Readers who are not used to this kind of exchange might be disturbed. However, if you have an open mind you will overcome it once you understand the tricks Bahororo are using to keep Bairu down and by extension the rest of Uganda. I know there are some Bairu who will object to this kind of conversation in large part because they are benefiting from Museveni regime and do not want trouble.
The primary objective of writing this and other stories is not to make friends (it will be good if that happens) but to share my research findings with a wider public. I have tried to be as factual and as balanced as possible because I know that any story about the relationship between Bahororo and Bairu is bound to be controversial and emotional. If you do not agree challenge me with facts and not emotions. We are not going to let a whole nation be destroyed because we do not want to upset a few people.
When I wrote my first story about “How Rujumbura’s Bairu got impoverished” I was called all sorts of names and warned that I would disappear (whether I or a member of my family disappear or not the message is already out there). I was not bothered because I was right and told the truth based on people’s stories. I knew that someday other researchers would support my position. Shifa Mwesigye has just done that in his article titled “Despite its rich profile, Rukungiri wallows in poverty”. The article was published in Observer (Uganda) on January 2, 2011.
For easy reference let us define Bairu people and review relations between Bahororo and Bairu before the women factor entered the equation. John Hanning Speke wrote in 1863 that Bahima told him (it is possible Speke made up and distorted the story because he had a patronizing attitude towards blacks (Negro) and recorded details of unfamiliar terrain {Thames and Hudson 2010}) that all people (Bantu) south of river Nile were Bairu (slaves) whose job was to supply Bahima masters with food and clothing.
Bahima crossed the Nile River with long horn cattle from Bahr el Ghazal in southern Sudan (not Ethiopia as Speke had wrongly written. Batutsi, Bahima and Bahororo resemble Dinkas from southern Sudan and not Ethiopians). Their ancestors were Nilotic Luo-speaking people. In Bunyoro, Buganda and Toro, Nilotic Bahima extensively intermarried with Bantu people and formed entirely new communities and economic, social and administrative regimes.
In Ankole and later Rujumbura, Bahima and Bahororo respectively decided against intermarriage with Bantu people. They opted to exploit, marginalize and dominate Bantu people who were dubbed Bairu (slaves). Bantu people were rich compared to Bahima and Bahororo who relied on cattle that is vulnerable to disease, drought and theft. To survive in such a harsh environment Bahima and Bahororo became warriors. On the other hand Bantu people who had plenty of food, land etc did not develop a warrior culture because it was not necessary. They resolved inter-community disputes mostly by negotiations.
Thus, because of extensive intermarriage in Buganda, Bunyoro and Toro, the term Bairu has disappeared from these three areas. It is now confined to southwest Uganda (in Ankole and Rujumbura county of Rukungiri districts). I will use illustrations from Rujumbura to show how Bahororo women have become a strategic political tool (no disrespect) in Bahororo’s attempt to continue domination of Bairu and extend that domination to the rest of Uganda.
Bahororo people are very few (look at the participants at Rwakitura meeting of March 15, 1992) and scattered in Rwanda and Uganda. In Uganda they are concentration in Ntungamo district and Rujumbura county of Rukungiri district. Their defining and potentially dangerous characteristic is that they are extremely power hungry people. If Museveni had his way he would like to conquer and be the leader of the whole world like Hitler tried to do (to use Museveni’s words {EIR 1997}). That is why Museveni has had more interest in international and regional than in domestic affairs – chairman of AU, Commonwealth, participation in G8 Summits, Uganda’s elections to Peace and Security Council of AU, Security Council of UN and engagement in regional wars and now in Somalia. All these activities – costly as they are – flash Museveni’s name on world TV screens. And he enjoys it!
That is why Museveni hopes to remain Uganda president until he becomes first president of East African federation (and hands Uganda’s leadership to his Muhororo relative) which he is pushing so hard without giving details about the benefits to the people of Uganda except basically an East African passport.
When Bahororo (Batutsi from Rwanda) arrived in Nyakinengo of Rujumbura County some 210 years ago, they introduced a feudal system of masters and slaves borrowed from pre-colonial Rwanda. Bantu were richer than them. With their military experience and in collaboration with Arab slave traders who brought European weapons with them Bahororo defeated Bantu people. Able-bodied Bantu people from defeated communities were captured and sold into slavery. The rest of defeated Bantu were deprived of their wealth. Long-horn cattle replaced short horn Bantu cattle. Bairu were reduced to producing and working for Bahororo masters. Bahororo forbade intermarriage between Bahororo and Bairu.
Bahororo realized that Bairu were resilient people and produced potentially capable leaders in military and economic matters. As in Rwanda, such potential leaders were either incapacitated through heavy taxation (tribute) or were given Bahororo women to marry and converted them into Bahororo as junior partners. This was done not out of love but purely to deprive Bairu of capable leadership.
Bahororo also used a psychological weapon that Bairu were inferior, short, stupid, laugh all the time and with ugly women (if you take an unbiased look you cannot fail to see the beauty of Bairu women. That is why although Bahororo men do not marry them for political reasons they regularly have sex with Bairu women and have babies too – Abambari. Otherwise it does not make sense for a Muhororo man to desert a beautiful Muhororo woman and sneak out to have sex with a Mwiru woman. There must be something very attractive about these Bairu women! Let’s not forget that). This psychological weapon was designed to keep Bairu down. The good news is that although impoverished, starved and abused, Bairu resilience did not die in pre-colonial times.
