Origin The region of Buganda was inhabited by
Bantu peoples from the 6th century CE, who made
Urewe pottery.
Baganda oral traditions hold the founder of the kingdom to have been
Kato Kintu, who migrated from the north-eastern direction of
Mount Elgon, leading various clans. In the region of Buganda he found various indigenous clans (
banansangwawo), said to have had thirty kings prior to Kintu's arrival. Kintu defeated their last king, Bemba Musota. Likely founded between the 12th and 14th centuries, Buganda was initially a small kingdom covering the counties of
Kyadondo,
Busiro, and
Mawokota. Further clans migrated in from the east. According to tradition, Kintu disappeared after having founded the kingdom. Prominent scholars such as
Apollo Kaggwa and
Lloyd Fallers consider Buganda's dynasty to have been local in origin, developing from
primus inter pares patrilineal groups, which corroborates with the power
clan heads had in Buganda's early history.
Elizabeth Isichei says that it is likely that the Buganda state is much more ancient than has previously been thought, and that Buganda began as a small kingdom in the north of
Lake Victoria in what is now Busiro County.
Christopher Wrigley wrote "A political structure of some sort, small in scale and mainly ritual in function, may be taken to have existed in northern Busiro, where the ancient shrines are clustered, at a time far beyond the reach of historical tradition...the rituals of Ganda kingship are both too elaborate and too archaic in character to have been evolved within the past few centuries."
Buganda and Kitara Banyoro oral history (from Buganda's historical rival,
Bunyoro-Kitara) says that
Kimera, Buganda's third king, came from Bunyoro following the collapse of the Chwezi dynasty of
Kitara, leading some clans to found a new
Babiito dynasty in Buganda. This is fiercely contested by the Baganda, whose
king list documents an unbroken line of 36 kings descending from Kintu, Baganda oral history says that Buganda was distinct and of at least equal antiquity to Kitara. It has no mention of the Chwezi, and according to the historian Christopher Wrigley, "It is unlikely that Buganda was integrated into the system that was probably not called Kitara. Its language is distinct from '
Rutara', and the directors of the
Ntusi and
Biggo systems would not have had much interest in a land that was not really suited to cattle-rearing".
Expansion In the 16th century, Bunyoro invaded Buganda, killing Kabaka
Nakinge, however Buganda managed to maintain their independence. After this, they began to expand, as Bunyoro-Kitara entered into decline. Much of this expansion was at the expense of Bunyoro-Kitara, and occurred in the reigns of
Kimbugwe,
Katerega, and
Mutebi during the 17th and 18th centuries. Among those conquered was
Buddu, parts of
Busoga, and parts of the
Kingdom of Karagwe, and
Kooki was made a tributary. By the 19th century, Buganda was an "embryonic empire". It built fleets of war canoes from the 1840s to take control of
Lake Victoria and the surrounding regions and subjugated several weaker peoples. These subject peoples were then exploited for cheap labor. The first Europeans to enter the Kingdom of Buganda were British explorers
John Hanning Speke and Captain Sir
Richard Francis Burton while searching for the headwaters of the Nile in 1862. They found a highly organized political system. After Buganda conquered Buddu, it was able to launch raids deep into western Uganda. Kabaka
Suna II invaded and plundered the
kingdom of Nkore three times. Buganda would eventually conquer territory away from Nkore such as Kabula and significant parts of the Bwera kingdom, whose grazing lands had been used by
Hima pastoralists. Mutumbuka, the
Mugabe (king) of Nkore, died in 1870, it caused a succession crisis, which Buganda took advantage of. King
Mutesa sent an envoy to intercede. The purpose of the peace envoy was to make a blood brotherhood with Makumbi, who was the leader of the Nkore delegation and one of the legitimate claimants to be the next king of Nkore. Buganda secretly ordered its envoy to massacre as many of Makumbi's followers as possible (to support Makumbi's rival, Mukwenda, who was the pretender to the throne supported by Buganda). The meeting was set in Kabula, where Makumbi's supporters were led into a trap, resulting in over 70 leaders, including 20 princes, being slaughtered. It was "the height of treachery that was difficult to forget" in the
Banyankole's eyes. Even in modern times, Banyankole elders were still lamenting the massacre, saying, "Only the Baganda could have thought of such a thing."
European Accounts Europeans admired Buganda and often praised the kingdom, considering it the pinnacle of "native political evolution." Early travel, missionary, and colonial accounts often called the Baganda the "most advanced and intelligent of all central African societies."
Colonel Lambkin and the explorer
Harry Johnston both described the
Baganda as the black Japanese or "the Japanese of the dark continent" and "the most naturally civilized, charming, kind, tactful, and courteous of black people."
Frederick Lugard claimed that Buganda was "probably the most civilised of any native state in Africa." Former US President
Theodore Roosevelt was amazed by the kingdom when he visited Africa in 1909, claiming that Buganda stood "far above most … in their capacity for progress towards civilization." Visiting Buganda had a profound impact on him and compelled him to rethink his negative views of African people, and even
African Americans in the United States. The reality of Buganda's political sophistication commanded his respect.
Colonial times Buganda was colonized by the British and made a protectorate of the United Kingdom in 1884. The move towards independence reached a climax when the Lukiiko, the parliament of Buganda appointed the Buganda Constitutional Committee in 1959 and later declared independence on 8 October 1960 and requested that the British protectorate be terminated. While in exile, Mwanga II was received into the
Anglican Church and was baptized with the name of Danieri (Daniel). He spent the rest of his life in exile. He died in 1903, at 35 years of age. On 2 August 1910, his remains were repatriated and buried at Kasubi. On 24 July 1993, the monarchy of Buganda was restored when Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II was crowned king. Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II was the son of King 'Freddy', who had been deposed by the Ugandan government in 1966.
Attempted secession in Kayunga In September 2009, some members of the minority
Banyala ethnic group, led by the recently retired UPDF Captain
Isabanyala Baker Kimeze, announced that
Bugerere had seceded from the Kingdom of Buganda. The Banyala make up 0.09% of the population of Uganda Because of the resulting tensions, the government of Uganda prevented the
Kabaka of Buganda from traveling to Bugerere, leading to riots in the capital, Kampala and its neighboring districts. Thirty people were killed in what came to be known as the Buganda riots.
Previous kings On July 31, 2023, Buganda unveiled portraits of its former kings (
bassekabaka) based on oral narrations and written histories dating back to the founding of the kingdom. ==Government==