PRE-COLONIAL UGANDA

• Essential Readings:
(i) Mamdani Mahmood (1999), Politics and Class
Formation in Uganda, Kampala, Fountain
Publishers, “Chapter 1: Pre Colonial Uganda”
Pages 17-39.
(ii) Karugire S.R (1980), A Political History of
Uganda, Kampala, Fountain Publishers,
“Chapter 1: The Pre-Colonial Setting 1500-
1860” Pages 17-48.
 PRE-COLONIAL UGANDA
• Before the Europeans arrived in Uganda, Uganda
had vibrant economic, social and political
structures. These were severely disrupted by
Europeans to create wealth for themselves.
Uganda just like other African countries suffered
European dominance through the transatlantic
slave trade which lasted 440 years, from 1444 to
1885 and was replaced by colonialism up to the
late 1950s and early 1960s.
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• Uganda became a British protectorate from
1894 to 1962.
• As J.E Casely-Hayford, 1922 African (Gold Coast)
Nationalist put it:
“Before even the British came into relations with
our people, we were a developed people,
having our own institutions, having our own
ideas of government” quoted by Walter
Rodney, 1972: 33.
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• Casely-Hayford’s argument above makes sense
if one looks at Pre-colonial Uganda. Before the
advent of colonialism, Ugandan societies had
achieved social, economic and political
development.
• Mamdani (1999) argues that “human history is
a product of human labor, which is in turn the
medium of interaction between humans and
their environment.
 PRE-COLONIAL UGANDA
• Through labor, people appropriate and
humanize nature, in the process transforming
themselves, making their own nature”.
• Mamdani further states that “as people labor,
they make history. To understand history,
then, we need to look at humans as
productive beings who find themselves in a
particular environment”.
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• He further notes that “the development of a
people begins with their appropriation of
nature and with the social relations they forge
in the process of sustaining and reproducing
themselves”.
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• Political, economic and social structures
existed in Ugandan societies well before the
19th century.
• Pre-colonial Uganda had many different forms
of politics and government and such a variety
of politics and government was closely related
to the level of economic organization and
production
 PRE-COLONIAL UGANDA
• As argued by Mamdani, “social development in
Pre-colonial Uganda was essentially uneven.
Some social formations were characterized by
the feudal mode of production, some the
communal mode and others in transition”.
• The level and character of social development
was a result of both internal development and
the external factors particularly the slave
trade.
Pre-Colonial Political Organization
• Distinctions among the above three social
formations are based on the degree of control
exercised at the political centre, the extent of
regulation of the force within society and the
nature of relationship between kingship and
political authority. We now look at the three
social formations that existed in Uganda
before the advent of colonialism.
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1) Stateless/Decentralized Societies
2) Societies in Transition
3) State Societies
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1) Stateless/Decentralized Societies. These
societies were characterized by the following:
• Organization and production in society was
communal
• Land and other factors of production were
communally owned.
• The relationship principle is kin-ship, culture,
rites, rituals, beliefs and rules of social obligation
and material wealth are carried out
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by gift giving
• The production unit is the household and the
social unit is the clan where religious practices
are carried out
• The relations of production under communal
mode of production are cooperative and non-
antagonistic
• There is no social appropriation and the social
surplus is controlled by the household which is
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the production unit. This is a poor and
fundamentally egalitarian society
• No individual in such societies could impose
him/herself on others because the leader has
no instruments of oppression at hand like the
army e.t.c
• In Uganda, these were small groups of people
who lived in this communal tribal setting. These
groups included the Bakonjo, Bamba,
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• The Bagisu who were found on the slopes of
Mt. Elgon having been pushed to the
mountains by the Nandi and Masai.
• Over time as the population and production
increased, there was a rise of trade and raids
among societies. The strong military societies
started pushing out the smaller societies
through raids and conquests. These societies
became weaker and with time non-existent.
Pre-Colonial Political Organization
2) Societies in Transition. These had
characteristics like:
• Age groups were a source of military power.
Chiefs emerged from a particular clan. State
formation was not yet complete.
• In these societies, the territorial organization
by village unit became vital and began to
influence economic and political spheres.
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• Politically, people started to be divided
according to the area they inhabited.
• Hereditary succession to power had come as a
result of customary hereditary rule from one
family or clan. The chief started receiving
tribute from people in return for protecting
them from wars and raids.
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• African societies made kinship or clan the
basis of their membership as well as holding
and exercising political power. Political
authority segmented, as the kinship groups
seldom interacted with each other and had no
common leader. Political roles were allocated
according to sex and age.
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• Decisions were usually made through
discussions and exchange of views on all
major issues affecting the group by meeting of
all adult males. The aim of the system was to
achieve a consensus and the common good of
the group. The clan system of the Somali
society in which elders had a leading role can
be more or less included in this category.
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• Others examples were: Langi, Acholi, Iteso,
Karamajong, Bakiga e.t.c.
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3) State/Centralized Societies
• The third category included the
centralized/state societies. These were
societies which had centralized authority,
administrative machinery and judicial
institutions and standing armies. In short,
government and in which cleavages of wealth,
privilege and status correspond to the
distribution of power and authority
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• These societies had a feudal mode of
production. They were characterized by fertile
soils, regular water supply and this led to
agricultural production and made it possible
for ordered social life.
• The large surplus resulting from high levels of
development and productive forces gave rise
to a more complex division of labor and then a
class division
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• Between those who produced and those who
appropriated.
• The state machinery became a privilege of the
ruling class and thus creating special
demarcations or boundaries.
• Peasants became the cultivating masses and
were subjected to the ruling individuals i.e. land
lords, chiefs, who could extract tributes and
services in return for security.
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• Examples are: Bunyoro Kitara kingdoms of
Nkore, Toro, Karagwe, Buganda, Bunyoro and
were examples of kingdoms and empires with
centralized governments/authority.
• Before these kingdoms there existed the
Batembuzi and the Bachwezi empires.
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• Some empires and kingdoms were noted for
their large towns or small- to medium-size
cities. Many of these cities were trade and
government centers, for example Mengo in
Buganda, Kamukuzi in Nkore e.t.c.
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• But regardless of level of economic
organization and production, much political
power in most societies rested in family or
kinship groups. In addition, political or social
identities had more to do with membership in
family or kinship groups or in one’s language
group than in being a resident in a given
jurisdiction.
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• Army. Pre-colonial states had strong standing
armies that were instrumental in state
formation, expansion and consolidation. The
army provided security to the kingdoms
against enemies and aggression and gave
them strength. Examples include the Abarisura
of Bunyoro e.t.c.
 Pre-Colonial Economic Organization