Bahororo continued to dominate Bairu under the colonial system of indirect rule. However, there were a few windows of opportunity through missionary schools to which Bairu children were admitted albeit late. Although economic exploitation of Bairu continued there was some room for capital accumulation.
By the late 1950s Bahororo realized that Bairu were more intelligent than them especially in science and math subjects. Bahororo also realized that Bairu were accumulating capital faster than them because Bairu engaged in mixed farming – grazing cattle, goats and sheep and growing export crops such as coffee. By the 1960s Bairu in southwest Uganda had more cattle than Bahororo and Bahima. The door was closing on the latter group very fast.
Against this background, Bahororo decided to use their women as a weapon to control Bairu advancement. All of a sudden, Bahororo women were let free to marry Bairu progressive men – educated or economically well off. Bairu men fell into a trap (no disrespect). They had been told and believed that Bairu women were ugly. So Bairu men suffered this psychological deficit. Bairu men were also eager to join a higher social club of Bahororo albeit as junior members. Third, Bahororo women became aggressive. In my culture, it is the man who makes a move towards a woman first. Bairu women who clang to that tradition lost as Bahororo women aggressively chased Bairu men. Bairu marrying Bahororo women became a fashion. If you did not marry a Muhororo woman you were defined as a misfit and a failure in life from the start. Consequently, able Bairu men have married Bahima and Bahororo women in Ankole and Rujumbura and deserted their Bairu women in large numbers.
The catch is that when a Mwiru man marries a Muhima or Muhororo woman, he enters into unwritten contract to abandon his ancestral relatives and join the new social club of in-laws. This was recently confirmed in writing by Phionah Kesaasi through an article in Observer newspaper.
So what has happened is that Bairu as a group are now leaderless economically, politically and militarily. And Kamuhangire confirmed this in his article in Observer newspaper about two years ago.
Any Mwiru man who has not married a Muhororo woman and wants to advance economically, politically and militarily is not given a chance. Bahororo will frustrate his ambitions and threaten his very survival here on earth. And the heart breaking part is that Bahororo use Bairu to crash their deserted brothers and sisters. Even if you flee to a temporary place, if Bahororo discover that you harbor ideas of helping your Bairu people break the chains of enslavement, they will follow you and try to make your life miserable at work and at home. As a general rule, Bahororo including through all sorts of agents will split you from your relatives and divide up your family.
Many Bairu may not realize the forces at work when they perform poorly economically or have family problems. You need to look deeper to understand those forces and who is funding and using them.
In Rujumbura where Bahororo want to establish Mpororo kingdom (the name Mpororo is already on some Uganda maps running from eastern DRC border in the west to the northern border with Rwanda in the east by joining Kanungu, Rukungiri and Ntungamo districts (Kabale and Bufumbira districts have been cut off from the rest of Uganda {Ian Leggett 2001 page 10}) preparatory steps are being taken.
To minimize Bairu dissent, Jim Muhwezi area member of parliament and probably working with higher authorities worked with Rukungiri district council chairman to illegally push Kagunga sub-county (where the majority of Bairu live) into Rukungiri municipality through an act of parliament that was passed without following normal procedures (the speaker of parliament has been asked several times to explain what happened but no response has been received and it is now over six months since the decision was taken). The idea is that though high municipal rents Bairu peasant land owners will be forced to sell and disappear from Rujumbura. That is why Bahororo are trying to bring in grid electricity knowing full well that Bairu peasants will not afford it (if they want to assist Bahororo should install appropriate sources of energy like solar or wind etc).
Through this article Bairu are serving notice. At the moment Bairu are weak but are not stupid. They know what is happening. They are going to organize with the help of friends and well wishers (and the voices of support are increasing) to keep the land or reclaim it later no matter how long it takes. Therefore those who are eager to jump on Kagunga land please think again. And please do not underestimate our resolve and deceive yourselves that this is an empty threat. The repressive government of Museveni and Muhwezi will not last forever – remember that! This injustice will be redressed. We are peace loving people but that should not be interpreted to mean that we cannot defend ourselves.
We are asking those ‘Tutsified’ Bairu who have abandoned us to come back or stay neutral because if you don’t Bairu anger (however defined) could be unleashed on you. In order to survive as a nation Bairu have to join forces – we have our children and grandchildren to take care of.
You are educated people but you are using your talents to advance the interests of Bahororo nation at the expense of your own. Is that what you went to school for? I can assure you that your parents, relatives and communities who broke their backs raising and sending you to school did not have that in mind. And it is not too late to return to your people.
There are stories (subject to confirmation) that Bahororo women have formed an organization called Bashambokazi Kumanyana. The principal objective is to find Bahororo women to match with progressive non-Bahororo men in Uganda to marry. It does not matter whether you are married or not. Eventually Uganda will be penetrated by Bahororo/Batutsi women who will make sure that non-Bahororo men’s political ambitions are held in check so that Bahororo as a nation dominate Uganda politically, economically and militarily. Because of this development in Uganda marriage as an institution is rapidly shifting from the concept of love to one of political convenience.
Reflect on this message as we enter 2011 and decide on the best course of action to take to advance the interests of Bairu nation.