Uganda's Bagabu's long fight for ancestral land, recognition
Members of the Bagabu community in Uganda performing a traditional dance in Kasenyi, Kasese District. The latest census by the Izinga lya Bagabu estimated the population of the community at close to 100,000 people. PHOTO | COURTESY | CCFU
Majority people of Bagabu have missed out on education because there are no schools in their community.
The Bagabu are unhappy with the Uganda Wildlife Authority for introducing crocodiles in Lake George.
The community is led by a committee of six people.
Uganda’s indigenous community the Bagabu has never recovered from the trauma of being evicted from their ancestral land, Bunyampaka Chiefdom, by the British colonial government where it established Queen Elizabeth National Park.
In the 17th century, majority of the Bagabu lived in Bunyampaka Chiefdom along the shores of Lake George, Kazinga Channel and Lake Edward in Western Uganda.
Fishing was banned on Lake George in the 1940s and in 1952, the Kazinga Game Reserve gave way to Queen Elizabeth National Park dealing a big blow to the Bagabu whose source of livelihood was fishing, hunting and grazing cattle.
“This caused loss of life and livestock, denial of access to natural resources and abuse of human rights,” according to a new publication titled The Oral History, Cultures and Traditional Practices of the Bagabu in Bunyampaka.
“The colonialists forced us off our land on the island of Kakuranga to this place in Kasenyi which is part of the national park. Our forefathers did not have an opportunity to negotiate for our resettlement. What we would have wanted was to be given the equal amount of land that we owned on the island in areas where we resettled,” chairman of the Izinga lya Kakuranga in Kasenyi Parish, Aziz Kanyabindi told The EastAfrican.
“The land here is smaller than what we owned on the island. So, we are demanding for more land,” said Joe Ddamulira, a fisherman on the shores of Lake George.
It is estimated that there are 5,000 people of different ethnicities in Kasenyi with the population of the Bagabu alone standing at 2,000.
Bagabu demands recognition
The community’s spokesperson Godfrey Mbonyi Bagonza said at the time of their forced resettlement, the Bagabu suffered from elephantiasis and sleeping sickness, which the colonialists used as an excuse for taking them for treatment in a plot to move them from their land.
They are demanding to be recognised by the Uganda government, be allowed to access their cultural sites in the Queen Elizabeth National Park and use of Rugabo language in schools where their children are the majority to enable preservation as well as dissemination of Bagabu cultural heritage.
Another demand includes respecting their cultural practices especially in fishing and traditional medicine.
Many have missed out on education because there are no schools in their community and besides, they are scattered making them poor and marginalised.
“Conserving our culture is difficult because teachers come from outside our community. The Bakonzo are the dominant ethnic group in our district so they recruit their children, who teach here but they can't teach our language,” Ddamulira laments.
“When we are finally recognised in Uganda’s constitution as indigenous ethnic group, then our language will be taught in schools. During registration for national identity cards, most of us have to be identified or registered as either Batooro or Banyankole because the Bagabu are not recognised in the constitution.''
The group, which is not recognised in the country’s 1995 Constitution, sought intervention of Ugandan parliament through a bill on July 5, 2022.
The bill moved by MP Jacob Karubanga, seeks a constitution review commission to amend the country’s Third Schedule. The schedule recognises 56 ethnicities as at February 1, 1926.
“The bill will be re-tabled in parliament to cater for minorities that have not been recognised in the constitution. Karubanga has moved to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) and urged the agency to include him in a meeting, bringing together representatives from the Bagabu, Bakingwe, Baziba, Maragoli, Mosopisyek, Bahaya and Saboat communities,” the group’s coordinator Emmanuel Kyalimpa told The EastAfrican.
“I hope they meet soon. They want this bill passed before the national census,” Kyalimpa said.
The Bagabu are also unhappy with the Uganda Wildlife Authority for introducing crocodiles in Lake George.
“The crocodiles have since killed about 41 people and left many others with injuries,” another member of the community Mbabunoba Ali Sande said.
The group says wild animals kill their livestock and cannot be compensated because according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority, they live in a national park which is illegal.
Salt mining is one of the major activities at the Bunyampaka Salt Pan in Kasenyi. The salt sold in markets outside the community's markets, is a major income generating activity besides fishing. In the past, salt was bartered for clothes and food from neighbouring communities. It was also used a marriage gift.
The community is led by a committee of six people. This committee is responsible for mobilising the Bagabu to discuss their concerns during Izinga lya Bagabu, which is their local parliament. It is open to all the members of the community who are currently spread in Kasese, Kitwegenda, Rubirizi, Bunyagabu, Kabarole, Kyegegwa, Kyenjojo, Masindi, Hoima, Kalangala and Wakiso districts.
The Bagabu population was 250, 000 in the 1920s but reduced to almost 1,000 in the early 1960s.
The latest census by the Izinga lya Bagabu estimated the population of the community at close to 100,000 people.
