Rural Markets and Trade in East Africa. A Study of the Functions and Development of Exchange Institutions in Ankole, Uganda.

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Bauer, West African Trade, p. 12, makes the point that this imperfect specialization and the prominence of secondary activities " . • . greatly diminish the value and relevance of the conventional occupational classifications of statistical compilations. " 2

For example, full-time traders who attend Ishaka Market typically also attend Kagango, which is 18 miles away and meets on the following day. Twenty-one traders interviewed at Kagango (14 per cent of total) reported they attend Bwizibwera Market in Kashari County, which is about 35 miles away and meets on the second day after Kagango.

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80 examine the role of food trade in a variety of West African market systems.

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However,

only brief inspection of markets in several areas of Ankole was required in order to gain a different perspective. Although there is some evidence of internal specialization in particular foodstuffs,

other areas of the District during the main rainy season which destroys crops still in the ground.

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Food shortages in Ankole (these are popularly referred to as "famine" periods) could certainly be alleviated or even eliminated through improvements in collection and

only minor amounts figure in marketplace transactions. One major reason for this is that

storage facilities, in the organization of internal transport, and by providing farmers with

the overwhelming majority of farmers in Ankole, and throughout Uganda generally, prefer

basic, reliable information on market conditions. Apparently, many farmers sell food-

to produce the bulk of their subsistence needs themselves. This emphasis on farm self-

crops such as groundnuts, millet, peas, and even bananas to licensed or unlicensed buy-

sufficiency is true not only of the smallest and poorest farmers, but is also characteristic 2 of the more progressive cash crop producers. As a consequence, demand for farm pro-

ers (extra-marketplace) at low harvest season prices. If these producers run short of

duce among rural producers themselves is extremely narrow. Moreover, the non-

alternative than to repurchase foodstuffs at inflated prices. The local Banyankole

agricultural population of Ankole is only a tiny fraction of the whole. Most African com-

Kweterana Cooperative Union, which buys specified produce from its members and stores

mercial production in the District is, therefore, oriented toward external markets.

it at a central facility near Mbarara, does provide an alternative to individual private buy-

Minor quantities of foodstuffs not needed for local subsistence are sent to the urban or

ers in the first instance. However, for some time there has been an air of uncertainty

peri-urban markets in the Kampala metropolitan area. However, the most valuable cash

over future collection, distribution, and prices because of the proposed imminent control 2 of foodcrop marketing by the Uganda Government.

crop produced locally is sold almost entirely on the export market.

food for their own household requirements later on in the year, they may have no other

Paradoxically, despite the ubiquity of the staple banana, and double-cropping of some subsidiary food crops, there is a tendency towards seasonal shortages of certain foodstuffs.

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These shortages are only partially offset by the fact that the supply of

Principal foodstuffs in Ankole markets Two points are of fundamental importance to an understanding of local markets and

bananas is usually greater during the early dry season, when other crops are immature.

their role in the sale of agricultural produce.

Areas with highest incidence of shortage include Nyabushozi, southern Isingiro, and south-

cial value in Ankole--coffee (Arabica and Robusta) and bananas (the dominant food in prac-

ern Kajara Counties. In addition, there is also fairly regular annual hailstorm damage in

tically all except the most exclusively pastoral areas)--do not enter markets to a significant

First, the two crops of greatest commer-

degree. Coffee completely by-passes the marketplace, and the great bulk of the cooking 1

For example, farmers in West Africa who produce robusta coffee and cocoa frequently purchase a significant portion of their food requirements. In a 1951-52 survey Yoruba cocoa farmers were buying as much as 68 per cent of their food consumption. See R. Galetti, K. 0. S. Baldwin, and I. 0. Dina, Nigerian Cocoa Farmers (London: Published for the Cocoa Marketing Board by Oxford University Press, 1955), p. 489; cited in J. de Wilde, Experiences with Agricultural Development in Tropical Africa, Vol. I: The Synthesis (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967), p. 209.

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This pattern is still widespread throughout tropical Africa. Among the more important factors working in favor of continued self-sufficiency of the family farm are fear of food shortages, pride, remoteness from markets, and uncertain market prices. In addition, it has been suggested that because in much of Africa the man retains the income from crops produced mainly for sale (e.g., coffee), this causes the woman, whose responsibility it is to feed the family, ''to insist all the more tenaciously on producing all the family's food needs." See de Wilde, Experiences with Agricultural Development . • . , p. 22. 3

There is a long record of food shortage problems which have periodically plagued the local administration over the years. See, e. g., Ankole Annual Report for the Year Ending 31st March 1915, 5. Agriculture (1), Entebbe Secretariat Archives.

and beer bananas is sold either to private buyers with motor transport or to the general public at unofficial roadside locations.

Bananas present special problems of bulkiness,

weight, and limited storage life. These difficulties, combined with the fact that practically every rural householder maintains his own banana grove, militate against marketplace sales of this crop in areas distant from non-agricultural consumer demand.

Fur-

thermore, the greater portion of all food crops which is produced but not consumed by the farmer and his dependents is 'l.pparently sold through extra-marketplace channels. 1 Hailstones occur over an area about 20 miles wide which trends NNE-SSW. They affect parts of Toro District; Buhweju, western Mitoma, northwest Igara, and northern Kajara Counties in Ankole; and Kigezi District. (Personal communication, District Agricultural Officer, Mbarara, March 4, 1968.) 2 A bill to set up a Minor Food Crops Marketing Authority was published in December, 1967. Cooperatives are to be invited to participate in the scheme, and the Government plans to utilize existing cooperative-owned facilities. One of the provisions of the bill is for the Authority "to store and distribute food to relieve shortages occurring in any area of Uganda." See Uganda Argus, December 21, 1967.

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The range of food crops found in the various District markets are shown in Table 11. They are ranked according to the percentage of consumers who reported making purchases of them in the 15 survey markets.

The percentages are quite low, a pattern which reem-

phasizes the point about farm sell-sufficiency in Ankole.

TABLE 11 PRINCIPAL FOOD CROPS SOLD IN 15 ANKOLE MARKETS \ \ \

Commodity

Runyankore Name or Description

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duce which eventually reaches the markets.

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Very Minor Items Cabbage Sugar cane (ekikoijo) "Garden eggs" (entong:a) Pumpkin (ekyozi) Passion fruit (orutunda)

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consumers in a marketplace. However, only about 1 per cent of the produce sellers who 1 were interviewed reported that they had purchased their supplies from a cooperative, Analysis of interview data on the origins and sources of produce supply indicates that 70 per cent of all sellers of food crops (excluding plantains) were marketing items grown on their own farms. Another 19 per cent reported they had obtained their goods from other villagers, or from "intermediate" traders.

For example, farmers may, in

order to save time and labor, choose to sell some or all of their marketable supply to forestallers (who would pay the farmer slightly lower than the market price) before they arrive at the market, other middlemen include licensed produce buyers who will have collected bulk supplies from various "cheaper" markets, or from individual farmers during a series of excursions to numerous villages in the harvest seasons.

These profes-

sional traders commonly take a lorry load of produce such as maize, beans, or millet to a cattle market where they resell in small units to persons seeking to retail produce inside the market enclosure.

Regional specialization Bananas are the only domestic staple for which there is a fairly consistent demand 1 Although they are not a common item in market trade, the

beyond Ankole's borders.

exceptions to the general distributional pattern are significant.

between the market site and the demand area. These markets are distributed along the three main roads leading from Mbarara. These run 1) west and then north to Fort Portal in Toro District, 2) south through Isingiro, and 3) southwest through Rwampara and Kajara to Kigezi District.

roadside markets, with consumers in Mbarara, southern Toro, and major towns such as Masaka and Kampala. A recent study on the supply of~ into Greater Kampala found that Ankole bananas accounted for 51 per cent of all supplies received from areas outside

Less than 4 per cent of the produce sellers interviewed had initially obtained their

bought their produce from shopkeepers in Mbarara, Bushenyi, or one of numerous smaller trading centers in Ankole. Only about 2 per cent of the traders were selling produce which they had procured from outside the District.

local markets is produced and sold directly by the peasant cultivator himself.

Neverthe-

less, there is evidence, as reported by 30 per cent of the retail traders, that an appreciable portion also passes through the hands of one or more middlemen before reaching the 2 ultimate consumer. In general terms the supply of produce is a quasi-monopoly of farmers living The average seller of food crops

(excluding bananas) traveled 6. 5 miles to market, while 88 per cent of all sellers came from within a radius of ten miles or less.

However, although the number of intermedi-

aries was not ascertained in each applicable case, the average radius of the source area for food crops is probably less than ten miles. 1 cooperative societies evidently have little direct interest in or connection with marketplace trade. For this reason it may be expected that the proposed legislation concerning the marketing of food crops will have little impact on the existing system of supply to the markets, unless the Government attempts to require that all "surplus" crops be sold exclusively to the Marketing Authority. 2

2

Significant amounts of bananas were sold in four of 15 survey markets: namely, Mbarara, Rugando (located eight miles southwest of Mbarara), and Ryeru and Rugazi in Bunyaruguru. Eighty per cent of the banana sellers at these locations were marketing fruit harvested from their own orutokye. The others had initially bought their bananas in "cheaper" markets, or directly from other farmers.

It is apparent from the survey that the greater quantity of food crops which enter

within a reasonable walking distance of a market.

They carry a disproportionate share of Ankole's internal and transit

motor traffic. They link the small scale banana growers through strategically located

Buganda.

goods from another market, while about the same proportion reported they had first

rt was not feasible to weigh the produce entering the markets. Thus it is not possible to assign definite quantitative estimates when distinguishing the different modes of supply.

Bananas are regularly

sold in about ten markets, and there is always a spatial and/or temporal proximity

Overall, the mean journey to mar-

ket by banana sellers was only 2. 5 miles, while 95 per cent of all sellers lived within five miles or less from the markets.

