There are many plants and animals that I grew up in the 1950s seeing as integral to the agroecology and biocultural landscape of Busoga, which my children aged 34 to 53 will never see in their lifetime. For example, I saw a variety of banana plants that are no more, and I saw a variety of animals that are no more. Lions, elephants, buffaloes, Zebras, hyenas, cheaters, leopards, wilddogs, among others, enjoyed themselves in the biocultural landscape of Busoga.
One reason why almost every kind of animal thrived well in Busoga was the expansive swamps which were everywhere in Busoga..Busoga is still a land of swamps, although some have disappeared due to human activities, but virtually all the animals that used to converge in Busoga, thanks to the diverse habitats, are now only represented in ecological-historical accounts.
In this article, I want to focus on maize, which used to be very much integral to the agro-ecology and biocultural landscape of Busoga but is no longer a common feature. A friend from Toro told me the kind of maize in beautiful colours also thrived in that part of Uganda. There is no reason to doubt that the maize existed in almost every part of Uganda and has universally become extinct before our own eyes and beyond our capacity to intervene.
There are many reasons why the beautifully coloured, very sweet maize has become extinct before our own eyes and amidst our helplessness the same way numerous plant and animal species have become extinct. I can not state all the reasons but only a few.
One reason is that we were colonized, conquered and had our collective mind towards our local plants and animals changed by the colonialists. They introduced their plant varieties from elsewhere, including maize, made us start hating our local foods in favour of theirs, and a process of elimination of our local foods started.
For the animals, apart from destroying their habitats to grow the crops they preferred, such as sugarcane,coffee and cotton, they deliberately eliminated wilddogs from our biocultural landscape. They reasoned that wilddogs we’re bad animals because they mistreated their prey during feeding. For example, if they succeeded in catching up with a zebra they started eating it from any of it’s body parts and within a few minutes, it was no more, together with it’s bones. After all the wild dogs had the most powerful jaws of all meat eaters.
I don’t know why the Creator or Nature preferred to populate our agroecological systems and biocultural landscapes diverse living things. But I can guess from my background ecological knowledge. God and Nature hate similarity and love difference. Thus God is God of complexity. So is Nature. Besides, both God and Nature love beauty.
While we had butterflies everywhere, they occurred in diverse colours. No wonder, maize also occurred in diverse colours. I remember when I was growing up in Busoga in the 1950s, if my mother wanted to roast maize for me she would not just choose for me. She would ask me which colour I wanted. She did not know that she was imparting a lasting impression on me: choosing for myself and not relying on the choices of others. She was also teaching me to question the choices of others and not just embracing them at a glance.
Our beautifully coloured maize was not only sweet but was also extremely resistant to pests. It did not need pesticides nor industrial fertilizers to thrive in the biocultural landscape. It is possible the colonialists wanted maize that would perennially require us to use pesticides and industrial fertilizers, of course from their home industries. This explains why our beautifully coloured and sweet maize gave way to the white man’s maize.
The writer, Prof. Oweyegha Afunaduula is a retired univeis a retired university lecturer and environmentalist
