Busoga
Busoga is a traditional Bantu kingdom and one of four constitutional monarchies in present-day Uganda. The kingdom is a cultural institution which promotes popular participation and unity among the people of the region through development programs to improve their standard of living. Busoga strives for a united people who have economic, social and cultural prosperity and assists the Kyabazinga.
Busoga means "Land of the Soga", and is the kingdom of the 11 principalities of the Basoga or Soga people. Its capital is Bugembe, near Jinja. Busoga comprises eight districts: Kamuli, Iganga, Bugiri, Mayuge, Jinja, Luuka and the new districts of Kaliro and Busiki. Each district is headed by an elected chairperson or a Local Council Five, and municipalities are headed by an elected mayor. Jinja is the industrial and economic hub of Busoga. Busoga is bordered on the north by shallow Lake Kyoga, on the west by the Victoria Nile, on the south by Lake Victoria and on the east by the Mpologoma River. It also includes several islands in Lake Victoria, such as Buvuma Island.
The Kyabazinga
Busoga is ruled by the Isebantu Kyabazinga, who is currently William Kadhumbula Gabula Nadiope IV, the Gabula of Bugabula, and grandson to Wilberforce Kadhumbula Nadiope, former vice president and also Kyabazinga of Busoga Kingdom. In 1995, the government restored monarchies in Uganda in Article 246 of the constitution of Uganda. On 11 February 1996, Henry Wako Muloki was reinstated as Kyabazinga Isebantu of Busoga. He served until 1 September 2008, when he died of esophageal cancer at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala at age 87. In a condolence message, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni described Muloki as "a great cultural leader and father" who was "generous and kind". Museveni noted that since his re-installation, Muloki was a unifying factor in Busoga: "The Government has had the privilege of working with Isebantu Muloki in developing our nation". Referring to the Kyabazinga as "a strong pillar", the president said that although Busoga was one of the youngest kingdoms, under Muloki's leadership it had become strong: "Uganda mourns not only one of her esteemed traditional leaders but a national who put development and the welfare of the people of Busoga at the helm of his reign". Muloki's achievements included programs for youth, the elderly, and the poor and the education of girls. Although the Royal Chiefs of Busoga at first elected Edward Columbus Wambuzi, Muloki's son, as Kyabazinga of Busoga, the election was contested due to lack of quorum and thus electing later Gabula Nadiope IV with ten out of eleven chiefs and was crowned on 13 September 2014.History
Early contact with European explorers
Busoga's written history began in 1862. On 28 July Royal Geographical Society explorer John Hanning Speke arrived at Ripon Falls took him around the southern end of Lake Victoria, he approached Busoga from the west. Having reached his goal, he turned northward and followed the river downstream without exploring Busoga. He records, however, being told that Usoga was an island.Demographics
During the 19th century, one of the main routes along which Europeans travelled from the coast to Buganda passed through southern Busoga. Speke, James Grant, Gerald Portal, Frederick Lugard, J. R. Macdonald and Bishop Tucket noted that Busoga had plentiful food and was densely populated. However, between 1898–99 and 1900–01 the first cases of sleeping sickness were reported.In 1906, orders were issued to evacuate the region. Despite attempts to clear the area, the epidemic continued until 1910. As a result, most of the densely populated parts of Busoga were depopulated within ten years. Lubas Palace at Bukaleba and the European fruit mission collapsed, and survivors were relocated to other parts of Busoga. Southern Busoga, about one-third of the kingdom's area, was depopulated by 1910. During the 1920s and 1930s, some evacuees who survived the epidemic began to return to their original land. In 1940 a new outbreak appeared in the area, and only in 1956 did resettlement begin again.
The result of the epidemic was that southern Busoga, its most densely populated area, was virtually uninhabited. Other areas affected by sleeping sickness, including eastern Bukooli and Busiki, were depopulated as well. Famines also triggered substantial population movements. Parts of northeastern Busoga and the adjacent Bukandi district experienced famines in and 1944. Populations in these areas shrank; many people were killed by the famines, and survivors moved to other areas for safety.
