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.
2. Assassination and coup d’etats against relatives in Burundi. In Burundi the rivalry for power resulted in assassinating and overthrowing relatives. Prince Louis Rwagasore, the eldest son of king Mwambutsa and very popular leader overwhelmingly won pre-independence elections and became prime minister-elect, defeating a Tutsi opponent. A few weeks later Rwagasore was killed by a hired assassin named Jean Kageorgis, a Greek national. Prince Jean Ntitendereza, Baranyanka’s eldest son was hanged after finding that he was involved in the assassination of Prince Rwagasore. Here is a prince killing another prince through a hired assassin in a struggle for power. In July 1966, the king was deposed by his son and appointed Col. Michel Micombero as prime minister who in November 1966 deposed the king and became president of the First Republic. Lt. Col. Jean-Baptiste Bagaza overthrew his cousin Micombero and formed the Second Republic. While Bagaza was out of the country, a very close associate major Pierre Buyoya seized power and formed the Third Republic. Micombero, Bagaza and Buyoya are Bahima (a Batutsi clan). To make matters even dramatic, they all come from the same village called Bururi. So, you can see what thirst for power can do among relatives.
Here comes Uganda and Nilotic conflicts
In Uganda people who have fought for power and caused so many deaths come from the same ethnic group and originated in the same area or neighborhood of Bah el Ghazal in present South Sudan – Obote, Ibingira, Amin, Okello, Museveni and Kony although they ended up settling in different regions: Obote, Okello and Kony in the North; Amin in West Nile; Ibingira and Museveni in the West.
I have already explained in detail that the ancestors of Batutsi including Museveni were Nilotic Luo-speaking pastoralists who entered Uganda and the Great Lakes region from Bah el Ghazal.
In Buganda, Toro and Bunyoro they mixed thoroughly with Bantu people through intermarriage and produced entirely new communities.
In Ankole, Rujumbura, Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DRC, Batutsi changed their mind and refused to intermarry with Bantu people (to make sure ethnic separation was watertight in Rwanda for example when a Hutu raped a Tutsi woman he was executed to send a message) but adopted Bantu language and Bantu names but remained Nilotic in identity (basically for political purposes some Batutsi women are increasingly marrying non-Batutsi men who are then ‘tutsified’ and then abandon their ethnic people and support Batutsi in politics etc because they become Batutsi versus the rest) but Batutsi men don’t marry non-Batutsi women – hence retaining their Nilotic identity). This is not conspiracy theory, as some Batutsi or their surrogates would want us to believe. It is a fact.
Because of their warrior experience (cattle people always fight over pasture and watering points), they were able to defeat Bantu people who had no cause for war and hadn’t prepared for one when Batutsi arrived in the Great Lakes region. Batutsi were helped in defeating Bantu people by Arab and Swahili slave traders who arrived with modern weapons and decimated Bantu and sold into slavery the survivors (To keep military monopoly, Batutsi make sure senior officers are Batutsi. In pre-colonial Rwanda Bahutu were in the army to cook, bury the dead and carry luggage). How many non-Batutsi officers do we have in Museveni’s military? Even the Inspector General of Police is a Mututsi!
In the Great Lakes region (southwest Uganda, Eastern DRC, Burundi and Rwanda) Batutsi chose do dominate, exploit, impoverish and marginalize Bantu whom they gave a common name of Bairu, meaning slaves or servants. (To this day whether educated or not, wealthy or not, Batutsi still regard Bantu in the Great Lakes region as slaves or servants so low in status that Batutsi don’t mix with socially except for public display or when they are seeking a vote).
Bantu were stripped of their assets especially land particularly in Rwanda which Bantu worked to feed Batutsi masters. I come from Rujumbura where Batutsi have ruled since 1800. Bairu people have been reduced to powerless and voiceless people – educated or not and experienced or not. That is what Batutsi and their well paid surrogates are trying to do in the rest of Uganda through destroying education and health care systems, refusing to give lunch to school children, refusing to help them find jobs, encouraging them to sell land and drift into urban slums and keep them poor, vulnerable, powerless and voiceless. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is a fact. Those who wish to engage in an argument with me that I welcome should be factual, not insulting or trying to turn me into a Mututsi pretending to be against Batutsi in order to become an effective spy for Museveni. I am not a Mututsi!