Thus for reasons already indicated the average radius of

a market's source area for this staple is only about half as great as that for other types of food crops. 1 Despite the bulkiness and perishability of plantains, they continue to be in heavy demand among urban consumers in southern Uganda. "The traditional preference for bananas seems exceptionally persistent among the Baganda and related peoples of southern Uganda and in Bukoba District in Tanganyika, A Mugisu student from near Mt. Elgon in southeastern Uganda gives eloquent expression to this preference: 'Bananas are predominantly used all over the district and~ [steamed bananas] stands unopposed. Even if there are strict changes in diet which might make Uganda turn to another type of food, I am sure no Mugishu will compromise on this point however highly or lowly she or he may be, we will always be proud of bananas and retain them as our chief food. I know that this might sound strange to some people . . . but nevertheless matoke is in our blood. '" Bruce F. Johnston, "Competition among Staple Foods in Africa: With Special Reference to Consumption Trends of Rice and Wheat," Stanford Food Research Institute, n.d., p. 32. (Typescript.) 2

The survey period extended from March through August, 1967. The actual figure for Ankole sources was 259 tons or, based on 40 lbs. average weight per bunch, approximately 12,950 bunches. See T. T. Poleman and J. J. Oloya, "An Urban Food Consumption Survey in the Greater Kampala Area: Some Preliminary Results" (unpublished paper, Makerere University College, Department of Rural Economy, R. D. R. 54, n.d. ), p. 5 and Table 4.

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With a few exceptions, the principal subsidiary food crops sold i!l local markets (beans, peas, groundnuts, sweet potatoes, cassava, millet, sorghum, and maize) are not bought for resale in other internal or external markets. Supplies of produce entering the markets are rarely purchased there in bulk form.

Larger quantities are more often

broken into smaller units and sold to a part-time market retailer who anticipates a small profit through resale. If the second buyer thinks he can salvage a few cents profit the produce may again change hands. In general, at any given season the kinds and quantity of secondary food crops mentioned above tend to vary little from one market to another. A major exception are the cattle markets of Nyabushozi.

For instance, at Nyakasharara Market (Fig. 15) small

quantities of dried cassava chunks, dried peas, maize flour (milled at Lyantonde in Masaka District and sold in large white sleeve-like sacks @ Shs. 5), and maize meal (5 lb. packages @ shs. 2) were the only kinds of produce available in take-away form. maize-in-sheaf and steamed bananas were on hand for quick meals.

Boiled

The paucity of farm

produce at Nyakasharara simply mirrors the food economy and dietary habits of the Hima, who predominate in Nyabushozi.

Maize flour and meal are occasionally bought by the

Hima and others who do not grow sufficient food for themselves. Dry maize kernel in 200 pound sacks is brought by licensed produce dealers to markets such as Rubaare,

Fig. 24. --Produce on sale in a monthly cattle market in western Ankole. left to right; onions, dried peas, pineapple, and groundnuts.

From

where it is bought by the Hororo (the Hima of Kajara and Kigezi), and to Nakivale in Isingiro, where the principal consumers are the pastoral Tutsi refugees from Rwanda. Although maize is not a prestigious food in this part of East Africa, it does have a relatively high nutritive value and, more important, it has a longer storage capacity than many other crops. During harvest seasons the supply of different crops reaching the markets tends to increase. The principle of supply and demand operates to raise or lower the real money price paid in or out of markets for relatively fixed quantities of bananas and perennial root crops such as sweet potatoes. Prices for subsidiary annual crops including sorghum (used primarily in beer-making), finger millet, and legumes characteristically remain fixed despite fluctuations in supply and demand.

But market conditions are reflected in

sales because the quantity actually sold for a fixed price is increased or decreased proportionately.

The customary measures for grains and legumes are small woven baskets mea-

suring approximately seven inches in height and diameter. When these are filled.the contents almost invariably sell for Sh. 1 (Figs. 24-25). When supplies are restricted the seller may use a slightly smaller basket, while at harvest time the "standard" basket 1 will be heaped to overflowing. 1 n is argued elsewhere that the prevalence of these trade practices in African markets (i.e., varying the size of the container or giving the buyer an extra portion) is related

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Fig. 25, --Finger millet (oburo), retails in a market for Sh. 1.

The customary small-basket measure normally

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Produce marketing in Bunyaruguru County ,-----~----~·~------------------------,

More than two-thirds of the banana sellers included in the Ankole survey were

FOOD TRADE BETWEEN BUNY ARUGURU, ANKOLE, RIFT VALLEY MARKETS 30'00'E

interviewed in Bunyaruguru. Here, where localized produce marketing achieves its maxi-

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mum intensity, contrasting resource endowments as well as cultural and occupational dis-

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tinctions have generated a specialized interregional trade of both historical and contempo1 rary importance. During the nineteenth century this trade consisted in the movement of

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food crops from the agricultural areas of the plateau into the subhumid Rift in exchange for salt from Katwe and Kashenyi and, to a lesser extent, fish from the small villages

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along the shores of Lakes Edward and C*lorge and the Kazinga Channel. Salt, in particu-

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lar, was transported back to the plateau from Katwe via Bunyaruguru, where it was dis-

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tributed over an area of many thousands of square miles within and beyond Ankole. Today, of course, mechanized transport has superseded long-distance human por0'

terage, and the wholesale distribution of salt from the source of supply at Katwe has become a virtual monopoly of four agents--three Asians and an African. However, the Rift Valley, incorporating Queen Elizabeth National Park and extending north of the railhead at Kasese, remains a food-deficient zone throughout the year. The present salt winners at Lake Katwe, the fishing villages at Katwe, Kishenyi, Kazinga, Katunguru, and I

Kashenyi, and the relatively large labor force at Kilembe Mine (approximately 5, 000

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miners), provide a regular outlet for Ankole bananas, sweet potatoes, grain, and native

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beer. The expression "Ankole feeds Toro" is heard frequently and does not seriously

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exaggerate the position for the Rift Valley section of Toro. In this respect, Bunyaruguru

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and, to a lesser extent, Igara supply the bulk of food exported to the area (Fig. 26).

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Bunyaruguru County has attracted a population of heterogeneous tribal background. The "indigenous" inhabitants, or Nyaruguru, trace historical ties with the former Kingdom

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of Buganda around Lake Victoria, while in recent years there has been a continuing influx

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of settlers from other areas of Ankole, Uganda (Kigezi District in particular), Rwanda,

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and the Congo. Each group is locally distinguished according to differences in language or dialect, degree of "industriousness, " and crop specialization. Today the majority of the population identifies at least nominally with Catholicism.

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to two factors. First, for many items the quantity sold is so large relative to the lowest common monetary unit that price changes induced by economic conditions, or bargaining, often can be realized only by changing the amount offered. Second, traders find it easier to mask price changes if they make appropriate adjustments through quantity. See Miracle, "African Markets and Trade in the Copperbelt, " p. 707.

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Actually, the creation and supply of consumer demand in Ankole, and the

sparking of African commercial instincts was in large measure due to the pioneering activities of a small but extremely significant class of immigrant traders.

Not only locally,

but throughout Uganda and most of East Africa, these usually small-scale entrepreneurs, the great majority of whom were Indian, performed a fundamental service in acting as agents for the spatial diffusion of an exchange economy.

Their contribution derived from

the fact that as willing purchasers of native products they created and continuously widened those markets upon which development was fundamentally dependent. As sellers of trade goods they both satisfied existing needs and created new incentives fo3 further production. Their transactions injected a stream of cash into the economy. Non-African traders arrived in Ankole almost simultaneously with the British civil administration, and evidently even preceded the advent of European missionary representatives of the CMS and White Fathers. 1

By the end of 1900 there were already three

Ibid.

2

A few chiefs were instrumental in stimulating interregional trade, yet it is not known how large or regular this was. The Enganzi, Nuwa Mbaguta, while acting as Chief of Bunyaruguru "started small, native trade with all the surrounding districts, and even With Buddu [in Bugandal." See Collector, Ankole to Dep. Commissioner, Entebbe, October 23, 1907, ESA, Minute Paper No. 1326/07. 3

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Ehrlich, "The Uganda Economy, 1903-45," p. 406.

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resident traders in Mbarara, while a fourth, "a Swahili trader named Sherifu trading for

By 1911, according to the first Protectorate Census, Mbarara's population had swelled to

to build a shop and trade.

Uahamed bin Rashco Baluch of Zanzibar, " was seeking approval to settle permanently and 1 Less than a year later, the commercial community at Mbarara

2, 246. Most of Ankole's 23 Europeans and 50 Asians were also residents of the town, which at this time was reported to contain six "permanent houses. 111 By contrast, when

had almost doubled in size and comprised one European, one Persian, one Arab, one Swahili, and "3 Italian firms. 112

only 3, 844.

The alien traders who gravitated to Mbarara at the turn of the century established the first effective spatial connection between Ankole and the international exchange economy. Especially symbolic of this development was the arrival of "an agent from a trader 3 Visram, an immigrant from

the last census of the colonial period was taken in 1959, the population of Mbarara was 2 Even though important questions concerning the collection of the 1911 statistics are unanswered (such as the location of census boundaries and the "permanence" of 3 the population counted), comparison of the 1911 and 1959 data suggest that Mbarara grew faster during its first twelve years than in any subsequent period during the colonial era. Within ten years of the arrival of the first non-African traders in Mbarara, the

named Allidina Visram of J?tmpala" at Mbarara in 1901.

India who has been referred to as "perhaps the greatest single figure in the economic history of East Africa, 114 organized a far-ranging trade empire based on Zanzibar. By 1901, he ''was supplying almost every small trader in Uganda with goods and repaid by monthly installments. 115 Three years later his inland commercial network included agents in over

resident community of merchants not only gained in members but underwent a significant compositional change. Thus in 1911 there were 14 dukas located in the bazaar at Mbarara, 4 operated respectively by a Greek, a Goan, and 12 Indians. This dominance of Indian traders was consonant with the rapid gains in size and influence which they as an ethnic group

thirty posts spread throughout German East Africa, the East Africa Protectorate and 6 Uganda, and extended into the extreme south of the present Sudan. In addition to selling

had achieved throughout Uganda by the time of the 1911 Census.

the customary varieties of cloth and basic provisions, and buying all types of local pro-

dispersed in all four provinces of the Protectorate, 489 of whom were identified as "mer5 chants and traders, "while another 406 were store assistants, carpenters, or tailors.

duce, these merchants also functioned, at no little personal risk, as suppliers of credit to 7 the up-country European, Asian, and (eventually) African communities. Indeed, as Ehr-

This first formal count

of the Asian population showed that there were 1, 904 Indians (over 80 per cent were male)

The Ankole Annual Report for 1910-1911 indicates that the bulk of the District's

lich has emphasized, if a detailed record of Allidina Visram 's commercial undertakings

commerce consisted of traffic in cattle hides, goat and sheep skins, ghee, and beeswax,

could be assembled, it ''would trace an effective map of the moving traders' frontier in East Africa. 118

which local Mbarara traders would ''barter for with americani cloth and money."

