Recorded history points to Uganda being an ethnic, military and military mosaic. That is how some Baganda embraced the Nubi methods of work, culture and practice. This was because some of them adopted the special Islamic brand of the Nubis.

We continue with evaluation of the thesis:

“Uganda was militarily invaded in 1981 by a combined force of refugees and former refugees who ultimately occupied, penetrated and effectively expelled the indigenes from most civic spaces, the army, police, prisons and intelligence services with serious consequences”.

Batembuzi conquests, occupations, penetrations: The consequences

In Ancient times, the area was first occupied by mysterious people called Batembuzi who established their destiny over large parts of it and beyond. The Batembuzi are often regarded as the mythical predecessors to the more historically documented Bachwezi Dynasty. According to oral traditions and legends, the Batembuzi were believed to be a semi-divine lineage, possibly of divine origin and were associated with remarkable supernatural abilities.

According to legend, the Empire was created by a man named Kintu. Kintu is said to have arrived with a white cow, which is known as Kitara in Bunyoro-Kitara and is a symbol of kingship. Kintu and his wife, Kati, had three sons, but the lack of names was quite confusing for them. They were all known as “Kana” (meaning little child). When the father called one of them, they could all come, and when he gave one of them a gift, they all quarrelled, claiming it was meant for them. He then inquired from Ruhanga if they could be given names. Ruhanga accepted, but he suggested two tests to help him choose the names for the boys.

Whatever their origin, and wherever they came from, the Batembuzi were a refugee group on the biocultural landscape of Eastern Africa. They established their Tembuzi dynasty and Kitara Kingdom. Their dynasty, the Tembezi dynasty and Kitara Kingdom existed from 1000 AD to 1300 AD although some writers claim there was a Tembezi King called Kintu in the late 900 AD.

The Batembuzi are historically characterised as superhumans who were divine with creative powers and never died but merely disappeared in thin air or underground. The founder of the Batembuzi is said to have been Ruhanga considered to be a creator (Oweyegha-Afunaduula, 2024).

The Batembuzi were credited with introducing important cultural and technological innovations to the region, especially in Northern Tanzania where they could smelt iron at very high temperatures. These innovations included advanced agricultural techniques, the introduction of ironworking and the establishment of a structured political and social order. They were revered for their leadership and contributions to their empire development over Uganda and other parts of Eastern Africa.

It was the last Batembuzi King, Isaza, who introduced the concept of county (Isaza) in Bunyoro, which spilt into Buganda and Busoga and indeed other areas of Uganda.

Chwezi-Cushite invasions, occupations, penetrations:  The consequences

The Batembuzi were succeeded by the Chwezi-Cushites from Ethiopia who emerged in Bunyoro in Uganda as Bahuma in Bunyoro. They consumated the Kitara Kingdom and extended it as far as western Kenya and northern Tanzania. Together separately in time and space, they shaped the region’s cultural and spiritual landscape. Shrouded in mystery and legend, they both came from elsewhere and qualify to be referred to as refugees.

Both are often referred to as semi-divine lineages, believed to possess supernatural abilities and to have  introduced significant cultural, spiritual and technological advancements to East Africa ( e.g. Akankwatsa Andrew Oba, 2024). They are related to the nomadic pastoral Cushite groups in the Nile Basin, the reason I referred to the as Chwezi Cushites in my long thesis “The Chwezi-Cushite effect on the traditions, culture, spirituality and political development of Busoga, Uganda.

The Chwezi-Cushite are credited with the introduction of the unique, long-horned Ankole cattle, coffee growing, iron smelting, and the first semblance of organized and centralized government, The recent moves on coffee in Uganda by President Tibuhaburwa Museveni could reflect the historical Chwezi connections with the crop.

