opi 1918

 

 

 

Culturally we the indigenous ethnic groups in Westnile were asking:

 

“Was this not another Kuturiyah Faze?” we thought the British had come to finish off our Elephants and we looked at the Mundu Whiteman Giliya as another glorified and conceited bunch of Ivory Poachers”

 

 

In an effort to alleviate these concerns the First D.C. Anjerekede stopped the shooting of Elephants.

 

But it did not solve the problem we had already gone through the horrors of the Kuturiyah and then the Belgiki and noy the Wangereza? KiriKiri!!

 

Evidence of the Belgian’s atrocities of the unruly Tukutuku from the Congo free Ste was the mass killings of the indigenous from amongst the Orivu Clan un Opi Nyaku of Alinjua and even to this day a cornicle pyramid marks the spot the Belgian Commander was accidentally killed by his own soldiers!

 

Critically we approach all Social Interaction traditionally based on Kinship relationship ties of Intermarriages. They would adamantly State “ We Lugbari are not related to the Mundu (Wasungu) or to any Caucasian tribe, yet the colonial aim of the Brits had come to stay was not understood or was not acceptable to the Indigenous within our Madi-Moru World Point of View and Ideology to state that you have come to stay with us, with whom?, in whose Homestead, Neither Queen Victoria nor her son Edward or King George of the Late King Leopald II of the Belgiki had ever bothered to send Envoys to attend Cultural Funerals or Weddings nor send professional Mourners to sympathize with the bereaved by shedding Mamba crocs tears! We had never shared on a hunt Game Meat with the Brits where specific morsels and sections of meat is distributed amongst specific clan members thus in what capacity did the Brits have the audacity to come and Stay!? On a permanent basis ? Kirikiri!

 

 

This Imperial Axis subject fiefdom relationship was an alien idea to our Traditional Hunter Gatherer mindset that was Egalitarian and almost Socialist like in our point of World View.

 

We therefore viewed the Mundu and Tukutuku as “Ariba” (Enemies) instead of “Or’leba” Relatives or Allies Oriba.

 

Even Amongst the Western Lugbara in Jaki County,Aru County and keliko in the Congo free State we Madi-Moru ethnic group were fighting the colonial authorizes. In a similar contrived as a mass movement manner as a collective, we all refused to enlist in the Kings Africa Rifles to fight in the First world war 1914-1918 only a handful volunteered for service mainly through the Local Militias askaria massed by loyalty to the collaborator Opi like :

 

1.Sultan Adu- Aringa

2.Sultan Babwe-Arua

3.Sultan Ali Kenyi Dada-Koboko

 

And a roster of Opi who gained for their loyalty to the British in kind that is why all returnees from the war front in Kagera and Masai mara were gifted with large swathes of Land in Arua by the Brits as a matter of fact and for the record my very own Grand father was gifted with a large chunk of land in Vurra and a sizable land in Tangnyika Village in Arua next to the Aerodrome .

 

His brother’s Mzee Rajab Yangu and Mzee Muhammed Nyabira all gained from their return from the war front in Koboko and Gulu respectively, where they chose to settle in the Nubi Muslim Communities.

 

However many hereditary Opi resisted and were found to have collaborated with the Mystical Rembi “The rebel Chief of the House of Yakanye” Rembi jo Yakanye.

 

One of the well known Opi with sympathy to the Yakanye Cult was Kamure of Maracha-Yivu who was deported to Ayivu-Muni where his Decedents like Haji Rasas Family group have remained there Ostracized and are called the Lepers Ofude in Muni Parish deliberately by the Colonial Government.

The Mystical Rembi caused a serious uprising in 1917 at Udupi and droves and droves of followers were killed in clashes with the KAR troops just like a similar Majmaji uprising in Tanganyika at the start of the century 1900s; until the eventual capture and deportation of Rembi to the Sudan where he was allegedly executed.

 

Yakanye Movement:

 

The question we must now ask is: Were all rebellions in East and Central Africa inspired by Kakwa’s Rembi and his Yakanye considering the close association between the armed forces and the area from which most of the Kings African Rifles (KAR) armed recruits were originally from? The majority of Kakwa in Ko'buko, for example, cling firmly to this Warrior Tradition dating back to the times of the legendary Rembi Jo Yakan Looking back through well-documented records by J.H. Driberg, during 1918-1919, unrest amongst the Lugbara tribe of Uganda revealed the existence of a secret society known as Yakan (Yakanye).

 

It was also known to Europeans as the Allah Water Cult; probably in association to the legendary Zam-Zam water usually brought back by Pilgrims from Makkah, the holiest center for Muslims around the world. The internal organization of this society (yakan) was not without interest to anthropologists but of more general importance are its origin and ramifications towards the continued re-affirmation of nationalistic tendencies amongst the West Nile Regional Tribes.

