In the decades after World War II, European colonialism quickly
faded, creating dozens of new states by 1970. In Britain's
African possessions, local resistance movements accelerated the
independence process. The Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the
early 1950s led the British to plan for the gradual independence
of their African colonies over a period of two to three decades.
However, further unrest in Malawi and East Africa in 1959 and
1960 forced them to expedite the process. As a result, Uganda
and other nations acquired independence in the early 1960s
without the established institutions necessary for a stable
transfer of power. This institutional weakness, coupled with the
multiethnic character of the new nations, created a serious
threat of internal conflict. Uganda's situation at the time of
independence appeared promising. Prime Minister Milton Obote
presided over the various groups within the country. The largest
of these, the Buganda, enjoyed semiautonomous status in their
homeland of Buganda; a role