Bunyoro

Bunyoro, also called Bunyoro-Kitara, is a traditional Bantu kingdom in Western Uganda. It was one of the most powerful kingdoms in Central and East Africa from the 16th century to the 19th century. It is ruled by the King (Omukama) of Bunyoro-Kitara. The current ruler is Solomon Iguru I, the 27th Omukama.
The kingdom of Bunyoro was established in the late 16th century by Rukidi-Mpuga after the dissolution of the Empire of Kitara amid Luo migrations to the region. The founders of Bunyoro-Kitara were known as the Babiito, a people of Luo origin who succeeded the Bachwezi. Rukidi Mpuga was the first king of Bunyoro. He was called "Rukidi" because he was born in Bukidi (Luo/Madi area of northern Uganda), and "Mpuga" means "a cow with white spots" in the Nyoro language. He was named "Mpuga" because "one of his sides was very white like his Bachwezi father’s, the other black like his Bakidi mothers'," which signified his mixed ancestry.
According to Banyoro tradition, Rukidi sent his twin, Kato, to rule the southeast, however he declared independence and established the kingdom of Buganda (Bunyoro's historical rival). Another tradition says Buganda's third king, Kimera, came from Bunyoro to establish a Babiito dynasty. Baganda tradition fiercely disputes this, and says that Buganda was distinct and of at least equal antiquity to Kitara.
Archaeological excavations of Bigo bya Mugenyi has shown that the centre of the site was "radically reconstructed so as to include a large, hemispherical mound reminiscent of those made at Shilluk capitals and elsewhere." Oral traditions say that in the long run, a capital in the grasslands proved unsuitable for a Luo dynasty, which soon moved its headquarters to the region around and north of Mubende, where agriculture could be practiced on a larger scale. It was there, in the northern half of the old Kitara kingdom, that the new kingdom of Bunyoro developed.
The early Bito kings surpassed the feats of their Chwezi forefathers and achieved regional pre-eminence. Recent historical studies by Jean-Pierre Chrétien, Henri Médard and Christopher Wrigley have concluded that Bunyoro during the first one or two centuries of Bito rule was the greatest power in the region. Bito princes established themselves in the kingdom of Kiziba (in northern kagera), the northern Busoga kingdoms and west of the Rwenzoris. As far away as Buzinza, kings claimed to have their origins in Bunyoro.
Bunyoro began to decline in the late eighteenth century due to internal divisions. Buganda seized the Kooki and Buddu regions from Bunyoro at the end of the century. In the 1830s, the large province of Tooro separated, claiming much of the lucrative salt works. To the south Rwanda and Ankole were both growing rapidly, taking over some of the smaller kingdoms that had been Bunyoro's vassals.
Thus by the mid-nineteenth century Bunyoro (also known as Unyoro at the time) was a far smaller state, though it was still wealthy due to the income generated from controlling the lucrative trade routes over Lake Victoria and linking to the coast of the Indian Ocean. In particular, Bunyoro benefited from the trade in ivory. Due to the volatile nature of the ivory trade, an armed struggle developed between the Baganda and the Banyoro. As a result, the capital was moved from Masindi to the less vulnerable Mparo. Following the death of Omakuma Kyebambe III, the region experienced a period of political instability where two kings ruled in a volatile political environment.
In July 1890 an agreement was settled whereby the entire Buganda region north of Lake Victoria was given to Great Britain. In 1894 Great Britain declared the region its protectorate. In alliance with Buganda, King Omukama Kabalega of Bunyoro resisted the efforts of Great Britain, aiming to take control of the kingdom. However, in 1899 Omukama Kabalega was captured and exiled to the Seychelles, and Bunyoro was subsequently annexed to the British Empire. Because of Bunyoro's resistance to the British, a portion of the Bunyoro kingdom's territory was given to Buganda and Tooro.
The country was put under the governance of Buganda administrators. The Banyoro revolted in 1907; the revolt was put down, and relations improved somewhat. After the region remained loyal to Great Britain in World War I a new agreement was made in 1933 giving the region more autonomy. Bunyoro remains as one of the five constituent kingdoms of Uganda, along with Buganda, Busoga, Rwenzururu, and Tooro.
