The North Western sub region of Uganda / better known as West Nile
first came under extensive foreign influence of the Egyptian Ottoman
Turks from the north as far back as the 1840s; these invaders
colloquially known as “Kuturiyah” a corruption of the Arab word Turkiyah
were renown Ivory Poachers and they doubled in the equally Lucrative
Evil Slave Raiding Trade.
The main Trade Route of the slavers
from Khartoum was along the Great River Nile Valley through the
impassable Sud with Dufule as the main Transit Centre.
By 1862
the two intrepid British explorers Speke and Grant visited this area on
their way back home via Egypt and they found the evil Trade thriving.
They were coming back from their momentous travels to Buganda and Busoga
where they self-proclaimed to have discovered an already inhabited
shoreline source of the White Nile on the shores of Lake Nalubale which
they christened Lake Victoria after the British Matriarch Monarch Queen
Victoria ; in their interesting writings they observed that the
Indigenous Madi-Moru natives to the land west of the banks of the River
Nile in what would later be called West Nile particularly did not seem
happy under the evil yoke of the slave raiding Ottoman Turks from Eygpt
via Khartoum Sudan.
In 1864 Sir Samuel Baker and his wife Lady
Samuel Baker came through West Nile and went onwards to the Omukama
Kamurasi’s Runya-Kitara Kingdom of Bunyoro where he also
self-proclaimed to have discovered Lake Albert ; this particular sacred
body of water is called “Obizoku” in the colloquial Madi-Lugbara
dialect,”Nek-Bonyo” in the Luo (Lwo) Alur language and “Nzita-Nzige” in
the local Kinyoro Language which has a pervading similar meaning that
during the scourge of the annual Locusts Invasions
“where locusts
perish crossing” for the pests often perished in droves attempting to
Traverse the Iconic Lake Straddling the Mountain of the Moons Range.
http://archive.org/…/albert…/albertnyanzagrea00sirs_djvu.txt
However the first recorded Mundu or Giliya “ whiteman” (Caucasian) to
visit the greater interior of Lugbara land proper were either A.Bono
from Malta One hundred and fifty years ago a young Maltese from the
city of Senglea, Andrea De Bono, went to live in darkest Africa. He
spent almost twenty years of his life in those harsh equatorial regions,
traveling and exploring, bartering for ivory with friendly natives and
fighting hostile tribesmen. De Bono had a private army, a river flotilla
and a string of trading posts. Strong and brave, acclimatized and
experienced, he had ample time to become the first European to discover
the sources of the White Nile, which had been an enigma in Europe for
more than two thousand years. However, Andrea De Bono allowed this
golden opportunity to cover himself and his small island home with glory
to slip right through his fingers; at one time he was just a few miles
away from one of the great sources of the mighty African river. This is
the story of an ordinary man who pushed himself to the limit. Facing
family losses, political intrigues and petty jealousies, he was falsely
accused of slave trafficking. And here he showed true grit. This and his
readiness to help his fellow explorers, Speke and Grant, reveal a
nobler nature than the terms 'trader' and 'frontiersman' imply.
Excellently researched, well illustrated and colourfully told, this
insightful biography throws light on an unusual corner of history and
human endeavour. or the Legendary Ruso-German Dr. Junker locally known
as “Simma” or “Simia” who Traverse during the years 1870s who wrote
extensively of his about his ground breaking “ Travels in Africa”
along the length and breadth of the Equatoria Province which was then
under the Administration of Mehmet El Amin (Emin Pasha) .
