If Mother Kevin had not stood up to the challenge, feelings arising from the results of changes enumerated above would have come in to haunt her newly established native Religious Institute.  Up to her dying day, she vehemently taught and reminded the Sisters to live the life of the Trinity in “Peace, Union and Charity.”[1]  She also set a rule that required all the members of the Institute to use the English language as their means of commination among themselves throughout the whole Institute, so as to prevent the feelings that would arise from either a superiority or inferiority complex by the various languages of all those who joined the Institute.  However, she required the Sisters to learn the local languages of the people they were sent to serve, and it worked.  She was indeed a true bearer of Christ’s message, “I pray that they may all be one.  Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me.” (Jn. 17:21)[2]  Indeed the natives marvelled at how these young girls, hailing from different cultural backgrounds, could live together in peace; it was a witness to Christ’s prayer come true.  Slowly the people came to learn how to discover the beauty of appreciating unity in diversity, which is the very nature of the Holy Trinity.

The economic situation of Uganda and Kenya (1900 – 1957) and Mother Kevin’s contribution

Uganda and Kenya had similar economic problems between 1900 and 1975 due to the fact that they shared one colonial master whose principles of governance influenced the economy of the two countries. Van Swanenberg & King in their book, An Economic History of Uganda and Kenya between 1800 –1957[3] showed that since pre-colonial times, Uganda and Kenya have gone through economic struggles which have affected their efforts to improve their economic development. A lot was demanded in terms of social, economic, political and spiritual development, as Taylor informs us in his article, “The Struggle for Economic Control of Uganda, 1919-1922.[4]  In the same article, Taylor indicates that in the “Formulation of an Economic Policy in the early years of 1900s to 1962,” there were a few individual missionary personalities, whose works largely contributed to the development of Uganda and Kenya and their contribution is highly recognized.”[5] Mother Kevin is one of those missionaries whose activities greatly contributed to the development of these two countries.  In this section our analysis will be based largely on the economic woes before and during Mother Kevin’s time in Uganda, Kenya, and Africa as a whole, as well as her contributions to the social, economic, political and spiritual development of Uganda.

This section will attempt to document with appreciation the works of Mother Kevin to the economic development of Uganda and Kenya’s economic problems and transitions from the beginnings of the 20^th century.  These years quoted in the heading above fit in the range of the period in which Mother Kevin lived and impacted the two countries.

An economic history of Uganda and Kenya

The material in this section is largely influenced by R.M.A. Van Swanenberg with Anne King in their book, An Economic History of Uganda and Kenya Between 1800–1975. During the early colonial period up to 1929 there was little consistent thought given by the British government to the development of their colonies except for the introduction of new export crops.  While the colonial government, at the beginning, gave free emergency relief and aid, some of the colonialists later became more interested in giving colonial loans, with strings attached, and this severely limited the economic aid and development of the two countries.  The particular aspect of Colonial Capitalism was that the invaders restricted ownership in the areas of greatest profit to themselves.  Until the early 1950s Africans were almost entirely kept out of trade in both Kenya and Uganda and severely limited as to the extent of their production for profits. Europeans and Asians were allowed to produce and trade for profits.  Development Concepts applied by colonialists such as trusteeship and dual policy existed in theory but in practice these policies had little effect on the direction of economic development.  The Second World War demonstrated the immense importance of the British colonies and their economic development began to be considered more important.  New industrial Schemes were begun both in Uganda and Kenya and more public and private investment flowed in.  1954-5 the East African Royal commission was thinking in terms of developing all the resources in the area. The commission’s report was a milestone in the economic thinking of Africa in that it represented the economic growth of the whole of East Africa.

Integration into the world economy

The forceful imposition of capitalization from outside Kenya and Uganda led to the integration of the economies into the world system. Initially this integration occurred only within the scale of geographical areas which produced cash crops. A part from maize the cash crops produced in these areas were coffee and cotton, sugar, sisal etcetera (etc.), and these were entirely exported. Thus, the growth of Kenya and Uganda economy, up until 1945 and in many respects up to the present day, has been dependent on the export of agricultural cash crops.  The East African exports tended to fluctuate so that the income from sales dropped, and consequently the general state of the economy went up and down according to the conditions of demand in Europe.

Uganda’s economic woes (1900 – 1975)

Historically, according to De Haas, the economy of African countries was based on slavery and exchange of abundant resources to minor, or so-called luxurious resources which left most African countries very poor.[6]  We have chosen to concentrate on Kenya and Uganda because these are the countries which were impacted largely by the works of Mother Kevin among the East African countries. “The exploitation of Uganda and Kenya’s workforce as slaves deprived the country’s level of development because only the energetic men and women were needed to work on ‘shambas’ in Western nations.”[7] Given this information, it is well known that taking Ugandan men and women as slaves meant that the country lost the opportunity of transforming its society because the labour that would normally humanize nature through transforming the environment had been removed. The fact was that prior to that event, except for the solitary and historically insignificant example of Southern Iraq, in the 17^th century nowhere in East were there such enormous labour-absorbing plantations or mines as were established in the Americas after the crossing of the Atlantic.

