President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni yesterday 16th October 2024 met and held discussions with Makerere University Professors from the history department at State House, Entebbe.
The discussions revolved around African history and heritage.
“I was watching some commentaries on the just concluded 62nd Independence Day Anniversary and one Prof. Ndebesa Mwambutsya’s comment caught my attention. He said that…there was no Uganda until the British created it,” President Museveni noted.
“This provoked me to invite the Professor and a few others from the department of History at Makerere to have a discussion on African history and heritage. Thankfully, I have been actively involved in some of these subjects long enough,” he added.
The President highlighted the make-up of the people; citing the Bantu, the Nilotics, the Nilo-Hamites and so on, as some of the portions that make up Uganda.
“The question therefore is, has Uganda been politically controlled together before the British? I think the answer can be found in some of our oral history, archeology and mythology, ” he noted.
President Museveni pointed at the effort of the Abatembuuzi and Bachwezi as certainly a big success in its time, where they took organised political responsibility over territories of Ankole, Bunyoro, Tooro, Buganda and some parts of the North. He said the Luo also took a turn at this effort of political control after the Bachwezi.
He explained that the linguistic, cultural and in some cases the genealogy similarities and, or linkages are testament to these efforts, saying that there is evidence of Luo influence on Toro, Bunyoro, Ankole and Buganda which is evident in their names and physical attributes.
“So, yes, there should have been a spiritual angle to the findings, but only to the extent that it is synonymous with political influence at the time,” he noted.
He therefore called on Prof. Ndebesa in particular and the entire history department at Makerere university as well as other institutions to focus on a bigger framework of existence through political governance in Uganda, which he said did not start with the British, and it is a historical distortion to present it as such.
He said: “Certainly, none of the entities had “named” the territory as Uganda, but history tells us that there were other efforts, big and successful ones beyond clans and tribes, regardless of their motivations.”
“The debate has led us to the structure and the content of our post-colonial education, bringing a new approach aimed at a new narrative on our history and heritage through education and research.”
On the other hand, President Museveni thanked the Professors for their service to the country.
On his part, Prof. Ndebesa acknowledged that there were efforts before to unite Africans, but he was quick to add that state formation evolved from an overlap of political as well as religious leadership.
“Maybe ideologically they had an idea to keep people together. There were efforts to unite Africans before the British, that one I concede,” he said.
Prof. Samwiri Lwanga Lunyiigo requested the President to get time and write his book about the history of Uganda and Africa in general, saying it’s high time Africans wrote their own history.
He cited clans among other aspects of life that will give a better perspective of what and who they are.
The Professor also commended the President for his wide knowledge on the history of Africa.
The meeting was also attended by Minister of State for Sports, Hon. Peter Ogwang, Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, among others.