 

It is impossible to determine the age of the cult to any degree of accuracy, but it was either inaugurated or resuscitated fifty to sixty years before the critical insurrections between 1918-1919 (probably around 1820).

 

 

Indigenous Research findings on Rembi jo Yakanye by Yuga Juma Onziga of the Rugbuza Kakwa Clan www.kakwa.org :

 

Yuga Juma Onziga, recently asked a Kakwa Elder, Rajabu Awa, Mkungu of Lurujo Clan in Ko'buko if he and the Kakwa ever heard of Rembi.

 

To Juma’s astonishment, not only did they hear of Rembi but they also had precise’ dates at hand in addition to detailing some of his activities.

 

Furthermore, the Elder did briefly narrate to Juma what he had heard of Rembi and promised more detailed information later on. Here, briefly, then is Rajabu Awa’s narration of remembrance of Rembi’s activities, his eventual capture by the giliya [white man], his subsequent disappearance and banishment in much the same manner Kabarega and Mwanga were exiled.

 

Most Kakwa first heard of Rembi when he visited Kapute, the famous chief of the clan called Taranõa, located near Mount Liru. Here, Kapute one day challenged Rembi to prove which of them he (Kapute) or Rembi truly possessed the tobura / to’bunu i.e. extraordinary wisdom, miracle performance and the ability to heal. The contest and its rules were very simple. Dry grass was heaped several metres up one heap for Kapute and the other heap for Rembi. Each contestant was required to get inside the grass whereupon the grass was set alight. Whoever remained alive after the grass was completely consumed in the fire would be considered to have truly been in possession of tobura.

 

On the chosen day of the contest, Kapute assembled his subjects to witness the occasion. Both men got inside their respective heaps of grass and these were lighted up. However, as the flames intensified inside the grass, Kapute jumped outside. He urged the people to join him in watching Rembi burn to death. But Rembi didn’t burn although everyone thought that he did given that his heap of grass was reduced to ashes. All the curious onlookers had their eyes fixed on these ashes when to their utter amazement, Rembi was seen coming foreword smoking his pipe and letting out the smoke smoking gbuwa!gbuwa!gbuwa! In those days, people smoked the pipe.

 

Everyone knew then that Rembi possessed the genuine tobura.

 

After his miraculous escape from the fire, Rembi told everyone to gather for a dance. Before the dance began, he instructed one man to cut a tree of the species called kuju which normally grows along river/stream banks and it bears edible fruits.

Rembi then stuck the tree in the middle of the dance and people concentrated around it. The whole motive behind the dance was to determine who among the dancers was wicked and who was not.

 

Rembi proceeded to determine this by throwing some water up into the air and whoever the water dropped upon would shoot up the branchless kuju tree to the very top.

 

While there, he would swing/sway himself about while singing. He would then point out the wicked among the people in the crowd; such wicked people would then leave promptly from the dance. This was the beginning of Rembi’s miracles.

Rembi, now regarded as a great chief among his followers, was eventually known far and wide. He was known to gather his people around him for protection claiming them as his. In 1913, white men used to travel from home to home all over the West Nile as a means of gauging the loyalty of the people towards the new administration. Whoever refused to cooperate was shot to death on sight. The white men were aware of Rembi’s fame and were so confident that the Kakwa would not accept their government.

 

One day when our people were with Rembi, the aliens tried to shoot to Rembi and his crowd at a close range. However, every time they did so, they could not manage to hit our people as the bullets would turn into water.

 

This frustrated the British so much that they decided to capture Rembi and to take him to Arua alive! In Arua, they tied Rembi up and locked him up in a jail. The prison door was securely locked and an armed Asikari was ordered to guard him overnight in order to prevent any escape. The following morning when the whiteman came to check on the Kakwa prisoner, there was no Rembi inside.

 

The guard swore that he had not left his guard duties even for a moment throughout the night and that in any case the lock was still intact. Then just then Rembi emerged from a different direction and came foreword to the whiteman. The white man was so furious that he at once fired several rounds of his gun at Rembi but all those bullets missed to hit Rembi. Rembi then calmly reminded the white man that he (Rembi) couldn’t be touched by his bullets.

 

If he (the white man so desired), let him take him anywhere in the world they wished. Rembi was then taken alive, not killed,

and because all our people were left behind, nobody knew to which place he was taken. He is said to have said that he was being banished with his Tobura intact and that he also wanted to lessen the torturing attempts being pursued by the Europeans on him and our Kakwa people. Rembi’s Tobura and miraculous deeds are what are generally known in Kakwa as Yakanye. Rembi had predicted years earlier that one day people putting clothes would emerge as well as something that would resemble the tortoise.