• Below are some of the points that show that

Uganda was well developed and organized
economically before foreign intrusion:
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• Africans were involved in different economic

activities like fishing, cattle rearing, crop
growing, crafts, artisans, trade, manufacturing
e.t.c as will be shown in the subsequent slides.
• Towns and cities had emerged on the trade
routes and headquarters of kingdoms. Some
of the examples included: Mengo e.t.c.
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• Pre colonial Uganda had groups of specialized

artisans patronized by the lord or the king. By
the 19th Century a degree of regional
specialization had begun to develop.
• Toro had a good supply of copper and the
Batoro specialized in copper working. The
Basoga built and supplied canoes for transport
on Lake Victoria.
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• The Kayonza (in Kigezi) and the Banyoro, who

made use of their own and northern Acholi
iron deposits, had developed a group of
smiths and manufactures and exported spear
and hoe blades.
• The Banyoro were also the major suppliers of
salt and their pottery was in constant demand
throughout the region.
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• In Buganda, the great chiefs had in their

service carpenters who could make doors and
bedsteads on the Arab pattern, potters who
could make cups and water jugs like those in
Zanzibar, and blacksmiths capable of repairing
the increasing number of firearms the Kabaka
of Buganda imported.
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• In the centuries before the contact with

Europeans, the overwhelmingly dominant
activity in Uganda was agriculture. In all the
settled agricultural communities, people
observed the peculiarities of their own
environment and tried to find techniques for
dealing with it in rational manner.
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• Advanced methods of agriculture were used in
some parts of Uganda such as terracing, crop
rotation, green manuring, mixed farming and
regulated swamp farming. Millet and rice had
been domesticated from wild grasses just as yams
were made to evolve from selected wild roots.
There was rearing of animals by different groups.
For example the Bachwezi introduced the long
horned cattle in the interlacustrine region.
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• The single most important technological

change underlying African agricultural
development was the introduction of iron
tools, notably the ax and the hoe, replacing
the wooden and stone tools. It was on the
basis of the iron tools that new skills were
elaborated in agriculture as well as in other
spheres of economic activity.
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• According to Mamdani, trade had existed for

