Tag Archives: lakes

Bantu and Nilotic conflict is cause of instability in Great Lakes region

The Great Lakes region (defined to include southwest Uganda, eastern DRC, Rwanda and Burundi) conflict will not be solved unless and until it has been understood as an ethnic conflict between Nilotic Tutsi and Bantu Hutu/Bairu people. Geopolitical conflict is taking advantage of ethnic conflict using the minority Tutsi to suppress majority Hutu/Bairu people who have been erroneously dubbed “bad guys” by biased western commentators.

Since the two ethnic groups (Bantu and Nilotic) met in the 15th century, Nilotic Tutsi (whose Nilotic Luo-speakers ancestors entered the Great Lakes region from Bahr el Ghazal in South Sudan, not Ethiopia)because of their militaristic character (cattle people always fight for scarce pasture and water points) and collaboration with foreigners beginning with Arab and Swahili slave traders and later Europeans, dominated, dispossessed, exploited and humiliated Bantu people (whom Tutsi dubbed Hutu and Bairu meaning slaves or servants) who were wealthy, healthy and peaceful with advanced civilization including Bachwezi civilization (Bachwezi were a Bantu aristocracy [B.A. Ogot 1999]).

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The silent human catastrophe in Burundi

The principal cause of conflicts in the Great Lakes region is ethnicity. Minority Tutsi – some ten percent of the total population – are trying to restore domination they enjoyed from the 15th century to 1962 when they were defeated in pre-independence elections of 1962 in Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda (Ankole).

Because they are minority they collaborate with foreigners in order to dominate others. In Rujumbura Makobore collaborated with Arab and Swahili slave traders to defeat Bantu people that were subsequently dubbed Bairu (slaves or servants). Makobore then sold members of defeated Bantu groups into slavery (“The [Indian Ocean] coastal traders were also employed in interstate raids for slaves. For example, Makobore, the [Tutsi] king of Rujumbura, employed them in his raids against Butumbi and Kayonza. The important social effect of the coming of the coastal traders on the peoples of south-western Uganda was the arms trade. Weaker societies were raided for slaves while interstate warfare was rampant” (B. A. Ogot 1976). Bantu grazing land was confiscated and Bantu short horn cattle were replaced by Tutsi long horn cattle and Bantu were reduced to cultivators largely for the benefit of Tutsi consumers. That is how Bairu came to be known as cultivators while they were wealthy mixed farmers combined with manufacturing products before interaction with Tutsi.

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Troubling developments in the Great Lakes region

It has been difficult to fully understand the nature and causes of conflicts in the Great Lakes region because much information is kept away from public view or distorted in favor of Nilotic Tutsi and against Bantu Hutu.

A combination of geopolitical conflicts over Great Lake’s resources in collaboration with Tutsi, anti-sectarian laws in Uganda and Rwanda and reporting the region largely since 1994 in the wake of Rwanda genocide has left many things unsaid like the fact that Tutsi committed genocide against Hutu in Burundi in 1965, 1972, 1988 and 1993 as recorded by Lemarchand (1994) and reported by Patrick Duport in the undated paper titled “The Sub-regional context of the crises in Rwanda and Burundi”.

Evidence is turning up that RPA (Rwanda Patriotic Army) committed atrocities against Hutu people since 1990 but as Amnesty International has reported “The international community appears to be making excuses for the new Rwandese authorities and turning a blind eye to human rights violations committed by RPA soldiers on the ground that they are not as serious as those committed by its predecessor” (New Africa December 1994).

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Great Lakes region: Incredible but true stories

UDU: Civic education end-of-year report

Personal remarks

When I officially joined Uganda politics, I made a statement regarding three principal areas.

First, I joined politics to acquire and use power. Some acquire power to enrich themselves, their families and their kith and kin as we have seen in Uganda. Some use it to improve the standard of living of their fellow men and women. I belong to the latter group. The deterioration of ecological and human condition especially of women and children in Uganda is so shocking that it compelled me to do something about it. I have realized as have many others that talking and writing is necessary but not sufficient. I have already written ten books and created a blog www.kashambuzi.com to share information with a wider readership. Ugandans are now sufficiently informed about the causes of their dehumanizing condition. Action is now needed but we can’t act without taking power from those that have caused the suffering.

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What people in the Great Lakes region demand is justice

I worked in a UN organization that treats all staff with a high degree of fairness. There is an ombudsman office where complaints of injustice are presented for a solution. You can also make recourse when you feel you missed a promotion unfairly.

I grew up in a Christian family where our parents exercised fairness. We sat together at meal times and we shared domestic chores proportionately. When it was about time to go back to school, our parents brought us together and gave us allowances (pocket money) according to our needs in a transparent atmosphere. And there was no favoritism.

In the Great Lakes region injustice has reigned supreme. Since John Speke racial theories popularized by Seligman that Nilotic Batutsi people are superior, more intelligent and born to rule over Bantu Bahutu and Bantu Bairu people who are inferior, unintelligent and born to be ruled the latter has suffered crushing humiliation.

