Pre-Colonial Africa And A Revisit Of The Westphalian Model States: A Case Study of Pre-Colonial Buganda Kabakaship

Pre-Colonial Africa And A Revisit Of The Westphalian Model States: A Case Study of Pre-Colonial Buganda Kabakaship

Tom R. Muyunga-Mukasa

At its core the Westphalian model of statehood assumes that all those states other than the Western World, must not have economic bargaining power to threaten an existing manufacturing status quo. African cultural elitism threatens that very status quo. This is so in that it is a pathway to social-economic transformation for  Africans. Westphalian state models should be remodeled to factor in the potential for indigenous African cultural institutions to be economic drivers. But, this is a nationalism states like Britain, France, Canada or even Norway do not like Africa to have.

Africa has indigenous infrastructure that can drive an inward look into solutions against a sickening poverty. The poverty levels in Africa are so sickening and ashaming African babies don't have to say "the king is naked!"

Buganda Kabakaship is one such cultural hegemony that is fundamentally and ritually eco-mindful. This comes at a high premium in the form of, duty to organize around custodianship and responsibility to invest in an inventory of collective assets accessible by the community. The means to accumulate these assets/resources are a motivation strengthening the bonds people have toward each other and this in turn binds them to nature. Individual self-determination and eco-conservation are key factors of systemic sustenance that should be upheld and supported logistically.

The people are aware of the differences between profiteering and profiting. They know the costs of profiteering and those of profiting. Profiteering has extractive tendencies and temptations to create hierarchies of admission where passes are limited and doled out by invitation only. 

On the other hand, profiting is based on principles in which the people engage in satisfactory production which provides livelihood for all and does not cause sores to the earth. In this case they are aware that the sores of the earth metastasize in the entire humanity. 

Profiteering is to fragility what profiting is to endurance. Profiteering condones stripper practices that are extractive, accumulate waste and promote clauses deregulating dumper contexts.  On the other hand, profiting is extractive too but has built-in repurposing social clauses that promote conserver and recycler contexts.

Profiteering repatriates away from indigenous African communities whereas profiting re-invests in the very indigenous African communities from which resources are extracted. 

The Westphalian model statehood facilitated Colonialism in Africa and in post-Colonial Africa still maintains the precariously extractive status quo.

Buganda Kabakaship is the pre-colonial character of the region in which the Kabaka of Buganda was the overall custodian of the land and people in that area. Post-colonial definitions changed that to a “kingdom.”

The English Colonizers, mistakenly attributed almost every character of their royalty to that of Buganda and in doing so they diminished the grandeur of the Kabakaship.  They gave the Kabaka the title of King. Hence, the attribution of Western symmetry, dichotomy, assumptions of classes, gender-locks and that the Kabaka was the highest point of a “ruling” class.  The Western understanding of the term "ruling" construes images of command structures and an obsession with punishing or reward. Yet, it is far different from how it is understood under the Buganda Kabakaship.

Buganda Kabakaship, is about balancing all the efforts to maintain the integrity of Buganda around two pillars: The “Nnono” and “Obuntu-bulamu.” These aim at, tolerance of diversity; dignity of personhood; and survival of humanity around eco-conservation. The person to whom guidance is sought when the balance is missing is the Kabaka. The arbitrator role, the equity enforcer and allocator of responsibilities are some of the praises given to the Kabaka. These great examples are re-incarnated in mini-series at the Baganda household levels.

 

The title Kabaka is an all-gendered term and it means the “jaw.” There was wisdom in choosing the jaw to symbolize the usefulness of complementarity in life. The lower and upper jaws work together. They are complete as combined bodies. The Kabaka and the Baganda are twinned in this jaw-like relationship. The Buganda Kabakaship and nature are twinned in this jaw-like relationship. The Kabakaship and the state are twinned in this jaw-like relationship.

The Kabaka title is taken up by both female and male of any physical status. In Buganda equity and equality concepts are not new. Buganda has had female, minor, quadriplegic, deaf, blind and mute Kabakas.  In the spirit of progress, Buganda needs logistical support to promote the equity and equality goals.

