‘Uhuru Rwenzururu’: The Limits of Self-Determination at the United Nations

Abstract The Rwenzururu movement was a secessionist movement that originated in western Uganda during the colonial era but whose claims for recognition gained traction in the independence period. It sought to secede from Uganda after decades of discriminatory treatment by the British colonial administration, the Toro group, and eventually an independent Ugandan state. Aware of the role of the United Nations (UN) in facilitating decolonisation across the African continent from the 1950s onwards, the Rwenzururu movement sought to insert itself in this epoch of decolonial changes. The movement was led by Isaya Mukirane, whose vision of internationalising the Rwenzururian campaign for self-determination initiated a series of petitions to the UN between 1962 and 1976. Petitions were brimming with hope in the 1960s and became more incendiary in the 1970s as the world’s power brokers did not respond to Rwenzururian appeals. The article traces how the movement adopted different methods, from waging a guerrilla war to diplomacy, to achieve self-determination and recognition from the international community. It connects the Rwenzururian struggle for autonomy to the contestations of minority rights at the UN. The article also highlights how the Rwenzururu movement still exercised agency by practising self-determination within the borders of the Rwenzururu Kingdom, even as it did not have multilateral engagement or attain official recognition from the UN.