 

The people in question turned out to be the White men and the tortoises turned out to be the automobiles.

 

It was said that Rembi came from a place called Kojugo, located near Kaya, just across from the Uganda-Sudan border.

 

Rembi’s father’s name is said to be Yangi. (NOTE:- Mr. Awa promised to one day go to Kojugo and speak to one of his brothers a man by the name of Kassim Alungbi who would shed more light on Rembi after 1913).

 

The Yakanye Cult Died out after 1919:

 

This was, of course, to some extent due to the physical defeat of its adherents and the deportation of the leaders like Rembi. But there were deeper reasons that prevented a reappearance of the cult. The mass of its adherents were ordinary men and women who found in it opportunity to free themselves from the authority of their seniors. It seems that during the dozen or so years of epidemics, the senior men had to impose their authority over their dependents more and more strictly. This was resented by the younger men, who also had the example of the suddenly rich and powerful chiefs as people who had been able to acquire much power and wealth and wealth without having the proper genealogical status. One way in which younger men could rid themselves of what they considered the irksome authority of their seniors was to join the cult. But when its organization was destroyed, alternatives were already appearing. Rather than try to resurrect the cult, young men found the new chances moving from one part of the country to another or of going to southern Uganda as labor migrants in places like Lugazi in Mukono District and Kakira in Iganga District.

 

In either case they could become free of lineage authority, at least temporarily, if they went south as laborers they could earn money and become to some extent economically independent of their elders point of reference it is interesting that they have never felt the need to return the bodies of their dead to their fatherland but have instead buried them in places like Buyukwe, Bugembe and Lugazi I might add. The term Rembi means "never-ending" or "everlasting." Hence, Kudu laga a-rembi literally means rain which never ends or “Persistent Rainfall” .

 

By 1919 the Brits had taken Root in Westnile proper when Mzee Ramadhan Moro Dudu Amin Dada was born to Mzee Amin Dada and Mama Aisha Asha Aate Chumaru but because of the ongoing insecurity situation among the Madi-Moru and Lugbara the Outlaying District was decalred a “Closed District” under the Uganda Outlaying Districts Ordinance Rule Book, Any person wishing to enter the westnile was required to deposit with the District Commissioner a sum of money not exceeding 500 “Robia” Rupee as security for your Good behavior in the district.

 

The colonial administration was strongly supported by the Various armed services manned mainly by the Hostile Nubi Community and the Balushi Muslim Community in West Nile who were looked at by the indigenous with suspicion from the time of Emin Pasha’s equatorial Province and when the Balushi were brought to hold down the Nubian Mutiny of 1897 at Jinja the were now sent to trouble spots before the 5th Battalion of the KAR was consolidated into the 4th battalion KAR, despite the fact that the Nubi were part and parcel of the Lado Enclave and most could trace their lineage to the indigenous tribes in the region they were still held under suspicion because of the Era of the Kuturiyah where ironically they were most likely the decedents of the victims of slavery who were mainly women and children while the men in the affected villages were wiped out during the slave raids, thus the children would come back as Jjihadiyah Riflemen for the slavers or the Mahdists and were heavily invested in the Gordon,Samuel Baker and Emin Pasha Administrations in Lado Enclave right down to the shores of Lake Albert and the Lendu, Mahagi and Alur regions in Congo Free State.

 

This Muslim Ummah Ju’Nubi Southerner Community were in a dilemma for they viewed everyone they met in their former motherland as Slaves "La’abi" companions of the rope or bondage ’ despite the fact they were former slaves themselves and upheld a misplaced superiority complex which was correctly reciprocated by the indigenous ethnic tribes. Alas because of the Agreement Between Selim Bey Matara and Captain Fredrick Lugard and their sterling track record in the Armed Services the Nubi manned the Army K.A.R. Police and Prisons while Ganda Clerks manned the Courts,Church Clegy and Schools for the intended Indoctrination of People in favour of White Rule.

 

 

Indeed Colonialism had come to stay.

 

 

Kikoloni:

 

 

Governor Sir Fredrick Jackson was replaced by Governor Sir Robert Coryndon who proclaimed the establishment of Native Courts to persecute the restive Indigenous population after the situation had cooled down after the great War to End all Wars WWI in 1919.

 

County Courts were opened in:

1.Aringa

2.Terego

3.Maracha

4.Ofude

5.Koboko

6.Ayivu

7.Luku

8.Adumi

9.Vurra

10.Logiri

11.Bondo

 

Loyal Collaborator Local Opi were appointed at various levels of Government to handle problems as they arose.