In 1877 he
travelled with a notorious Slave Raiding caravan which was aidied and
abetted by two hereditary kakwa chiefs Gbaganla of Gulumbi and Kenyi
Dada of the Dimu/Midia Kakwa Clan who unfortunately gained from the evil
slave trade through Keliko land ,Kakwa land which was generally listed
by Emin pasha under what they called Makaraka land and onwards to
Or’leba land around the Tara region right upto and near the sacred
ancestral mountains of Liru which he christened Mt.Gessi and around
Mount Wati into Terego land which he christened Mt. Gordon and he was
just about and could view at a distance Mount Luku which he christened
Mt. Baker.These names represented the then present top Anglo-Eygptian
Administrators in the Sudan at the time he was forced to quickly return
to Lado when word came about that he might be cut off from a known
route back to Cairo via Khartoum because of the ongoing Mahdist Revolt
in Khartoum and indeed he was forced to travel southwards via Buganda
and Bagamoyo to Zanzibar in order to get back to civilization in Cairo:-
http://archive.org/…/travel…/travelsinafricad03junk_djvu.txt
Mehmet El Amin (Emin Pasha) had setup an Administrative Capital at Lado
in the 1870s when he was dually appointed Governor of the equatorial
Province for which he administered for some years, giving an in depth
account of the Ethnographic status of all the tribes in present day
South Sudan.
By 1894 the Evil Colonial designs on Africa better
known as Their Spheres of Influence had begun to set off the Scramble
for Africa following the signing of the Treaty in Brussels Belgium on
12th may 1894 between Britain and King Leopald II of Belgium.
Between 1894-1910 the Westnile region fell under Belgiun Political
Sphere of Influence ; they placed our fatherland under what was called
the Lado Enclave an area of 15,000 square miles and a then estimated
census of 250,000 souls. Lado is derived from a hilltop situated in Juba
west of the White Nile in Southern Sudan; it is the very first hill
sited by the slave raiding Dhows as one travels up the River Nile some
1,000 miles from the conjunction of the Blue Nile and the White Nile at
Omdurman and Khartoum from whence the slave raiders set sail. The Lado
Enclave was eased to King Leopald II for the rest of his lifetime. In
the Lease Area a Special Flag was hoisted different from that of the
Congo free State which was the Personal Fiefdom of the aging Belgian
Monarch.
The Ethnic Composition listed in Mehmet El
Pasha’s Administrative Clusters in the former Equatoria Province was in
general as follows:
1. Azande
2. Madi-moru
3. Lugbara
4. Alur
5. Aringa
6. Kakwa
7. Kuku
8. Makaraka
9. Bari
10. Pojulu
11. Mundari
12. Mundu
13. Luluba
14. Kebu
15. Lotuka
16. Nyambara
17. Avukaya
18. Keliko
19. Liggi
20. Nyefo
21. Lendu
22. Baka
23. Tekrir
Following the 1894 agreement Wadelai and The Alur Kingdom at Mahagi as
well as the western Lugbara at Aru remained part of the Congo Free
State.
Due to the open threat from Amir Karam’Allah who deputized
the Khaliphate of Abdullah of Darfur (The Khalifa) who replaced the
Muhammed Ahmed Al Mahdi who died of typhoid, hordes of his Darrwish Holy
warriors would intermittently come through the Great Sud and attack
areas south of Bahar El Gazzal constantly hurrying the Emin Pasha
Administration following the fall of Gordon’s Khartoum administration to
the Victorious Mahdi .
http://archive.org/…/eminpa…/eminpashaincentr00emin_djvu.txt
They eventually forced Emin Pasha to relocate and make his last stand
in Wadelai. The Belgians were rightly reluctant to setup office and were
slow to open Military Forts and administration Stations in Lado
Enclave, in-fact they only managed to set up stations under stiff
opposition from an hostile indigenous populations who saw them as just
another form of the ongoing slave raiding traditions of foreigners.
In some instances the likes of Sultan Gbangala of Gulumbi and Sultan
Ali Kenyi Dada sided with the Mahdist Hordes of Amir Karam’Allah
against the Belgiuns initially.
The following stations where finally opened in 1897, then after, other stations were opened at:
1. Loka
2. Yei
3. Kajo-Keji
4. Dufile
5. Wadelai
6. Mahagi
7. Alikua
8. Alenjua (Orivu)
These were merely Fortified Military Posts that met with strained
attacks from Mahdist Hordes and remnants of Emin Pasha’s troops who had
mutinied because they did not wish to join the evacuation of Emin Pasha
by Stanley via kavali/Kasese/Ankole/Karagwe/on wards to Bagamoyo and
towards Zanzibar where they were relocated to Eygpt:-
http://archive.org/…/stanleys…/stanleyseminpa00waut_djvu.txt
During the Famous Stanley rescue Expedition that abandoned a Willing
Selim Bey who wished for some time to round up upwards of 10,000
soldiers and dependents but was frustrated by the rebellious conduct of
Fadhil El Mullah Bey and the suspicions raised by Stanley’s’ officer who
was imprisoned with Emin pasha for 9 months following the Open
rebellion by Fadhil El Mullah Bey and some Egyptian Clerks who had
vested interests in the on going slave trade in the Lado Enclave.