It should be noted that the period between 1900 and 1975 was just a period for the formulation of economic policy that would help in the management of the national economics. In both Uganda and Kenya, the economy largely depended on agriculture which could not entirely sustain these countries. It was majorly a subsidiary mode of agriculture which was on a plantation system in which products would be sold to the market. In 1914 during the outset of the World War I, there were a few skirmishes between the British and Germans on the South Western frontier but Uganda and Kenya were never in danger of the invasion.  The war, however, did retard the countries’ development. Soon after the war, it was decided that the protectorate authorities in Africa should concentrate, as Bell suggested, on growing cash crops such as coffee in addition to cotton.

In the early years of the 19^th century there existed the practice of pre-capitalist system in which   goods are not produced for profit but for meeting the public needs. It was in 1919 that the small, yet well-organized planter sectors began to demand control over the country’s chief resources, land, labour and its economic institutions. Yet by 1922, both the protectorate and the colonial governments acknowledged that African agriculture in Uganda and Kenya was beyond dispute, for it was the dominant mode of production for export. This development has generally been attributed to a variety of factors of which the severe trade depression and changes in colonial office personnel have been considered the most significant. In the 1920s just a few years before World War I, the British planned for the construction of the Uganda railway, running from Jinja to Lake Victoria, to Namasagali and the intent to open up the Eastern province.  The railway further extended from Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast, to Soroti in Eastern Uganda.

In the case of Uganda, kingdom institutions such as Buganda did a lot for the development of Uganda especially in constitutional development and control of societies between 1900 and 1962. The actions of the British in using Buganda were aimed at maintaining peace, security, and development in Uganda.  This was meant to improve their roles and policies during their governance of the country. They wanted to establish a unitary colonial empire through Buganda called the Uganda Protectorate.  It should be noted that though kingdoms such as Bunyoro rejected sub-imperialism colonial style, Buganda suppressed them to unite forcefully into a single country which was later named Uganda.

Following the above events, the colonial government began to show important development interest in providing education to the locals.  The protectorate set up an education department in 1925, while the aid was given to the missionary societies.[8] These societies had already opened a number of schools in Buganda.  The colonial government also established schools in Buganda. This led to the gradual replacement of the older chiefs by young Western educated men who were more capable of carrying out government policies and more agreeable to British control.  In Buganda too, the British government began to interfere more actively in the Kingdom’s affairs in order to increase efficiency.

During World War II, the protectorate faced the task of becoming self-sufficient as it could due to loss of resources in the colonizing country – Britain.  More important for Uganda was the attempt by the governor at that time, Sir Charles Dundan, to reverse his predecessors’ policy and to give freedom to the factions striving for power in Buganda.  The old policy was revived, however, after an outbreak of rioting in 1945 and also in the same year, the first Africans were nominated to the Legislative Council, and in succeeding years, African representation steadily increased.  An important step was taken in 1954 when the African council membership increased to 14 out of a total of 28 non-official members, 14 were selected from districts thought to be more natural units.

Regarding the beginnings of Uganda’s economic growth, De Haas says that “By 1950s, economic growth gradually started as fluctuating world market conditions reduced export earnings and Uganda experienced the political pressures of growing nationalist movements that swept much of Africa.”[9] Uganda started to enjoy a stable economy in the years near to independence.  Despite this growth, agriculture was a major source of the government’s revenue.  In addition, there was little expansion of the manufacturing sector which looked capable of contributing part to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). In 1955, the ministerial system was established to enhance development of different sectors and assist the government in effective ruling.  This started with 5 non-official African ministers out of a total of 11.  The success of this council was undermined, however, by the lack of participation of Buganda, which viewed central legislature as a threat to its autonomy.  This feeling reinforced the resentment Ugandans harboured after Muteesa II had been deported in 1953 for refusing to cooperate with the protectorate government.

In the immediate post war years, the protectorate administration placed greater emphasis on economic and social development than on political advance.  From 1952, the government rapidly expanded secondary education, while legislation was enacted and a loan fund established to encourage Africans to participate in trade.  A relatively ambitious development program was greatly assisted by the high prices set for cotton and coffee.  In 1954 a large hydroelectric project was inaugurated at Owen Falls on the Nile near Jinja and in 1962, a five-year development plan was announced.

[1] “Last Letter of Mother Kevin to the Little Sisters of St. Francis” Mill Hill Fathers Archives, London.
[2] Good News Bible. 1st Edition, Harper Collins Publishers, England, 1976.
[3] van Swanenberg, R.M.A. and Anne King. An Economic History of Uganda and Kenya Between 1800 – 1975. Palgrave Macmillan, Cambridge University Press, London–England, 1975, p. 109.
[4] Taylor, F. “The Struggle for Economic Control of Uganda, 1919-1922.  The International Journal of African Historical Studies, XI, I (1978), p. 26.
[5] Ibid.
[6] De Haas, M. “The Failure of Cotton Imperialism in Africa: Seasonal Constraints and Contrasting Outcomes in French West Africa and British Uganda.” The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, England, 1921, p. 21.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Taylor, F. “The Struggle for Economic Control of Uganda, 1919-1922: Formulation of an Economic Policy”. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, XI, I.  Boston University, USA, 1978, p. 179ff.
[9] De Hass, p. 1098-1136.