 

On a daily basis Immediately below the district commissioner’s there were appointed County Chiefs Eg. Opi or Sultans.

 

Under whom were sub-county Wakil or Jaogo/Jagwe; Below which was the Wakungu (Singular Mukungu) or Parish Opi while at the Homestead village cell level was the Nyampara or Andrelicoma “One who takes letter” (Messenger) in the early morning thus Andrelicoma means “The morning dew has washed me”.

 

This amazing chain of command was instituted such that The Colonial Secretary’s directives sitting in Whitehall London would be Effected from Coryndons supervision in Entebbe by Colonial Dominion Lon-EBB-ARU down to the Andrelicoma in Arua, a seamless line of Communication came in being.

 

We came to resentfully view the collaborators as agents or stooges of the Mundu, we viewed and called them Ogara’ba or Mundu’ba (People of the Europeans). They were collaborators and spies of the New World Order. There was little the indigenous could do to reverse the tide of Events and we had to Submit and Grudgingly Accept the Bitter Colonial Pill .

 

 

The Most Notorious of the Colonial Opi or Sultans who inherited their positions from their equally notorious Fathers were:

 

1.Juma Bondo

2.Marko Boroa

3.Noar Fadhilmulla Ajikua

4.Augusto Agaali

5.Obitre Onyolo

6.Yeremia Buzu

7.Mzee Nasur Okuti

 

By Uhuru Independence 1962 Marko Boroa was designated paramount Chief Agofe/ Obimo of West Nile District.

 

In 1963 this Colonial Office was abolished and replaced by a Secretary General an Office which was occupied by one Nikonora Abanya of Terego County.

 

 

The Initial Administrative Map of West Nile Province:

 

1.Jonum

2.Padyere

3.Okoro

4.Madi-Okolo

5.Vurra

6.Ayivu

7.Arua

8.Terego

9.Maracha

10.Koboko

11.Aringa

12.Obongi

13.Moyo

14.Adjumani

 

 

 

Epilogue :

 

Launch of the West Nile Cultural & Tourism Initiative on 21st April 2014

With the impending Centenary Celebrations on 21st April 2014 we welcome the timely emergence of the Northwestern region from a period of Strife towards rejuvenation post 1979 Civil war and the seeming abandonment of the whole region in the 1980s, we would like to bring to your attention the vital historical significance of Ajai Wildlife reserve and Rhino Camp on the Banks of the Great River Nile.

 

We have noted that on the Uganda Tourism Ring Road Circuit North Western Uganda was not included in the master plan and we Suggest that the above two Historical Sites be included in a Tourist trail that can start from Pakwach the Site of the Total Solar Eclipse through the great Alur Kingdom and Onwards to Arua the administrative Capital of West Nile with Historical land marks like the Ombacci Earth Satellite Station and the Relevant Ombacci Catholic Mission where Ombacci massacre happened.

 

The ancestral Mountains of Wati and Liru are in a triangular proximity and should be part of the Tourist Trail that will take us to Ajai and Rhino Camp Wild Life reserve and onwards Wadelai the last administrative Capital of Emin Pasha in the late 1800s.

Through your good office the Two Wildlife reserve should be upgraded to National Park Status and they could spearhead the restocking of White Rhino to its original habitat in a Eco Tourism Drive.

 

The Wildlife went through further depletion in the post 1979 and 1980s before the eventual normalization in 1986.

 

A monument will be unveiled at Giligili by his Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, which will in turn Officially launch the West Nile Cultural & Tourism Initiative whose Aims and Objectives are as follows:

 

To promote Uganda’s tourism by showcasing the rich historical, cultural and tourist sites of West Nile Sub-region

 

To Create a positive awareness about the region as a favourable trade and investment alternative Investment is earmarked in key identified Tourist Sites like Wadelie,Ajai and Rhino Camp.

 

To Increase PPP Public Private Partnership Funding in the Tourism and Antiquities Sector.

 

The Centenary has come at an opportune moment and the West Nile Sub region has a niche attraction e.g. the famous Blue mountain range alluded to by Stanley and famous explorers like Dr. Junker, the landscape, waterfalls and unique monuments has held a fascination to intrepid explorers for generations.

The region has been enjoying peace reconciliation and stability since the end of home grown insurgency and Kony lead appraisals in the area.

 

Major Infrastructural projects is transforming the whole region and we wish the West Nile to be included in the Ring Circuit as based on the Ministry of Tourism master Plan for a Ring Road around our great Country Uganda.

 

On 21st April 2014 we welcome Investors and likeminded organizations to contribute towards the successful Establisment of the West Nile Cultural & Tourism Initiative and Your Generosity will be highly appreciated.

 

For God and My Country

 

 

2014

 

 

Done