Apologise And Pay Up - Bunyoro Tells Britain

From: The Monitor (Kampala, Uganda)

This is the second part of a series in which AngeloIzama writes about the Bunyoro Kingdom's demands fromthe United Kingdom over "war crimes" it inflicted against the Banyoro

Queen Elizabeth II , the head of the Commonwealth, aclub of former colonies and properties of imperial andcolonial Britain, is facing a fresh lawsuit thismonth, a $4trillion lawsuit reportedly filed on behalfof Indians who were brought into Malaysia as labourersby colonial Britain. Lawyers who filed the suit said their clients sufferedindignity and loss as virtual slaves and continued tosuffer discrimination, abandoned by the British afterMalaysia got its independence. Britain's newly appointed Foreign Secretary David Miliband is named as a defendant in the case. It isexpected that Britain which will attend theCommonwealth, a summit of heads of state of its formercolonies, in Kampala this year, will face anotherlawsuit- by the Bunyoro Kingdom. Bunyoro says it has sufficient evidence to convincecourt that Britain is guilty of gross crimes in thecase it plans to file later this month. Ugandan andBritish lawyers will argue the case. There is a smallbut growing club of organizations, religious andpolitical leaders that are calling on reluctantcountries like Britain to right the wrongs theycommitted as slave traders and later as colonialpowers. Britain however is one of the most unwilling toacknowledge its actions led to the modern day problemsof underdevelopment in far flung places such asMalaysia and Bunyoro. During the United NationsAnti-Racism conference in Durban, South Africa in2001, Britain's delegation worked hard to preventEuropean Union countries from "apologising" for slavetrade, afraid that it would mean acknowledging itsactions, and opening the door for reparation lawsuitslike the one Bunyoro is planning to file later thismonth. The historical suit Bunyoro's case is based on the recorded testimony ofBritish soldiers, actions that confirm to some extentthe wanton actions that led, in this case, to thedepopulation and subsequent marginalisation ofBunyoro. In 1893, Col. Henry Colville invaded Bunyoro,reputed to be in "a stubborn outpost of the proud KingKabalega who had made an unfavourable impression onofficers like Sir Frederick Lugard and Sir SamuelBaker." The invasion, which Kabalega resisted for five years,laid to waste the once healthy Bunyoro Kingdom becauseof a policy of destruction of crops, grazing areas andthe killing, kidnap and enslavement of Banyoro by theBritish imperial troops helped by their allies, theKingdom of Buganda. "I have this month and will in the future burn theirhouses, destroy their crops and cut down their bananaplantations" wrote one Capt. Thruston on his workduring the campaign, one of several accounts in hiswar diary. The campaign also "popularised" the looting ofBunyoro's known wealth, not just cattle and goats, butdestruction of salt mines and the shut down of trade.Cattle were either killed or raided. "Next inimportance to the Queen Mother being in our hands, isthe loss sustained by Kabalega of nearly the whole ofhis cattle - the greater part were captured by theflying column under the command of Lt. H. Maddocks, ofthe Royal Fusiliers, and Lt. G.F.S Vandeleur, ScotsGuards" one dispatch in 1895, just two years after thecampaign begun, said. The Queen Mother and several members of Kabalega'sroyal family were captured as a way to lure him andbreak his spirit. One of the officers, Maj. TrevarTernan, wrote that as "much harm as possible" shouldbe inflicted on Bunyoro arguing that "the Wanyororichly deserve all they get". The British condoned a policy of killingnon-combatants as recorded by soldiers andmissionaries in the war areas. It is Ternan who alsowrote that Banyoro who were found carrying guns wereimmediately executed on sight. Ternan also killed tosend a message, apparently recording the execution ofsix people after the death of a British collaborator. A year into the campaign, Capt. Thruston wrote that inbattle "no quarter was given, though it was frequentlyasked for" meaning even prisoners were executed evenwhere they asked for pardon. The British records alsoindicate routine torture including flogging wasinflicted on prisoners of war. Also popular wasbastinadoing, Bunyoro argues. Bastinado is a torture method where the feet arebeaten until sores develop and the victim is unable towalk. While it was a war and casualties were on bothsides, Bunyoro argues that the British officers actedoutside of the known humanitarian principles ofconducting a war even one involving natives. At theend of the campaign, one observer noted when passingBunyoro that it was "a barren waste". "The little gardens and plantations were rank withweeds and completely deserted, and the few wanderingnatives we met looked half starved," the observerwrote. However, the defeat of Kabalega and the war ofconquest were only the beginning of Bunyoro'sproblems. With war came disease and famine, and what somescholars argue was the continual hatred for theBanyoro, reflected in the colonial government'spolicies to which we will return next week. Bunyoro,the area where most of Uganda's oil has beendiscovered (Ironically by British-owned companies) isasking for more than #3trillion.

Forward Ever (by any means necessary)!
Karen C. Aboiralor