The Rwenzori Sub-region has witnessed a long period of violent conflicts. The last episode of violence was visited upon the region on Saturday, November 1. Dear reader, I would like to share two incidents that contributed to the recurrence of violent conflict in the region.
In March 1902, Mr Petero Tigwezire (County Chief of Bwamba) went to collect ‘hut tax’ in Bwamba. The tax collection exercise was met with armed resistance by the local population, leaving 11 of Tigwezire’s men dead. Returning to Fort Portal, chief Tigwezire sought the intervention of the colonial resident officer to punish the tax resisters in Bwamba.
The resident officer declined to act because he viewed the alleged tax collection exercise as an unjustified raid for women and ivory. Tigwezire was later removed from his office as county chief by the Rukurato (Tooro Kingdom Council) on charges brought against him by the British resident officer. In his doctoral thesis titled ‘Conflict and Collaboration in the Kingdoms of Western Uganda’ (Princeton University Press 1977 and Fountain Publishers 1999), Dr Edward I Steinhart writes: ‘Moreover, the (Resident) Officer refused, at first, to countenance the appointment of another Mutooro chief in the region, preferring to allow the Baamba to select their own representative and to continue to live under their own headmen. (Page 227)
This incident, in spite of its simple academic characterisation as a case of colonial collaboration and resistance, defined popular attitudes that later fed into the ‘we-and-them’ relationship between the Tooro Kingdom and the native communities of the mountain districts of the Rwenzori region. In another incident in 1918, a Mukonzo traditional chief (mutaka, headman, clan leader, or landlord) called Tibamwenda, challenged Tooro Kingdom authorities by declaring himself King of the Bakonzo. His ‘palace’ was attacked. Tibamwenda and his aides (Nyamutswa and Kapoli) were killed and buried in one shallow grave at Kagando (in the premises of Kagando hospital run by the Church of Uganda). A monument, said to be one of the tallest monuments in Uganda, was built at their burial place by Kasese District Local Government in the late 1990s.
This was the first time the idea of a king and a kingdom to challenge the Tooro Kingdom authorities manifested among the Bakonzo community. It was resurrected in the 1960s and later gained recognition by the central government in 2009. Rwenzururu Kingdom now influences the general political and socio-cultural identity attitudes on which the current cycle of violence is blamed. Taking advantage of the centrality of the Rwenzururu Kingdom in the socio-political lives of the Bakonzo, some negative forces opposed to the Ugandan State have carried out violent acts in the Rwenzori region, rallying the population in the name of the Rwenzururu Kingdom.
Some of the groups that used the name of Rwenzururu Kingdom to fight the Government of Uganda are the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (Nalu) and Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). In an audio-visual clip I accessed, one of the captured perpetrators of the November 1 incident claims they were fighting in the name of and for Rwenzururu. The interrogator then challenges him: But why do you kill Bakonzo when you claim to be fighting for them? The perpetrator didn’t respond to the question. What does this mean? That another group, with its selfish interests, was using the name of the Rwenzururu to perpetuate the recurrence of violent conflict in Rwenzori region. Which is why I have been thinking lately: can’t the government of Uganda seriously look into what we call The Rwenzururu Question?
I urge the government to come up with policy ideas to permanently end the recurring acts of violence in the region.