Uganda Afterthoughts
BY ROGER FALK
THE conclusion of a fourth visit to Uganda within a year — and also 'Pattern of Colonies' in a recent Spectator—encourages a few paragraphs of what must be, in the very nature of today's complex colonial challenge, some- what tentative conjecture. Uganda is probably unique among the larger British colonies in the sense that the word 'indepen- dence' has not yet become an irritant. True, the word is often heard there, but, with the Kabaka crisis receding into proper proportion (a real tribute to the young man's impeccable behaviour since his return, and the older Knan's, the Gover- nor's, pluck and dedication), there is nothing cloyingly insistent about the cry and you are made to feel that there is enough time left to work things out in a way that will involve neither scuttle nor subversion.
Of course you hear dark sayings : that the Uganda National Congress is plotting day and night; that the Baganda (possibly the élite—or so they themselves think—of Uganda) will not rest till they dominate the Protectorate; that, without the steel framework of the British governing few, the place would run down; that the Asians, who do most of the trading and who, for all their shortcomings, are indispensable to the country, will, in this multi-racial society, eventually pull out altogether for fear of their position; that Uganda's economic dependence upon two main cash crops makes it almost hopelessly vulner- able. Yes, you hear all these things and there is some truth in all of them. Nevertheless the fact remains that, as I have said, this beautiful country, the size of Western Germany, with its astonishing contrasts of colour, of forest and swamp, of water and mountain, would seem at this moment to be the master rather than the victim of its destiny.
Why is this? Apart from the transitory va-et-vient of political drama which reached a climax when the Kabaka was sent away (and touched upon anticlimax when he came back), one fundamental dominates all else. It is that Uganda is an African country. Land policy, the bedeviller of so much in colonial affairs, is unequivocal : Uganda belongs to the Africans and the briefest journey away from Entebbe or Kampala is con- firmation enough. There is none of the potential anguish of a political arrangement which has to take care of white settle- ment and the understandably clamant demands of people who have laboured to make a country their own home. It is here that the cynics have their say : `Malanism in reverse is what you will get,' mumble the Cassandras, 'when Uganda is on its own.' Who is to say? It is too early yet: The Union Jack flies lazily in the clear sunlight over Government House at Entebbe with the same aplomb as it distinguishes an obscure boma, a hundred miles from anywhere, where an overworked British District Officer, uncertain of his future but submerged and fascinated by his present, dispenses wisdom and justice.
It is difficult not to feel for the Asians in Uganda during these years. It would be misleading to make too much of this problem but it is as yet far from clear how their rights will be protected. Obviously the, presumably, all-too-simple solution would be a form of common citizenship so that, as Ugandans, colour or racial origin would be no bar to full participation in, and identification with, the country's development. But the Asians only account for about 1 per cent. of the population : they have no land to speak of and their main contributions to Uganda—trading and commerce, the professions, sugar and tea production and cotton-ginning—hardly make them agriculturalists, the principal guarantors of Uganda's economy. Moreover, you sense a greater gap in understanding between the Africans and the Asians than between the Africans and the Europeans. The Asians, largely through force of circumstance and by virtue of their unsatisfactory, undelineated (as yet) posi- tion in Uganda, are rather like the Jews in Britain must have been before real political and social assimilation started hap- pening in the nineteenth century. There is an able, patient Asian Minister at the centre of things in Entebbe and it is no secret that the Governor, Sir Andrew Cohen, who has done a tremendous lot for the Africans in Uganda, is also alive to what the Asians have done, and are capable of doing, for a country which will have need of them. It will be a tough nut for some- one to crack one of these days—and sooner rather than later— to evolve a formula that will encourage the best in the Asian and satisfy the most Critical in the African. It is perhaps not without significance that an announcement has recently been made of a decision by the Uganda Legislative Council to send a deputation to London to petition for the extension of the term of office of the Governor. It is anybody's guess as to whether such an extension will in fact happen, but it is surely an encouraging sign. One thing is certain : the Governor has made a deep impression on a susceptible community.
Elections are due to take place in 1961. That is the current form. It is said that five to ten years after that crucial date will be the 'independence dateline,' that elections will inevitably mean the beginning of what the Spectator described as the evolution of a colony (or protectorate) intp a 'friendly and independent member of the Commonwealth.' To ensure that friendliness and that status is today's task for those men and women of all colours and creeds who are giving time and enthusiasm to Uganda's future.
A visit to the Legislative Council in Kampala—on the closing day, as it happened, before it meets again in August— was a refreshing business. The massive Governor presided genially over an unpretentious assembly. which seemed to combine just the right amounts of solemnity and gaiety. An African got a bit muddled in one of his replies but you sensed that he was enjoying himself and that he was learning with excellent grace. The Finance Minister had retired from Uganda and this was his last appearance in Council; an ebullient York- shireman, his few words of farewell were received by African. Asian and European alike with genuine warmth. He told me he hated leaving the place but his four children are growing Up and, in his middle forties, he had to take a large decision. This is a very typical problem and it means that first-class 13ritishers, especially in the higher jobs, are all too rare in colonial affairs today.
Cannot, then, all this evolve, serenely but with assurance and dignity, towards what is best for Uganda? Or does it mean that there must be demagogy, upheavals and suffering on the way? Must the path be strewn with the corpses of bitterness and misunderstanding? Where Uganda is concerned I cannot believe that this need be so, but I am haunted by a, remark I heard from an Englishwoman on the aircraft going out this time. She was the wife of a hotel proprietor in the White Highlands of Kenya. I was telling her how captivated I had become, during the last year, by Uganda. She looked at me with amazement. 'But all those Africans,' she said, con- temptuously. 'Don't they spoil it for you?'
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