In a recent landmark judgment, the Benet Ndorobos of Eastern Uganda were finally recognized as the historical, indigenous inhabitants of Mount Elgon, guaranteeing their right to land and development in the area by the country’s High Court.
The Benet Ndorobos have endured more than 20 years of marginalization and insecurity resulting from an ongoing land conflict with the government of Uganda.
Since June 2003, the Benet Lobby Group, represented by the land rights organization Uganda Land Alliance, has attempted to resolve the conflict by pursuing legal action against the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). The UWA is considered an arms-length agency of the government.
Following successive conservation efforts prompted by international pressure, the government of Uganda designated the upper perimeters of the mountain a national park, resulting in a conflict of conservation goals versus the land rights of the indigenous communities who have lived there for centuries.
"The Benets have lived within the Mount Elgon moorland and grasslands before it was made a forest reserve by the British colonial government in 1920," explains David Mukhwana, the land rights program officer from Uganda Land Alliance.
Nevertheless, until the court decision, it was illegal for the Benet people to undertake any development such as planting trees, tending to crops, building roadways, or repairing schools within the government-drawn boundary lines. As a result, services in the area are massively underdeveloped and children fall well below the national standards for education. In Benet sub-county, less than one percent of women are literate.
The court’s ruling in favor of the Benets should pave the way for improvements, however.
"According to the constitution of the Republic of Uganda, the Benets qualify as a marginalized people and affirmative development [will] address the social imbalance that they have been facing for decades. This would include the provision of road networks and the construction of schools and health and community centers, which the community has been disallowed from building or repairing during the land dispute," said James Nangwala, the lawyer representing the Benet case.
To guarantee their entitlement to the land, the Benets went to court, calling for the land deemed encroached upon to be de-gazetted so people could remain where they have been living, and for the urgent provision of affirmative development action by the government.
The courts granted the Benets both of these demands, given the problems resettlement programs had created in the past and the ongoing denial of basic human rights that were jeopardizing the survival of the people.
However, the community still has far to go in its efforts to preserve the culture and the ecosystem on which they rely, not to mention in making peace with their neighbors and the park rangers after years of strained and even violent relations.
Just days after the October 27 ruling, community members were reporting that park rangers, demanding ransom payments, had confiscated their animals.
The Benets may be celebrating their hard earned victory, but if history can offer any lessons, it is that the government may not spring into action for development and peace without a concerted effort to build on their goals for environmental conservation, too.