During the first regime of Milton Obote, the Kingdom of Bunyoro initially benefited from regaining the two "lost counties" of Buyaga and Bugangaizi following a 1964 referendum. It was, however, forcefully disbanded in 1967. The kingdom, together with three others, Buganda, Busoga, Tooro, remained banned during the regime of dictator Idi Amin (1971–1979) and the second regime of Milton Obote (1980–1985) and remained banned until 1993.
In 1993 the Kingdom was re-established and in 1995 the new constitution of Uganda was made, allowing and recognizing the Kingdoms. The current Kingdom covers the districts of Buliisa District, Hoima district, Kibaale District, Kakumiro District, Kagadi District, Kiryandongo District and Masindi District.
According to 1997 projections, the total population of the Kingdom is between 800,000 but there may be 1,400,000 (depending on sources) living in 250,000-350,000 households. 96% of the population lives in rural areas, and only 1% of the population uses electricity for lighting and cooking. More than 92% of the population is poor, and earned less than half that of the Ugandan national average, and about 50% of the population is illiterate.
In the Northern and eastern parts of Bunyoro, it was difficult to determine where the borders of the Bunyoro kingdom ended, and where separate (but in some degree dependent) polities began, and due to the broadening and varying shades of influence the question might have been meaningless. Due to British colonialism, the Nile river, and not any traditional division in language, culture, or political allegiance, became the formal northern boundary of the attenuated Nyoro state.
People north of the Nile, such as the Alur and Acholi, recognized the Mukama (king of Bunyoro) as overlord and sent tribute to him. According to the cultural anthropologist Aidan Southall, the Alur recognized their "ritual subordination to Bunyoro by going there for confirmation of their title after accession to kingship". Gifts were given to the king of Bunyoro by Lango and Acholi chiefs, who acknowledged the Nyoro king’s supremacy.
Bunyoro's Nilotic neighbors viewed themselves and were viewed by the Banyoro, as "mother's brothers" to the Bito dynasty, rooted in the fact that Rukidi Mpuga's mother, Nyatworo, was a Nilotic Luo from Bukidi. Bunyoro's relationship with its Nilotic neighbors was not only defined by political dominance but also by kinship ties. In Nyoro culture, it is believed that sisters' sons are to "rule" their mothers' brothers.
The first Bito King Rukidi and his brothers took the totem (Muziro) of the clan of their Luo mother, Nyatworo, which was the bushbuck (Ngabi) because their Chwezi father, Kyomya, abandoned them when they were infants. Today, the aristocratic lineages of the Acholi people to the north still have the bushbuck as their totem, like the Babito clan of Bunyoro.
The first Babito kings made sure that succession to the throne was restricted to sons born to them by their Luo wives. This gave the Paluo (luo speakers in northern Bunyoro) major political influence in Bunyo-Kitara. It was Oyo Nyimba, Rukidi's son born by Nyatworo of the Luo clan of Kwonga, who succeeded him. Nyimba, in turn, made sure that it Waswinyi, born by a Luo woman, who became king after him. The practice of restricting succession to children born by Luo women went uninterrupted, and thus, all the kings of Bunyoro-Kitara were born by Luo women until 1733.
In the Acholi language, the term "Bito" is used "generally of the sons of an aristocratic lineage". The Empaako praise names that every Munyoro is given after birth are still found in Acholi, where they are called "Pak," meaning 'praise.' Many of the mpako names are also of Luo origin. Although many Bito personal names are Luo, Bunyoro's political terminology features only two words of Luo origin, "ekikali" ("royal courtyard" found also in the kingdom of Ankole and Rwanda) and "dyangi". Some of the objects which make up the regalia of the Nyoro kings can be identified with artifacts of Nilotic origin. The Nyoro word "Mugole" (wife) is a Nilotic loanword that can be found in the Acholi "Nya gol" (wife) and beyond that to the Dinka-Nuer word "Gol" (clan, family). It can be found as far south as Rwanda where Mugole/Mugore simply means "woman" in Kinyarwanda. The nyoro word, "wakonga" (pangolin) is related to the Acholi "Okong" and Dinka "Akuong". the Nyoro "Mukago" ("blood-brotherhood" which is initiated by cutting the hands) is related to Shilluk "Kago" and Dinka "Kak" (cut open).
