Fighting to save Uganda’s historic buildings

Following the demolition of the home of Uganda’s first prime minister, Ben Kiwanuka, there was public outcry over such a monumental building disappearing off the face of the earth.

This was just one of the many historical buildings and sites that have overtime been lost to new development. Many building and sites of such importance in both private and public hands also have their potential neglected.

Activists have for a long time called for the preservation and promotion of different rights of Ugandans. However, less has been done for heritage promotion and preservation.

However, there is a ray of hope. The European Union which is marking the European year of cultural heritage, has partnered with the Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU) to carry out a documentation of some of our heritage buildings.

The 12-year-old civil society organisation promotes the positive aspects of culture in relation to development.

Mr John De Coninck, the CCFU’s programme advisor, says the organisation’s work is “coalesced with what we call three programme areas: Research and training to look at the connection between culture and development in different areas. The second is culture and managing diversity, the existence of our cultural diversity is seen as a handicap to development in Uganda. But we take a positive stance on this and say our culture diversity is a great asset that needs to be strengthened to achieve what we aspire for,” Coninck says, adding that the last is promotion and preservation of our heritage.

“We have also realised that heritage has to be preserved in terms of the built heritage, natural and other aspects of the intangible heritage.”

With support from the European Union, a study and documentation of historical buildings in the three main towns of Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe is being carried out.
According to Coninck, the documentation will not only help to preserve these buildings in records but also raise awareness of the relevancy of the selected building.

“As people become aware of the importance of our built heritage the better because it’s part of our history and culture, and can provide some income,” explains Coninck.

Cause for preservation
Within Kampala, several historical buildings have given way to shopping malls, arcades and hotels. Gone with them is the city’s history and heritage.

“There is fear that if nothing is done Kampala would become one of the capital cities in the world without a visible history,” says Coninck.
As compared to tourist destinations such as Zanzibar, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam where built heritage is part of the key attractions, CCFU believes Uganda is missing out on the same in the name of modernisation.

“The decision to document historical buildings in Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja was as a result of realising that a lot of historical buildings were disappearing. We also realised that documenting something also promotes its preservation. It’s important to protect our built heritage as a way of connecting with our past and also have something to pass on to our future generation,” says Coninck.

One may wonder as to what the role of historical buildings is in the development of a country like Uganda. Places such as Zanzibar owe much of what they are today to the preservation of their built heritage.
“Keeping a historical building does not mean it’s condemned to becoming a museum of some sort with no economic dimension. Developing the economic dimension of such heritage gives them a long term assurance to survive,” Coninck says.

Had Uganda’s successive governments treasured the built heritage of this country, certain areas of Kampala would be tourist attraction sites.
“If all the old buildings in Old Kampala were preserved and the area designated as a pedestrian precinct, by now it would be a great asset to the tourism ministry,” adds Coninck.

“Our plea to government, institutions and individuals with such building is to be more sensitive to our heritage when thinking development. Let us accept that the two can come together in a very synergetic way.”

Besides coming up with a book containing the identified historical buildings, CCFU also plans to develop an application that shows all historical buildings in the three towns and their map.

Call for legislation
Save for the early government after Independence, Uganda has not had a fully-fledged cultural ministry.

At independence it was the Ministry of Culture and Community Development, and the status quo was maintained through the 1970s until 1980s when it was renamed Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports, and in the 1990’s it became a department in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

From there, government washed its hands of on cultural issues and relegated it to traditional leaders. “Our appeal is that it’s to our country’s advantage to have a culture ministry. Uganda is the only country in the region without a culture ministry,” says Coninck.

In the absence of a fully-fledged ministry to advance cultural needs, CCFU has resorted to dealing with town councils to pass ordinances and bylaws to protect historical buildings.

Mr Fredrick Nsibambi, the heritage programmes manager at CCFU, says they have been involved in drafting some pieces of legislation together with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and an ordinance is in the offing.

“There are three pieces of legislations on the preservation of historical buildings in Uganda that are being worked on currently. The museums and monuments policy was completed in 2015, but since then we have not heard any plans on implementation,” he says.

“We have been working with KCCA to come up with an ordinance that will protect historical building in Kampala. Consultation with communities, agencies like the Buganda Heritage and Tourism Board, UTB [Uganda Tourism Board], KCCA and the Uganda Museum has been completed. The draft for Kampala has been passed by the city authority’s legal team and is waiting the discussion by the city’s political wing.”

The ordinance if passed will protect all historical buildings and sites, be they public or private. Under the ordinance, how one can go about modifying a private historical building and how one uses a piece of land next to a historical building with be guided.

“We also want KCCA to start a cultural fund or some incentives to the owners of private historical buildings for sacrificing their piece of land in Kampala for the sake of an old building,” says Nsibambi.
Under the law, if a building is designated as a historical building it will be protected from being put up for sell without the consent of the authorities and in cases where the sell is allowed, the buyer will not be allowed to demolish that property but preserve it.

At the national level, the Heritage Bill meant to replace the 1967 Monument Act has been before the Parliamentary Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs since last year.

“What we want from this law is for its framers to think about the connectivity between the physical aspect of our history and the non-physical, what we call the soft copy of heritage. The law should be able to protect the building and the history behind the building,” says Nsibambi, adding that “My prayer is that this law is worked on soon because if it delays by that time we may have lost too much.”

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