COLONIALISM, A GLOBAL ECONOMY AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES


Some impacts of colonialism 1 Distrust, division and civil strife Britain used a ‘divide and rule’ technique to control Uganda’s population. The British used the people of Buganda – one of the strongest territories in the region – to help achieve this goal. The Buganda army was used to assist in conquering other parts of Uganda. Some Buganda ‘notables’ were appointed to assist Britain in the day-to-day running of the colony. Some such ‘notables’ were awarded for their assistance by being given tracts of privately owned land.


Britain’s ‘divide and rule’ technique drove a wedge between the people of Uganda. The Buganda were encouraged to think of themselves as ‘fi rst among equals’ within the colony. Other peoples deeply resented this, as they resented the collaboration of some Buganda with the British. When Uganda became independent from Britain in 1962 its people were so divided that it was described as ‘a country but not a nation’.


The results of these divisions were disastrous. Civil strife began to break out within four years of independence. Then, in 1971, an army colonel named Idi Amin made himself military dictator of the country, beginning eight years of terror. Amin was overthrown in 1979, but further civil hostilities followed, lasting into the 1990s. All this had the following negative impacts on Uganda and its development.


● Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands were driven from their homes.


● Crops, houses and schools were burned and many teachers and community leaders were murdered.


● An armed group calling itself the Lord’s Resistance Army kidnapped and traumatised children and forced them to become child soldiers.


● Huge quantities of money and human energy that should have gone into much-needed development projects were instead used to maintain armies and buy weapons.


Jack’s story – the horrors of a


child soldier in Uganda I was taken in 1995 when I was ten. Three of us were taken. We were taken to Sudan for training, after two or three months I was given a gun. They left us without food and then we were sent into the Kitgum district where we had to take food from the villagers. I was afraid to try to escape in case they caught me and killed me. I saw many children killed. They are killed with a machete to the head. It happened all the time. They made children kill other children. I had to kill other children or they would have killed me. From Ian Leggett, Uganda: An Oxfam Country Profi le


A child soldier in Uganda in 1985. How did civil strife impact negatively on the social and economic development of Uganda?


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