During the first decade of the twentieth century the prime administrative, commer-

6

In addi-

tion, the Report takes special note of the "petty traders who trade to the west [and] barter for skins and hides with cloth, beads and trade wire. 117 This suggests that non-African

cial, and religious functions associated with Mbarara continued to expand in response to

entrepreneurs had already become a familiar element of the economic scene in the distant

the enlargement of the town's effective hinterland and to the rapid increase in its population.

hinterland of Mbarara, although there is still no indication that they had established

1 collector, Ankole to H. M. Spec. Commissioner, Uganda, December 10, 1900, ESA, A/15. 2

Ankole District Report for November, 1901, "Trade."

3 Ankole District Report for July, 1901. 4

Ehrlich, "The Economy of Buganda, 1893-1903, "p. 21.

5

1 uganda Protectorate, Census Returns, 1911, pp. 2, 4, and 9. 2 Republic of Uganda, 1967 Statistical Abstract (Entebbe: Government Printer, 1968), p. 6. 3 There is an additional discrepancy within the 1911 Census Returns. On p. 2 the population of Mbarara is given as 2, 246, while on p. 44 (Table 35) the African population of "Mbarara Township," according to tribal breakdown, is listed as 2, 495. 4

Ibid., p. 22.

7 Today the Asian traders continue to supply credit to vast numbers of people who have little chance of obtaining such service from a bank. In most areas the amount of money in circulation is a function of the agricultural calendar. 8 Ehrlich, "The Uganda Economy, 1903-45," p. 408; and Ehrlich, "The Economy of Buganda, 1893-1903."

Ankole Annual Report, 1910-1911, "Trade," ESA, Secretariat Minute Paper No.

872 A. 5

6 7

Uganda Protectorate, Census Returns, 1911, p. 9. See "Trade" section. Salt remained an important article in local circulation.

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186 permanent bases there.

187

Perhaps the clearest evidence of the "moving traders' frontier"

in Ankole is provided by statistics on the employment of paid native laborers and porters (Table 31).

Nearly one-half of the total labor force in this account comprised Nyankore

porters in the service of traders who were the local Ankole agents for Asian and European firms.

The large number of porters thus engaged suggests a marked increase in the vol-

ume of trade conducted in the interior of the District.

However, there is little informa-

is at complete liberty to trade anywhere in the Protectorate, and all Swahili traders or others who are not natives of the country are to be provided with a trading licence, otherwise they, are not allowed to trade. 111 Furthermore, traders holding this licence were permitted to deal in any products except alcoholic liquor, firearms, ammunition, explosives, 2 cow-elephant ivory, and male elephant tusks weighing under 11 pounds. The Regulations also embodied an implicit threat that licences might be revoked if violations occurred.

tion concerning the specific sites (if any) and frequency of this trade.

The Protectorate Government thus began to develop a theory.

By establishing an

embargo on certain articles, as well as tacit sanctions against "misconduct," the proTABLE 31 APPROXIMATE ACCOUNT OF LOCAL LABOR EMPLOYED BY GOVERNMENT AND TRADERS IN ANKOLE DISTRICT DURING THE YEAR ENDING 31 MARCH 1911 Traders For service in Congo (majority by Messrs. Hansing & Co.)

No. Porters

" " "

2,000

Allidina Visram

2,125

Mohan Lal Kara

983

Valjee Bhanjee

Sundry traders Totals

conditions and Government objectives. Accordingly, the Regulations of 1900 were repealed and replacei'l by the Traders' Regulations (1902), which distinguished four categories of

For Internal Transport

1,900

traders and licence fees based on the size and level of the administrative unit in which 5 trade was to be carried on. Subsequently, the Uganda Trade Ordinance (1904) discontin-

For Kivu Mission

3,200

For Anglo-German-Belgian Boundary Commission

100

ued the issue of traders licences altogether, except for certain "declared" provinces or districts. For the next quarter-century there is little suggestion that the Government was

400

averse to the idea espoused by Sir Harry Johnston in 1902 that "commerce ought to be free 6 and unrestricted in the Uganda Protectorate. " Yet by 1930, attitudes paralleling those

1,340

that worked against the small trader in 1900 had reappeared. A continuing series of regu7,647

7,448

Source: Ankole Annual Report, 1910-1911, p. 19, "Native Labour and Porterage."

Despite the fact that traders provided Government with essential revenues and were vitally important to the spread of a money economy, early administrators in Uganda were inclined to restrict their numbers through controlled licensing.

The first of such

measures came in 1900 with the enactment of the Traders' Regulations, which defined a ''trader" as anyone (excluding planters or farmers who dispose of their own produce) who sells imported goods or who buys local produce for resale or export.

1

In reply to his

enquiry regarding the application of the Regulations in Ankole, the Collector in Ankole was informed that "any person who takes out a trading licence costing .(10 [150 rupees) a year 1

the "small petty fogging" traders who would be attempting to undersell the ''bona fide" 4 trader. However, this stringent legislation quickly proved to be inappropriate to local

1,900

For P.W.D. 600

Local traders Messrs. Max Klein

No. Porters

Government

ducers and "approved" traders would be protected from wicked, unprincipled entrepre3 neurs. On the other hand, the extremely high cost of the licence would tend to eliminate

uganda Protectorate, Orders of the Secretary of state, Queen's Regulations, and Rules under the Africa Order in Council, 1889, 1895-1900, p. 117.

latory legislation was enacted which, although it was supposed to protect them, in effect 1 commissioner's Office, Entebbe to Collector, Ankole, January 3, 1901, ESA, A/15, Vol. I. 2

Uganda Protectorate, Orders of the Secretary of state • . . , p. 117.

3 Perhaps administrators believed that "control by licence would lead to control of traders' morals." M. Yoshida and D. G. R. Belshaw, "The Introduction of the Trade Licensing System for Primary Products in East Africa, 1900-1939" (East African Institute of Social Research Conference Papers, Section D, January, 1965), p. 2. Cf. Guy Hunter, The Best of Both Worlds? A Challenge on Development Policies in Africa '(London: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 21.

4

. ESA, A/7 M1sc., February 13, 1901. Cited in E. Ehrlich, "The Economy of Buganda ••• , "p. 22. 5 uganda Protectorate, King's Regulations under Article 99 of the Africa Order in Council, 1899, Reg. No. 3 of 1902. 6 sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, I (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1902), 296.

189

188 1

inhibited the advancement of Africans in trade and clearly retarded economic development

time) the departure of the troops in 1917 brought about a complete eclipse of this artifi-

in Uganda throughout the remainder of the colonial period.

cial market for native produce. The Nyankore were left without a viable means of earning 2 cash income within their own District. In this regard, however, it should be emphasized that even during the War, there was hardly sufficient cash in circulation to generate a

The Ankole Economy During World War I Between 1914 and 1918, new kinds of trade and other economic opportunities arose

noticeable change in standards of living.

The War itself, coupled with rises in freight

costs and the fact that the local Indian traders were able to make war profits, led to conwhich assisted in bringing Ankole into closer relationship, if only peripherally and accidentally, with the world economic system. During this period the District served a strategic role as a front line zone in the Anglo-Belgian effort against the Germans.

The Kagera

River, at once the southern frontier of Ankole and Uganda, now assumed great significance as a boundary demarcating the extreme northern limit of German East Africa. In prepara-

siderable increases in the prices of imported goods. A local trade depression followed. Although most traders held fairly large stocks of African trade goods, administrative opinion considered it fortunate that ''the natives are not in any way dependent on imported goods and purchases made by them are the nature of luxuries--the only possible exception being cloths but these they can replace with barkcloth, or skins without any great hardship. "

tion for the invasion of German territory in 1916 Ankole became the British military head1 quarters and a major source of supplies for the Allied forces.

Trade and Economic Development: 1898-1920

During the war the establishment of temporary marketplaces in the District proThere is a paucity of records on the evolution of exchange patterns and institutions

vided the rural Nyankore with a novel, institutional means by which they could readily trade their livestock and food crops produced specifically for sale.

For instance, in

April, 1916, a large market was opened at Lutobo in order to facilitate the collection of supplies for the advance of the Belgian Army in Kigali [Ruanda], the transport organisations between the Lake and Kamwezi [in southeast Kigezi] being unable to deliver the supplies in time. About 150 tons of foodstuffs, and over 1, 000 head of slaughter cattle were purchased in this mar~t, and the government was thus saved all the cost of transport on these supplies. At the termination of World War I there was apparently little visible evidence of economic advance in Ankole, despite various stimuli introduced as a result of the military occupation. Although local administrators in Mbarara offered indignant and sustained protests, in 1918 the District was in the same position it was in 1915, persistently ''under3 staffed and neglected financially by the Government. " Records indicate that the Government looked upon Ankole during the War primarily as an inexpensive source of food supplies for the armed forces, and there was certainly little scope for development of a 4 cash crop suitable for export while the war continued. Although trade in local foodstuffs with the military was "very brisk" (paramilitary activities absorbed much of the chiefs'

in Ankole during the initial twenty years of British rule, yet other indirect clues permit at least a tentative assessment of the changes which affected the economic fabric of this society during the early twentieth century.

opment in Ankole during the immediate postwar period: I cannot refrain from drawing your attention to the apparent lack of interest in this district shewn by the various departments. The District is the (fifth) largest Poll-Tax payer in the Protectorate, while the amount of money expended by the Government in the district has been exceptionally small. There would seem to be no reason to doubt that given a fair opportunity Ankole should prove an agricultural producer, the peasants are excellent workers. The maintenance work on the Mbarara-Masaka road which should be undertaken by the Public Works Department, together with the complete absence of any cart transport cause a constant strain on the potential labour of the District. It appears only equitable that the Banyankole should be given the opportunity of earning their poll-tax in their own country, before being merely asked to increase their contribution to the Protectorate Funds. The Public Works Department do nothing. No Agricultural Officer has visited Ankole since 1911, and the vote granted is 1

During the war chiefs were responsible for and supervised collection of food supplies, slaughter and transport of cattle, and porters.

1cf. Ingham, "Some Aspects of the History of Western Uganda, " p. 146.

2

2Ankole Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March, 1917, "Native Affairs," ESA.

3

3Ankole Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March, 1915, "Transport and Communications," ESA. 4 cotton had been tried in Ankole but met little success. By 1914 production had virtually ceased. See Ankole Annual Report for 1910-1911, "Trade"; and Morris, A History of Ankole, p. 44.

For example, the following report by the District

Commissioner is a poignant (if biased) revelation of the acute problems of economic devel-

Ankole Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March, 1917, "Agriculture," ESA.

