Buganda Is A Post-Colonial Example From Africa Re-purposing The Westphalian Model Approaches To Productivity, Profit And Care for the Planet
Buganda Is A Post-Colonial Example From Africa Re-purposing The Westphalian Model Approaches To Productivity, Profit And Care for the Planet
Tom Rogers Muyunga-Mukasa
The Baganda are obsessively communal. This is so because to be communal is the opiate representing safety, preservation, dignity, humanity and perseverance in the face of dangers, cataclysms and diseases.
The communal spirit has leveraged influencer mechanisms which are relied upon to share information, knowledge, skills and iteration.
Safety, preservation, dignity, humanity and perseverance can only be achieved when dignity, unity and a sound ecology are the goals.
The Baganda revitalize robustness through providing a script to all humanity in which they point out that without dignity, unity and a sound ecology all humans face a morbid present.
They have within their structures, systems, myths, folklore and legends shown the inevitability of suffering and the futility of seeking immortality. The Kabakaship is a fountain of legacy and heritage and the Kabaka draws admirers to it. There are four typologies e.g. Buganda, Kabaka, Kabakaship and Obuganda ensuring survival and thriving. Buganda has in-built arrangements such as the Clan structures enhancing productivity, quality life for the people and a well-cared for planet. Protecting the environment is in vogue and Buganda has the collective wherewithal and a vested interest in minimizing any damage to our surroundings.
It is possible to bake into strategic plans opportunities to mainstream forward and enduring energy sources that will provide sustaining, non-depleting use of resources for generations to come.
I am a Muganda male, a scholar in Political Science, Development Goals and Global Health. I have taken time to study the Baganda using scholarly tools but as a silent observer for 12 years in Africa, Europe and North, Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands.
It is possible for the Baganda to thrive and establish Buganda-Towns in say, the USA, the UK, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and other areas. Can the Baganda or Buganda thrive side by side with Westphalian model states? Yes, they can and proudly so.
The Westphalian model arose in a Europe where rulers of large empires were wealthier and owned tracts of lands from which they levied obsessive usury fees. Over time, these land users organized into smaller states, became militarily powerful, industrially successful and the need for independence as well as the call for sovereignty arose.
A contract for peace and a desire for co-existence that came to be known as the Peace of Westphalia, as it is formally known, came into existence. It recognized the notion of a state occupying a given region, in which the people would submit most of their freedoms to a government which would ensure protection, productivity and a promise of shared bounty.
Westphalia was about full territorial sovereignty of the member states of the European empire. These states could draw contracts or treaties with one another and with foreign powers, provided that the emperor and the empire suffered no prejudice. Unfortunately, with this model in mind, Colonialism in Africa riding on imperialism set the stage for violence, racism, plunder and pillage. It is no wonder that entities like Buganda Kingdom never delivered to their fullest potential.
In the 21st Century and beyond, does Buganda Kingdom have clues for social transformation and quality life for people anywhere in the world?
Buganda, Kabaka, Kabakaship and Obuganda are typologies leveraging thriving and attention to eco-fragility. There are two models or philosophies one has to bring to light as far as the Kabakaship is concerned. The Nnono and Obuntu-Bulamu models (also called the Obuntu philosophy and not so different from the Ubuntu philosophy among the Southern nations of Africa).
The Nnono is a compact that upholds the dignity of diversity. The Obuntu is the complementary addendum that draws our attention to all humans belonging to a single tribe called humanity. Both Nnono and Obuntu draw our attention to humanity’s reliance on nature. The philosophies are not apologetic about the human role in causing eco-fragility. They do not take for granted the acknowledgement of the profusion of strains, interests, desires, will, needs and wants that come with diversity. They call for a willingness to dialogue in order to aspire toward dignity through a balanced spirit and material welfare.
Obuntu is a spirituality involving an awareness, a feeling, sense and a deep-seated belief that there is something greater than an individual. There is something more to being human than sensory experience, and that the greater whole of which we are connected is cosmic or divine in nature. This connection is a portal filling us with the essential aspect of true spirituality. The Nnono, Obuntu and the spiritual-material balance are at the core of the Kabakaship.
The Kabakaship is both a duty and a sovereignty (spatially or regionally). The people have a stake in seeking as well as letting-go some of the freedoms in form of mobility, speech, productivity, protection and a promise of shared bounty.
The Kabaka out of responsibility, lets full oversight to be exercised along federated leadership structures e.g. Premiership (Kattikiroship), clans, departments, trades and support systems. These structures bear the duty to draw contracts or treaties with one another and with other potentates, provided that the Kabaka and the Kabakaship do not suffer an imbalance in Nnono, Obuntu, material or spiritual welfare.