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Struggle to control riches of DRC and suffering of Gt. Lakes people

The people of DRC especially those in the east need more of our prayers at this hour of intense human suffering. The three K leaders (Kaguta, Kagame and Kabila) with military background and their domestic and foreign backers need to come to their senses and end the suffering of the people. The United Nations too needs to move faster and end the war before it loses its credibility as an institution that was created in 1945 to maintain or restore peace and security in all parts of the world.

The fall of Goma town may sharpen the appetite of victors to want to capture the rest of DRC, Angola, Namibia, Congo and Gabon and then Kenya and Tanzania. Mark my words: if concerted and collective action is not taken that is what will happen. Rwanda and Uganda, the two countries alleged to be causing this instability are too poor to be acting alone. So those supporting them should stop.

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The idea is to make life better for all Ugandans, not to make history

My humble contribution in Uganda politics and writing about the Great Lakes region (I have written ten books and created a blog www.kashambuzi.com) has been interpreted by some Ugandans as an expression of ambition and the desire to make history. They are wrong.

In making choices about what to do as a student and worker, I have been guided by my parents’ advice, Christian and community values. I was born and raised in a Christian family. My father, now retired, served in the Church of Uganda and rose to the rank of Archdeacon. He served in many places in Rukungiri and Kanungu districts where we interacted with people from many walks of life. Our house was open to all and they opened their houses to us.

I was also born and raised in a large extended family that includes Protestants and Catholics. And coincidentally some of the managers of my businesses are Muslims. I also grew up in an atmosphere where community cohesion and sharing on a reciprocal basis was very strong and children belonged to the entire community.

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Batutsi must adjust or the Great Lakes region will burn

Batutsi (from now on used generically to mean Batutsi, Bahima, Bahororo and Banyamulenge) must adjust their centuries-old attitude towards others especially Bantu (Bahutu and Bairu) in the Great Lakes region (which refers to southwest Uganda – former Ankole and Kigezi districts and now being extended to the rest of Uganda under Museveni government), Burundi, Rwanda and Eastern DRC.

As a first step in the adjustment process, Batutsi must drop the idea that they are white people, superior, more intelligent and born to rule. Up to today, Batutsi are still falsely claiming that one Mututsi (singular for Batutsi) is equivalent to say 1000 Bairu or Bahutu people (sometimes they use a weighing scale where you have a small metal [Mutusi] weighed against say thousands of beans [Bahutu or Bairu]). Educated or not a Mututsi still considers himself more intelligent and superior to a well educated Muhutu or a Mwiru. Kagame and Museveni have very low education yet they pose as though they are on top of the intellectual pyramid in the Great Lakes region. Because of this false superiority they think marrying non-Batutsi women would devalue them. Consequently Batutsi men marrying non-Batutsi women is taboo and very much beneath their dignity; even eating/drinking or socializing unless artificially done for political convenience. Batutsi still vow that it is below their dignity to buy a beer for a Muhutu or Mwiru because that is the responsibility of the latter. Batutsi will only buy a few beers for Bahutu/Bairu only if they want something big from them like sending them to parliament to represent Bahutu or Bairu.

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Converting part of great lakes region into Tutsi Empire

On November 12, 2011 political parties and organizations met in London to discuss Uganda under the theme: “Uganda at Cross-Roads: Which Way Forward?”

I had planned to attend the conference but was not able to get a visa because of a time constraint. I prepared a statement on the National Recovery Plan (NRP) as an alternative to the failed policies of NRM government. I submitted it to the organizers for their necessary action. The full statement is available at www.udugandans.org.

I had also planned to make an oral presentation on the impact of the silent pursuit of Tutsi Empire on Uganda’s future. Museveni has championed the idea for a long time disguised as East African federation, going as far back as his Ntare School days in the early 1960s. Museveni has worked on this project silently, methodically and incrementally, starting with capture of power in Uganda and using it to extend his imperial tentacles.

We are in the age of enlightenment and can no longer take things at face value regardless of the source – reason has become order of the day. Thus, to understand Museveni’s mind one needs to reason dialectically, by looking at and exposing that which is not said but done.

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Barbarian destructive invasions and lessons for the great lakes region

A combination of push and pull factors that led to barbarian invasions and destruction in Europe is developing in the great lakes region with a possibility of a repeat of that barbarian history. The signs are clear and there is no room for complacency on the part of leaders, the public and development partners. The clear signs of destruction in Kenya were ignored and caused the tragic events of December 2007.

The word ‘barbarians’ refers to persons who are primitive, uncivilized or uncultivated. The word comes from Greek barbaros which initially meant persons who spoke a foreign language or outsiders. The Romans later applied a Latin word barbarus to such people as Goths, Vandals and Huns, who lived outside the Roman Empire.

The Greeks considered people in the Mediterranean area about 750 B.C. to have inferior cultures to their own. The Greeks therefore applied the word barbarian in a disrespectful manner. Those who absorbed Greek education, culture, language and ideals graduated from barbarism. The Romans adopted Greek culture throughout their empire.

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