Ankole Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March, 1918, "Trade," ESA. By contrast, in neighboring Kigezi District the trade in imports--piece goods, beads, brass wire, and Katwe salt--was said to be ''flourishing," while ''the trade by native aliens, chiefly Baganda and Banyankole, was mostly in stock and was very considerable." See Kigezi Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March, 1918, "Trade," ESA.

3

191

190

rinderpest epidemics which were most disastrous for the Rima.

infinitessimal, the Forestry vote is nonexistant, and the Veterinary Vote ~as been very small, though Ankole is the greatest cattle area in the Protectorate.

1

Another of these spread

into Ankole from northern Uganda during 1919-1920, and effected losses of not less than

Such conditions not only reflect the critical residual effects of wartime spending restrictions. They also emphasize the gross impotence of the early colonial policy of fiscal self2 sufficiency as a means of generating sustained progress towards modernization. On the credit side, taxation had forced the Nyankore to become more familiar with

75,000 cattle.

2

dietary taboos.

This catastrophe did not merely force the Hima to relax their traditional 3

Their survival depended on mobilization of the Iru cultivators, a major-

ity of whom were settled outside the grazing zone, to provide emergency relief. Moreover, this had to be accomplished without the advantages of wheeled transport and a system

the use of money in a variety of transactional spheres. The District had established itself

of regular markets for food collection and distribution.

as a prime source of cheap labor for the plantations in Buganda. In the absence of alterna-

ine were at least partially effective was due to the extraordinary initiative of the Native ~chiefs

That efforts to alleviate the fam-

tive sources of income in their own country, adult males depended on periodic labor migra-

government.

tion as a means of earning tax money. The development of this occupational pattern was a

of requiring the usual cash payment as land rents, many chiefs instructed their Iru tenants 4 to plant additional food crops.

clear manifestation of the security recently imposed in most rural areas of the Protector-

utilized their customary food tribute to feed the Rima. Instead

As late as 1920 marketplaces were practically unknown in Ankole beyond the Dis-

ate. The maintenance of law and order in Uganda facilitated a great upward trend in the

frequency of intertribal contact. On the other hand, although native roads had been

trict administrative station. Indian traders had gained a monopoly over the very limited 5 rural trade, and had spread out to a few key locations in the ''bush" areas. From their

upgraded as a result of wartime requirements, the fact that human porterage lingered on

dukas, which functioned as a retail store, depot, and living quarters, they bought African

as the only means of transport in Ankole was described locally as an "almost incredible" 3 circumstance.

early pattern there were certain signs suggesting that marketplaces might eventually

geographical mobility of the population, manifested in the greatly increased intensity and

Considering the few visible indicators of progress in Ankole up to 1920, and balanc-

produce and stimulated the demand for manufactured trade goods.

evolve as institutionalized, if auxiliary, nodes in the network of local exchange. In 1919, it was officially reported that "the Government Market at Mbarara has

ing these against the formidable list of inherent technological, social, environmental, and financial constraints distributed over so large an area, it is necessary to conclude that at

But in spite of this

been ruined owing to competition with the Market set up on the White Fathers Mission plot, 6 It might seem impetuous to propose

this point in time the District's economy was stagnant if not actually in a state of retro-

and a considerable loss of revenue has ensued. "

gression.

that the articulation of future colonial policy and control over African market development

The organization, orientation, and output of farm and range production was

essentially unaltered. Occasional crop surpluses were rarely sufficient to alleviate the

throughout Uganda can be traced to this small and seemingly isolated incident in Ankole.

acute problems created by frequent seasonal food shortages which affected the hoe farm-

Yet the publicity it received stimulated, within about eight years, formation of a fact-

4

ing zone as well as the predominantly pastoral country of eastern and southern Ankole. In both production zones seasonal food deficits were most often the result of drought conditions. However, among the Rima, who subsisted on a diet consisting almost exclusively of milk, the most severe famines were caused by catastrophic cattle diseases.

1 An apparent cyclical pattern following in the sequence of cattle disease-herd decimation-herd regeneration-cattle disease, can be documented for Ankole between 1890 and 1933, when the last serious outbreak of rinderpest occurred. 2

By 1913, the diseases included trypanosomiasis, which had spread northwards into Ankole

from German East Africa with the vector G. morsitans.

5

But it was the successive

1Ankole Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March, 1919, ''Native Affairs," E SA. 2 cf. Ehrlich, "The Uganda Economy . . • , "p. 400. 3Ankole Annual Report for ••. 1915.

4 See, e.g., Ankole Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March, 1915, "Agriculture." 5cf. Morris, A History of Ankole, p. 44.

Ankole Annual Report for 1920, "Rinderpest," ESA.

3

The food taboos of the Rima, including restrictions on plant foods and rituals associated with milk consumption, are described in W. L. S. Macintosh, Some Notes on the Abahima and the Cattle Industry of Ankole (Entebbe: Government Printer, 1938), pp. 29-30. 4

Ankole Annual Report for 1920.

5

For example, by 1919 Indian traders had reportedly settled at Kabwohe, in central Shema County about 22 miles west of Mbarara. (Information from Haji Ismaili Rware at Itendero Market, Shema, December 5, 1967.) 6 Ankole Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March, 1919, "Native Affairs."

192

t Through investigation it was discovfinding commission by the Protectorate Governmen • . . . kets were being operated by the missions m ered that a surprising number of other mar various districts of Uganda. This was particularly the case in Buganda and ~he E.astern . . So . t White Fathers and Mill Hill Mission Province, where the Church Misswna:r;y Cle y, ' ~ d the Government to enact the . 1 ed The controversy which followed provo e 11 ~a~v. kett~ugh 0 bl" hm t and regulation of mar s first special legislation providing for the esta IS en . 1 These developments are more fully assessed in the following out the Protect orate •

CHAPTER VII

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARKET SYSTEM IN ANKOLE: 1920-1968

chapter. 24, "Summary of Correspondence inS. M.P. !Secretariat Minute Paper No. D 1 627 4," March 23, 1929, ESA.

Several negative economic factors combined to effect a general trade depression in 1 Ankole in the years immediately following World War I. The most severe disruption of the local economy came as a result of cattle disease. Rinderpest exacted a toll of about 200,000 cattle in Uganda, and approximately 40 per cent of these losses occurred within Ankole.

The District's stock population was ravaged still further by overlapping out-

breaks of anthrax and trypanosomiasis.

The Hima were left without money, and this in

turn deprived the Iru of one of their main sources of income--the informal sale of beer, salt, tools, and some food products to the pastoralists. 2 Trade in Ankole came to "a standstill" during the last quarter of 1921, and Indians ceased to employ African labor.

The 1922 Annual Report emphasized that "all trade per-

taining to cattle has ceased to exist, " while "the turnover in the Bazaar [at Mbarara] is 3 very small. " At the same time, however, "considerable improvements" were reported in connection with Ankole's long-established share in the Katwe salt trade. The postwar trade recession in Ankole ostensibly inhibited the expansion and modernization of the internal distribution system.

For instance, between 1923 and 1931,

Annual District Reports offer few hints concerning "native" trade development. More 1

The War seriously disrupted the Uganda economy. However, immediate postwar economic policy tended to exacerbate the already gross regional inequalities in development between Buganda and the remaining areas of the Protectorate. In order to assist European planters in Buganda the Uganda Administration went so far as to hold back the introduction of cash crops from labor-supplying districts such as Ankole. Although this policy may have been reversed in 1923, in favor of the principle which accepted African peasant agriculture as the foundation of Uganda's economic development (cf. R. C. Pratt, "Administration and Politics in Uganda, 1919-1945," in History of East Africa, II, ed. by Harlow and Chilver, 481), the ban on African economic agriculture (export crops) in Ankole was apparently not lifted until 1929--the Acting Governor of Uganda having agreed to do this while visiting the District in September, 1928. See Ankole Annual Report for 1928, XV, "Agriculture," ESA. 2

Ankole Annual Report for 1921, X, ''Revenue," ESA.

3

Ankole Annual Report for 1922, "Trade and Products, "ESA. 193

195 194 "1800 miles of good main roads in the country, but they were being used, and road transoften than not only exports are mentioned, and these data were presented usually in statis-

port promised to 'open up the country' in a way that the ra1·1way never achieved."1

tical form without explanation. Yet there was a distinct element of paradox in this situation. On the one hand, the impending worldwide economic collapse would further shake the feeble Ankole economy. On the other band, during the 1920's there are clues which point to the initiation of basic changes in the spatial structure and conduct of internal exchange.

of several basic factors which Improvement of transport is am ong the most cnbcal .. suggest partial reasons for the diffusion of marketplace trade throughout Ankole. Efforts to upgrade the quality of internal communications actually got underway during World W~r ~·

and included intensive application of native labor (kasanvu and luwalo) to the pre2 . extstmg network of tracks in the District. The fact that crud e road s were bUllt . and maintamed before motor vehicles were in general use meant that most areas of the District

Development of a Road Network and Introduction of Mechanized Transport

were quite rapidly linked closer together in time and space once motorized transport became available in the 1920's.

Expansion and modernization of transport communications is generally recognized as a key stimulus to economic growth in areas of the developing world where marketplace trading is a recent innovation. 1 It was realized quite early in Uganda that economic progress would depend heavily on an adequate system of communications. However, development of a serviceable system was accomplished at no little cost in time and resources. Headloading persisted as the dominant form of transport in the Uganda Protectorate until the 1920's, at which time the use of motor lorries began to spread widely. Pro2 longed but unsuccessful efforts were made to develop ox transport, and experiments were made with elephants and even domesticated zebra with a view to determining their potential utility as beasts of burden. However, in the course of Uganda's transition to extensive adoption of motor transport, no suitable intermediate technology was found 3 through which dependence on human porterage could be reduced. In great contrast to Kenya and Tanganyika, a good network of major and minor roads was constructed quite early in Uganda--particularly in the intensive cotton growing zones of Buganda and the Eastern Province.

