International Journal of Social Science Research (IJSSR)

Was Musaazi a Hero or Not? : An Empirical Assessment of Institutional and Public Perceptions of Ignatius Kangave Musaazi, Founder of Uganda’s First Political Party

This study empirically investigates whether Ignatius Kangave Musaazi (1905–1990), founder of Uganda's first political party, the Uganda National Congress (UNC), warrants recognition as a national hero, despite his expulsion from the very party he founded and his subsequent decades of relative obscurity. Using a mixed-methods design, the study combined quantitative survey data from institutional respondents — foreign diplomatic missions (United States, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom) and political party structures (UPC and CP) — with qualitative interview data from religious leaders, Buganda traditional leaders, and school administrators. The analysis was grounded in three theoretical lenses: Halbwachs' Collective Memory Theory, Moscovici's Social Representations Theory, and Carlyle's Great Man Theory. Findings show an overall affirmation rate of 67.9% (76 of 112 respondents) recognising Musaazi as a hero, with unanimous affirmation among the British embassy, the Conservative Party, Protestant leaders, and Buganda traditional leaders, but weaker and more contested affirmation among Catholic leaders and a marked generational divide among school administrators, with older respondents affirming his legacy and younger ones largely unfamiliar with him. The study concludes that Musaazi's status as a hero is real but institutionally and generationally uneven, shaped more by collective memory within specific communities than by uniform national consensus, and calls for stronger integration of his legacy into school curricula to address the generational memory gap.