The Kabaka and the people enjoy a custodial relationship, a sovereignty, informed by culture and rituals. This shared cultural elitism, is the passport, and it motivates the people to commit to a compact where the race is to foster a productive community hegemony.

In this context of the Buganda Kabakaship, "class" is the equivalent of clans, trades and the feedback mechanism structures where the  interests, will and desires are not exploitative nor grounds for contempt. Right from pre-Colonial days to present time, if one were to scrutinize the Kabakaship microscopically, one would find people from Ankole, Congo, Toro, Bunyoro, Busoga, Lango, Acholi, Bugisu, Malawi, South-Africa and Rwanda in the Buganda Royal Courts.  

Buganda has several examples that pre-dated the tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Or the tenets of Abrahamic religions. Values such as "love the next person as you love yourself" are not an epiphany in the African traditional cultures.

 

The Kabaka and the people didn’t perceive each other as King and Subjects. Buganda was the crucible in which one's identity was never ridiculed nor frowned upon. The confidence portions or talisman continued to be the ammunition for authenticity and rediscovery. 

Individuality was never frowned upon otherwise Buganda would never be as accommodative as it was. Rather, an individual was empowered to reach their full potential and were bound by duty to both self and society. 

Accumulated wealth was eventually shared through the established pathways such as family, clan, trade and all the mechanisms that circled back to the Kabakaship treasury. But, all this underwent drastic change when Western Colonialism set foot in Africa.

Colonialism and imperialism used the Westphalian model to name Africa, atomize  and atrophy the individuals found in Africa. States were formed and Colonialists established a reward or recognition system through a form of government they only had a clue about. They dismissed the full potential of the indigenous people to participate in government as co-equals. The state and the instruments of a state that we have in Africa were used to control the paths through which the Western Colonizers could accumulate profits.

Boundaries were drawn, allegiance to the state was mandatory, power and authority were placed in the hands of those leading the states. 

The atrophy of the African individual was directly linked to the atrophy of the African pre-Colonial social structures. The state structures subsumed all other forms of organization such as the power to control the borders, conscription of armies, established political and establish economic structures, training and maintaining technical support and other motivating mechanisms. The indigenous ways of the people were ridiculed and considered backward.

The states in Africa,  assumed autonomy, territorial sovereignty, governments, treaties and protections. In the case of Buganda Kabakaship, loyalties switched hands. The character of belongingness was taken over by the state and was formally enjoyed through the use of Identification cards (ID) or paper passports. The Kabaka had to have state identification or passport to travel. 

The motivation to travel for all people raised the demand for the ID and the passport. Mobility and the desire to belong made it easier to coerce, impose and use force for profiteering ends. The relationship between the state and the Buganda Kabakaship dwindled to the point that at one time a Kabaka had to be exiled.  

It is not uncommon for the African states to permit the clearance of entire forests or watersheds to provide raw-materials in the name of industrialization of the Western World countries  without recourse to  restoration or re-afforestation. The African states are powerless when it comes to lifting their lot out of poverty or establishing socially transformative programming. The political and cultural elite are both cautious in starting a domino of development initiatives. Watch out for three things: if a country has leaders with nationalistic views there is likely a rebel faction in that country; if that country has oil or mineral rich, they is a land-wrangle related hot-button instigated far from the locale; aging presidents are tolerated by the West than younger ones who are said to be too radical. This is the NMA rule of thumb.

It is not uncommon to dispossess people of their land under the pretext of manifest destiny only to find that the land is repossessed by a handful of elites.

The Westphalian state model has its modernizing advantages. However, on interrogation it was deployed to dehumanize Africans. Pre-Colonial African social organizations, may have had their short-comings too but the notion of eco-mindfulness is a goal one can never dismiss. The good in both approaches are lessons for Africa that can be used for social transformation, political integrity and economic progress. There is nothing bad about the cultural identity or diversity of Africans and there is everything wrong in making Africans paupers in a continent with all the enviable resources necessary to lift people out of impoverishment.

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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.