Significantly, by 1932 there were not only

1 cf. Belshaw, Traditional Exchange . . . , p. 72. 2rn 1915 it was reported that ''throughout Ankole the roads are perfectly fitted for bullock transport, but while the Government refuses to lead the way the traders cannot be expected to start on their own initiative. If government bullock carts ran from Masaka to Mbarara they could be certain of full freights for the return journey as there are always thousands of loads of ghee and hides awaiting transport in the Bazaar. With the thickly populated District of Kigezi to the West and the certainty of coffee and other crops in the future a motor road from Masaka to Mbarara must show heavy profits in the near future." Ankole Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March, 1915, VI, "Transport and Communications," ESA. 3Associated with this dependence were problems of labor shortage. For example, in the Busoga area of eastern Uganda cotton production expanded so rapidly in 1913 that it required approximately half a million porters' loads in order to market it. This situation occurred despite the fact that the 61-mile "Busoga" railway, which was intended to alleviate the pressure for porters, was opened in 1912. Uganda Agricultural Department Report, 1913-14, cited in Ehrlich, "The Uganda Economy, 1903-45," p. 421.

Impact of Motor Transport on the Salt Trade of Ankole and Kigezi Districts .

~doption

of motor lorries naturally made it possible to achieve much greater effi-

Ciency m the collection and distribution of local produce.

The long-established salt trade

between. Ankole, Kigezi, and the Rift Valley salt markets of Katwe and Ka s heny1. was one of the ftrst economic activities to be disrupted, and reorganized, by innovations in transport. In fact, the change s consequent upon the introduction of motor lorries were so farreaching that this centuries-old salt trade, described as "the root of the N t' . system, . Ki . 3 a 1ve economw m gezt, passed almost entirely from African hands. Although statistics of vehicle registration in Uganda before 1930 are not available, g~ve.r~ent

correspondence indicates that the use of motor lorries in Ankole had increased

stgmfwantly by the mid-1920's • Lo ca 1 1nd'tan entrepreneurs were quick to appreciate the fpotential economic benefits of motor transport. By 1928 one Indian already bad a cont ract 4 or. "the whole of the government transport of the District, n and the application of another of salt in Ankole and adjoining Districts lndtan for a guaranteed monopo 1y over the dtsposal . 5 was being firmly supported by the District Commissioner. With motor transport it also became more feasible to ameliorate the effects of regional crop failures and food deficits.

F or example, in 1928 it was reported that ''the

1

lli§.' p. 459.

2

Ankole Annual Report for . . • 1915, VI, "Transport and Communications."

3K'tgezt. District Annual Report for 1929, XIII, "Trade," ESA.

4 D. C., Ankole to Prov. Commissioner W p 1 Salt, " Ankole archives, Mbarara. , . . ' Ju y 12, 1928, File No. 169, "Katwe 5

D. C., Ankole to Prov. Commissioner, Ankole archives.

w· p · •

J une 29, 1928, File No. 169,

L 197

196 food situation at Katwe is becoming increasingly difficult, and the wimbi [millet] crop has

from a fee levied on salt sold in all local markets. Furthermore, disruption of the salt

failed five times this year. 111 The inhabitants of Katwe, and the population of the dry sub-

trade threatened to jeopardize the native goat trade--''the principal commerce of the Dis-

humid Rift Valley in general, were persistently affected by food shortages.

trict"--as the animals were chiefly obtained from the Belgian Congo and Ruanda by barter1 ing Katwe salt.

Lorries thus

facilitated more rapid, bulk carriage of food grown on the Ankole plateau down to the salt

By 1930, the traditional trade patterns of Kigezi had been effectively undermined.

workers and fishermen in the Rift, where a return load of salt might be collected.

Although the international economic depression inevitably dampened local commerce, the

Improvements in road communications encouraged the establishment of a market, 2 initially designated a "salt market," at Bushenyi in Igara County in 1930. The decision

following excerpt from the Annual Report for 1930 suggests that internal factors perhaps

to open this market (authorized by the Provincial Commissioner) was partly influenced by

had a more significant impact on African commerce.

the demonstrated practicability of transporting salt by lorry from Katwe to Ankole during the dry season. Apart from making salt more regularly available in larger quantities within the District it was anticipated that the market (which was located near an important junction of major roads) would decrease the distance traders from northern and southern Kigezi had to travel to buy Katwe salt. Another salt market was opened for similar reasons at Kanyamburara, a place situated just beyond the Ankole border in Toro overlooking 3 Lake George. Located roughly equidistant from the salt lake at Kashenyi, and the consumers of northern and eastern Ankole, Kanyamburara was equipped with storage facilities and linked by a motor road to Mbarara. Records kept by the Administration in neighboring Kigezi District are germane to understanding the economic changes effected by motor transport in Ankole.

They hint of

an imminent transformation, beginning about 1924, in the control and spatial organization of the traditional African salt trade with Katwe. It was observed, for instance, that

There is no doubt that Indians are capturing much of the trade which was formerly in the hands of natives, e. g. KA TWE salt and locally-caught fish. Salt is brought to Kabale by lorry and there made into the traditional bundles which are retailed at 80 cents instead of the former Shs. 1/-. This acts detrimentally in two ways: (a) it is bought for cash, thus eliminating trade in the exchange of goats and sheep for salt, and (~ the profits go the Indians instead of the natives. The goat and sheep trade is thus also affected.

fl

A year later it was reported from Kigezi that the salt trade (with KA TWE) is moribund, as it has largely passed into the hands of Indians, through the medium of their lorries. This is reflected in the export, by Indians, of 32 tons of Katwe salt to RUANDA. Formerly it passed thr§lugh native hands only, with consequent profit to the local Native Administration. The inherent advantages of motor transport over human porterage were such that on a per ton basis one lorry could replace about 35 porters (porters normally carried a 4 "load" of salt weighing roughly 60 pounds). Non-African middlemen in Toro quickly perceived the profitability of wholesaling salt to bulk buyers at the source of supply. They

although a large trade in Katwe salt still persisted, rock salt (imported from Aden and

were so effective in gaining a monopoly of this trade that by the beginning of 1932 the Dis-

considered greatly superior) from "down country" could be obtained in Kigezi "as cheap, 4 if not cheaper than Katwe salt. " Erosion of African control over the local and regional trade of Kigezi during the

trict Commissioner of Toro ordered the closing of the salt works at Katwe and Kashenyi

late 1920's was viewed by sympathetic administrators as a danger to the District's economic stability. Sale of Katwe salt provided the African populations (mainly Kiga, Hororo, 5 and Nyaruanda) with a major source of cash for poll tax. The District received revenue

1Acting Prov. Commissioner, W.P. to D.C., Ankole, December 18, 1928, File No. 169, Ankole archives. 2 Prov. Commissioner, W. P. to D. C., Ankole and D. C., Kigezi, January 25, 1930, File No. 169, Ankole archives. 3Exploitation of Katwe and Kashenyi salt remained under the direct control of the Omukama of Toro until 1923 when responsibility passed to the Toro Native Government (Rukurato). 4 Kigezi District Annual Report for 1924, XIV, "Trade and Products," ESA.

1Kigezi District Annual Report for 1928, XIII, "Trade," ESA. Goats were subsequently resold at Kabale Market and exported by African traders to urban centers in Buganda and beyond. 2

Kigezi District Annual Report for 1930, XIII, "Trade and Economic Development, "

ESA. 3 Kigezi District Annual Report for 1931, CXVII, ''Native Markets," ESA. In 1929 it was argued that "lorry transport from Katwe to Kabale at a shilling a mile could for many reasons (not wholly economic) not hope even to compete with, much less reduce, this the oldest and most valuable basic trade [salt] of this District, on which even Government (tax) revenue depends." Kigezi District Annual Report for 1929, par. XI (a). Extract in File No. 169, Ankole archives. 4 See Notice, D. C., Toro to D. C., Ankole, March 20, 1933, File No. 169, "Katwe Salt," Ankole archives. Estimate is based on a long ton of 2, 204 lbs., and allows for a lorry crew consisting of a driver and turnboy.

.,. 198

199

''for a period of a month to 6 weeks in order to allow for the depletion of stocks . . . held 1

by Indians in their dukas there. "

Non-Africans, with the aid of the motor lorry, evidently wrested the control of salt distribution in w~stern Uganda from African hands in the short span of less than five 2 years. Although head carriage was still the most common form of transport in Kigezi in 3 1933, it was by then merely ancillary to the conduct of the salt trade. Indian lorries car-

The swift eclipse of the African "on-foot" salt traders- by·fndtau motor iorrie1; pwbabiy inadvertently served as a preventative measure against this disease.

ple, an earlier plan for the construction of tick-free ''salt camps" for traders along the Ankole-Kigezi routes was abandoned because the demand for them had clearly diminished.

"safaris of 200-300 porters [to] frequently come from Ruhengeri [Ruanda) and return with

In terms of public health, the emergence of a new and superior mode of overland salt transport apparently proved an effective means of disease control in western Uganda.

The foundations of the existing system of markets in Ankole were laid between the two world wars. Although there is a shortage of verifiable data concerning precise locations and dates of markets, available evidence indicates that Gomborora Kyamuhunga, in northern lgara County, and Gomborora Ryeru, the plateau area of Bunyaruguru County, were among the earliest zones of market development beyond Mbarara.

By 1929 tick (Spirillum) fever was fast approaching epidemic proportions along the main salt route from Katwe through Ankole to Kigezi.

This disease, unknown in Kigezi in 1920,

spread from trader to trader and affected the areas through which they passed.

In Kigezi

in 1929, it was estimated that considerably more than 100 people, including whole house5 holds, died after contracting the fever. During the same year the District Commissioner

The idea of opening markets seems to have arisen initially as a local response to various external stimuli. Wartime requirements in Ankole are said to have generated unprecedented traffic along the main road leading through Kyamuhunga to Toro.

British

and Belgian forces, along with large numbers of Prters who had been recruited from Toro for paramilitary purposes, created an exceptional demand for local produce in

reported that he had personally observed "thirteen separate cases of people . . . carrying

Kyamuhunga.

salt who have become infected on the road (in Toro or Ankole) and were apparently dying 6 by the roadside. " By this time numerous settlements "along the main Kichwamba-

marketplace at Mashonga-Ryamurunga in 1915. However, this market reportedly was not

Nyarushanje-Kabale-Gisolo route" were in danger of becoming involuntary distributing

This demand was at least partially met by the establishment of a roadside

the result of a military or administrative edict, but a spontaneous local reaction to new 2 economic opportunity.

centers for Spirillum, and it had already infected the Chiefs' ''town" houses at Kabale. 7

No further expansion of markets occurred in Kyamuhunga until several years after the First World War.

1

D. C., Toro to D. C., Ankole and D. C., Kigezi, January 4, 1932, File No. 169, Ankole archives. 2 A telegram dated October 11, 1934 from D. C., Ankole to Prov. Commissioner, W. P. informed that ''I do not make traders take out licence [for salt trade) but consider they should as Indian trader has ousted native trader . . . . " File No. 169, Ankole archives.