When did Nilotic struggle against each other begin in Uganda?
When preparing for and after attaining independence, Ibingira and Obote both Nilotic (Obote from the North and Ibingira from the West) worked together to oust Kakonge, their common opponent. Kakonge who was Secretary General of UPC at independence couldn’t even be nominated as MP (Kakonge had planned to contest a seat in Buganda but that changed when it was agreed that Buganda Lukiiko would elect Buganda MPs). Then in 1964 in Gulu for the UPC conference, Obote and Ibingira conspired and defeated Kakonge as Secretary General.
With Kakonge their common opponent out of the way, Ibingira faced Obote for the presidency. Ibingira designed a two-pronged strategy of democratic and military means. Ibingira got Opolot, the military commander, on his side, leaving Obote with no choice but to side with Amin, deputy military commander. Then Ibingira arranged to strip Obote of Amin and expose him to cabinet vote of no confidence or military overthrow. While Obote was on a visit in northern Uganda the cabinet passed a motion to suspend Amin for an alleged scandal involving Congo gold which apparently Amin sold and credited his personal account. Then there were rumors of troop movements and a plan to arrest Obote when he returned from the north.
Fortunately, Obote was tipped and prepared for a showdown which Ibingira and four other members of the cabinet lost and got locked up in Luzira prison – at least they were not killed and Amin released them in 1971 when he became president.
With Ibingira out of the way, Museveni a Nilotic from western region of Uganda like Ibingira before him took on the task of fighting Obote. That is why Museveni waged a guerrilla war and worked with Nilotic Okello to oust their fellow Nilotic Obote. Okello and Museveni were supposed to form a government together with Okello as president and Museveni as vice president. With Obote gone, Museveni (Nilotic) turned against Okello (Nilotic) and overthrew him in early 1986. That there was an agreement for Okello and Museveni to work together can be deduced from this observation: “… they [Acholi] felt cheated by Museveni when he betrayed the Nairobi agreement. ‘We paved the way for the NRA by overthrowing Obote’, several Acholi explained, ‘and Museveni paid us by betraying us’”(Robert Garsony August 1997).
Alice Lakwena, a Nilotic Acholi woman led a revolt against fellow Nilotic Museveni. When she was defeated, Joseph Kony, Nilotic Acholi and relative of Lakwena took over leadership of Nilotic rebellion against Museveni. Kony and Museveni, both Nilotic, fought each other in Northern and Eastern Uganda with so much destruction in lives and properties. They are still chasing each other in the Congo forest. Why they can’t capture Kony with all the advice and money and intelligence is mind boggling.
You can now see that Nilotic people are the ones who have been fighting each other since independence and dragging others into their fights. It was Nilotic Obote, Nilotic Okello and Nilotic Museveni that fought in the Luwero Triangle Jungles where it is estimated that some 700,000 people lost their lives.
With the election of General Muntu, Nilotic Mututsi as president of FDC, a new battle has just begun with General Museveni, another Nilotic Mututsi and president of NRM. Bantu are going to be dragged into their fight and possibly on Bantu territory with all the costs involved. The pursuit of Tutsi hegemony and creation of Tutsi Empire are sure to continue and Bantu people to continue to be marginalized. This is not conspiracy theory or sectarianism: this is real. We don’t have to wait until I am proven right.
To conclude, when there is a struggle for power, the issue of relatives is brushed aside. The two noble families fought for thirty years in England with much destruction. The Batutsi families in Burundi ousted each other from power.
Nilotic families have fought each other in Uganda with much destruction. General Muntu and General Museveni from Ntungamo district are going to fight each other from now on for control of state house. Let us wait and see who will spray tear gas first. Remember that these are two full generals. Besigye was of a much lower military rank. The general public would like to see Muntu’s profile.
Eric