The effects of these movements were apparent in the growth in population of central and peri-urban Busoga. Many Basoga left Busoga during this period for other districts.
Economics
During the pre-colonial era, people left their traditional lands and state structures disappeared. A number of clans and chiefdoms were decimated by famine and epidemics, and people migrated to Busoga with the traditions and cultures of other lands. A need for security fueled population growth in urban and peri-urban areas of Busoga such as Jinja, Iganga, Kamuli, Kaliro and their surrounding areasFrom 1920 to the 1970s, Jinja gained economic importance due to cotton production and the completion of the Uganda Railway and the Owen Falls Dam. The town became an agri-industrial centre with factories, cottage industries and a well-developed infrastructure. People from rural Busoga came to work in the factories and in domestic work. Among the newcomers were Asian families. Services such as piped water, electricity, roads, hospitals and schools were improved to serve the growing population. Farmers were assured of markets in the towns, grew cash and food crops such as cotton, coffee, bananas, potatoes, cassava, fruits and vegetables. The standard of living improved; the kingdom's revenue increased, enabling it to build more infrastructure. Subsistence farming diminished, with the population turning to economic production demanded by the Europeans.
By the time of independence in 1962, Busoga was one of the most prosperous regions in Uganda. Jinja was home to 70 percent of Uganda's industries and the Nalubaale Power Station, which supplies electricity to Uganda and parts of Kenya and Tanzania. Jinja was also home to the majority of Uganda's Asian population. These Ugandan Asians, brought to Uganda from the Indian sub-continent by the British during the Raj, helped establish Jinja as one of East Africa's largest commercial centres.
Politics
Around the turn of the 16th century, the Baisengobi clan from Bunyoro gained power. Mukama Namutukula of the royal Babiito family of Bunyoro is said to have left Bunyoro during the 16th century as part of the kingdom's expansion policy, travelling east across Lake Kyoga with his wife Nawudo, a few servants, arms and a dog and landing at Iyingo in northern Busoga.Mukama, who enjoyed hunting, was taken with the land. He engaged in metalworking: blacksmithing and making hoes, iron utensils and spears. Of Mukama's children five boys survived, and when he returned to Bunyoro he gave them land to oversee. His firstborn, Wakoli, received Bukooli; Zibondo received Bulamogi, Ngobi Kigulu, Tabingwa Luuka, and the youngest son, Kitimbo, received Bugabula. These areas later became administrative and cultural centers in Busoga. When Mukama did not return, his sons regarded themselves as the legitimate rulers of their respective areas. They presided over their dominions, employing governing methods and cultural rituals similar to those in Bunyoro. This political and cultural arrangement in Busoga continued until the late 19th century, when the colonialists persuaded its rulers to organize a federation. The federation was governed by a Lukiiko.
Before 1906 although Busoga was called a "kingdom", unlike its western neighbor Buganda it had no central ruler. That year, a king was installed at the behest of the British. Before this, the Basoga were organized in semi-autonomous chiefdoms influenced by Bunyoro and then Buganda. The Bugandan king, the Kabaka, had a centuries-long lineage. In Busoga some of the chiefs were appointed by the Kabaka, and may have been descendants of favored Baganda chiefs who were given authority to rule land in Busoga. Others belonged to landowning families in Busoga who were self-appointed rulers of large areas. The British united the chiefs in the Lukiiko and appointed Semei Kakungulu, a Muganda from Buganda, as its president. Strife amongst the chiefs and clans continued, with most Basoga retaining an affiliation to their chief, clan or dialect, and the Lukiiko collapsed.
