Factores que alteran o predicen un TRT anormal

Prior to the establishment of the British Protectorate of Uganda in 1894, the territory that now comprises the Republic of Uganda was a conglomerate of many independent kingdoms and chiefdoms with varying degrees of interrelations with each other and the outside world. The most powerful political entity of the region prior to colonialism was the Buganda kingdom. Situated at the northern shores of Lake Victoria they had been in contact with British explorers like Speke and Baker, as well as Arab traders coming from Zanzibar from the middle of the 19th century on. Ruled by the Kabaka, the king of the Baganda people, they possessed a centralised form of government that later became the anchor for the colonial activities of the British empire. After some internal conflicts over the religious orientation and preferred political affiliation ended in the kingdom being oriented towards Christianity and the British Empire (Byrnes, 1990, pp. 10-12), the British began extending their influence over the remaining territories. During this time also fell the official instatement of the British Protectorate through a treaty signed by the Kabaka at that time, Mwanga II. However, the establishment of a colonial apparatus in all of present-day Uganda took many more years, as the resistance, for instance by the Acholi chiefdoms, lasted well into the next century and the treaty with the second biggest political unit of the region, the Bunyoro kingdom, was not signed before 1933 (Ibid., 13).

With the expansion of the colonial administration extending outwards from the Buganda territory, ethnic Baganda were positioned at its very centre. In many ways, this exceptional position became the foundation for the economic and political divide that is still present today and one of the sources for the many conflicts of its turbulent history following independence.

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Preparations for Uganda’s independence started following the Second World War and the process leading up to it was characterised by the struggles for dominance between the different local kingdoms and religious groups. Especially the prospect of the Kabaka becoming a national political figure led to the establishment of opposing political initiatives like the UPC with the ethnic Langi Milton Obote at the top or the DP as the Roman Catholic opposition to the Kabaka from within Baganda ethnic group. To attain its own, separate independence, the Kabaka urged his supporters to boycott the first democratic election in Uganda in March 1961, leading his internal rivals of the DP winning most seats in the new national assembly. Understanding the danger of this outcome to his own position, the Kabaka then joined forces with the UPC, making Obote the first prime minister of Uganda, with the Kabaka becoming the first head of state of the new nation in 1962 (Ibid., 18-20).

However, this split of the two highest political positions with the Kabaka on one side and the UPC with the Langi Obote on the other side did not lead to an end of the ethnical divide in the country. The administration of Obote was accused of northern hegemony, as the Kabaka along with other leaders of the Bantu languages speaking ethnic groups planned to oust him. This included a shift of the conflict from being between the Kabaka as the representative of the Baganda and all other ethnic group in Uganda to a divide between the Nilo-Saharan languages speaking “Northerners” and the “Bantu”. Following this unsuccessful attempt, the UPC government in turn overthrew the presidency of Kabaka Mutesa II. and ordered the abolishment of the local kingdoms. In the end, Obote used his military power to establish himself as the main political force of the country. This leaning on the military to support his presidency became later his downfall, when his military chief Idi Amin started a successful coup against Obote in 1971 and forced him into exile (Ibid., 24-25).

By that time, ethnic affiliation had become a major part of Ugandan national politics and loyalty to political leaders was in many cases connected to it. As a result, among the first actions taken by Amin was the promotion of north-western Ugandans in the Army, like fellow ethnic Kakwa or Lugbara, and the deposing of Acholi and Langi soldiers who were suspected to be loyal to Obote. In the following years, soldiers and civilians of both ethnicities became special targets of the regime. The other group that was targeted by Amin was the Asian community in Uganda, most notably from India, which had been part of the country since the colonial period. Over the decades they had become important figures within the Ugandan economy resulting from their elevated status in the colonial apparatus. They had largely refused to integrate into the local Ugandan ethnic groups as intermarriages with people from other ethnic groups were usually not accepted, thereby creating a parallel society within the country; a sentiment that seemingly

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remains the same to this day. This created negative attitudes towards this group that had built up over the decades and culminated in the expulsion of an estimated 80,000 Asian Ugandans in 1972 (Patel, 1972).