https://archive.org/…/ri…/riseoureastafri00unkngoog_djvu.txt
As a matter of ongoing urgency the Belgians were being harried and
there was no proper administration and they relied on the indigenous
Lendu and the Wanyema Levi Porters who were upgraded and recruited into
the notorious “Tukutuku Force Publique”.
This Compounded
the situation for the indigenous population remained hostile to the
Belgian Congolese administration officials whose soldiers (Tukutuku)
were often a source of insecurity in the area, the nickname arose and
was coined by the natives from the sound made by the gunshots of the
Belgium rifles “Tukutuku”
On May 9th 1906 a New Anglo-Belgiun
Congolese agreement was signed by which King Leopald II agreed to Annul
the agreement of 12th may 1894 and on his death to hand over the Lado
Enclave to the Sudan British Administration Government. Under the then
Lord Field Marshal H. Kitchener and his deputy Major General Wingate; in
return he was given the right to build a railway network that would
link the River Congo with the River Nile, at the time the aging Belgian
Monarch was about 72 years old and indeed on 17th December 1909 he
passed away having ruled the Kingdom of Belgium for 43 years! Following
his demise the agreement of 1906 was officially effected and the Lado
Enclave was transferred to the Anglo-Eygyptian Sudan . The state of Lado
Enclave then ceased to exist however there arose a Legal Problem
relating to Administration and the Notorious Ivory Poaching; when the
agreement of 1906 was made giving Sudan the right to take over the
enclave after the King’s demise, the Belgians began withdrawing in a
harry like the proverbial Flemish Lemming heading for the Cliffs; this
period stands clear in infamy 1907-1911 saw the territory invaded by
European ivory poachers from numerous nationalities who begun shooting
down Elephants and the Big five game on a large scale.
The Great
Teddy Roosevelt made his infamous appearance at Ajai Game Reserve and
his “Rhino Camp” overlooking the River Nile during this period :-
http://archive.org/…/big…/biggameshootingr029906mbp_djvu.txt
Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition (1909–1910)
In March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left
New York for the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition, a safari in
east and central Africa outfitted by the Smithsonian Institution.[113]
Roosevelt's party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya),
traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo)
before following the Nile to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Financed by
Andrew Carnegie and by his own proposed writings, Roosevelt's party
hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the
American Museum of Natural History in New York. The group, led by the
legendary hunter-tracker R. J. Cunninghame, included scientists from the
Smithsonian and was joined from time to time by Frederick Selous, the
famous big game hunter and explorer. Among other items, Roosevelt
brought with him four tons of salt for preserving animal hides, a lucky
rabbit's foot given to him by boxer John L. Sullivan, a Holland and
Holland double rifle in . donated by a group of 56 admiring Britons, a
Winchester 1895 rifle in .405 Winchester, an Army (M1903) Springfield in
.30-06 caliber stocked and sighted for him, a Fox No. 12 shotgun, and
the famous Pigskin Library, a collection of classics bound in pig
leather and transported in a single reinforced trunk. Participants on
the Expedition included Roosevelt's son Kermit along with Edgar
Alexander Mearns, Edmund Heller, and John Alden Loring.
Roosevelt
and his companions killed or trapped approximately 11,400 animals, from
insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. The 1000 large
animals included 512 big game animals, including six rare White rhinos.
The expedition consumed 262 of the animals. Tons of salted animals and
their skins were shipped to Washington, D.C.; the quantity was so large
that it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian shared many
duplicate animals with other museums. Regarding the large number of
animals taken, Roosevelt said, "I can be condemned only if the existence
of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all
similar zoological institutions are to be condemned."
