Africa’s Indigenous Democracies: The Baganda of Uganda

Abstract

The discourse on democracy often acknowledges the complex nature of this tantalizing concept, starting with the absence of an agreed inclusive definition. George Orwell adds that ‘not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides’ (Orwell, 1968: 132). One possible explanation for this state of affairs might lie in the concept’s universal appeal: it is a label which many entities strive to attach to themselves and to their practices because, as Orwell further explains, ‘[i]t is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it’ (Orwell, 1968: 132).