Chapter 1 : pre-colonial Uganda

Abstract

Human history, however, is a product of human labor, the medium of interaction between man and his environment. Through his labor, man appropriates and humanizes nature, in the process transforming himself, making his own nature. As men labor, they make history. To understand history, then, wo need to look at man, not as a racial being, but.as a productive being who finds himself in a particular environment. The development of a people begins with their appropriation of nature and with the social relations they forge in the process of sustaining and reproducing themselves, An analysis of the historical development of pre—colonial social formations in Uganda is, however, beyond the scope of this essay. Our purpose is rather limited: to delineate the essential features at the dawn of colonialism, the latter half of nineteenth century.