Although
the safari was ostensibly conducted in the name of science, it was as
much a political and social event as it was a hunting excursion;
Roosevelt interacted with renowned professional hunters and land-owning
families, and met many native peoples and local leaders. Roosevelt
became a Life Member of the National Rifle Association, while President,
in 1907 after paying a $25 fee. He later wrote a detailed account in
the book African Game Trails, where he describes the excitement of the
chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the
name of science.
On the extreme commercial side of the same coin
Elephant Tusks were in high demand and had a good market in India,Asia
Major,Asia Minor,Europe and the |Americas; Ivory is still used in
intricate sculptures and in the making of billiard balls, piano keys and
umbrella handles/walking sticks. However the best live ivory comes from
the Tusks of African Elephants. The Lado Enclave was the Epicenture of
this highly destructive and extinctive Hunting tradition; like a scene
from the Tomb Raiders or the raiders of the Lost Ark a Platoon of
Notorious Ivory poachers descended on the now No mans Land truly
“Terrain Aulis” the Former Equatoria Province was inundated like the
proverbial high-water Nile floods by infamous I dare say!
Such as
Teddy Roosevelt, Banks,Barley,Bennet,Boyes,Selland and Berti the
Notorious Italian Hunter who in total setup Base at Wadelai.
The
Political situation operated in favour of the adventurous Hunters. For
when king Leopald II died the British were not to take over the Then
Lado Enclave until six months had elapsed! Thus leaving the whole 15,000
square mile under the whims and financial muscle of the richest
Hunters,Thus between the period of December 17th 1909 to June 16th 1910
the departing Belgian Lemming Flemish left an Administrative Power
Vacuum and Chaos Reigned Supreme!
Ironically they would repeat
the very same ill-will method of rushed withdrawal in the 1960s when
they relinquished Colonial Power in “Congo Kinshasa” .
With
effect from June 16th 1910 the whole of Lado Enclave was taken over by
the Sudan and attached to the Mangalla province. The Sudan by then was
under a British Governor one Major General Sir Reginald Wingate who had
replaced Field Marshal Lord H. Kitchener the Pacifier of Sudan from the
Mahdist Revolution of the mid 1800s as ably explained in the River War
by Sir Winston Churchill : -
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4943/pg4943.txt
In march 1910 Major Stingand was appointed specifically to make an
Ethnographic ordinance Survey and Evaluation of the Lado Enclave on
behalf of the British Government.
Between 1911-1913 Major
Stigand made a Study Tour amongst the Lugbara,Madi,Kakwa and Alur of
West Nile . The Kajo-Keji Station amongst the Kuku and Pojulu tribes was
opened by the Sudan Government for Administering the Southern part of
the Former Enclave.
http://archive.spectator.co.uk/…/equatoria-the-lado-enclave…
http://www.alibris.com/Equatoria-the-Lado-Enclave…/…/2094474
In 1912 the Sudan and Uganda Colonial Government agreed in principal
without taking into account the concerns and migratory needs of the
indigenous tribes in the area, to revise their common borders. A
Proposal was made for the Sudan to handover the southern part of the
Enclave to Uganda and in exchange for the Ugandan territory North of
Nimule East of the White Nile.
This Proposal was implemented in
1914 when the Southern part of the Formner Lado Enclave was transferred
to Uganda and renamed the West Nile District:- the land of the
Lugbara,Madi,Alur,Lendu,Kebu and Kakwa in return Uganda gave the area
north of Nimule and East of the White Nile belonging to the Bari,Lotuka
and Madi to the Sudan.
Weatherhead Anjerekedi Era the arrival of the British Officials:
In 1914 the Southern portion having been attached to Uganda on 29th May
1914 the West Nile District came into being as officially proclaimed by
the Governor of Uganda Sir Fredrick Jackson. And he dully sent a Police
Officer Mr. A. Evelyn Weatherhead became the first British D.C.
District Commissioner and was soon nicknamed Jerekede or Anjerekede a
corruption of the Arab saying Ajri Kadha this name came about because of
his hurried marching strides across the length and breadth of the new
British dominion and he was fond of supervising the road construction
projects where he forcefully placed the natives under an indentured
stipulation to contribute in person in the building of the roads linking
the whole district with a major works done by Bagungu from Bunyoro who
have lived in West Nile ever since:
• The Indentured Bagungu Banyoro Question in Westnile?
