ERIC KASHAMBUZI

Sometime back The Observer (Uganda) published an article using my research material which show that Bahima, Bahororo, Banyamulenge and Batutsi (who are cousins) were Nilotic Luo-speaking people from Bahr el Ghazal, southern Sudan. Some Ugandans called me and complained why I had written such an article. Some denied the research findings arguing that they were descendants of Bachwezi and white people and therefore not Luo. One Ugandan subsequently wrote that Bahima and their cousins were not Luo but Basoga were. I wrote back showing that Bachwezi were black and not white people. Bachwezi were a Bantu aristocracy.

In subsequent articles I showed that Batutsi, Bahima, Bahororo and Banyamulenge are scattered in many parts of Uganda and have maintained close relations with one another in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and eastern DRC. They have benefited from the NRM regime led by Bahororo and Bahima under the leadership of Museveni.

Bahima, Bahororo, Banyamulenge and Batutsi adopt local names and local languages wherever they settle but men do not marry outside their Nilotic ethnic group. Accordingly, they have retained their Nilotic identity and know one another very well. For example, a Mututsi may be registered in Buganda as a Muganda but knows who s/he is and whom to work with in political and economic matters. They do these things silently. Similarly an Itesot or Langi may be a Tutsi or Hima whose parents or grandparents moved into the area as cattle herders, have remained there and use local names and local languages.

Attached below are two maps which show the origin and ancestry of Bahima, Bahororo, Banyamulenge and Batutsi. The first map is taken from a book titled “The African Middle Ages: 1400-1800” by Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore, published by Cambridge University Press in 1981. The map from Oliver and Atmore shows the origin and movement of Luo people from Sudan to the Great Lakes region. The second map is taken from a book titled “The peopling of Africa”, by James L. Newman, published in 1995 by Yale University Press, USA. These two maps confirm and put to rest the issue of the origin and ancestry of Bahima, Bahororo, Banyamulenge and Batutsi.

Also attached bellow is a third map which shows where Banyarwanda have settled in Uganda. It is taken from an article titled “Uganda and Rwanda: A Case of Neo-Colonial Politics Gone Beserk?” by Ondoga Ori Amaza, published by Political & Economic Monthly of Southern Africa magazine. Volume 7, No.10 July 1994.

Therefore it is imperative that Uganda government statistics particularly those on ethnic allocation of jobs in public service go beyond each incumbent’s official record as a Muganda, Munyankole, Itesot, Landi, etc. Because of what has transpired in Uganda since 1986, government statistics must also show the job incumbent’s ancestry and to whom they are married. This is the reality of the situation in Uganda and not sectarianism as some people would want us to believe so they can continue exploiting others.