Many writers agree that the Empire of Kitara was created by Ndahura, a great warrior king, who extended the small chiefdom of Bugangaizi over a vast area which included Bunyoro, western Buganda, Toro, northern Kigezi, the Sese Islands, Nkore, Kiziba, Karagwe, part of north-eastern Rwanda and part of western Kenya. Busoga and Buganda were not included. This means that the Chwezi did not initially pollute the traditions, cultures and spiritualities of the Baganda and the Basoga. However, Ndahura lacked the military power, the bureaucracy and the means of quick communication to be able to establish a centralised state over this vast area. He therefore relied more on agents who were appointed to represent the king in the various areas. This loosely organised empire seems to have had salt, cattle and iron as its economic mainstay

Some scholars have drawn connections between the Tutsi Rwandans and Tutsi Burundians and the

Maasi and the Oromo of Ethiopia, the descendants of the Biblical Ham and even the ancient

Egyptians. Ham (no relation!) was the youngest son of the Biblical patriarch Noah. When Ham saw his father drunk and naked, Noah felt so humiliated that he put a curse on Ham’s son, Canaan, condemning his descendants to perpetual slavery. Here is the moment, as told in Genesis 9:24-25 (New King James Version).

Luo Babiito invasions, conquests, occupations and penetrations: The consequences

The Chwezi-Cushites were defeated by the Luo from the north, who established a new, more extensive kingdom called Bunyoro-Kitara that was even more extensive than the Batembuzi Kitara Kingdom. The Chwezi-Cushites ended up as present-day Bahima of Ankole, Tutsi of Rwanda and the Tutsi of Burundi following the collapse of Kitara Kingdom. The Batembuzi, the Chwezi-Cushites and the Luos had enormous influence on the peoples they found – especially genetically, culturally and spiritually.

The collapse of the Chwezi dynasty occurred in the 16th century. Indeed, the Luo, under the leadership of the legendary Isingoma Rukiidi Mpuga, overran the Chwezi Kitara Empire, which had been weakened by several factors, including disease and famine, around 1500 AD, causing them to flee to distant parts of the collapsed empire. It is only after the Luo conquest that Kitara Empire was replaced by the more powerful Bunyoro-Kitara Empire with the Biito dynasty with Isingoma Rukiidi Mpuga becoming the first king (Omukama) of the new kingdom in the 16th century.

Clearly the Luo invaders, like the Chwezi-Cushite before them adopted the names, traditions and culture of the Banyoro and elsewhere where they established their hegemony. Bunyoro-Kitara Empire later got disintegrated as various states broke away, thus becoming independent kingdoms and sub-dynasties. They include Ankole, Toro, Buganda and Busoga (Nabumati, 2023).

The Luo invasion led to the introduction of new cultures, languages and customs in some cases, the Luo dropped their language in favour of those they came across. On the other hand, the defeated people were absorbed into the Luo culture. Their knowledge and practices, such as crop cultivation and animal husbandry, have contributed to food security and economic development in the regions where they settled.

Modern Chwezi-Cushite invasions, conquests, occupations and penetrations: The consequences

Later military conquests, occupations and penetrations were the combined Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF), Obote’s Kikosi Maalum and Yoweri Museveni’s Front for National Salvation (FRONASA). Tanzanian soldiers eloped with Ugandan girls and women and left behind many who did not belong to Buganda where they fought Idi Amin’s soldiers during what was called Uganda liberation war, in whose wake was a Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) government and a Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) composed of mainly Obote’s Kikosi Maalum and Museveni’s FRONASA. It was an uneasy marriage of convenience because FRONASA was regarded by many in UNLF and UNLA as a mainly military outfit of Tutsi refugees from Rwanda and the Mulenge area of Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo).

Indeed, soon after the 1980 general election, the FRONASA group in the UNLA just weaned itself of leaving the Kikosi Maalum as the army of Uganda. The FRONASA group claimed the elections were rigged and it initiated a guerilla war against the regime of Apollo Milton Obote in 1981 as the Patriotic Resistance Army (PRA). It was not easy for PRA until it merged with deposed President Yusuf Kironde Lule’s Freedom Fighters of Uganda (FFU) to form National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM/A) following a meeting in Kabete, Kenya.