The Moru Quarters in Arua just below Amin Wadrifu Road Today heading
all the way down to Occiba is where the majority of Indentured Labourers
from Bunyoro Reside from the Colonial Days when the Runyakitara Kingdom
was Overrun and Coloniazed, they were used by Weatherhead to construct
most of the Roads we know today in West Nile District as was receantly
highlighted by Herbert Munyomo with this Pertinent Question: Do all West
Nilers know their roots?
Historical records indicate that
some of them were Bagungu. Provincial papers available at the Uganda
National Archives indicate that the Bagungu were, by the time of first
European contact with Bunyoro, a bigger fishing community occupying a
vast territory stretching from the east to west of Lake Albert in the
present day DR Congo.
The Bagungu also settled along the banks of River Nile in Gulu and the West Nile.
The 1914 Anglo-Belgian boundary agreement which shows West Nile became
part of Uganda on April 21 1914, split the Bagungu into two: The Bagungu
in Uganda and those in Congo. In fact, the Bagungu were torn into
three, if not four, as those in Uganda were further split into the
Bagungu in Bunyoro, those in West Nile and the ones in Gulu, now Nwoya
district. It happened that for some administrative reasons, somehow
related to the enforcement of the boundary agreement, the Bagungu
resident in West Nile and Gulu were barred from coming back to Bunyoro.
In short, four divisions of Bagungu were created as follows: Bagungu
Congo, Bagungu West Nile, Bagungu Gulu and Bagungu Bunyoro.
According to this boundary agreement, the south eastern part of the
Mahagi strip was (in exchange for the West Nile) transferred to the
Belgian Congo, which provided the town of Mahagi in Congo, access to
Lake Albert. In effect, the Bagungu who lived on the western side of
Lake Albert became the Bagungu Congo as Lake Albert came to be shared
between Congo and Uganda. These ‘lost Bagungu’ in the Congo, West Nile,
and Gulu have since been assimilated to Alur, Lugbara, Jonam, Acholi and
other tribes native to West Nile and the DR Congo.
Arguably, the
1914 Anglo-Belgian boundary agreement is thus one of the historical
injuries that the Bagungu will leave to remember. The treaty is one of
the factors responsible for their vulnerability, especially the minority
status and the associated suppression, dispossession, discrimination
and marginalisation, which have gone on to the present day.
Further to the issue of “lost Bagungu”, historical records also indicate
that by 1917, the Bagungu Question (as Arthur Evelyn Weatherhead, the
then West Nile commissioner termed it) had become a bone of contention
between colonial powers. In fact in 1919, Weather had described the
Bagungu Question as a source of the greatest trouble between West Nile
district and Mahagi. By March 1919, the issue of lost Bagungu was
triggering a series of diplomatic correspondences on the subject among
the British and Belgian governments and Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom.
To cite a few excerpts, in a letter (dated March 12, 1919) to the Daf
Raheem Provincial Commissioner, Northern Province, H.A Mackenzie, the
then District Commissioner Bunyoro writes: “… I have been asked by the
Mukama and Lukiko of Bunyoro to approach you with a view to permission
being granted for Bagungu … resident in West Nile districts to come back
and reside in Bunyoro …. [However] the return of the Bagungu may be
affected by Article 4 of the treaty with the Belgian government, as if
the Bagungu in the West Nile come across here, those from the Congo may
follow.…”
Reacting on Mackenzie’s letter, Commissioner
Weatherhead, writes on April 4, 1919. he tells off Mackenzie and the
Mukama that neither the Bagungu in the Congo nor those in West Nile were
about to return to Bunyoro. In his six point letter entitled: “Native
Affairs Junam, Panyamur: Bagungu”, Weatherhead thus writes inter alia:
“...I most emphatically protest against further claims by the Mukama…”
Mr. Ashton Werner (Bwana Wana) was the new D.C.’s Aide de Champ
(Assistant) Arua was established in June 1914 and The Indian Rupee
locally known as Robia was used as a Common currency through out East
Africa.
