Whenever I write something it leads to another. Some readers of my blog www.kashambuzi.com have asked me to elaborate on what psychological warfare means and how it leads to political domination including in Uganda.
In general, psychological warfare involves anything said or done that affects your mind or feelings about yourself, relatives and others in a negative way, leading to hopelessness, voicelessness, powerlessness and ultimately resignation including to your opponent.
Since Museveni came to power, you have heard him refer to his opponents as bankrupt, empty cans, liars and saboteurs etc. He has especially used these expressions when referring to opposition parties. This is intended to weaken them in Uganda political context and put Museveni on top of the political pyramid as a super star. And it has worked but will it continue now that Museveni is sounding like an empty can based on broken promises?
In the great lakes region psychological warfare was used to the maximum by Batutsi over Bahutu in Rwanda and Burundi and by Bahima and Bahororo over Bairu in Ankole district and Rujumbura county of Rukungiri district.
According to Paul Rusesabagina (2006), in Rwanda “The doctrine of Tutsi superiority was taught in schools, preached in churches, and reinforced in thousands of invisible ways in daily Rwandan life. The Tutsi were told over and over that they were aristocratic and physically attractive, while the Hutu were told they were ugly and stupid and worthy of working in the fields”. Pierre Ryckmans, one of the most important Belgian colonial administrators stated that “The Batutsi were meant to reign. Their fine presence is in itself enough to give them a great prestige vis-s-vis the inferior races [Hutu and Twa]… It is not surprising that those good Bahutu, less intelligent, more simple, more spontaneous, more trusting, have let themselves to be enslaved without ever daring to revolt” (Gerard Prunier1995). Bahutu got the latter point and sat on it until 1959 when they carried out a Social Revolution that sent Batutsi into exile only to be returned in 1994 by Museveni and western powers.
In Uganda the story of Bahima superiority over Bantu was started by John Hanning Speke (1863, 2006), the most controversial and enigmatic of Africa’s explorers. He exhibited a patronizing attitude to Africans [Negroes or Bantu] and was described as an incompetent man “in everything except hunting or recording details of unfamiliar terrain [like Bahima’s]” (Robin Hanbury-Tenison 2010).
Speke came to Africa at the height of race science in Europe. The white people were considered to be at the top and the Negroes (blacks) at the bottom of the racial pyramid. Because of their low intellectual capacity, blacks were deemed to have no civilization. To white people Africa was a dark continent and darkness was not a subject of history.
When Speke visited what later became Uganda he found magnificent civilizations especially in Buganda of Bantu people. He could not believe that they were constructed by black people. He therefore created a ‘Hamitic Myth’ that these civilizations must have been developed by white people. He invented Bahima as those white people because of some physical resemblance with Europeans! Bahima were also credited with establishing centralized states and constructing earthen works in central Uganda.
Speke then writes that Bahima told him that Bantu were Bairu (slaves) whose job was to supply Bahima rulers with food and clothing from bark cloth. It is possible that Speke (the most controversial of all Africa’s explorers who died in mysterious circumstances on the day he was to debate his African findings) created this story himself to deny Bantu (Bairu) credit for the civilizations he found in the region.
To keep Bairu down and exploit them in perpetuity Bahima, after Speke converted them into white people endowed with more intelligence and born rulers than Bairu, came up with a story of an aging father and three sons. The father was too old to determine who should be king. So he gave them a test. Each of the three sons was given a pot full of milk to rest on their laps the whole night without spilling any. Kakama the youngest spilt all his milk. His elder brothers Kahima and Kairu felt pity on him and refilled his pot from theirs. Kairu slept and spilt all his milk. In the morning Kakama had his pot full and was made king; Kahima who came second was mandated to tend the king’s cattle and Kairu (Mwiru) who came third was condemned and his descendants to slave for his brothers and their descendants in perpetuity. Kakama and Kahima represented Bahima and Kairu represented Bairu.
This fiction was repeated in schools, in churches and anywhere else and it stuck to this day in 2010. In Rujumbura there are Bairu (including some well educated ones) who still believe that Bahororo are born to rule even when their shortcomings including low or incomplete or even possibly purchased education and/or work experience are obvious. Other stories described Bairu as short, ugly, unintelligent and fit for menial work, exactly the same way as Batutsi in Rwanda (Bahororo are Batutsi from Rwanda) described Bahutu.
