many of the African slaves were taken, pressure groups are emerging to demand compensation for slavery and colonialism mainly in support of their African ancestral homes.

A message by one Assata Shakur reads; "The fight for reparations puts the struggle of African people in a historical context

"We are not asking for favours or for charity, we are demanding what is rightfully ours!"

The British Council in Kampala is jittery when asked to comment on Bunyoro kingdom latest moves.

A lady in the information office said recently, "We can not comment, we need to consult with our home office about the legal position."

But in Britain itself the news of the intended suit is making headlines in both the small and big media houses.

The notice to United Kingdom says, "Take notice that unless we get from you an indication of interest to have this matter amicably settled between the parties within two months from the date of service of this notice to you, our imperative instruction is to unleash the legal machinery upon you, holding you jointly or severally in damages and costs."