The FRONASA group soon dominated NRM/A politically and militarily and more or less cleansed the NRM/A of non-FRONASA elements. Indeed, today 99 per cent of the leadership of Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF), the successor of NRA, is dominated by Tutsi-Cushites. This is why in this article I refer to the activities of the NRM/A from 1981 and beyond as Chwezi-Cushite invasions, conquests, occupations and penetrations. I coined Cushites because that is what they are, being related to other Cushite groups in the Great Lakes Region.

The consequences of the modern Chwezi-Cushite invasions, conquests, occupations and penetrations of Uganda are many and diverse. Let me just list some of them without discussing them:

• Concealed genocide of hundreds of thousands in Uganda
• Obnoxious laws as a strategy to disempower and excluded alternative political organisations in governance and leadership of Uganda
• Design of a Uganda Constitution 1995 that placed all the resources of Uganda in the hands of the president
• Pretended to reintroduce kingdoms but in effect reduced them to and replaced them with unpolitical cultural institutions with no power over the populations under them and dependent on central government for survival
•  Introduced a refugee economy
• Introduced concept of sectarianism in Uganda’s sociopolitics
• Introduced ethnic politicisation and political ethnisation
• Institutionalised politico-militarism in government, with real political power and authority in the hands of the military
• Introduced local councils and local government under toral control by the politico-military National Resistance Movement
• Institutionalised hereditary politics
• Introduced resident commissioners that serve the interests of NRM more than they serve the Government
• Introduced NRM cadreism in the executive, legislature and judiciary and even in the private sector
• Introduce apartheid-like governance in Uganda
• Fused the military and the police
• Military capture of civic spaces
• Banned political education in schools in favour of ideological control in Kyankwanzi
• Undermined intellectual debates in schools, universities and public discourse
• Undermined quality education through universal primary education and universal secondary education
• Undermined health security by privatising the health sector
• Adopted globalisation as pathway to development, liberalised the economy without liberalising politics
•  Monetised, financialised, deculturised and dissocialised fresh water
• Imposed individual merit approach to politics, which cultivated political underdevelopment and political illiteracy in the country, thereby sabotaging collective political development and action in the country
• Innovated Bonna Bagaggawale, Myooga, Operation Wealth Creation and Operation Wealth Creation ostensibly to combat poverty through individuals rather than community development, thereby cultivating community underdevelopment and poverty in the country
• Excluded education and health from their Ten Point Programme, meaning they were not a priority in power dynamics

For God and My Country

• A Tell report / By Oweyegha-Afunaduula / Environmental Historian and Conservationist Centre for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis (CCTAA), Seeta, Mukono, Uganda.

 About the Centre for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis (CCTAA)

The CCTAA was innovated by Hyuha Mukwanason, Oweyegha-Afunaduula and Mahir Balunywa in 2019 to the rising decline in the capacity of graduates in Uganda and beyond to engage in critical thinking and reason coherently besides excellence in academics and academic production. The three scholars were convinced that after academic achievement the world outside the ivory tower needed graduates that can think critically and reason coherently towards making society and the environment better for human gratification. They reasoned between themselves and reached the conclusion that disciplinary education did not only narrow the thinking and reasoning of those exposed to it but restricted the opportunity to excel in critical thinking and reasoning, which are the ultimate aim of education. They were dismayed by the truism that the products of disciplinary education find it difficult to tick outside the boundaries of their disciplines; that when they provide solutions to problems that do not recognise the artificial boundaries between knowledges, their solutions become the new problems. They decided that the answer was a new and different medium of learning and innovating, which they characterised as “The Centre for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis” (CCTAA).