centuries, and it had two characteristics: First,
whether between town and country in the
same region, between states in different
ecological zones, or between the interior and
the city-states on the East African coast, this
trade had always been complementary, not
competitive.
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• Intra regional trade was limited by the division

of labor: thus, direct exchange took place
between artisans and agriculturalists in
Buganda and between the pastoral Hima
(producing milk, meat, butter, hides and skins)
and the agricultural Iru (who were also semi
specialized artisans, producing spears, arrows,
hoes, milk pots e.t.c)
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• On the other had, inter regional trade was

primarily between different ecological zones,
which specialized in the production of specific
use values-for example, dried fish from main
lakes and rivers, salt from the shores of Lake
Albert and Lake Katwe, spear and hoe blades
from Bunyoro and bark cloth from Buganda.
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• The trade with the coastal cities grew to

substantial levels in the first half of 19th
century due to the increased demand for
ivory. This was through the Long Distance
Trade.
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• As part of the extension of trade, it was

noticeable that barter trade was giving way to
some forms of money exchange. Barter was
generally practiced when the volume of trade
was small and when only a few commodities
were involved. However, as trade became
more complicated, some items began to be
used as the standards for measuring other
goods.
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• Those items could be kept as a form of wealth

easily transformed into other commodities
when the need arose. For example, salt, cloth,
iron, hoes and cowry shells were popular
forms of money in Uganda-apart from gold
and copper, which were rare and therefore
restricted to measuring things of great value.
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• Walter Rodney argues that “when it comes to

the question of manufacturing in Africa before
the time of the white man, it is also essential
to recognize where achievements have been
underestimated. African manufacturers have
been contemptuously treated or overlooked
by European writers, because the modern
conception of the word brings in mind
factories and machines….
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• However, ‘manufactures’ means literally

‘things made by hand’ and African
manufacture in this sense had advanced
appreciably. Most African societies fulfilled
their own needs for a wide range of articles of
domestic use, as well as for farming tools and
weapons.”
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• One way of judging the level of economic

development in Africa five centuries ago is
through the quality of the products. Here a
few examples will be given of articles which
came to the notice of the outside world.
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• The Baganda were expert bark cloth makers.

• Another example are the Basoga who
manufactured canoes in pre-colonial Uganda.
• As already mentioned, the Batoro specialized
in copper working.
• The Bairu of Nkore who were semi specialized
artisans produced spears, arrows, hoes, milk
pots e.t.c
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• Africans were involved in mining of salt for

