Why do relatives fight one another?
Upon realizing that Batutsi are Nilotic people one fellow Ugandan wondered why then have Nilotic people been killing each other in Uganda. I replied briefly that the fight has been over power. Power doesn’t recognize relatives when relatives face each other. When relatives have a common opponent from another group (Obote and Ibingira versus Kakonge), relatives come together. When that opponent is out of the way (Kakonge out) relatives turn against each other (Obote and Ibingira). Before elaborating on Nilotic rivalry in Uganda politics, let us look at two examples of relatives fighting and replacing each other in England and Burundi respectively.
1. The War of the Roses (1455 – 1485). For thirty long and bitter years, two noble families in England: the House of York (whose badge was a white rose) and the House of Lancaster (whose badge was a red rose) fought a bitter civil war as a result of conflicting claims to the English throne. Many nobles and others died in the war. In the end the House of Lancaster defeated the House of York. Henry Tudor was crowned king of England as Henry VII. Henry VIII and Elizabeth I belonged to the Tudor family that ruled from 1485 to 1603. Because Elizabeth had no children (she never married), she was succeeded by James Stuart her distant cousin who became king of England as James I.