Attorney General Dr. Sam Mayanja has launched a book tracing Uganda’s land ownership disputes to the 1900 Buganda Agreement, arguing that colonial land policies dispossessed ordinary people and laid the foundation for decades of evictions and resistance.
Mayanja launched the book, titled The Odyssey in the Uganda Land Cobwebs, during the virtual Independence Day celebrations at State House Entebbe, where he presented it to President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
The book examines the historical roots of land ownership and tenure in Uganda, the struggles of peasants under colonial rule, and the political movements that emerged in response to land dispossession. It assesses the NRM’s interventions in land administration and has a chapter on what Mayanja describes as “Musevenomics”, examining the government’s economic transformation agenda.
Speaking during the launch, Mayanja said his appointment as Minister of State for Lands over five years ago gave him an opportunity to investigate Uganda’s land tenure systems and understand the hardships faced by people living on land they consider their ancestral property.
He said his research traced many of the grievances to the 1900 Buganda Agreement, which reorganised land ownership in the kingdom under British colonial rule.
According to Mayanja, the agreement created a system that concentrated land ownership in the hands of the colonial administration and selected chiefs, leaving many ordinary people without secure ownership rights.
He described the changes as a catastrophe for peasants, who subsequently faced evictions and were forced to move in search of places where they could settle.
Mayanja cited historical accounts, including writings attributed to Bishop Alfred Tucker, to illustrate the scale of displacement and the resulting social tensions. He argues that the land arrangements created a class of landlords who collected rent and other payments from peasants occupying land they no longer owned.
The minister said colonial authorities later introduced limited protections for tenants, including security of occupancy for some bibanja holders, but these came with conditions such as growing cotton and paying rent. He said tenants could still face eviction despite the limited protections.
Mayanja linked the resulting grievances to the emergence of organised resistance among peasants and farmers during the colonial period.
He cited the activities of political organisers, including Ignatius Kangave Musazi, and the formation of the Uganda National Congress in 1952 as part of the historical development of Uganda’s independence movement.
He argued that the struggle over land rights formed part of the broader resistance that eventually contributed to the political movements leading to independence and later, the NRM.
Turning to the current government, Mayanja credited the NRM with restoring stability in land tenure and introducing legislation intended to protect landowners and address longstanding disputes.
He said the book documents the historical resistance to land dispossession and the measures taken by the NRM government to restore land ownership to people whose rights had been undermined.
The book also examines government’s economic policies, which he refers to as “Musevenomics”, arguing that they have contributed to Uganda’s industrialisation and economic development.
However, he acknowledged that the country still has work to do, presenting the book as both a historical account and an assessment of the progress and challenges that remain.
Mayanja’s presentation placed land reform within the wider political history of Uganda, connecting colonial-era land arrangements to contemporary debates over ownership, security of tenure, evictions and the government’s responsibility to resolve disputes.
Land remains a contentious issue in Uganda, particularly in areas where customary and registered interests overlap and where occupants, landlords and other claimants contest ownership. Disputes over kibanja occupancy, evictions and competing land claims continue to pose challenges for communities and land administration authorities.
Through Odyssey in Uganda, Mayanja seeks to place these contemporary concerns within a longer historical narrative, arguing that understanding the origins of the country’s land tenure system is essential to assessing the reforms introduced since independence and the challenges that remain-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
