We are writing these stories on the deteriorating relations between Bahororo and Bairu people because old contemptuous habits are resurfacing. Statements about Bairu inferiority are being made at public rallies, Bairu women’s rights are being violated in many ways, arbitrary decisions are being taken with impunity, canning of Bairu has returned etc. If these developments are not checked, they may lead to unforeseen catastrophes. Those of us who believe in prevention rather than cure are speaking up before the situation gets out of control. The rushed decision by Rukungiri District Council and Uganda Parliament to designate Rukungiri a municipality stripping Bairu of their land without consulting them is the start of troubles that lie ahead.
Bahororo who erroneously still consider themselves white people with a dark pigmentation borrowed their contemptuous behavior from European colonialists based on racism that flourished in Europe in late 19th century. European Social Darwinists who applied Darwin’s evolutionary theory to human societies felt there was a major biological difference between them and other societies. Applying the doctrine of the ‘survival of the fittest’ Social Darwinists saw ‘fitness’ in white skin only. They also used pseudo-scientific studies (phrenology) of bumps on the head to demonstrate that Europeans were more intelligent than other races and therefore destined to rule over them. This sense of racial superiority was expressed in many ways in colonies including dress and social exclusion. However, social exclusion coexisted with relations of a more intimate kind including sexual encounters between Europeans and subject peoples. “Almost all relationships between colonizers and others were saturated with inequalities in power: sexual relations were no different” (M. Pugh 1997).
According to D. Temple-Raston (2005) race science was in fashion in the late 1800s “and no one was given more credit for making sense of the Dark Continent than British explorer John Hanning Speke”. Speke introduced the now totally rejected doctrine of Hamitic theory in which he decided that “all culture and civilization in Central [and East] Africa by 1863 had been the work of taller, sharper-featured people who he decided [without scientific proof] must have come from a Caucasoid tribe in Ethiopia…. These special Africans had a royal family and a semblance of a government and were, as a result, superior to the native Negroids. The other black Africans, the majority, he casually classified as sub-human. They were the savages who could be taken as slaves without troubling issues of conscience”.
Being ‘savages’ who could be taken as slaves Bantu or Bairu people have been treated with contempt by Bahororo and Bahima for far too long since the two ethnic groups met in the Great Lakes Region 600 years ago. Bairu were stripped of their property including land which is a basic asset and means of livelihood, were denied the right to own cattle and forced to provide free labor, free food and free drinks. On a few occasions when compensation was given Bairu got either infertile cows, or male calves or meat from a dead cow. Bahima and Bahororo spat in the mouth of Bairu, canned them regularly and pierced their feet with sharp metal for not walking properly while carrying them in litters and violated the rights of Bairu women.
These pre-colonial dehumanizing practices continued during the colonial days under the indirect rule system that kept Bahororo and Bahima in charge of colonial subjects. Their sons got educated in readiness to assume positions in the colonial administration. As educated men they needed educated women. Gayaza High School was established originally to train Bahima and Bahororo and other royal family girls as suitable spouses. When schools were opened up to all colonial subjects, students from poor households in spite of their many handicaps outperformed their counterparts from rich families. But more often than not scholarships for further studies would go to children of rich families.
The situation improved somewhat for Bairu after independence but this lasted a very short time from 1962 to 1970 when education, healthcare and nutrition systems posted positive results.
Contrary to popular belief, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government came to power with a hidden agenda – to drive Bairu (used broadly) back into ‘savages who could be taken as slaves without troubling issues of conscience’. For example, the introduction of labor flexibility that allows employers to exploit workers mercilessly is a case in point. Research findings about conditions of slavery under which domestic servants and children work have been published in Uganda’s major news papers. Furthermore basic services like health, education and nutrition systems that benefit the poor disproportionately have virtually crashed on government’s watch.
Finally, the decision by Rukungiri district council and Uganda parliament with strong backing of Jim Muhwezi, Rujumbura MP, to strip Bairu of their land and turn it into a municipality, knowing full well that land is the only asset they depend on (in the absence of functional education) for their livelihood and at a time when Jim Muhwezi is seeking Bairu support for his re-election demonstrates the depth of contempt Bahororo have for Bairu.
Equipped with appropriate provisions of the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the General Assembly resolution on indigenous peoples and other legal and political instruments, the time has come for people of conscience to rise and vigorously oppose Bahororo-led NRM government’s hidden agenda.