MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
WE celebrated last week the jubilee of our Protectorate over Uganda ; but the occasion aroused no jubilation in this ,ountry. The King and the Colonial Secretary sent suitable telegrams which were suitably acknowledged ; The Times wrote a short leading article ; and Lord Lugard addressed to the Governor a modest message recalling the remarkable achievement of fifty years ago. The public as a whole were not interested in this anniversary, and, indeed, Uganda has not figured prominently in the pages of our rough island story. Even when, fifty years ago, the flag first fluttered from Fort Lugard at Kampala, Punch greeted the occasion with a discouraging cartoon representing an unwanted black baby dumped upon the door-step of Downing Street. We do not even call the Protectorate by its correct name, since "Uganda" is a Swahili corruption of the word "Buganda." And few indeed are those who realise that Uganda furnishes an almost perfect example of the unwillingness with which we extend our dominion, and of the truly excellent manner in which we have exercised the responsibilities which we then so hesitatingly assumed. Until 1850 the Baganda had never heard of Europe, and it was Only in that year that King Suna learnt from a Baluchi deserter from Zanzibar that there were such things as white men on the earth. The country was visited by Speke in 1862 and by Stanley in 1875. The latter was invited by King Mutesa to send missionaries, and from that moment the trouble began. The Protestants arrived under Wilson and Mackay, to be followed shortly afterwards by the Catholics from the White Fathers at Algiers. From Zanzibar came Moslem missionaries, and within a few years the population was divided between three warring parties, the Ba-Ingleza, the BaFransa and the Ba-Islam. In 1885 Bishop Hannington was murdered, and at Kampala 32 of his converts were burnt in a bunch togethcr at the stake. Civil war of a murderous nature then followed between the three factions. The Protestants and Catholic missionaries, observing with horror the atrocities committed by their followers, summoned outside assistance. Mr. Jackson, of the Imperial British East Africa Company, arrived, to be followed a few days later by Karl Peters of Germany. It was not until the AngloGerman Treaty of 1890 that Uganda was recognised as falling within the British sphere.
In October of thst year the I.B.E.A. Co. sent Captain F. D. Lugard to restore order. He reached the little knoll which rises among the hills of Kampala acCompanied only by 50 Sudanese soldiers. Even when reinforced by Captain Williams and a maxim gun, his position remained precarious. The I.B.E.A. were alarmed by the responsibilities in which they had involved. their officer and strove to back out of the whole business. Captain Lugard well ew that evacuation would entail the slaughter of many mission?ries and a renewal of civil war. He came to London and pleaded -th the British Government. The Liberal Government, with the sole exception of Lord Rosebery, were bitterly opposed to any Uganda experiment. In the end they sent out a Commission under r Gerald Portal. And in June, 1894, the Protectorate was estabished. The whole story thus follows the classic pattern of all such ventures. The explorer comes, wishing to discover the sources f the Nile. The missionary follows, devotedly anxious to spread e religion and enlightenment. The trader then arrives, only to d the internal situation too insecure for any commercial underaking. The Government, when invited to restore order, jib vioently and send a commission. And finally, with or without interational agreement, the Union Jack floats over the port. This. hain of events, inevitable in their concatenation, is called Imperialism."
What interests me about those who take no pride in our Imperial chievement is that they have never considered who should have heir blame. The explorer, for instance, is regarded as a noble gure. Even in the United States (where people call their own pire-buildoss. "Founding Fathers" or "Pioneers " and deride the builders of other empires as "Imperialists ") the names of Stanley and Livingstone are cited as examples to the young. The missionaries, provided they be Christian and not Moslem, are also universally esteemed for their courage and self-sacrifice. I find it difficult to believe that either we or the Americans, who depend so increasingly upon export trade, can logically deride the trader who seeks to sell piece-goods or canvas shoes to the Bantu. Yet when a reluctant Government is forced to protect from massacre these explorers, missionaries or traders, there are those on both sides of the Atlantic who contend that they have *behaved with rapacity and brutal force. If we examine the development of Uganda, we are bound to recognise that the sensible test to apply is not whether this action was right or wrong, but whether the Baganda by our action have in fact been protected against the inclemencies of their rulers, their fellow-tribesmen, their religious beliefs and their environment. No man could visit either Uganda, Tanganyika Territory, or even Kenya Colony without being convinced that the answer to this question is in the affirmative. The Baganda today are protected in every ' sense of the term against torture, massacre, forced labour, exploitation and the medicine-man. • They are ensured a (for them) high standard of living, and are instructed and helped to perfect that standard by the cultivation of cash crops. Their protectors take upon themselves the heavy responsibilities of coping with such local menaces as soil-erosion and the tsetse fly. They obtain impartial justice, are encouraged to conduct their own local government, and have at their disposal an educational system which has of late been much improved. Is there a single Baganda today who would wish to return to the independence from which his grandfather suffered under King Mwanga?
In the Uganda Protectorate, under a succession of enlightened Governors (Coryndon, Archer, Gowers, Bourdillon and Mitchell), the Lugard and Cameron theories of "indirect rule," " trusteeship " and the "dual mandate" have been worked out with extreme efficiency. Special attention has been given to the educational problem, and since 1924 a Department of Education has been created to supervise not merely the official schools and training centres, but the many schools of varying capacity and resources established by the missionaries. The conception throughout has been to avoid the mistake committed in India and to render the education of the Baganda suited to the needs and development of the community. The aim has been to concentrate upon the functional rather than upon the humanistic aspects of African education, and it has thus been to the agricultural, veterinary and medical branches of education that the greatest attention has been paid. The African, with his amazing gift for memorising, can learn anything from a book, but often finds it difficult to apply this knowledge to the practical affairs of life. It is for this reason that the Government farm-schools at Bukalasa and Serere, or the missionary farm-schools at Gulu or Nimutamba, form so vital a part of the educational system of the Protectorate. And at the summit of this structure stands Makerere College, an institution in which no African and no Englishman can fail to take much pride.
I stood one evening on the little knoll in the centre of Kampala on which fifty years ago Lugard established his first stockade. The Catholic and the Protestant Cathedrals crown the hills ; the roads run red and neat among the trees and houses ; there are schools and hospitals, hotels and shops, gardens and golf-courses, court-houses and administrative buildings. From the town below rose the hum of a prosperous community. I was joined by young Africa in the shape of eight boy scouts. Darkness fell suddenly, and on the edge of the earth-work they lit a fire of logs. The flames danced upon their ebony knees and smiling faces. They sang their songs. I thought how, but fifty years ago, from the town below me had risen the stench of fire and massacre. From the huts which enclose the Kabaka's palace a drum started to throb. The boys laughed gaily and sang their songs.
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