Weatherhead designed and commissioned in 1916 one of the
oldest Golf Courses in Africa at Weatherhead Parklane Golf Course
Anyafio Arua District .
The administration began tom build roads and houses using imported indentured Labour from Bunyoro:
Munduni Colonial Collaborator Opi Chiefs:
.
A certain Blacksmith named Tawua Son of Omba of Ogayi Clan who was
found blacksmithing his wares around Arua Hill was appointed as the
First Lugbara Chief or Government Collaborator Agent; he had a
Apprentice Business of making Arrows,hoes,and sickles.with his new found
appointment, his indigenous Enterprise came to an end and Indigenous
technology was dealt a severe blow lost for eternity.
Chief Tawua
was deputized and assisted by one Nzalaka and Fadl El Mullah Ali Akutra
popularly known in Aringa as Adu whence he was later Posted as a
paramount Chief amongst the Aringa .
Sultan Adu was Initially the
chief Interpreter, he had been a soldier in the Kings African Rifles
and knew Kiswahili well which was the preferred language of command
amongst the Colonial Administrators with natives.
Sultan Adu had
travelled widely and gained a lot of experience in administrative
matters. It seemed as if things might go on well. People who ran away
into hiding were called upon to come back to their homesteads. He was
replaced as translator by one Fadhl El Mullah Babwe of Erewa .
Even Notorious Slave Raiding collaborators like Sultan Ali Kenyi Dada
was brought into the Fold and had managed to maintain his hereditary
position as the Paramount Chief of a people he subjugated and his
enemies and surrounding tribes he sold into slavery was instated as a
paramount chief under the British administration.
The fear of
slavery amongst the indigenous had been dampened; it seems The Brits
had come to stay? Then Rembi showed up on their security radar like a
recurrent Political re-affirmation of the indigenous Will of the People
of West Nile.
• Yakanye Uprising 1919 Background Cyberspace Public Domain Information on Yakan Millenarian Religions:
One of the most successful millenarian religions in Uganda was the
Yakan cult, which arose in Sudan in the late nineteenth century. Leaders
from Kakwa society
(whose territory extends across the Uganda-Sudan
border) traveled to southern Sudan in search of protection against
epidemics, Arab slave caravans, and European military forces, all of
which were sweeping Kakwa and[ Lugbara sic ] society in the 1890s. They
returned home from the neighboring [Pojulu sic ]
territory with
spring water they called "the water of Yakan." [Which they distributed
amongst the Lugbara sic] To those who drank it, they promised
restored health, eternal life, and the return of the ancestors and dead
cattle. In Kakwa society, Yakan leaders promised protection from
bullets,
and many Yakan leaders predicted the arrival of wagonloads of rifles to drive out all Europeans.
When sleeping sickness ravaged Lugbara society in 1911, Lugbara leaders
sought out the Yakan prophets. One of them-- Rembi--traveled to Uganda
and dispensed the water of Yakan. He was subsequently deported to Sudan
and executed in 1917. With its new martyr [Rembi], the cult flourished.
When the British administration
declared the sect illegal, people
built shrines inside the walls of their homesteads, and believers used
Yakan water to provide what they believed was spiritual
protection
against British patrols. The ban on the Yakan religion was impossible to
enforce, and when it was lifted, Yakan believers felt their faith was
vindicated.
As the religion developed, people began to use trance
and speaking in tongues to strengthen and demonstrate their faith. In
some areas, Yakan leaders appointed
their followers to positions of
prestige, and, as their power increased, a gradual reorganization of
villages began to take place. Religious notables exercised
political
authority, and eventually they became so oppressive that their
followers revolted. Colonial troops came in to restore peace, and the
Yakan religion
declined in influence but did not disappear. Source: U.S. Library of Congress
True Origins of our Yakanye Cult:
To correct the above write up; Source: U.S. Library of Congress an
earlier well-documented records by J.H. Driberg, during 1918-1919 reads
in part as
follows:
It was somewhere in the 1890s that a
Pojulu named Logoro (Logworo) who bought the sacred water from
Magoro, and finally Rembi, a Kakwa, obtained it
from Logworo. These
two men [Logoro and Rembi] were responsible for spreading the cult
amongst the Lugbara of West Nile Province, who soon gave a practical
demonstration of the sacred water’s [ Revolutionary & Political
Efficacy sic ]. Just as (Muhammed Al-Amin) Emin Pasha retirement
with Stanley to Mombasa
via Bagamoyo , four companies were left at
Garrison Wadelayi in Moyo District under Fardemullah Bey a 6 foot 4
inches Lugbara Muslim and from this headquarters a patrol of eighty
men was sent towards Terego county, where they were engaged by the
Lugbara and completely annihilated by the hordes of
irate Teregians , the emblems of the cult being prominently displayed during battle.