3

Kigezi District Annual Report for 1933, XXIX, "Transport," ESA. This report also noted that "carriage by head between Kabale and Mbarara was usual as late as 192526, but it is now of course a thing of the past on that route." 4 5

lbid. Kigezi District Annual Report for 1929.

6

D. C., Kigezi to Prov. Commissioner, W. P., Memo, No. 220/42, April16, 1929, File No. 169, Ankole archives. 7

lbid.

1

Kyamuhunga and Ryeru: Early Focal Zones of Marketplace Development in Ankole

ried loads of salt from Katwe to Indian shops in Kigezi. Although it was not unusual for

heavy loads of salt . . . , " the main function of these porters was to convey the loads 4 ''from one Indian trader to another. "

By 1930, for exam-

But by 1925 trade had begun to rejuvenate and even expand under 3 Between 1925 and 1927,

the impact of innovations in transport and mineral development.

at least three new local markets were reportedly opened in Kyamuhunga (Fig. 41a): one at Kyamumari, near the intersection of several well-traveled tracks some 4 miles east of the main trunk road; another at Omubushungwe, some 3 miles east of Kyamumari near 1 D. C., Kigezi to D. C., Ankole, June 6, 1930, File 169, Ankole archives. The District Commissioners, particularly in Kigezi, vigorously attempted to resist the modernization and de-Africanization of the salt trade (a "deserving and valuable native traffic," "created and maintained by native initiative'~. However, at the Provincial level, these changes were considered a means of teaching ''the natives . • . to realize that their time would be more profitably spent in planting some economic crop, or being engaged in some productive work." See Prov. Commissioner, W. P. to D. C., Ankole and Kigezi, January 25, 1930. 2

Personal communication from Mr. A. G. Katate, Gomborora Chief, Kyamuhunga, February 29, 1968. 3

Information in this paragraph obtained through interview of the Gomborora Chief of Kyamuhunga and his Muruka council at Kyamuhunga, November 18, 1967.

200

201 1

Lake Katunga on an old track leading to Shema; and at Ryantende in Muruka Sabawari.

travelers were brought to these sites to be exchanged primarily for cash.

Another market was opened at Kayanga, at Mile 55 from Mharara, in 1930. The arrival

highly probable that a proportion of these "collections" of sellers never attracted a viable

It appears

of European gold prospectors and their African laborers during 1934-36 led to the location

consumer demand, but where successful they encouraged the attendance of other producers

of produce markets at Kashambya in 1934, and at Busyoro (near Kyamuhunga sub-county 1 headquarters) and Butare (at Mile 47 from Mharara) in 1935.

who lived nearby.

In Bunyaruguru County, produce markets were established in Gomborora Ryeru at 2 Ryeru and Rugazi in 1929. Further north, markets were certainly operating by 1930 at

these incipient tertiary centers did not arise because of new, internal needs for local exchange. Rather, markets were induced primarily by external phenomena: by a signifi-

Kichwamba (on the edge of the plateau) and at Katunguru (the site of a canoe ferry landing

cant, localized increase in the circulation of alien, transient populations to whom Kyamu-

on the south bank of the Kazinga Channel), although the exact year seems to have defied local memory and official record. 3 Archives indicate that Katunguru was well established

corridor linking pockets of expanding economic activity in the Rift with the rest of Ankole

by 1931, and Kichwamba by 1934. Katunguru, in particular, was by this time the focus of 4 a fairly vigorous trade under the direct control of the Ankole Native Administration.

Thus the markets quickly acquired "reputations" (a function of their

economic performance), and flourished or dissipated accordingly.

It is quite clear that

hunga and plateau Bunyaruguru were little more than segments of space in a communications

and Kigezi.

Mining, Labor Migration, and Market Diffusion

Then, as now, economic specialization around Katunguru involved a primary concentration on the fisheries of the Kazinga Channel and Lakes Edward and George. A regular demand

Numerous observers have pointed to the distinctive nodal pattern of economic devel2 The emergence of "islands" of intensive economic activity, often

for fish existed only about ten miles away on the Bunyaruguru plateau, thus forming the

opment in Africa.

basis for an exchange of complementary products between the plateau cultivators and the

based on the production of a single mineral or export crop, has been a major factor stimu-

fishing communities in the Rift.

lating the growth and areal concentration of specialized wage-earning populations and the

In terms of their mode of origin, informants emphasized that the early markets in northwestern Ankole began without official regulation. They were initiated primarily by 5 the "common people" rather than the chiefs. They began as very small, spontaneous

concomitant expansion of an exchange economy.

relationships between the rather sudden emergence and highly localized growth of a new extractive industry and the spread of rural markets. 3 The discovery of tinstone at Kikagati in southern Ankole in 1925 initiated a series

gatherings of local villagers selling food and craft products at various points along the main roads and at the junction of frequented tracke and paths.

Calabashes of millet por-

ridge and other cooked foods, bananas, tobacco, beer, rope, and similar provisions for 1n is ironical that Mashonga is the only market (twice-weekly) functioning today in Gomborora Kyamuhunga. 2 Personal communication from Mr. L. M. Barireryo, Acting Gomborora Chief, Ryeru, Bunyaruguru, February 23, 1968. 3 rn 1931 Katunguru Market was ''used chiefly for the sale of fish--Ngege variety." See Ankole District Annual Report for 1931, "Trade," CCLX, ESA. 4

See D. C., Ankole to Provincial Commissioner, W. P., January 17, 1936, File 48/1, Ankole archives. Attached to this letter is a list of markets and fee collections during 1934 and 1935. Annual revenue from Katunguru was Shs. 997.00 and Shs. 1, 816.39 respectively. Katunguru may have been at this time second only to Mharara, whereas returns from Kichwamba for the same years were Shs. 2. 48 and Shs. 12. 57. The low level of revenue collected from the latter market clearly reflects the fact that it had been auctioned to a private individual rather than operated under the Native Administration. 5

However, the influence of progressive chiefs such as Mhaguta (in Bunyaruguru) and G. S. Togo (Saza Chief of lgara from 1908 to 1934) should not be overlooked.

In Ankole there are direct time-space

of interrelated changes which had broad economic and social implications for the Nyankore and neighboring African peoples.

Prospecting for tin began early in 1927 and resulted in

successful commercial exploitation at Kikagati and Mwirasandu before the end of the year.

4

Tin mining remained an important local industry until about 1952, after which production underwent a marked decline. Alluvial gold, first worked in Buhweju County in northwest Ankole in 1933, to be a short-lived enterprise.

5

proved

Yet it did form one of the "principal props of Ankole

1

Initially, such gatherings took the form of what Herskovits has termed "fringe" markets. See Markets in Africa, ed. by Bohannan and Dalton, p. xiii. 2

E. g., William A. Hance, African Economic Development (rev. ed.; New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967), pp. 5-6 and 207. 3

Thomas and Scott, Uganda, p. 221.

4 Ankole District Annual Report for 1927, XVIII, ''Industries," ESA. 5

Uganda Government, Department of Lands and Survey, Atlas of Uganda (Entebbe, 1962), p. 66.

203

202 prosperity" unt111939 (When annual production was estimated at 11,000 ounces). 1 time the Buhweju field was rapidly approaching exhaustion.

By that

Labor migration was one immediate consequence of the mining concessions in Ankole.

Large numbers of men were attracted by the opportunity of earning a cash wage.

These workers also had to be housed and fed.

Kakuto (about one mile from Butale), in close proximity to the gold mining locations.

However, these markets proved to be ephemeral. The decline in gold output after 1939 was accompanied by the departure of the wage earners and market consumers. 2 markets, left without means of support, soon disappeared.

The local

Contemporary correspondence reveals that proposals for the establishment of mar-

However, in none of the concession areas

were there pre-existing institutional arrangements through which the subsistence needs of

1

kets were received in different official and private quarters with varying degrees of enthu-

a permanent, non-agricultural population could be provided. In such circumstances it was

siasm.

a practi~al necessity for markets to be opened so that the mine workers (and/or compa-

of various economic and social phenomena affecting market development in an African min-

The following extracts provide useful, if biased, insights concerning the interplay

nies) could purchase their food. Accordingly, in August of 1927 the manager of Ankole

ing area. The European manager of a mining company in Buhweju made the following

Tinfields Ltd. petitioned the Ankole District Commissioner for a produce market to be

observations in a letter to the District Commissioner of Ankole:

established at Kikagati "for the benefit of their labourers. ,,2 The District Commissioner, who referred this request to the Provincial Commissioner, informed him that "apart from the local labourers there is also a large floating population moving to and from the other 3 prospecting concessions across the Kagera [in Tanganyika and Ruanda]. " Establishment of the market was subsequently approved, and responsibility for its construction was dele4 gated to the Saza Chief of Rwampara. The market at Kikagati was only the first of several which were opened primarily in response to the needs of mine laborers.

By 1932 markets were operating at Mwirasandu,

Rutobo, and Rwentobo, and by 1935 another had been established at Ntungamo. All were 5 under quasi-Government supervision (Fig. 41a, b). Mwirasandu, Rwentobo, and Kikagati had gained sufficient prominence to be ranked among the top five markets in Ankole in 6 1937. In the isolated, mountainous county of Buhweju, weekly markets were opened with Government assistance during the mid-1930's at Butala (now a small trading center) and 1Ankole District Annual Report for 1939, "Mining Industry," p. 5, Ankole archives. 2D. c., Ankole to Prov. Commissioner, W. P., August 24, 1927, File 48/A, Ankole archives. 3

1Interview at Nsika with Mr. A. N. Banga, ex-Saza Chief of Buhweju, October 20,

Ibid.

4 construction expenses were to be deducted from the market receipts. Commissioner to D. C., Ankole, September 1, 1927, File 48/A.