For further reading

Abdul Mahajubu, Balunywa M and Musisi F (2019). We did not come as mercenaries: Linking the origin, ethnic identity and settlement of the Nubis in Uganda. Academic Journals, Vol.11(3), pp. 26-34, March 2019

Akankwatsa Andrew Oba (2024). Mysteries of Bunyoro Kitara: A deep Dive into the Batembuzi and Bachwezi Dynasties. Remedial Corner, https://remedialcorner.com/blog/mysteries-of-bunyoro-kitara-a-deep-dive-into-the-batembuzi-and-bachwezi-dynasties/#:~:text=The%20Batembuzi%20were%20a%20legendary,Uganda%2C%20Rwanda%2C%20and%20Tanzania. Visited on 30 November 2024 at 16.33pm EAT

Arun Agrawal (2005). Environmentality. Current Anthropology Vol, pp. 161-190 (30 pages). Published By: The University of Chicago Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/427122 Visited on 29 November 2024 at 11.24 am EAT

Chen, M., Tang, Y., Ning, D. (2013). Penetration of Moral Quality Education on University Life Sciences Courses Teaching. In: Du, W. (eds) Informatics and Management Science VI. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 209. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4805-0_58

Clegg, S. (2019). Governmentality. Project Management Journal, 50(3), 266-270. https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972819841260

Daily Monitor (2012). Emin Pasha’s Nubian soldiers Spread Islam in West Nile. Daily Monitor, September 4 2012. https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/lifestyle/reviews-profiles/emin-pasha-s-nubian-soldiers-spread-islam-in-west-nile-1524882 Visited on 5 December 2024 at  9.51 am EAT.

Foster Byarugaba and F.C. Oweyegha-Afunaduula (1995). Environmental Impacts of Refugees in Africa: Some Suggestions for Future Actions. Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Makerere University (Publisher: 1995.  https://books.google.co.ug/books/about/Environmental_Impact_of_Refugees_in_Afri.html?id=RM8wPwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y Visited on 29 November 2024 at 13 43 pm EAT

Gewirth, Alan (1962). Intellectual penetration and moral sensitivity. Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), 14 Jan 1962: d10. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/docview/183096211?sourcetype=Historical%20Newspapers Visited 30 November 2024 at 10.56am EAT

Kang, L., Wang, C. C., Chen, F., Yao, D., Jin, L., & Li, H. (2014). Northward genetic penetration across the Himalayas viewed from Sherpa people. Mitochondrial DNA Part A, 27(1), 342–349. https://doi.org/10.3109/19401736.2014.895986, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/19401736.2014.895986?scroll=top&needAccess=true Visited on 4 December 2024 at 11.37am EAT

Laird, S. et.al. (2022). Social and environmental transformation of refugee and hosting community in Central and Eastern Africa. Occasional Paper No. 229. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). https://dir.muni.ac.ug:8443/server/api/core/bitstreams/1edfde7b-9c5d-4dfa-bbc6-0983f10fdcac/content Visited on 29 November 2024 at 12.58 pm EAT.

Martin, Adrian (2005). Environmental Conflict Between Refugees and Host Communities.  Journal of Peace Research, vol. 42, no. 3, 2005, pp. 329–346 Sage Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi) http://jpr.sagepub.com DOI 10.1177/0022343305052015, https://www.projectgaia.com/files/EnvironmentalConflictRefugeesHostCommunities.pdf Visited on 29 November 2024 at 13.09 pm EAT.

Mazrui A.A (1977). Religious Strangers in Uganda: From Emin Pasha to Amin Dada. African affairs 76(302):21-38.

Muller, B.  (2017, November 30). Governmentality and Biopolitics. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies. Retrieved 29 Nov. 2024, from https://oxfordre.com/internationalstudies/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.001.0001/acrefore-9780190846626-e-50.

Mustafa Efe (2016). Emin Pasha’s Role in Africa. New Vision January 1 2016. https://www.newvision.co.ug/news/1425956/emin-pasha-role-africa Visited on 5 December 2024 at 9.20 am EAT

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2024). History of Uganda’s Political Leadership: From 1894 to the Present. Penguin Publishers STILL IN PRESS

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2024). The Threat of Political Ethnization. Ultimate News, January 11 2024, https://ultimatenews.co.ug/2024/01/oweyegha-afunaduula-the-threat-of-political-ethnicization-of-uganda/ Visited on 27 November 2024 at 16.24pm EAT.

