The Struggle for Economic Control of Uganda, 1919-1922: Formulation of an Economic Policy

Abstract

In Uganda, the period between 1919 and 1922 was crucial to the formulation of a government economic policy which depended almost exclusively on African agriculture as the basis for economic growth. From the first years of colonial rule to the end of the First World War, Uganda's economy had expanded within the loosely structured framework of an officially undefined dual-economy in which the cultivation of both European plantation and Africangrown cash crops was actively encouraged. By 1919, however, it had become apparent that these two systems were, in fact, diametrically opposed and inherently incapable of coexistence and unlimited expansion on a parity basis.' It was in 1919 that the small yet well-organized planter sector began to demand control over the country's chief resources, land and labor, and its economic institutions. Yet by 1922, both the protectorate and colonial governments had acknowledged that African agriculture in Uganda was, beyond dispute, the dominant mode of production for export. This development has generally been attributed to a variety of factors, of which the severe trade depression and changes in colonial office personnel have been considered the most significant. The conflict itself has been portrayed as a localized power struggle between the advocates of the two systems.2 This approach, however, needs to be