The broad-base, legitimacy and power

The infamous Scramble for Africa resulted in random and unlikely borders that remain today. The West partitioned territory for the sake of its short-term goal of influence or mastery. They gave little thought to the long-running consequences for the Africans themselves. This arbitrary carving up of Africa, the colonial policy of divide and rule, and the resultant segmental cleavages in most post-colonial African states may be blamed for the horizontal inequalities, conflicts, and insecurity rampant since independence. In Uganda, as in many other African countries, the most evident of such cleavages have been tribal and ethnic. Recently there have been calls for constitutional reform that would devolve power to the tribal regions and revive the idea of federalism which was the organizing principle in the immediate aftermath of independence. This book highlights the dynamics of ethnic politics in the post-independence sub-Saharan setting in general and the background, meaning, and relevance of the debate on ethnic federalism in Uganda, in particular. Part of the book covers Vick Lukwago Ssalis own experiences growing up in an independent but troubled Uganda. However, its central thesis is based on the voices of selected samples of ordinary people in ten different tribal areas of Uganda and what they comparatively think about the issue of federalism. Is their loyalty growing towards the centre or fading outwards from the troubled state to their integral traditional and cultural units?

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.

The Role of Parliament

The continuation of no-party democracy has been constitutionalised by the Constituent Assembly of Uganda, causing great controversy. The 1995 constitution provided for a referendum to be held in the year 2000 to enable Ugandans to revisit the question of political systems and choose between multiparty, no-party and any other form of democracy. The eight contributors including Professor Ali Mazrui, examine the case for and against multipartyism, the justification for no-party democracy as well as its myths and realities, and the wider ideological implications of movement politics in the Great Lakes region. They also explore the possibilities of bridging the gap between movementists and multipartyists in order to adopt a political system based on the widest consensus possible among the people in Uganda.

Parliamentary Democracy in Uganda: The Experiment that Failed explores Uganda's malaise of armed dissidents, repression of political parties, military adventurism in neighboring countries, grinding poverty in the countryside and political uncertainty arising from accumulated failure of successive regimes to cultivate a culture of peaceful transfer of power. In light of this, the democratization process envisaged at the time of independence has been frustrated. The author sets out to unravel the cause of that frustration and impasse by tracing the beginning of Uganda's political institutions, particularly the central government organs established in the last century. The new institutions and political organs were basically designed to forge Uganda ahead as a united and stable nation. An attempt is made to critically examine the foundations upon which these institutions were built. It is argued that the institutions were laid under a hostile environment of political diversity and multicultural heritage without an inbuilt balancing mechanism. Accordingly the book recounts the difficult process of nation building undertaken in Uganda, with particular emphasis on the problems encountered in reconciling the new political institutions with the entrenched conservative traditional institutions in the South of the country (the Buganda Agreement of 1900 and other agreements with the kingdoms of Ankole, Tooro and Bunyoro). The author acknowledges the contribution made by the leaders of various political parties towards the task of nation building. It was a task undertaken amidst forces of feudalism and religious animosity. They were men and women of extraordinary foresight who had a clear vision of a new independent Uganda curved out of peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds. This book provides yet another vision of the future and suggests ideas of how to overcome the political impasse that has bedeviled the country since independence.