Owing to the George Floyd protests in several countries, Ugandans have signed a petition asking for the inclusion of local legends and removing colonialist names on Uganda’s streets. The Sir Samuel Baker Road in Gulu, northern Uganda, is named after a British explorer who is reported to have established the roots of colonialism. As the George Floyd protesters pull down slave owners’ monuments throughout Europe and the United States, thousands of citizens have signed a petition to honor local legends instead of imperial British colonialists and their landmarks in Uganda. The places targeted are those commemorating Henry Colville, Sir Fredrick Lugard, Colonel Trevor Ternan, and Sir Gerald Portal, ‘who were responsible for looting, rape, and murder.’
“We believe that the removal of visible vestiges of a colonial hegemony from public spaces is a crucial part of a process of decolonization,” reads the petition which was set up by corporate lawyer Apollo Makubuya.
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Actions since George Floyd’s gruesome murder in the United States have highlighted the need to contend with inequality and racism. It’s appropriate for blacks to fall in line with their past. Over the decades, Uganda with a population of more than 42 million people was a British protectorate until it gained independence in 1962. Don Wanyama, a presidential spokesman, spoke on Thursday and said it was essential to celebrate Ugandan heroes. It’s the correct decision to pave the way to change. But there’s also no better way to remember the imperialist radicals’ abuse of power than leaving landmarks named after them.
What is important is that blacks know their roots. The Congolese, for instance, would not deny King Leopold. Many have to recall the stormy history. The town of Gulu has a road and school named after the Victorian explorer who died in 1893. The school is named after Sir Samuel. It is claimed that in northern Uganda and southern Sudan he established the groundwork for British colonialism. While Baker was commended for his opposition to the slave trade, he also called Africans “savages.” He claimed they were British and their behavior was “unlike the noble disposition of the dog.” The Pentecostal Church, a rice and bean wholesaler, located in his famed street. There is also a portion full of goats for sale.
“If they want to change it, do so. But not because of the US,” opinioned Otim Julius (67), who was sitting by the roadside with friends. “What happened in the US doesn’t mean people need to be crazy here.”
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Julius proposed renaming the road after Ogwal Bwong, a former Acholi king who ruled in the north of Uganda. “There is nothing yet in the name of Bwong, only songs,” he said. Molly Adong (30), who sells phone credit, said that “people are already used to these labels. Locals will still call it Sir Samuel Baker Road after the name is modified. She also stated she would wish the road to be named after former Ugandan President, Idi Amin. Baker named the Murchison Falls after the Scottish geologist, Roderick Murchison. After Queen Victoria’s consort Prince Albert, he also rechristened Lake Albert, the seventh biggest lake in Africa.
Ugandans were wondering if their names need to be changed, while one man commented in a wry voice, “we have bigger things to worry about.” The Ugandan author Milton Allimadi, who posted a picture from London last year, went viral online when he said he has changed the name “the River Thames” to “River Gulu.” “I don’t know what indigenous people are calling it, but I have given it a proper name,” he wrote. “Sir Milton, you should call me that now.”
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