Contesting Catholics: Benedicto Kiwanuka and the Birth of Postcolonial Uganda by Jonathan L. Earle and Jay J. Carney (review)
2023; The Catholic University of America Press; Volume: 109; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/cat.2023.a914178
ISSN1534-0708
Tópico(s)African history and culture analysis
ResumoReviewed by: Contesting Catholics: Benedicto Kiwanuka and the Birth of Postcolonial Uganda by Jonathan L. Earle and Jay J. Carney Kevin Ward Contesting Catholics: Benedicto Kiwanuka and the Birth of Postcolonial Uganda. By Jonathan L. Earle and Jay J. Carney. (Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2021. Pp. xxii, 242. ISBN 978-1-84701-240-1.) As Uganda approached independence from British colonial rule in the 1950s, the Catholic Church had become, numerically, the largest religious community in Uganda. The transition to democratic politics offered hope that Catholics would be able to overcome their historic discrimination in the face of a Protestant (Anglican) establishment, which during colonial rule had dominated the political life of the country. The leader of the Democratic Party was Benedicto Kiwanuka, a Catholic [End Page 827] from Buddu in Buganda (the largest and most populous kingdom in Uganda). Kiwanuka's Democratic Party (DP) hoped to transcend ethnic and religious divisions by advocating a socially liberal polity for the new nation, along the lines of Social Democratic parties in Europe, and in contrast to their main rival, the Uganda People's Congress, which seemed to be dominated by the existing Protestant elites, and to be leaning towards Communism. Despite Kiwanuka's intentions, DP became identified, in the popular imagination, as a predominantly Catholic party (nicknamed "Dini ya Papa," the religion of the Pope). Earle and Carney's thoroughly researched and detailed narrative convincingly shows that the political geography of Uganda is much more complex. Simplistic ethnic and denominational categories simply do not do justice to the situation. DP was at first seen outside Buganda as an expression of an exclusively Ganda nationalism in Teso (in eastern Uganda); this meant that Catholic intellectuals such as Cuthbert Obwangor became early supporters of UPC. In contrast, in the kingdom of Ankole, DP was seen as anti-monarchist. A coalition between the Protestant elite and the Catholic peasantry led to a DP victory in the elections of the early 1960s. In Buganda itself, the charge of "republicanism" alienated many Catholics, who voted in large numbers for the royalist party, Kabaka Yekka. In the first election, Kiwanuka, with the support from the strongly Catholic Acholi province, was able to win a majority and briefly became prime minister. But he was subsequently outmaneuvered by an alliance between Milton Obote's UPC and Kabaka Yekka. In opposition, Kiwanuka was a valiant defender of human rights. He was imprisoned by Obote, only to be released when the military dictator Idi Amin came to power in 1971. Amin appointed Kiwanuka as Attorney General, but his stout defense of the independence of the judiciary soon alienated Amin, and in 1972 Kiwanuka was arrested, tortured and murdered. There has been a move by the Catholic Church for him to be canonized as a martyr for truth and justice, but the complexity of Ugandan politics has made this problematic (the same can be said of another Ugandan martyr, the Anglican Archbishop, Janani Luwum, whose legacy is also disputed within Uganda). Earle and Carney's excellent book utilizes previously neglected original material and is an important contribution to a more nuanced understanding Uganda's social, religious and political life between 1950 and 1972. [End Page 828] Kevin Ward Leeds University, UK Copyright © 2023 The Catholic University of America Press
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