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Describe The Tributary Economic System in Buganda Kingdom

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The tributary economic system in Buganda had traces of the lineage M.O.P. Tribute
payment was based on land ownership. It was a reciprocal system i.e it was not a direct
form of rent payment for land use. The Baganda cultivators paid tribute to the state and
the state in turn provided security/defense against external aggression.

Land was communally owned along patrilineal lineages with household heads in charge
of its utilization. Land was individually cultivated – no two different families could till
the same piece of land at the same time. The kingdom’s land as divided into
administrative divisions under chiefs who were nominees of the king. People under the
chief paid tribute to the king through the chief who appropriated part of it for
redistribution through consumption e.g. ceremonies, visitors, poor people, strangers etc.
Village elders supervised the payment of tribute by villagers.

Tribute was a sign of appreciation for the king’s protection. Neither the king nor the chief
could be referred to as a feudal lord in the European sense.
Theoretically, land belonged to the king but land was controlled by clan elders called
Bataka. They determined accessibility to, the utilization and ownership of land and its
distribution.

The expansion of land that a kingdom possessed was both economic and political i.e.
economically the territory was useful to the king in terms of tribute acquisition while
politically it increased his power and influence.

The elders and chiefs played a supervisory role and arbitration over land matters. Every
individual had a right to the occupation and use of land. Rights to land and its resources
were protected by customary law.

The main economic unit of production and consumption was the household. Part of its
production was alienated by the king, part was used in exchange and in the household’s
sustenance. The household head organized the labour activities. Exchange was carried
out by both women and men in respective commodities.

According to Nabudere (1986) and Mamdani (1983) the Baganda cultivators were not
evicted due to failure to pay tribute because tribute was not the same as rent. Tribute was
not fixed. The clan elders or Bataka are the ones who held the final administrative powers
over land.

This tributary system and land ownership system changed drastically from 1900
following the Buganda Agreement with the British. The Kabaka and the British colonial
government alienated land that was previously owned and cultivated by the Baganda
turning them into crown peasants and agricultural producers for the state. The latter
changes led to the following:
- Taxes were now paid to the colonial government and were fixed
- Production for export was initiated e.g. cash crops e.g. cotton and coffee
- Land became crown land as many African labourers were forcefully required to
work on it.

Titany answered the question on December 8, 2021 at 07:20

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