example in Katwe and Lake Albert in Bunyoro.
• The regions of Buddu and Koki of Buganda
were well endowed with minerals. The Kabaka
got some skilled people to train his trustees at
the palace in iron smelting. These trustees
eventually took up the iron smelting industry.
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• In Pre-colonial Uganda, Africans had well
developed religions. Religion is an aspect of
the superstructure of society deriving from
the degree of control and understanding of
the material world. Religious beliefs were
associated with the mobilization and discipline
of large numbers of people to form states. In a
few instances, religion also provided concepts
in the struggle for social justice
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• The negative aspects usually arose out of the
tendency of religion to persist unchanged for
extremely long periods, especially when the
technology of earning a living changes very
slowly. This was the case in African societies as
in all other pre-capitalist societies.
Furthermore, religious beliefs slowed down
development and progress.
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• For example, belief in prayer and in the
intervention of ancestors and various gods
could easily be a substitute for innovations
designed to control the impact of weather and
the environment.
• Pre-colonial Uganda is full of examples of gods
e.g. in Buganda (Lubaale, Mukasa, Musoke,
Ddungu), Nkore (Kazooba e.t.c), beliefs in
ancestors and spirits e.t.c.
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• Social relations in society. Before the 15th
Century, the predominant principle of social
relations was that of family and kinship
associated with communalism. Every member
of an African society had his position defined
in terms of relatives on his mother’s or
father’s side. Some societies placed greater
importance on matrilineal ties and others on
patrilineal ties.
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• These ties were crucial for daily existence of a
member of an African society, because land
(the major means of production) was owned
by groups such as the family or clan.
• Division of Labor. The labor that worked on
the land was generally recruited on a family
basis.
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• A single family or house hold would till its own
plots and it would also be available to share
certain joint farming activities with other
members of the extended family or clan.
Annual hunts and river fishing were also
organized by a whole extended family or
village community.
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• System of Distributing Goods. Having been
produced on land that was family property and
through family labor, the resultant crops and
other goods were distributed on the basis of
kinship ties. If a man’s crops were destroyed by
some sudden calamity, relatives in his own village
helped him. If the whole community was in
distress, people moved to live with their kinsmen
in another area where food was not scarce.
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• Rights and Duties in Society. In pre-colonial
Uganda, the individual at every stage of life
had a series of duties and obligations to others
in the society as well as a set of rights: namely,
things that he or she could expect or demand
from other individuals. Age was a most
important factor determining the extent of
rights and obligations.
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• The oldest members of the society were highly
respected and usually in authority; and the
idea of seniority through age was reflected in
the presence of age-grades and age-sets in
many societies.
• Circumcision meant initiation into the society
and adulthood. From that moment, a man was
placed with others in his own age-group and a
woman likewise.
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• Usually, there were at least three age-grades,
corresponding roughly to the young, the
middle-aged and the old.
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• Some pre-colonial societies had achieved
feudal social formations where social
stratification was the basis for the rise of
classes and for social antagonisms. For
instance, old men could use their control over
land allocation, over bride-price and over
other traditional exchanges to try to establish
themselves as a privileged economic stratum.
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• In the period of transition from communalism
to feudalism, while African societies retained
many features that were indisputably
communal, it also accepted the principle that
some families or clans or lineages were
destined to rule and others were not.
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• This was true not only of cultivators but of
pastoralists as well. In fact, livestock became
unevenly distributed much more readily than
land; and those families with the largest herds
became socially and politically dominant.
• An even more important aspect of the process
of social stratification was brought about by
contact between different social formations.
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• Fishermen had to relate to cultivators and the
latter to pastoralists. There were even social
formations such as bands of hunters and food-
gatherers that had not yet entered the phase
of communal cooperation. Often the
relationship was peaceful.
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• However, there was also room for considerable
conflict; and when one group imposed itself by
force on another, the result was invariably the
rise of social classes with the conquerors on top
and the conquered at the bottom.
• The most common clashes between different
social formations were those between
pastoralists and cultivators.
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• An example of class conflicts is between the
pastoralist Bahima and the Bairu in the
interlacustrine region. The pastoralist Bahima had
imposed their rule over the cultivators, or Bairu.
Social classes grew out of a situation of changing
labor relations. The earth works of Bigo and
elsewhere were not built by voluntary family labor
and some coercion must also have been used to get
the cultivators to produce a surplus for their lords.
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• For instance, the Bachwezi are said to have
established a system by which young men
were conscripted into the king’s service and
were maintained by Bairu who occupied and
cultivated land assigned for the support of the
army. They also introduced slave artisans and
administrators where the latter ruled on
behalf of the Bachwezi aristocrats.
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• Another example of a society with class
stratification is Buganda. At the top of the
social strata was the Kabaka and the royal
class (family) comprising of Princes (Balangila)
Princesses (Abambeja). The stratification then
moved down the social ladder to the Bataka
(land lords), the Bakopi (peasants) to the
Bagalagala who comprised of slaves (Baddu)
and war captives.
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• Africans in the pre-colonial Africa had their
own cultures, languages, beliefs and customs
that brought about social order and stability in
society. Each of the tribes or ethnic groups
had their languages used as a medium of
communication e.g. Baganda had Luganda
language, Bunyoro spoke Runyoro e.t.c.
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• Use of pet names in Toro and Bunyoro
• Use of proverbs in most African societies,
story telling, traditional songs, music, drama,
dance e.t.c are evidence of how Africans had
developed in the pre-colonial period.
• Africans in the pre-colonial era had informal
education that was passed on from one
person to another or generation to another,
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• through story telling in the evenings around
fire places, parents e.g. fathers and uncles
passing on knowledge to boys where as
mothers and aunts would train and educate
daughters. People like carpenters, blacksmiths
e.t.c would pass on knowledge direct to the
learners.
 Conclusion
• The above information shows how Pre-Colonial
Uganda had achieved socio-economic and
political development. This was however
disorganized by the coming of the Europeans
who aimed at imposing their civilization on
Ugandans. Unfortunately, the Ugandans were
made to believe that the White man’s civilization
was superior to theirs. This affected Africans
from the colonial times up to the present period.