Abstract (eng)
Based on empirical data, this diploma thesis analyses concepts of colonial development in Uganda during the 1930s and thereby aims at contributing to the historiography of development. It tries to pave the way for a more dynamic and diverse understanding of this historiography, focusing on the second half of the 1930s. In relation to the author’s background regarding development and colonial discourses, a hermeneutic appraisal of the documents is pursued. Agriculture and urban planning (of Kampala) are the themes that constitute the dominant issues in the analysis.
As early as during the latter half of the 1930s, traces of concepts of development implemented in later decades can be identified. In this context, social and welfare aspects of development were given a role by the colonial government and regarded as instrumental in the ‘development’ of the territory. A more systematic way of planning a sound and ‘sustainable’ development emerged, which relied on a thorough collection of data allegedly relevant to ‘development’. In the face of an assumed ecological and economic crisis, the authors of some documents showed their will to experiment and to control the population more closely.
In conclusion, then, a phase of colonial rule is being discussed that anticipated a reconfiguration of the colonial state’s role in ‘development’ as well as it exemplified an altered part for ‘social development’ within the broader framework of ‘economic development’ which can be interpreted as an early approach to the (post) colonial developmental state.