Uganda: Rich country, impoverished people
In many ways, Uganda is like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is a country that was created by the British for ruthless exploitation to benefit the mother country. Following Lord Frederick Lugard’s and Winston Churchill’s visits to Uganda and their appreciation not only of the beauty of the country, fertility of soils, plenty of rainfall and abundance of water in rivers and lakes, moderate climate, a unique biodiversity system and above all, it’s dynamic and innovative people – ‘the Chinese and Japanese of Africa’ – a decision was taken that Uganda would become a center for producing tropical commodities that would feed Britain and the rest of the world.
Reports from travelers, missionaries and explorers are unanimous about communities that later formed Uganda in 1894. They produced a wide range of food crops, herded livestock (cows, goats and sheep) and kept poultry, manufactured a wide range of products of good quality and traded surplus in local and regional markets in eastern and central Africa. Specialization according to ecological comparative advantage (fisheries, herding, manufacturing and crop cultivation) increased productivity and total production. At family level, there was a complementary division of labor. Men cleared fields, hunted for game meat, tended livestock, built houses, carried crops from the field to the homestead and defended the family while women sowed, weeded and harvested crops, cooked, cared for the home and tended to children. Domestic foodstuffs were supplemented by a wide range of wild fruits and vegetables and wild game. These pre-colonial communities enjoyed a comfortable standard of living and accumulated capital. All this changed after Uganda became a British territory through destructive ‘pacification wars’ especially in Bunyoro Kingdom.