Busoga principalities

Origins

From about the 16th century the land between the Nile, Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga was divided among numerous small principalities, many of whose ruling families traced their origins to Bunyoro and its legendary hunter Mukama. No central kingdom emerged, and the principalities often paid tribute to the more powerful Kingdom of Buganda.

Rule and society

Each principality was ruled by a hereditary chief with clan heads and village leaders. The economy rested on plantains, cattle and fishing on the lakes. Under the Uganda Protectorate the British placed Busoga under the Ganda general Semei Kakungulu in 1906, then created a council of chiefs and, in 1919, the office of Kyabazinga, chosen among the senior chiefs, to head Busoga as a single unit from Bugembe near Jinja.

Decline and legacy

The Kyabazinga's office was abolished with the other Ugandan monarchies in 1967 and restored as a cultural institution in 1995. Kyabazinga William Wilberforce Nadiope served as Uganda's vice-president in the 1960s.