In describing the Kingdom of Bunyoro, Samuel Baker states that the people of Bunyoro "have become the most advanced nation in Central Africa; they are well clothed and clean in their persons, courteous and dignified in demeanor, and susceptible of enlarged political organization."
Bunyoro consists of three classes of people: Iru, Huma, and Biito. The distinction between the Iru and Huma has never had the importance in Bunyoro, as it did in other kingdoms such as Ankole or Rwanda.
The Iru are commoners who engage in farming and some cattle rearing. The Iru were Ironsmiths and provided tools and weapons to the Huma (who themselves did not practice smithing). Intermarriage between the Iru and Huma (Hima) in Bunyoro was never prohibited, and it has always been possible for Bunyoro of Iru (commoner) origin to rise to a high position in the state as many did in historical times. There is a Luo speaking community in the Kibanda county of the Kiryandongo District of northern Bunyoro called the Paluo (or Palwo) or Chope/Chopi. The Paluo were generally regarded as Iru by other Banyoro people. It was possible for Paluo families settling south into the Kitara heartland and assimilating its culture to become part of the Huma category.
The Huma are those engaged only in pastoralism. The name "Bahuma" comes from the verb "okuhuma", which means the "cacophony of sound made by a herd of cattle on the move, lowing, thudding of hooves, and cries of herdsmen". Although the Bahuma claimed and were accorded high status, they have always, as Bahuma, lacked major political importance and they have never been rulers in Bunyoro-Kitara but were herdsmen, who "attached themselves to the great chiefs as custodians of their herds". Samuel Baker describes them:
The Bahuma loved their cattle so dearly that Gaetano Casati reports that after a Sudanese raid into Bunyoro that captured 10,000 cattle, the Bahuma preferred to serve the Sudanese as cattle keepers rather than be separated [sic] from their cows. Thus The Bahuma willingly followed the raiders with their families.
The Biito are the royal clan of Bunyoro. The Babiito are originally descended from the Chwezi prince Kyomya and the Luo woman Nytworo. The Banyoro say, "the Babito are the children (Bana) of the Bacwezi, and the grandchildren (baijukuru) of the Batembuzi". When the Luo diviner Nyakoka left Kitara and entered northern Uganda, he encountered Kyomya's sons resting under a Bito tree, which is where the Bito clan gets its name from (although it is unknown what kind of tree a bito tree was).
Samuel Baker praised the crafts made by Bunyoro artisans. He said that the Banyoro "make good earthenware, they sew with needles of their own make, the eye of the needles being simply a fine end overlapped; their smiths are clever and use hammers instead of stones as in neighbouring countries and they draw fine brass and copper wire for ornamenting belts, knife handles".
European travelers in the Great Lakes region of Africa during the 19th century reported cases of surgery in Bunyoro. Medical historians, such as Jack Davies argued in 1959 that Bunyoro's traditional healers were perhaps the most highly skilled in precolonial sub-Saharan Africa, possessing a remarkable level of medical knowledge. One observer noted a "surgical skill which had reached a high standard". Caesarean sections and other abdominal and thoracic operations were performed on a regular basis with the avoidance of hemorrhage and sepsis using antiseptics, anesthetics and cautery iron. The expectant mother was normally anesthetized with banana wine, and herbal mixtures were used to encourage healing. From the well-developed nature of the procedures employed, European observers concluded that they had been employed for some time. Bunyoro surgeons treated lung inflammations, Pneumonia and pleurisy by punching holes in the chest until the air passed freely. Trephining was carried out and the bones of depressed fractures were elevated. Horrible war wounds, even penetrating abdominal and chest wounds were treated with success, even when this involved quite heroic surgery. Amputations were done by tying a tight ligature just above the line of amputation and neatly cutting off the limb, stretched out on a smooth log, with one stroke of a sharp sword. Banyoro surgeons had a good knowledge of anatomy, in part obtained by carrying out autopsies. Inoculation against smallpox was carried out in Bunyoro and its neighbouring kingdoms. Over 200 plants are used medicinally in eastern Bunyoro alone, and recent tests have shown that traditional cures for eczema and post-measles bloody diarrhea were more effective than western medications. Bunyoro's medical elite, the "Bafumu", had a system of apprenticeship and even "met at periods for conferences". In Bunyoro, there was a close relationship between the state and traditional healers. Kings gave healers "land spread in the different areas so that their services would reach more people". Moreover, "in the case of a disease hitting a given area", the king would order healers into the affected district. Kabaleega is said to have provided his soldiers with anti-malarial herbs and even to have organized medical research. A Munyoro healer reported in 1902 that when an outbreak of what he termed sleeping sickness occurred in Bunyoro around 1886–87, causing many deaths, Kabaleega ordered him "to make experiments in the interest of science", which were "eventually successful in procuring a cure". Barkcloth, which was used to bandage wounds, has been proven to be antimicrobial.