. . . frankly speaking I was anything but pleased to hear that you proposed starting a market at Lukiri. This in my opinion would be the start of many evils. It would not in any way be of convenience to us, and we employ nearly 500 natives. We can during the bulo [finger millet] season buy from the native who brings it to our doors and receives a very fair price. Otherwise if we had to buy at Lukiri we should have to pay transport and should only be in the hands of Indians whom I do not want here. Our employees would not trouble to buy at a market 5 miles away unless it were meat only and then only on Sundays, where they would in all probability get drunk (as native markets are invariably associated with beer drinking shops, well disguised). I should then be up against endless shauris, fights and rows amongst my labour which consists of many mixed tribes. My employees are fed here free and well fed at that. I could buy in quantity but would rather have my buyers out in different parts of the country than at a fixed 5 mile market. The feeding costs here per man per month about Shs. 5. 40 and that added to Shs. 8. wage = 13.40 per head, which I think is quite sufficient. In buying food we are not buying to sell again or trading in any way. . . . No, I am against markets which are unnecessary evils in my mind and I have been in this country amongst the natives for over 25 years without going out of it and should know a little about these matters. In no time one will have a host of Indians applying for trading licences and then iniquity of every kind will be introduced. I should very much have liked to have seen you personally but my work here does not allow of leaving the property. . . . If you are insistent upon starting this market well I shall acquaint the Chief as to the 3 daysrr week of evil but do not anticipate my people making much use of a market there.

1967. See Prov.

5 See letters dated December 3, 1932, June 27, 1934, and September 20, 1935 in File 48/1, "Markets-Native," Ankole archives. Mwirasandu and Rwentobo were established between 1927 and 1932, although the exact year could not be determined. "Lutobo, " a temporary war market, was apparently rejuvenated at the beginning of the tin era. 6D. c., Ankole to P. C., Western Province, November 26, 1937, File No. N/48, "Government Markets," Ankole archives.

2

Subsequent development of markets has been very limited. Poor communications, steep terrain, and physical isolation from the rest of Ankole have tended to inhibit growth of an exchange economy in Buhweju. There is no industry to speak of and cash cropping is limited. Until recently there have been intercensallosses of population. Today there are only four markets in the county and 13 market days per month (the latter figure is less than one-third of the figure for Nyabushozi County, which ranks ninth in total market days). 3 Bysia Mining Co., Ltd., to D. C., Ankole, October 8, 1935, File No. 48/1, Ankole archives. (Name of sender withheld.) This letter is similar in tone and intent to the following amendment to the Fairs Act (1871) of Victorian Britain: "Whereas certain of the Fairs held in England & Wales are unnecessary, are the cause of grievous immoral-

205 204 The significance of mineral exploitation for market expansion was two-fold.

Ft.rsto

:~~!~Y

also!~~-

practi.ced with the Banyaruanda and other labourers proceeding to or from em 1 Buganda. Sales to Indian food agents at Mbarara and elsewhere

it created within Ankole a new and relatively large class of wage earners who were very

largely dependent on local agricultural producers for their subsistence needs.

For examColonial Market Policy Formation

ple, by 1939 the daily average labor force actually working in the local mines was approximately 7, 000 men. 1 Second, the great majority of these laborers were immigrants from

The year 1930 serves as an important bench mark from which to identify several

Ruanda and neighboring Kigezi District, large numbers of whom migrated to southern

key factors which directly influenced market expansion in Uganda. During the preceding

Ankole as the tin mines opened during the late 1920's. This influx of alien tribesmen is

1 decade marketplace trade had spread m . a rather spontaneous, "natural" fashion la un·m h'b't ' the rge Y 1 1 e dby statutory or other prescribed administrative guidelines. Yet during

strikingly portrayed in the census statistics.

For example, in 1921, the official census 2 recorded only seven Nyaruanda residents in Ankole. By 1931, however, there were

. the Government was g rad ua 11y be commg 1920's . aware of the fact that several kinds of markets ~n various parts of the Protectorate, differentiated according to origin, location,

8, 371 Nyaruanda, 83 per cent of whom lived in Rwampara and Kajara, the two major tin3 producing counties in southern Ankole. Between 1931 and 1948 the Nyaruanda population 4

functwn, and mode of supervision, had already taken hold and achieved some degree of

more than quadrupled, swelling to form 9 per cent of the total District population.

permanence.

In contrast, relatively few Nyankore worked in the local tin and gold mines.

To

For example, in addition to at least twenty named markets known from oral

and archival evidence to be operating in Ankole around 1930 (Fig · 41a) , there were appar-

earn cash for tax most of the local men preferred either to migrate to Buganda annually

ently numerous incipient "bush" markets wherein the volume of trade was insufficient to

for a few months or, alternatively, to grow food crops to sell along with other commodi-

draw official notice.

ties to the alien laborers in Ankole.

Administration markets (including some leased annually to private management), markets

Therefore, although Nyaruanda and Kiga miners

For Uganda as a whole the list included Mission markets, Native

earned most of the cash wages paid within the District (.;t51, 000 in 1938), "a very consid-

on. non - nat'lVe pnva · t e estates, markets under royal control (Kingdom of Buganda) unoffi-

erable amount" of this money came into the hands of the Nyankore through market sales of

Cial "bus h" mar ke t s, and Township markets under the supervision of municipal authorities ' 2 and the District Commissioner.

produce. 5 Thus in 1939 it was reported that cultivators were not slow in realising the market which awaited their surplus crops in the mining industry. This was most marked in Buhwezu where hill sides were covered with a patchwork of plots the produce of which was readily sold at good prices to the miners in that area. Elsewhere in the district trade was almost universally

A brief memorandum directed to the Governor of Uganda from the Entebbe Se tar· t . 19 ere la m 29 reveals that the official Government position regarding the development and admin~tration of markets throughout the Protectorate was then "confused and unsatisfac-

tory . " ity, and are very injurious to the inhabitants of the Towns in which such Fairs are held, and it is therefore expedient to make provision to facilitate the abolition of such Fairs." Cornelius Walford, Fairs Past and Present (New York: Burt Franklin, 1967), p. 52.

There was no um'form pohcy · for extra-Township markets, and the Government's

~egal posit~on with regard to markets outside Buganda on native and non-native lands was

mdefinite .

markets was still unclear after more than ten The status of M'lSSlon-operated ·

years of uncertainty. In 1919, the Church Missionary Socl'ety, White Fathers, and Mill 1Ankole District Annual Report for 1939, File No. 71, p. 5, Ankole archives. 2 uganda Protectorate, Census Returns, 1921 (Entebbe: Government Printer, 1921), Table 34, p. 30. Census Returns, 1931 (Entebbe: Government Printer, 1933), 3 Uganda Protectorate, ' Table Lill, pp. 98-99. 4 East African Population Census, 1948, African population as of 23 August 1948, Ankole District (Published by East African Statistical Department, 1950), p. 53. Apparently large numbers of Nyaruanda tended eventually to settle permanently with their families in southern Ankole. See Ankole District Annual Report for 1938, "Population," II, File No. 71, Ankole archives. 5Ankole District Annual Report for 1939, p. 5.

1 1 ~· • P· 3. Nevertheless, foodstuffs were often in short s . areas and laborers were s t· f upp Y near the mming refle orne Imes arced to walk long distances to buy sta les Th' e g ctGessomeloMf the organizational and distributional problems still lSSee · • •27 nera anager · , 1934 Fl'le 48/,A Kagera A k 1 (Ugand.a ) T'nf' 1 Ie 1ds, Ltd.' Mwirasandu to D. C., Ankole June ' ' , n o e arch1ves. '

prevale~t t~ay

2

E ·g., Entebbe Secretariat Minute Paper No. D 124, Part I.

3~· 4

Bugand:~· Re~rtedly, under Cla~se 6 of the Uganda Agreement of 1900 the Kabaka of ships. Thi: tp~e ·rt~ght.to control Afncan markets in the Kingdom other than those in TownSl wn 1s somewhat clearer in Clause 12.

207

206 Hill Mission had been given three months in which to close down their markets after the disclosure that the White Fathers had been operating a market in Mbarara which was ille-

that even the amount of the fine for first offenses against market rules was the same tn 1 1968 as it was in 1930. In summary, the Markets Ordinance (1930) vested the power to establish markets

gal according to the terms of their land grant and the Fees and Prerogatives Ordinance of 1902. 1 Provincial Commissioners were subsequently empowered to recommend where

and collect fees in three authorities: the Governor of Uganda, a Township authority, or

alternative markets should be opened under Government control.

local Native Administration.

However, by 1920 Gov-

These three authorities were empowered to make rules and

ernment operation of these substitute markets was costing money. The entire policy was

by-laws to regulate the "convenient use" of markets, including maintenance of order and

reversed, and Mission markets on an approved list were reopened subject to certain Town-

cleanliness; prescribe the goods to be sold in any market; require goods to be sold by pub-

ship rules and the payment of a yearly licence fee. When the question of Mission markets

lic auction; provide for the collection of fees; fix the days and hours on which a market

arose again in 1922, it was decided that they were to be approved by the Governor on the

could meet and prevent the sale of goods outside those periods; prescribe weights, scales,

condition that they were operated in accordance with the District Commissioner's instruc-

and measures; examine produce or articles of food; fix the maximum retail price of any

tions. This ruling remained the official position on Mission markets in 1929.

food for sale in a Township market; and regulate the duties and conduct of inspectors and

2

In view of the variety of circumstances affecting its own position vis ll vis the mar-

other personnel appointed for purposes of the ordinance.

The Ordinance also provided for

kets, the Protectorate Government decided in 1929 that it must enact special legislation if 3 it intended to regularize control over markets. Thus in January, 1930, the Legislative 4 council passed the Markets Ordinance (Uganda Protectorate), 1930, a document which 5 1928. for most practical purposes was identical to the Markets Ordinance of Tanganyika,

the imposition of a fine not exceeding Shs. 500 on any person offending against a rule or

The latter served as the model for Uganda and was adapted with the insertion of an extra

fine not exceeding Shs. 1, 000, plus a further fine, not exceeding Shs. 100 in respect of

clause (Section 9) which empowered the Governor to lease markets in certain small town-

every day on which the offense was committed following conviction.

ships.

by-law. Establishment of a market without a) the consent of the Governor, or b) being the owner, lessee, or occupier of land and permitting a market to be established thereon, or maintaining or managing a market established in breach of a) and b), was punishable by a

The Uganda. Markets Ordinance of 1930 stands as a significant milestone because it

6 The essential provisions of the Markets Ordinance (1930) are worth noting because,

apart from certain revisions in administrative responsibility, they do not differ signifi-

was the first major step in a lengthy series of formal, detailed legislation designed to control not only the location and articles of exchange but, ultimately, the activities and move-

cantly from the Markets Act (Rev. Ed. 1964). This is the latest legislation for regulating

ments of every type of trader in Uganda. Those affected ranged from the petty "hawker"

markets throughout u~anda.

of fruit, vegetables, or cooked food to full-time, large-scale entrepreneurs, both African

Statutes enacted in 1930 set a clear precedent to the extent

and non-African. 1Before 1930 the CMS, White Fathers, and Mill Hill Mission were operating four, eight, and three markets in Buganda respectively. Mill Hill Mission ~aintaine~ three other markets in the Eastern Province. ES Minute Paper No. D 124, mformat10n dated May 4, 1932. 2

Relevant legislation enacted after 1930 included the Native Produce Marketing Ordinance (1932); the Trade Ordinance (1932); the Trading Centres Ordinance (1933); the Trading Ordinance (1938); the Markets Ordinance (1942), which repealed the Markets Ordinance of 1930; the Cattle Traders Ordinance (1943); and the African Foodstuffs Ordinance (1951).