An avenging strike force was also defeated losing one officer and sixty
men. It is not quite clear whether the Lugbara refer to a different
occasion or to an exaggeration of the event just noted for they claim
that they attacked a column of Emin’s troops near Mount Wati.
Conflicting reports vary of from 200-700 rifles, and that they killed
700 Muslim [Nubians] including non-combatants. At any rate to this
day the amulets worn by Lugbara women consist of melted down rifles
taken from Emin’s (Muhammed Al-Amin) troops.
After the Belgian
occupation of West Nile territory leased to them by the Anglo-Egyptian
Government took effect, the Lugbara projected an attack on the
Belgian “Tukutuku” post near Mount Wati consisting of 400 soldiers but
for some reason doubtless the vigilance of the Belgians the uprising
fell through. The Belgians, however, were fully aware of the
disaffection and realized that as far as the Lugbara were concerned
the source of the trouble lay amongst the militant Kakwa ethnic
Group further north.
They accordingly hired remnants of Emin
(Muhammed Al-Amin) Pasha’s troops and stationed them amongst the
Kakwa with the result that the uprising met with but indifferent
success and the cult appeared gradually to lapse.
Then the
Mahdists again made a concerted demonstration to the south. Four
companies retired before them but only two escaped, the others being
at Relli. These two companies established themselves on the
northwest shore of lake Albert where the Belgians abandoned them
withdrawing in-land into the Ituri Jungle.
Genesis of the Kings African Rifles :
At a later date, Major A.B.Thurston, on behalf of the Uganda
Government, visited these Nubian Troops and took them across the Lake
Albert to Masindi Port together with a crowd of porters, boys and
general hanger-ons i.e. family. The former (Muhammed Al-Amin ) Emin’s
troops eventually enlisted in the Uganda Armed Force Services, and
from this date events began to shape themselves for the setting of the
1st Uganda Mutiny in Busoga,which was put down by the arrival of a
contingent of the 5th Batalion Indian Regiment.
For whatever the
actual causes of the mutiny were, whatever justification the mutineers
might have had, it is quite clear now that what gave them the
confidence to take that disastrous step was the sacred water associated
with this cult which we have seen originated near Khartoum very many
years before.
The sacred water was taken to Masindi Port by some of
the hanger-ons who accompanied Major A.B.Thurston and very soon the
cult flourished with renewed vigor among the troops.
A certain
Corporal Lemin (variant Lemi or Alemi) Marjuk, living at Gulu in 1919,
being the Principal administrant of Yakanye . From Masindi, the cult
spread to Kampala and Entebbe where its existence was discovered.
Despite the arrest and imprisonment of the ringleaders, however, it had
taken a firm hold of the Nubian troops, the cult as usual promising
immunity and assistance against the Ruling authorities. It developed
most strongly in No. XIV company stationed in Busoga and when
disaffection culminated in the mutiny all the Nubians were members of
the Cult. Every day the shrines of Yakan were visited and promises were
made of rifles and ammunition and ultimate victory over the Europeans.
The uprising during 1919 involved the recurrence of the cult among the
Lugbara of Uganda and the neigbhouring tribes in the Congo and Southern
Sudan culminating in a local uprising that very year, a state of
tension which persisted for more than a year afterwards. Only the speedy
arrival of reinforcements and prompt punitive measures frustrated the
mobilization of the whole tribe and the cooperation of Logo and other
allied tribes across the frontier. It was this outbreak which serves
as the occasion for the re-affirmation of this nationalistic cult in
1918-1919
