Rujumbura county has been a troubled area for a very long time and the situation is getting worse. More time and resources are being wasted on character assassination and intimidation at the expense of economic and social development, hence high levels of unemployment, poverty and the associated adverse social and environmental consequences – under-nutrition, alcoholism, crime, violence and extensive de-vegetation with adverse hydrological and thermal conditions – rising temperatures, irregular rainfall, falling water tables, drying rivers and spring wells as well as deteriorating soil quality and declining food productivity.
To address these formidable challenges effectively one needs to understand very clearly the root causes, first and foremost. But first let us look at the history of Rujumbura.
Rujumbura is one of the two counties of Rukungiri district. The other is Rubabo. Rujumbura has five sub-counties – Bwambara, Bugangari, Kagunga, Nyakagyeme and Ruhinda.
Rukungiri district is located in South West of Uganda and shares borders with the districts of Bushenyi to the North East, Ntungamo to the South East, Kabale to the South and Kanungu to the West. Kabale and Ntungamo share the border with Rwanda and Kanungu with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Until 1974, Rukungiri was part of Kigezi district, a colonial creation that brought many tribes together to suit colonial designs.
Bantu-speaking people entered Rujumbura with short-horn cattle (that suited the forest and thick bushes environment as opposed to long-horn cattle that grazed on grasslands), goats and sheep and embarked on mixed farming: livestock herding and crop cultivation for domestic consumption.
Around 1800 Bahororo under the leadership of Bashambu clan whose Mpororo kingdom in west of Nkore kingdom had disintegrated around 1750 after a short existence moved into Rujumbura. Bahororo are believed to have come from the ruling house in Rwanda. Paul Ngorogoza has written that about 1750, the king of Mpororo visited Rujumbura and admired its beauty. He told his son Kirenzi that “When the Bahinda [rulers of Nkore] drive you from Mpororo, come and settle [here] in Rujumbura”.
When Bahororo arrived with long-horn cattle they subdued the Bantu-speaking settlers and reduced them to slaves or servants hence the name Bairu which was coined by Bahororo.
Through a division of labor the Bairu became cultivators and lost their short-horn cattle, a major source of protein among other values. The only source of protein was mutton because Bahororo do not eat it. Goat meet was preserved for Bahororo.
Heavy tribute in food and labor by Bairu to Bahororo in exchange for so-called protection disadvantaged them further.
Bahororo became rulers under the Bashambu clan and the sole owners of cattle which not only conferred social status but served as a source of wealth and store of value. The unequal exchange arrangements initiated the process of impoverishing the Bairu since then to the present day in the twenty first century.
At the start of the 20th century Rujumbura was incorporated into the British Protectorate of Uganda. To reduce administrative costs, the British employed the indirect rule model by using pre-colonial chiefs as their agents. Bahororo therefore continued to dominate the political stage and gained disproportionately in economic and social terms. While Bahororo dominated religious and civil administrations which conferred immense benefits, Bairu became poorer through the additional burdens of taxation and forced labor as well as tithes to the church.
During colonial rule, Africans were tightly controlled through the mechanism of law and order. Imprisonment, canning and fines were used frequently to silence popular dissent. At the same time, priests kept telling Bairu congregations to be patient and obedient because the afterlife would be better than the earthly life. So Bairu tolerated a lot of hardship and suffering.
The struggle for independence based on majority rule raised hopes and expectation of a better life for Bairu who were more numerous than Bahororo. However Bashambu chiefs and Bahororo in general were not ready to relinquish power to their servants – the Bairu.
Using their strong connections in the church and administration which they controlled the chiefs divided the Bairu and crushed their attempts to gain political ascendancy.
As the political parties were based on religion and the Protestant church to which Bahororo belonged played a decisive role in choosing the candidate (the chief’s son) to run for parliament on Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) ticket. Further, Bairu were accused of participating in stealing and eating the cow (Abanyama) of the district constitutional head with devastating consequences. They shouted in streets the names of targeted Bairu leaders and made life very uncomfortable indeed. The accumulation of frustrations forced many Bairu to emigrate to other districts and urban areas.
The marginalization of Bairu was aggravated by the arrival in the late 1950s and early 1960s of large numbers of Bakiga who were resettled from southern Kigezi, later renamed Kabale. The then chief of Rujumbura welcomed them and they, in return, have supported his descendants in politics and other ways.
The Bakiga quickly acquired so much land that they boasted that when they arrived the people of Rujumbura were sleeping (Twasanze Bebase) and they occupied the best lands. Thus shortage of land has driven more impoverished Bairu out of the county and the land of their ancestors. Rumors of expanding the municipality boundaries in rural areas heavily occupied by Bairu may result in yet another exodus of Bairu out of the county. The difference this time is that there is no empty land to go to – hence landlessness and marginalization will be the result.
Those who remained have tried to mobilize political support for their survival but this has proven an uphill task because of resource constraints. Poverty among Bairu is extremely high and high levels of unemployment and under-unemployment have forced Bairu to abandon parties led by Bairu and to support parties that give handouts of salt, soap and alcohol from bananas and few donations to churches and schools as well as ‘oiling’ the hands of opinion leaders at election time.
Because they get elected through these arrangements, representatives do not owe their constituency anything. Between elections, the representatives collect money through their connections which they use at the next elections and get re-elected easily. Keeping Bairu poor is paying handsome political dividends.
Accordingly, top political positions and representation at national and local levels have been dominated by the moneyed and well connected sons and daughters of former chiefs or those connected to them. Merit based on education, experience or development ideas has played a small role, if at all. Against this background, it is not surprising that Rujumbura and indeed Rukungiri has become a political hot spot and an economic backwater.
The bleak political economy situation has forced some concerned Rujumbura people to write and talk about what needs to be done to improve the welfare of everyone in the county. These steps are not being welcome by those who have benefited from the status quo. Therefore all sorts of pressures are being exerted to silence them.
But let us remind ourselves that no situation is permanent in time and space. And history is full of examples that when the poor are squeezed too much they react in self defense. In 1358, French peasants grew tired of food shortages and the continued heavy taxation. They revolted. In 1381, as in France, English peasants felt the strain of high taxation on top of other grievances connected with the feudal system. Under the leadership of peasant Wat Tyler, the peasants reacted violently, destroying property and causing loss of lives.
The people of Rujumbura should draw lessons from these two examples. Instead of trying to silence those with genuine ideas about how to create conditions and opportunities for a better life for all Rujumbura people, let us all come together in a spirit of compromise and abandon zero-sum games as is the case at the moment.
Let it be made clear that we shall not accept being labeled sectarian to stop us from serving as the voice of the voiceless in Rujumbura. We call on municipal, local, district and national leaders to join hands with us to find a lasting solution so that everyone in the county enjoys a full life with dignity. It is not too late.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “The recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”.
Let us keep this in mind as we celebrate in December 2008 the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration in 1948 and in the years to come.