Uganda and Swahili

In the play, Michael’s Uncle Jack has recently rturned from twenty-five years spent as a missionary in a leper colony in Uganda. During that time, Uncle Jack spoke Swahili with the local population, and has forgotten many English words. Uganda is a country in Africa which during the mid-nineteenth century, was subjected to “exploration,” first by Arab traders in search of ivory and slaves in the 1840’s, and then by Egyptian and Sudanese slave traders in the the 1860’s. In 1856, Mutesa I became the ruler of Buganda, a state within the region now called Uganda. tehf amous British explorer, Henry Morton Stanley, arrived in the region in 1875, and pursuaded Mutesa to allow Christian missionaries to enter Buganda. In 1977, the first missionaries from the Church Missionary Society, arrives followed in 1879 bmissionaries from the Roman Catholic White Fathers Mission. Missionaries became influential in the region and were responsible for the establishment of schools in the early 1900’s.

In 1890, the British declared the region to be under their rule; that same year, a treaty between the Imperial British East Africa Company and Buganda’s new leader, Mwanga, secured Buganda as a region under British influence. In 1984, the British government declared Buganda a “protectorate”. After several revolts of 1897, the Buganda Agreement of 1980 determined that local cheifs would maintain power while agreeing to operate under British authority. During the interwar years of the 1920’s and 30’s, the power of local cheifs receded under British intervention. After periods of civil unrest during the post-World War II era, however, Uganda was granted national independance in 1962. The Swahili language spoken by Uncle Jack in Ugandais the mogther tongue of “lingua franca” of many countries along the Eastern Coast of Africa. Swahili originated from the arrival of Arab traders in Africa, and was originally written in Arabic (Although it is now written in the Roman alphabet). It was first adopted by Bantu-speaking tribes, and is similar in grammar to Bantu languages. The use of Swahili eventually spread further into Africa via the Arab ivory and slave trade. European traders and colonists in Africa also began to use Swahili in their contact with African peoples. Today, Swahili is spoken in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.