The corruption within the current bureau of land management is modern Uganda’s fault and problem, but Ugandans have described to me a historical root to the problem, that dates back to the colonial era.
The land-purchasing system currently operating in Hoima and Buliisa was developed under the British. Part of the impetus for an unfair system was that the Banyoro kingdom fiercely opposed colonization, fighting aggressively to keep Buganda and British forces out of their territories. When Banyoro finally fell, people say the British punished them by redrawing their territory and instituting land tenure systems. It conflicted directly with traditional communal landholding, overrode cultural and historic title, and resulted in a two-tiered system of land administration, one overseen by clan leaders, and the other overseen by bureaucrats in Kampala with little familiarity with the territory.
Indirectly, the British can also be partly credited for the current population crisis in Uganda. In the wake of the Sleeping Sickness epidemic, upwards of half the population around the Victoria Nile and Lake Victoria was decimated (Bishop Taylor wrote, in 1909). Fearing that such a shrunken population would struggle to keep pace with cash crop growth (cotton and coffee, mostly), colonizers started encouraging a “women’s sphere” concept that would keep women home, dependent and procreating (Carol Summers wrote an amazing book called “The Imperial Production of Reproduction in Uganda 1907-1925” that describes the process of sending women back to the house to be mothers). Of course, having lots of kids is most definitely a Ugandan thing, independent of colonial influence. I’m just saying we’re not looking at a “culture” so much as a combination of forces adding up to the current situation.
We could also blame the colonizers for expressly and deliberately excluding women from the political process, denying them positions in government and refusing to tax their income (and thus perpetuating their position as property, which is exchanged for bride price). The point isn’t to point fingers, though. The missionaries made great strides (against both traditional culture and imperialist bureaucrats) for women’s rights, initiating the first women’s groups, getting women educated, and leading them into fields of nursing and teaching. It’s all so interwoven.
Author: Kendyl Salcito, executive director, NomoGaia
Kendyl Salcito developed her expertise in human rights and business as a foreign reporter in Southeast Asia and North America. She has advised industry groups on corporate human rights performance and contributed to the development of the UN’s Guidance Principles for Human Rights and Business.
