1. History of Buganda
Main article: History of Buganda
The kingdom of Buganda is situated in a swampy hillside that served as a refuge for
those escaping rivalries in neighboring Bunyoro. One faction fleeingBunyoro, under the
leadership of Prince Kimera, arrived in Buganda toward the last quarter of the 14th
century. The prince molded the already existing refugees in the area into a unified state
and became the first Kabaka (ruler) of Buganda.
By the 18th century, the formerly dominant Bunyoro kingdom was being eclipsed by
Buganda. Consolidating their efforts behind a centralized kingship, the Baganda (people
of Buganda) shifted away from defensive strategies and toward expansion. By the mid
19th century, Buganda had doubled and redoubled its territory conquering much on
Bunyoro and becoming the dominant state in the region. Newly conquered lands were
placed under chiefs nominated by the king. Buganda's armies and the royal tax
collectors traveled swiftly to all parts of the kingdom along specially constructed roads
which crossed streams and swamps by bridges and viaducts. On Lake Victoria (which
the Ganda called Nnalubale), a royal navy of outrigger canoes, commanded by an
admiral who was chief of the Lungfish clan, could transport Baganda commandos to
raid any shore of the lake. The journalist Henry Morton Stanley visited Buganda in 1875
and provided an estimate of Buganda troop strength. Stanley counted 125,000 troops
marching off on a single campaign to the east, where a fleet of 230 war canoes waited
to act as auxiliary naval support.
At Buganda's capital, Stanley found a well-ordered town of about 40,000 surrounding
the king's palace, which was situated atop a commanding hill. A wall more than four
kilometers in circumference surrounded the palace compound, which was filled with
grass-roofed houses, meeting halls, and storage buildings. At the entrance to the court
burned the royal gombolola (fire), which would only be extinguished when the Kabaka
died. Thronging the grounds were foreign ambassadors seeking audiences, chiefs
going to the royal advisory council, messengers running errands, and a corps of young
pages, who served the Kabaka while training to become future chiefs. For
communication across the kingdom, the messengers were supplemented by drum
signals.
The British were impressed with government of Buganda. Under Kabaka Mwanga II,
Buganda became a protectorate in 1894. This did not last and the Kabaka declared war
on Britain in on July 6, 1897. He was defeated at the battle of Buddu on July 20 of the
same year. He fled to German East Africa where he was arrested and interned at

2. Bukoba. The Kabaka later escaped and led a rebel army to retake the kingdom before
being defeated once again in 1898 and being exiled to the Seychelles.
While in exile, Mwanga II was received into the Anglican Church, was baptized with the
name of Danieri (Daniel). He spent the rest of his life in exile. He died in 1903, aged 35
years. In 1910 his remains were repatriated and buried at Kasubi. [5]
Kabaka Mwanga II Buganda was allowed near complete autonomy and a position as
overlord of the other kingdoms.
The war against Kabaka Mwanga II had been expensive, and the new commissioner of
Uganda in 1900, Sir Harry H. Johnston, had orders to establish an efficient
administration and to levy taxes as quickly as possible. Sir Johnston approached the
chiefs in Buganda with offers of jobs in the colonial administration in return for their
collaboration. The chiefs did so but expected their interests (preserving Buganda as a
self-governing entity, continuing the royal line of kabakas, and securing private land
tenure for themselves and their supporters) to be met. After much hard bargaining, the
chiefs ended up with everything they wanted, including one-half of all the land in
Buganda. The half left to the British as "Crown Land" was later found to be largely
swamp and scrub.
Johnston's Buganda Agreement of 1900 imposed a tax on huts and guns, designated
the chiefs as tax collectors, and testified to the continued alliance of British and
Baganda interests. The British signed much less generous treaties with the other
kingdoms (Toro in 1900, Ankole in 1901, and Bunyoro in 1933) without the provision of
large-scale private land tenure.
Following Uganda's independence in 1962, the kingdom was abolished by Uganda's
first Prime Minister Milton Obote in 1966. Following years of disturbance under Obote
and dictator Idi Amin, as well as several years of internal divisions among Uganda's
ruling National Resistance Movement under Yoweri Museveni, the President of
Uganda since 1986, the kingdom was finally restored in 1993. Buganda is now a
kingdom monarchy with a large degree of autonomy from the Ugandan state, although
tensions between the kingdom and the Ugandan government continue to be a defining
feature of Ugandan politics.