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2024). The Military Capture of Uganda’s Civic Space Yesterday and Today. https://ugandatoday.co.ug/the-military-capture-of-ugandas-civic-space-yesterday-and-today/ Visited on 27 November 2024 at 16.29pm EAT.

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2024). The role of rulers in institutionalised Violence in Africa. Te Kamapala Report, May 4, 2023  https://www.thekampalareport.com/talk-back/2023050426367/oweyegha-afunaduula-the-role-of-african-rulers-in-institutionalized-violence-in-africa.html Visited on 27 November 2024 at 16.35pm EAT.

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2024). Chwezi-Cushite Effect on Traditions, Culture, Spirituality and Political Development of Busoga. Center for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis (CCTAA), Seeta, Mukono, Uganda.

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2023). The root cause of Violence in Uganda and Great Lakes region. Ultimate News, March 28, 2023 https://ultimatenews.co.ug/2023/03/oweyegha-afunaduula-root-causes-of-violence-in-uganda-and-the-great-lakes-region/  Visited on 27 November 2024 at 16.43pm EAT

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2023). Bigmanity, the sterile culture of money and violence in Africa: the case of Uganda. Ultimate News, June 23, 2023  https://ultimatenews.co.ug/2023/06/oweyegha-afunaduula-bigmanity-the-sterile-culture-of-money-and-violence-in-africa-the-case-of-uganda/ Visited on 27 November 2024 at 16.38pm EAT

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2023). Linking Environmentality and Governmentality in Environmental Management and Conservation in Africa: Uganda in Perspective. The Kampala Report, June 27, 2023. https://www.thekampalareport.com/talk-back/op-ed/2023062728343/linking-environmentality-and-governmentality-in-environmental-management-and-conservation-in-africa-uganda-in-perspective.html Visited on 29 November 2024 at 12.49 pm EAT

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2022). Disappearance of Police in Uganda Police. Daily Monitor, February 11 2022.  https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/insight/disappearance-of-police-in-uganda-police-the-dangers-3713354 Visited on 27 November 2024 at 16.20pm EAT.

Ronald Kalyango Sebba & Franzisca Zanker (2022). August 2022. Political Stakes of Refugee Protection in Uganda    https://www.arnold-bergstraesser.de/sites/default/files/political_stakes_of_refugee_protection_in_uganda_sebba_zanker.pdf Visited on 29 November 2024 at 13.23 pm EAT

Shaunna Barnhart (2016). Environmentality. https://discardstudies.com/2016/07/27/environmentality/ visited on 29 November, 2024 at 11.52am EAT.

Thalif Deen (2017). Should Environmental Refugees be granted Asylum Status? ReliefWeb, 30 November 2017, https://reliefweb.int/report/world/should-environmental-refugees-be-granted-asylum-status Visited on 29 November 2024 at 13. 17pm EAT.

Ulrich Bröckling, Susanne Krasmann, Thomas Lemke (2011). Governmentality, Current Issues and Future Challenges. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Governmentality-Current-Issues-and-Future-Challenges/Brockling-Krasmann-Lemke/p/book/9780415811422?srsltid=AfmBOooPnTC1YVQ_EX3zISDRDBUTLuscgPQzr3uzGpsS4QJdafodMhw5 Visited on 29 November 2024 at 12.43pm EAT

Walters, Williams (2012). Governmentality Critical Encounters. Routledge,  Published June 7, 2012 https://www.routledge.com/Governmentality-Critical-Encounters/Walters/p/book/9780415779548?srsltid=AfmBOop-ntEZrd17LS9NIWTycgp9ht_jhGCPcGxxlaUVx10gD7e8COc2 Visited on 29 November 2024 at 12.27am EAT