Bunyoro drew various communities together in trade. This trade heavily depended on Bunyoro's rich salt deposits in the lucrative Kibiro saltworks of Lake Mwitanzige and the saltworks located in Lake Katwe. Bunyoro's markets fostered complex interactions between the Banyoro and regional groups such as the Alur, Acholi, Langi, Kumam Iteso, Basoga, Banyankore, Congolese, and Haya populations, and, further, witnessed brisk trade not only in iron implements, salt, and ivory, but also in items like cattle, foodstuffs, beer, tobacco, and coffee. Even despite their bitter rivalry, Bunyoro traded iron hoes and salt with Buganda in exchange for Barkcloth and Bananas
Bunyoro blacksmiths were regarded as among the greatest in east Africa. Bunyoro's historical ties with Luo speakers to the north, many of whom considered Bunyoro as "home," and with Buganda to the south secured the stability of trade in Bunyoro. The ties also ensured that "Bunyoro's ironsmiths had a guaranteed market among the Iteso and Langi [to the northeast], peoples who did not smelt". Having the highest quality of metallurgy in the region made it one of the strongest economic and military powers in the Great Lakes region.
Historian John Nyakatura delineates three categories of slaves in the Bunyoro region. The first category, known as "Embomboza," consists of individuals who were found wandering without a home or family, likely as a result of conflict or famine. The second category encompasses individuals who were captured during warfare. The third category comprises those who were acquired through purchase from neighboring kingdoms.
King Kabalega forcibly relocated various ethnic groups into Bunyoro to ease the demographic crisis the kingdom was experiencing. When he reconquered Busongora and the Tooro Kingdom he relocated many Bahuma herders into the Nyoro heartland. The Masindi area was settled by Alur slaves and entire Bakonjo families from the Rwenzori region were settled into central Bunyoro and were almost completely culturally assimilated into Bunyoro society by 1900.
The Banyoro tried not to mistreat their slaves too harshly, due to the fear of their ghosts returning to seek retribution. The Banyoro say, "If you ever mistreated a slave, his ghost would always disturb the family. And that one is very, very dangerous, even more, dangerous than the ghost of a relative".
If a female slave had a child with her master, then that child would be considered free and not discriminated against in Nyoro society. Female slaves who married their masters were no longer treated as slaves and overworked.
Slaves were able to rise to political power. A famous example of this is Nyakamatura, who was a slave of Iru origin. King Kamarusi recognized Nyakamatura's talents, freed him, and made him a chief. Nyakamatura was a friend of Kamamrusi's son, Kabalega, which caused the Iru chief's status to rise even further in society. After Kabalega took the throne he honored Nyakamatura by naming him the first minister.
Kabalega created a standing army called the "Abarusura". Most members of Bunyoro's army were Iru, such as Rwabudongo, who was the leader of the army.
The army of Bunyoro was supplemented with mercenaries from foreign ethnic groups such as the Lango. War captives could also be integrated into the military, such as in the case of Ireeta, who was freed and eventually became one of Bunyoro's leading generals.
Kabalega defeated the rebellious Paluo in northern Bunyoro and put them back under Nyoro authority, and the Acholi and Alur tribes across the Nile were forced to pay tribute.
Bunyoro's army achieved a significant victory against the Baganda (who outnumbered them) at the Battle of Rwangabi (or Rwengabi) in February 1886. Following this victory, the army occupied parts of western Buganda and enslaved 20,000 Baganda.
Bunyoro boasted an impressive and well-maintained network of roads, which facilitated efficient movement throughout the region. Henry Colvile effectively utilized these routes to swiftly transport his army, taking advantage of the carefully constructed bridges that spanned the streams. John Roscoe, a missionary, also picked up on Bunyoro's network of roads.
The people of Bunyoro developed a form of writing based on a floral code