Meanwhile, the colonial rulers were grooming Bugabulan ruler Yosia Nadiope as the first permanent ruler of the Busoga Federation. However, in 1913 Nadiope died of malaria. The following year, Bulamogi ruler Ezekeriel Tenywa Wako completed his studies at Kings College Budo. With British support and his administrative and educational background, Wako was a suitable candidate for the post. In 1919, the chiefs of Busoga resolved in the Lukiiko to elect Wako president of Busoga. Gideon Obodha of Kigulu was unfamiliar with the British system, and William Wilberforce Nadiope Kadhumbula of Bugabula was an infant whose regent was ineligible as a mukoopi. In 1918-19, the title of Isebantu Kyabazinga was created and Wako took the throne. He received a salary of £550 and was permitted to collect taxes in Butembe county in compensation for his lost role in the chiefdom of Bulamogi. In 1925 Wako became a member of the Uganda Kings Council, consisting of the Kyabazinga of Busoga, the Kabaka of Buganda, the Omukamas of Bunyoro and Toro and the Omugabe of Ankole.
On 11 February 1939 Owekitibwa Ezekerial Tenywa Wako, father of the last Kyabazinga of Busoga Henry Wako Muloki and the Zibondo of Bulamogi, was installed as the first Kyabazinga of Busoga. By Wako's retirement, the Lukiiko had expanded to include elected representatives.
When Wako retired the Busoga Lukiiko resolved that the Kyabazinga should be elected from the five lineages of Baise Ngobi, hereditary rulers traditionally believed to have been the five sons of the Omukama of Bunyoro who migrated to Busoga from Bunyoro. This method of election was used for subsequent elections, beginning in 1949 when Owekitibwa Chief William Wilberforce Nadiope Kadhumbula of Bugabula was elected. He served for two terms of three years each, followed by Henry Wako Muloki. In 1957, the title Inhebantu of Busoga was introduced for the wife of the Kyabazinga.
When monarchies were abolished in 1966, the Kyabazinga was dethroned. Idi Amin expelled the Asians from Uganda in 1972, and Jinja suffered socially and economically. The government of Yoweri Museveni has tried to encourage them to return. The Asian influence remains, particularly in architecture and street names.
In 1995, the government restored monarchies in Uganda. On 11 February, Henry Wako Muloki was reinstated as Kyabazinga according to Kisogan tradition. Unlike most monarchs, the Kyabazinga has no heir or crown prince but is succeeded by a chief elected by the Lukiiko and the Royal Council.
Past Kyabazingas
Three past Kyabazingas have presided over the federated state of Busoga since 1939: Ezekiel Tenywa Wako, Yosia Nadiope and William Wilberforce Nadiope Kadhumbula. Kadhumbula waged an emizindula and ended a British practice in the fight against smallpox where residents were required to publicly supply rat tails for counting to prove that they had killed the rats. His opposition brought him into conflict with the British; he was exiled to Bunyoro, later leading the Basoga into the Second World War.Kadhumbula played an important role in Uganda's independence struggle; he was also the first vice-president of independent Uganda and chairman of the Uganda People's Congress.
Kadhumbula built infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and government centres, and mobilised the Basoga for agriculture. Balangira High School later became Busoga College.
Political structure
The Busoga Royal Council is composed of the 11 traditional leaders of Busoga: the heads of the five royal families and the six tribal chiefs.| Title | Principality / Chiefdom | Head |
| Zibondo | Bulamogi | Edward Wambuzi |
| Gabula | Bugabula | William Nadiope |
| Ngobi | Kigulu | Izimba Gologolo |
| Tabingwa | Luuka | W. Tabingwa Nabwana |
| Nkono | Bukono | C. J. Mutyaba Nkono |
| Wakooli | Bukooli | David Muluuya Kawunye |
| Ntembe | Butembe | Badru Waguma |
| Menha | Bugweri | Kakaire Fred Menya |
| Kisiki | Busiki | Yekosofato Kawanguzi |
| Luba | Bunha | Juma Munulo |
| Nanhumba | Bunhole | John Ntale Nahnumba |
The Katukiro of Busoga is Joseph Muvawala. The office of the Katukiro in the Kingdom is an important and a vital one. The Katukiro is the head of the kingdom's government, and the spokesperson for the Kyabazinga and the kingdom.