THE COLONIAL MILITARY
Recruitment Patterns:
- Colonial states recruited their militaries by ethnicity.
- Belgians armed the Hutu against the more powerful Tutsi in places like Burundi and Rwanda.
- The British kept dominant tribes like the Baganda (Uganda) and the Kikuyu (Kenya) out of the military. The British also kept "warrior races" like the Ashanti in Ghana out of the military.
- The example of the Nigerian military.
The Effects of Military Recruitment Patterns:
Colonial military policy reinforced ethnic fragmentation. Post-colonial states were left with a paradox: how to maintain the stability of the political order while also attempting to forge a more unified nation.
The case of Uganda under Dr. Milton Obote.
