Anti-Banyarwanda discrimination is Uganda’s national shame

Abanyarwanda of Uganda are denied their rights of citizenship of their homeland. They are harassed and treated as non-citizens because of their ethnicity. They must prove that they are citizens of Uganda, or else they “go back to where they came from.” I struggle to find words to do justice to this national shame in a country that is ruled by men and women that claim to be pan-Africanists.

Let us retire the myth. Most Banyarwanda of Uganda are as indigenous as Mukasa, Mukanga, Mundua, and Mugenyi. Arbitrary colonial borders cut through their homeland and allocated them to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Congo Free State. Let me state this differently. Uganda found Abanyarwanda in their territories. Uganda is the newcomer, not Abanyarwanda. Their main territories in colonial Uganda were Bufumbira, in the foothills of Muhabura, Mugahinga and Sabinyo, the majestic volcanic mountains in the southwest of Kigyezi, and in the plains and highlands of Kajara and Rwampara in the Kingdom of Ankole. The latter territory had been a major part of the former kingdom of Mpororo.

A wave of Banyarwanda immigrants from Rwanda legally entered Uganda as labourers, beginning in the 1920s. Another distinct wave of Banyarwanda fled colonial Rwanda and settled in Uganda during a severe famine in the 1940s. Then the anti-Batutsi pogroms of 1959, 1961, and 1964 forced the survivors to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, including Uganda.

It should be noted that when the British colonial government attempted to halt further entry of more Batutsi refugees into Ankole, a group of African Legislative Council Members, led by Apolo Milton Obote from Lango, put up a spirited fight that ultimately resulted in the free entry of our persecuted brothers and sisters. In one of the most remarkable parliamentary speeches, Obote indicated that he was prepared to consult with the elders of Lango to welcome the Batutsi into Lango.

I was old enough to understand the horror of genocide that was committed against Abatutsi from Rwanda in 1959 onwards. My parents welcomed and nursed several Batutsi families in our home. The image of a Mututsi woman whose breasts had been cut off by the genocidaires remains painfully vivid. It shaped my view of the world, in a manner that became solidified by time and experience. Many young Batutsi boys and girls that became part of our lives, excelled at school and university, and became outstanding professionals in Uganda. They were as Ugandan as the rest of us. While many dreamed of returning to their homeland, we took it for granted that they would always be welcome in their adopted country. Many more were born in Uganda and shared life’s paths with their Bakiga, Banyoro, Baganda, Bagisu, Babukusu peers. Their ancestral origin was irrelevant to us. They were part of us.

As young students, we were taught about Uganda’s tribes “as at February 1, 1926” and joyfully recited them without any hang-ups about who belonged and who did not. We got a kick out of some of the unfamiliar names. We had inhabited a very narrow world that had not heard of the Batuku, Kebu, Mening, Vonoma and several others with whom we would become acquainted years later. Among the very well-known indigenous tribes were Abanyarwanda. Not once did it occur to me that a time would come when my Banyarwanda brothers and sisters from Ankole, Buganda and elsewhere would have to prove that they were Ugandan.

I still believe that Abanyarwanda who lived in Uganda as refugees for more than ten years, and the refugees’ children who were born in Uganda, should automatically become citizens of Uganda if they choose to. No questions asked. The right to dual citizenship should apply to Abanyarwanda like it does to everybody else. How do you give citizenship and passports to Indians and Chinese, but deny fellow Africans that right and privilege? Under which moral guidance do you declare a fellow Ugandan to be a non-citizen?

The claim that Ugandan Banyarwanda “could be spies” on the payroll of the Republic of Rwanda is preposterous. How does sharing ethnicity with people of another country condemn you to loss of your rights of citizenship in your country? Why is it that other people from border communities have not been subjected to similar discrimination and suspicion of guilt for crimes uncommitted?

For example, there are between 70,000 and 100,000 Acholi natives in South Sudan. There are over 400,000 Iteso in Kenya. Pretty much every Ugandan tribe along our eastern border has a very strong presence in Kenya. Likewise, there are 8 million Alur in the Congo Free State compared to only 800,000 in Uganda. Millions of Abakiga are indigenous citizens of the eastern Congo Free State, and of northern Rwanda.

My wife and I were pleasantly surprised to discover a very large population Bakiga when we visited Kyerwa District in Tanzania in January 2018. There is an area called Rukiga in Rwabwere, Kyerwa District. Their language, homesteads, traditions, and modes of production are like those of their tribesmen in neighbouring countries. Two elderly immigrant gentlemen who had left their ancestral homes in Bubaare, Ndorwa, and Mparo, Rukiga, Kigyezi, respectively, told us that they were Tanzanian in their souls, and they had never felt as though they were foreigners in that country. Although they left Kigyezi in their early teenage, their Rukiga, though tinged with a slight Runyambo accent, would have quickly persuaded an immigration and citizenship officer in Kampala to process their application for a national ID and passport.

Why is it that the Acholi, Alur, Abakiga, the Iteso, and other border communities are not subjected to the humiliating extra demands of proof that they are indeed Ugandans? The elephant in the room is that this discrimination against Banyarwanda is really driven by a mostly anti-Batutsi prejudice. We get a clue from the fact that non-Bafumbira Banyarwanda who claim to be from Bufumbira receive courteous treatment by immigration officials. The Batutsi are the main target of this ethnic narrowmindedness that afflicts many people, including some who proudly claim to be pan-Africanists. It is a shameful blot on our country that invites all civilised people of goodwill to condemn it and demand justice for all, including hundreds of thousands of Abatutsi who have called Uganda home, either as a birthright or as the country of their formative years, the place where they found safety when their homeland was awash with human blood.

The demand for Constitutional amendments to protect Ugandan Banyarwanda may be justifiable in the current situation. But they are already protected by the Constitution. Those who have ignored the current Constitutional provisions are unlikely to honour new wording through legislation. What we need is mass education for the entire country to help people abandon this ethnic narrowmindedness. It deprives the country of the cross pollination that is one of the benefits of inviting “foreigners” in. If I was the leader of Uganda, I would offer an open invitation to citizenship to President Paul Kagame and all former Rwandan refugees in Uganda, cognizant of prohibitions that apply to all Ugandans with dual nationalities.

Abanyarwanda, regardless of how they came to Uganda, are our brothers and sisters. History bound us together. Theirs is our story.