Uganda: Political Parties Material

Ugandan political parties material, from 1960 onwards, including statements, speeches, letters, conference reports, addresses, press releases, pamphlets, constitutions and other miscellaneous election materials issued by the Democratic Party (Uganda), the Democratic Party Youth Wing, Kabaka Yekka, the Progressive Party (Uganda), the Uganda National Congress, the Uganda National Liberation Front (Anti-Dictatorship), the Uganda National Party, the Uganda National Union, the Uganda People's Congress, and the Uganda Reconstruction Committee.

Uganda achieved its independence in 1962 with Milton Obote of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) as chief minister. The UPC had formed an alliance with Kabaka Yekka, the monarchist party of the Buganda region, in order to defeat the mainly Catholic Democratic Party. Materials from all these groups are held here, many originating from the 1962 elections which were the last to be held in Uganda until 1980. During this period the influence of the military in the country steadily increased, following an army mutiny in 1964 and the Kabaka's deposition in 1966, and culminating in the 1971 coup d'etat that brought Ida Amin to power. The war with Tanzania in 1978-1979 was the catalyst for the removal of Amin's dictatorial regime, but though Obote and the UPC were returned to power in the 1980 election, further human rights abuses eventually led to the installation of a so-called no-party democracy under Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA) in 1986. The events of these traumatic years are documented here and in the Ugandan Pressure Groups Materials.

Alphabetically according to party and then in rough chronological order.

Open to all for research purposes; access is free for anyone in higher education.

Institute of Commonwealth Studies.

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT).

Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute for the Study of the Americas.

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

The Commonwealth Political Parties Materials collection was begun in 1960-61, with special emphasis being placed then, as now, on 'primary material such as party constitutions, policy statements, convention reports and election manifestos.' (ICS, Twelfth Annual Report 1960-1961). Since then, the main method of gathering material has been to appeal directly to political parties throughout the Commonwealth, though contributions from Institute members and staff following visits to relevant countries have been significant.

Further accruals are expected, some in electronic form.

See also Uganda: Pressure Groups Materials (UG.PG) as well as Political Party, Trades Unions and Pressure Group Materials for other Commonwealth countries and related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held at the ICS.