Ibid.

3E. g., Chief Secretary, Entebbe to All Provincial Commissioners, Letter No. B/224/1, April18, 1929, File No. 48/A, Ankole archives. 4Although the Fees and Royalties Ordinance (1902) had set guidelines .for marke~. fee collection, the 1930 ordinance was the first comprehensive legislation atmed spectftcally at markets. 5 Tanganyika Gazette, VIII, No. 43, September 23, 1927, 709-11. 6Section 9 legalized what had been the practice in certain small townships of leasing markets if the expenses of management exceeded revenue receipts. ES M. Paper No. D 124, Part I.

Although some of these regulations impinged on the markets only indirectly, in the long run practically every sphere of exchange activity was affected in one way or another.

For

example, the Native Produce Marketing Ordinance of 1932 placed severe restriction on the marketing of essentially every cash crop, including limitations on the places of sale and the number of buyers. Erhlich argues that many of these policies, which were originally intended to protect Africans and to help maintain peace, hardened into an inflexible code of great complexity. In 1904 the Trading Ordinance was a simple document. By 1938 it consisted of ten pages of detailed regulations 1

Today the overall administration of local markets is within the portfolio of the Minister of Regional Administrations.

209

208 governing every conceivable activity that a trader might contemplate, and couched in language which would be incomprehensible or at least forbidding to men in societies far more advanced than Uganda. Thus, it was unlawful for non-natives to trade outside established trading centres or within 'scheduled' areas. It was also unlawful for natives to trade in such places on behaH of non-natives, an obvious barrier to emergent African businessmen without capital. Trading licences could be refused on numerous grounds, including failure to make 'satisfactory provision for keeping of proper books of account. ' Explicable in terms of the protection of nativ' interests, these restrictions severely impeded the spread of the money economy. However, at the same time it should be remembered that measures such as these were

The

~sic principle was simply that there shquld be no fees charged where no governn:ent

serVIces are rendered. Today in Ankole this early policy is reflected in the practice of distinguishing between "official" and ''unoffici)al" marlrets • 1n tbeory, at least, all new markets are at first "unofficial"; that is, until they prove viable no fees are levied and no government services are provided. However; there are apparently no strict criteria fo judging the readiness of a market for "official" recognitl'on .

Efforts by various colonial administrators to formulate and institute a workable trade and markets policy in western Uganda often produced curious compounds of paternalistic rigidity (occasionally approaching comical proportions) and farsighted perception of

involved in a decision to open or take over a market include ~chiefs and/or Gomborora Councils, the District Veterinary Officer (in the case of cattle markets), the District Market Inspector, and the District Treasurer. 2 It is evident from the huge correspondence available that local British administra-

For example, in 1935 the following letter was sent by the

District Commissioner of Ankole to "All Traders at Ntungamo [Trading Center]": This is to inform you that as a Market has been established at Ntungamo it is illegal to buy foodstuffs except within such market. 2. I understand that it is the practice to sell beans, etc., in the road. This is an offence under the Township Rules, namely a fine of Shs. 400/= or 2 months imprisonment or both. I have asked the Chief to report if my instructions are not attended to. 3. Quarrelling in the Township is also forbidden. I also desire to confirm ?tY verbal instructions to you . . . with reference to the cleanliness of your premises.

tive officers (and some Native Administration chiefs) expended a great deal of energy on fixing and elaborating market po licy d unng · t he decade before and the years following World War II. A large share of this correspondence during the 1930's and 1940's concerned the need to eliminate unhygiemc · method sof waste disposal and unsanitary condi. tions surrounding the supply and sale of meat by butchers in local markets. 3

Diffusion of Markets to 1940

In the following year, the Provincial Commissioner of the Western Province set forth his opinion on the purpose of market administration in a memo to District Commissioners: I think it should be borne in mind, especially by the Native-Administration, that these markets exist for the benefit of the native population, i.e. , to assist trade; and are not to be regarded primarily as a source of revenue or taxation. The main objects should be to provide suitable facilities, e.g., a shelter, or the servic~s of a reliable market-master to ensure fair dealing, in return for the fee collected. In the late 1930's a decision was made to abolish collection of market dues and slaughter fees in all but four Ankole Native Administration markets.

The estim a tion of a market's r

potential is based on an assessment of its present vitality and popularity. The authorities:

certainly not unique to Uganda, nor were they devoid of merit.

African economic interests.

ft--

market-masters.. consfriWnon.Jlt sbelTJ!rs • ~me~r .......... a 1 ~~--~~~~00

This measure was

Market expansion in Ankole between 1902 and 1968 is shown in Figure 41. By 1930 at least one market had been established in every ~with the exceptions of Shema and Buhweju. Over hall of the total number of markets at th1's t•rme was concentrated in the northwestern counties of lgara and Bunyaruguru. Between the enactment of the Uganda Markets Ordinance (1930) and the advent of World War II, the number of local markets increased at least 50 per cent. Shema and Buhweju could each claim three markets by 1940, which left no marketless counties in

to remain in effect until such time as trade in the other markets became vigorous enough

~nkole. Three new markets had also been opened in Rwampara, and another in Kajara.

to justify fee collection and the provision of Native Administration services such as

trndo~~tedly a few other markets were established during this same period of economic anslhon, but they are not evident in the accessible District records.

1Ehrlich, "The Uganda Economy, 1903-1945, "p. 461. 2Dated September 20, 1935, File No. 48/1, Ankole archives. 3 Memo. No. 545 of December 9, 1936, ibid. A question later raised was whether or not market dues could be reduced from 10 to 5 per cent ad valorem on all sales, and still meet the costs of necessary physical facilities: ''I am aware that this will mean some reduction in revenue to the Native Administrations, but it is not the policy of the Protectorate Government to allow any such form of 'octroi' or subsidiary taxation to develop." See Provincial Commissioner, W. P. to D. C.'s of Toro, Ankcle, Kigezi, letter No. 469, September 6, 1937, File N/48, "Government Markets," Ankole archives.

1

.

~Wl~as.anda (Rwampara), Katunguru (Bunyaruguru), Rwentobo (Ka ·ara a lkagah (ls1ng1ro) Markets were singled out. D. c. Ankole top c FortJ P)rta,1ndN N 4 ' · ·• o , ovembe r 26 • 1937 • F"le 1 o. 8, Ankole archives; and P. C. Fort Portal to D c Ank le De cember 2, 1937, ~· ' · ·• o , K"

2

"Appli Eti.. g. ,fGomborora Chief, Sabawali, Kashari to District Veterinary Officer Ankole ca on or a Cattle Market, " January 3, 1957 F le ' ' Ankole archives. • i TRD. 3, No. V.E. T6/57, TR

3

E.g., Health Inspector, Toro to D. C., Mbarara, September 20, 1949 , Min. Paper

!!!!g~· 3, Ankole archives; and D. C., Ankole to Omubiki, Kamukuzi, October 3, 194 9 ,

ANKOLE: GROWTH OF MARKET NET 1902 • 1930

t

-N-

1921-1930

1

1902-1920 TORO

DISTRICT

NYABUSHOZI

""

..... 0

lSING!RO

• 0 0

20 Ml 20

New Markets Pre-Colonial Markets (Taro District) County Boundaries - 1968 Main Roads • 1968

e

40 KM

SFVSC Geog Dept

Fig. 41a

ANKOLE: GROWTH OF MARKET NET 1931- 1950

t

-N-

1941-1950

1931-1940

1

..... "" .....

KAG/~~~~9>0~ .

•

NDAIJA

-~.,~---

20 Ml

0 0

20

40 KM

•

--

New Markets County Boundaries- 1968 Main Roads· 1968 Fig. 41b

SFVSC Geog Dept

213 212

One of the clearest facts to emerge from the distributional pattern of markets

... •

about 1940 is the great concentration in the western farming zone. At this time markets

"'•0

were inaccessible to the bulk of the population living in areas east, and directly north and

Q

I

....-~-

"u "' > ...

south, of Mbarara. Diffusion of markets into the pastoral zones of Ankole is a phenomenon that was just getting underway around 1940.

"'

The Ankole Scene: World War II to 1950 Records show that only two new markets were established in Ankole between 1941 and 1945. A contemporary assessment of local progress made during these critical war years reveals three distinct developments: First, the District runs to a standstill on its original lines of development, then changes direction to ensure production of war time demands, and lastly gradually swings back to pre war development though with new ideas of its needs amongst all 1 classes and races. In detail, a study of District archives from the war period indicates that

=

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ro "0

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least 15 years during which time no additional markets were established in east-central

A

170 160 150 140 130 120 110 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Ankole. Following a time interval of some eight to thirteen years, northwest Ankole emerged as a secondary area of innovation during the incipient stage of market development. Kazinga, located at the southern end of a short canoe route from Katwe, apparently began as a bulking center for salt and produce from the Ankole plateau. In 1915 Mashonga Market was opened in response to local economic opportunity generated partially, at least, by paramilitary traffic along the old salt route from Toro.

Between 1921 and 1930 this

sector of the District quickly became the strongest regional focus of new adoptions, accounting for fully 60 per cent of the total expansion. In this case most of the new markets tended to locate on or near the major line of communication in coincidence with the

.

introduction of motor transport, the intensification of which rapidly effected the eclipse of the traditional pedestrian salt traders. Scattered introductions occurred approximately

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

20 miles east, in Nshara, and 40 miles north, in Mitoma, of Mbarara, but these remained

isolated for at least another 20 years.

Significantly, a loose cluster of markets emerged

in the extreme south of Ankole. It is known that two of these were opened initially at the request of European mine operators.

70

Later expansion in this area clearly demonstrates

the stimulus provided by short-term exploitation of economic minerals. Wage labor

B

opportunities in the District were opened up on an important scale for the first time, with

V>

IUJ

60

the re11ult that a new, non-agricultural, mainly alien African proletariat developed which

50

was dependent on cash for acquisition of subsistence needs.

'"'

0::