Abazeeyi b’ebama: memory, honour, and compensation of Uganda’s world war II ex- servicemen, 1945 to 2021

Abstract

This essay is about a group of people who contest their position in the frontier of national memory and whose calls for honour and compensation have gone unheeded. For most of their life, since they returned from the Great War, Uganda’s World War II veterans have contested how their service in the war has been remembered, honoured, and compensated. Britain, Uganda’s colonial power, drafted up to 77,000 Ugandans who were part of the 470,000 Africans recruited from British colonies in Africa (Schleh, 1968, p. 203). A total of 1,894 Ugandan servicemen died in the war, of whom 279 died in battle while 1,615 died of other causes like disease and accidents (Gardner, 2003, p. 96).1 Ugandans remember in various ways the World War II ex-serviceman. The ex-serviceman is remembered as a survivor (Kawonawo) and a member of a military regiment (Namba Munaana and the Abaseveni).