On the other side, communities like for instance the Nubi of Uganda became profiteers of the Amin administration. This community can serve as a great example for the effects that the political shifts and turns in the countries’ history had on individual ethnic groups. The history of the Nubi in Uganda, which should not be mistaken for the Nubians living in the north of the Sudan and south of Egypt, reaches back to precolonial times. The group is said to have originated in what is now the South Sudan in the early 19th _{century. As descendants of Emin} Pashas multi-ethnic army they came under the leadership of Selȋm Bey to Uganda, where they entered the ranks of the British colonial administration and military, making the military garrisons their main places of settlement (Hansen, 1991, p. 324). This includes the military garrisons around Gulu. Over the years, the Nubi maintained their relative isolation, even following the Ugandan independence. As their role integration in the military started to loosen, in parts due to them being Muslim in a majority Christian country, they mainly became small traders (Wellens, 2003, p. 22). After Idi Amin had seized power, they were re-integrated in the administration and military, as Amin, who was able to understand some of their language, saw them natural allies as a fellow Muslim. (Hansen, 1991, p. 339). During this time, the common Muslim religion also became the defining criterion for community membership (Wellens, 2003, p. 22). As part of the Amin regime, they were said to have taken part in military operation directed against the Langi and Acholi ethnic groups, leading to many of them being forced into exile following the deposition of the Amin regime in 1979. Only after Museveni came to power in 1986 were many able to come back to Uganda and re-establish their communities. The latest census in 2014 stated the overall size of the Nubi population in Uganda at just under 30,000 (2016, p. 72), with most living around Bombo and only a few hundred residing in the area of Gulu.

At first it seemed that the disposal of Amin would lay the foundation for a functioning interethnic cooperation in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual democratic state, as the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) included forces from all parts of the country. However, following the win of the UPC in the elections of 1980 and the comeback of Milton Obote into power, again using his support among the Lango and Acholi, as well as other forms of manipulation during and after the election, the hoped-for unity broke apart. Shortly after the election, the former leaders of the UNLF, Yusuf Lule and Yoweri Museveni formed the National Resistance Army (NRA) with the goal of overthrowing the Obote regime. Their strongholds

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were in the western and south-western parts of Uganda, where Museveni, a member of the Banyankore ethnic group, originated from. The Ugandan Bush War that followed lasted until 1986 and resulted in the death of hundreds of thousand civilians and soldiers and the displacement of many more. In the meantime, Milton Obote had already forcefully been replaced by the Acholi general Tito Okello in 1985, with the new leadership striving for a peace treaty with the opposing NRA. The Nairobi agreement from 1985, which was supposed to regulate the integration of the opposition into the Ugandan administration never came to fruition and in January 1986 the NRA troops entered the capital Kampala and Yoweri Museveni was declared president (Byrnes, 1990, pp. 204-205); a position that as of 2017 he was still holding. Throughout the history of Uganda, ethnicity has been a major source for conflict and animosity. The British colonial administration had set the foundation for ethnic division, as it had paid more attention to certain ethnicities and allocated political power towards them. Most notably the Baganda and their king the Kabaka. They also created districts along the lines of ethnic borders, establishing and institutionalising them as meaningful political concepts. This division continued in the process of independence, as Kibanja, Kajumba and Johns on (2012) described:

“The formation of political parties in the country was from the start organized along tribal, religious and regional lines. The idea of political party being a body of organized opinion along rationalistic, ideological lines does not have a convincing history in Uganda. Yet ingroup favouritism based on ethnicity is undoubtedly a motivating force for conflicts in modern Uganda.” (p. 416).

Using the Social Identity Theory as their anchor Kibanja, Kajumba and Johnson (2012) argue that this history lead to the creation of negative social stereotypes amongst the different ethnic groups and multiple cultural and political divides within the country. For instance, negative attitudes directed at northern Uganda, and here especially the Acholi, who are portrayed as a “problem” in the light of the long-lasting civil war in northern Uganda. Conflicts connected to ethnicity also still exist regarding the Buganda kingdom, or in districts such as Kibaale, home to members of both the Banyoro and the Bakiga, leading to disputes on the political representation of each group (Ibid., 420-425). The history of Uganda, as well as the current political landscape demonstrate that ethnicity and ethnic identity are central elements for social life of Ugandans and the attitudes they hold towards each other. Ethnic or tribal interests and preferences have been part of the political process throughout and created a highly volatile environment based on those factors.

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