The term kingdom must be construed with a vision of a Kabakaship in mind. The Kabakaship is not in the habit of waiting for hand-outs. It is an entity and a partner ready to foster development. Amidst denigrating and reductionist controversies, are those creating paternalistic dichotomies atomizing the people (Obuganda) to the definition of subjects. The terms King and subject have further patriarchal, neoliberal and capitalist connotations that disrupted the matriarchal, youth (Hebeal) and patriarchal reward and recognition hierarchies that existed in Pre-Colonial Africa. This blog is limited and will not discuss the merits or demerits of class structures and moves to exploit the Black body for profit and pillage.
Assume that Kabaka and Kabakaship are my working definitions. By Baganda, I mean all those persons who have any form of attachment to that aspiration known as Buganda. Buganda is geographical (metaphysical), mental or psychological and contextual.
The pre-primary status of Buganda is the minds of all those who admire the Kabaka, the Baganda, the Kabakaship and Buganda. Primarily and as a physical entity it is in Africa around the Great Lakes region. Buganda is defined by the geographical and physical boundaries as well as institutions e.g. the clan system or rite of passage.
The secondary status is best understood as the mental or psychological nature in which art, culture and philosophy are crafted, shared and legacies are formed.
The third dimension is the contextual one through which re-invention and rebirth occur e.g. when the Kabaka makes an official public appearance (the present Kabaka is known for jogging along country roads, this is not known as an official public appearance).
The Baganda or Obuganda are all those persons found in Buganda Kabakaship (also called a Kingdom). There are two definitions I want to bring to your attention. The Buganda Kabakaship is a region where for the sake of English one can also call a kingdom. This is not to argue whether Buganda is or not a kingdom but in reducing it to the definition of “kingdom” one may risk missing out the role of women, the youth, the differently abled, mothers, fathers, parents, the child-bearing women, the non-child bearing women, the orphans, the child-less females or males, the celibate and all other categories of persons. Under the Kabakaship all persons carry a contextual passport.
As a mental or psychological entity, it is a mystery through which troubles have served as a warning and solutions have been sought through the inventories of art, culture and philosophy. As a contextual entity it provides situations in which the Kabaka (that person occupying the throne) has ‘Transformer’ role or shape-shifter powers.
The Kabaka takes the Kabakaship (“kingdom”) wherever the Kabaka is but the visitation does not require abysmal budgets. Different states have to go through untold expenses to host State Dinners. But this is not the case with the Kabaka of Buganda.
Were the Kabaka to be present at, say, the Vatican, the White House, the Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street, Government of Kenya State House, Government of Uganda State House, the Kremlin or the Zhongnanhai, the gesture of serving a meal is all it takes to proffer a be-fitting ceremonial gesture. Whether or not the state chooses to accompany such a gesture with a 21-gun salute is not obligatory.
Buganda’s characteristic structures are a model which continues to reclaim relevance in a world where the responsibility to care, productivity and a sound ecology are no longer bound by geographical sovereignty.
The Baganda have known of oppression, the full brim of bounty ranging from animals, birds, fish and people, the verdant profusion of crops and plants, and sadly too the scorching sun, draughts and the destructive nature of earth to humans and other biodiversity.
In their myths, folklore and legends one finds events of cataclysmic proportions linked to famine, pestilence, floods and epidemics. As well as periods of triumphal proportions in which the Kabakaship thrived, expanded and attracted so many people who while they retained self-sustaining spheres of hegemony were conforming to the Obuntu balance.
The area in which all these spheres of hegemony thrived was known as a Kabakaship. To maintain the Kabakaship, the role of a Kabaka is to oversee commerce, production, governance, tolerance, detente and non-belligerence.
Buganda is re-claiming a space amidst an array of potentates and corporations lined up to foster social and economic development. It has shared the following lessons: Not everything that meets the eyes can be explained; all humans thrive better as a community; it is better to allow humans to maintain authenticity because it fuels honesty, self-confidence and trustworthiness.
It is my hope that this in turn will raise eco-consciousness, build investor appeal, leverage opportunities for a productive population, establish a critical number of income-earners and an expanding market.
Digital literacy launched people into the Information-Communication Technology era. Buganda has laid bare the typologies that enhance cohesion which will bring about the necessary and much needed vital market force attracting investments which can benefit the investor and consumer alike. Investors in Africa should see Africans as partners in development and knowledge-owners as far as the interplay of planet, people and productivity goes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Epilogue:
In writing this essay, I wanted to process the dignity of African craftwork as well as, reckon with the effects of systemic racism. I use indigenous nomenclature and lexicon to show case ways that pre-Colonial Africa enabled people to navigate life. I get uplifted and feel authentic. I am sure this is one way, I can figure out the remnants of structures that promote directly perpetuated racism and provide solutions which return the dignity of people.
Picture is from Buganda Bumu 2021.
Picture from Buganda Bumu 2021.
Picture from Buganda Bumu 2021
Children led us in the US Anthem.
Picture from Buganda Bumu 2021
Adolescence is adorable and these young ones show it. When children are given purpose, they feel involved and included in planning and voicing their opinion.
Picture from Buganda Bumu 2021.
Comments
Post a Comment