Because of this psychological warfare, Bairu in Ankole and Rujumbura accepted to be turned into slaves. Bairu were dispossessed of their cattle and taxed heavily in labor service. They grew, prepared and served Bahima with food and drinks. Whenever a Muhororo or Muhima gave a Mwiru a cow it was either infertile, about to die or a bull to prevent them from accumulating wealth!
Subsequent research has turned the tables on Bahima, Bahororo and Batutsi. Scientific studies have found indisputably that Bahima and their cousins are black people and darker with thicker lips than Bairu (check again if you are not sure). Bahima and Batutsi women put on extra weight as they grow old (no disrespect is intended). Bachwezi who were also black people were neither Bahima nor Luo: “they were a Bantu aristocracy who emerged in western Uganda in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries” (Jean Hiernaux 1975; Gerard Prunier 1995 & B. A. Ogot 1999). Yet Nilotic Bahororo and their cousins still insist they are descendants of Bachwezi who were white people and are naming their buildings, restaurants etc after Bachwezi. They are inadvertently honoring Bantu they still despise!
B. A. Ogot (1999) has added that “the origins and development of the centralized states in the interlacustrine region [between lakes] cannot be accounted for entirely in terms of alien pastoral aristocracies [Bahima, Batutsi and Bahororo]. Internal factors including local initiatives might provide a more convincing theory”. J. E. G. Satton elaborated on Ogot’s findings by observing that the herding economy of Bahima “does not in general encourage the development of advanced material cultures or centralized political systems” (B. A. Ogot 1967). In fact it has been demonstrated in time and space that nomadic people like Bahororo and their cousins destroy more than they construct (Eric Kashambuzi 2008). You can see what is happening in Uganda under (previously nomadic) Museveni!
Since education was opened to Bairu children in the latter part of the colonial period, Bairu students have proven intellectual superiority over Bahima and Bahororo especially in science and mathematics. That is why Museveni and his Bahororo, Bahima and Batutsi cousins have resorted to military might to stay on top because they cannot compete intellectually and democratically. Bahororo’s non-leadership qualities have been confirmed by their dismal performance under the leadership of Museveni’s since 1986. In virtually all areas of human endeavor, Uganda is moving backwards. The neglect of children and youth by Museveni is particularly disturbing. Museveni has refused to provide lunch to primary school children. As a way of killing school lunch proposal, he has referred it to the World Bank which does not appear to favor school lunches. Museveni has also refused to help unemployed youth. Other leaders in developed and developing countries do help with public works during economic hard times. Yet Museveni has enough money to host expensive international conferences and summits for his personal ego.
Despite these glaring findings, Bahororo and their cousins continue to believe they are white people and therefore more intelligent and superior over Bairu and other Ugandans. Some Bahororo especially in Ntungamo district continue to argue that one Muhororo is worth 1000 Bairu. When Museveni describes his opponents, like Bahororo in Ntungamo do (Museveni is Muhororo from Ntungamo), as bankrupt and empty tins he is deliberately using psychological warfare as a weapon to stay on top of Uganda’s political pyramid. It is the fault of the opposition that does not fire back and gives Museveni the political edge over them.
Bahororo and their Bahima and Batutsi cousins have so far effectively used their women as a psychological weapon on other Uganda men. By succumbing to political marriages with Bahororo, Batutsi and Bahima women (disguised as love) you (non-Bahororo, Bahima and Batutsi men) have rendered yourselves politically powerless because your Muhororo wife will discourage you from competing against her Muhororo uncle or brother, etc. There are stories (to be confirmed) that Bashambo women (ruling clan of Bahororo) have formed an association called Bashambokazi Kumanyana (to know one another). One of the principal goals is to match Bahororo women (mostly from lower social classes) with outstanding non-Bahororo Uganda men for marriage. This is a clear case of psychological weaponry in a political context.
Bairu and other Ugandans have no reason to feel inferior to Bahororo and their cousins. They were given mandate to develop Uganda into a modern economy and society. Instead they are driving the country into the ground. Even the outsiders who supported Museveni to the hilt are quietly abandoning him. He has become an embarrassment to them as witness the examples of GAVI and CHOGM scandals. The psychological weapon may be running out of battery.