The period from mid-1890s to early 1960s provides salient events that could be exploited to understand more deeply how the country’s economy continues to unfold. Uganda became a British Protectorate in 1894.
The important question between 1980 and 1928 was who would be the agent of change in agriculture (Mamdani, 1995).
The sector was to be the engine of growth in Uganda given the country’s rich soil and tropical climate.
That period started with a political struggle between the European planters, the local landlords and chiefs on one side, and the peasants on the other.
The peasants prevailed due to the fact that the landlords together with chiefs were parasitic and planters were semi-parasitic, none of them could provide cheap raw materials for exports.
Peasants organized politically as indigenous people who worked on the soil through the Bataka Movement to protect their interests where they succeeded in getting the colonial government to address their concerns.
This culminated into the Land Law, the Busulu and Envujjo Law, which gave peasants the security of land tenure.
In fact, that Land Act was the key factor for the rapid expansion of commodity agriculture in the subsequent period of 1928 to 1949.
