Buganda

you.

So they come from Lake Victoria region of Uganda, particularly Buganda and Busoga.

And they migrated eastward and eventually settled around the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria, especially Rusinga, Mfangano, Gwasi, Gembe and Kaksingri.

You've always given me Kawempe vibes.

They were more honest, but it creates a new problem because to European eyes, a blank space looks like an empty space open to whoever gets there first, when in reality it was full of people and states.

The Asante Empire, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Kingdom of Buganda, Ethiopia, the Zulu Kingdom, hundreds of societies with their own trade routes, their own borders, and their own geographic knowledge that they already had.

Right.

And, and, you know, in the late 1700s and through to the 1800s, British societies, they set out to do exactly the job of filling in the blanks, if you will.

Some of it is collection of rental fees from some people who are occupying kingdom land, you know, because these kingdoms were sovereigns before.

Under the 1900 agreement for Buganda, there was also an agreement for Toro, an agreement for Bunyoro Kingdom, an agreement for...

Nkankole Kingdom.

These kingdoms retained some significant land possessions, and those lands are occupied by people.

It is the pris-they are the prisoners of war.

Okitegedde? Kati eh tugambe Buganda yalwananga ne Bujolo.

Kati tu-tugambe Bujolo akutte abantu ba Buganda oba Buganda akutte aba Bujolo.

Edda! Kati nga wagenanga n-no-no-nojjaayo envuma.

Abantu ababanga bawambiddwa bayitibwa nga nvuma.

It is extremely obscene.

But this is Buganda.

That is the culture.

You understand? Then the white man comes with a white goat with a beard in the sky looking at you.

It's all, yeah.

But that is what art is.

And again, Buganda art, if you listen to Kadongo Kamu, it is so metaphorically obscene in all ways.

And that is unfortunate in our culture.

Eh, nageere wa ba maama wange sijja kwogera wano kuleeta nsassagge, mm, ku kika ewabwe gye bava.

Eh, kika kinene nnyo nnyo mu Buganda wano ne ngamba, ah, nga wali amasaba aga buli kika kyonna.

Si banyo kiraba, kati abo bagenda ku nkyawa.

Oyogera otya ku byaffe? Oyogera otya ku byaffe n'ebiringa nga ebyo? Bino byaffe bya kika.

Mu Beefeeso, esulebeera ya kusatu onyi lwakubiri na nnya, kankula g'ebika kuba Katonda e yabitonda byonna era tabyeegaana.

Naye kankula g'eppulaani gye yalina ku bika, ggwe ogyewuunye n'okugyewuunya yali pulaani makula, makeke, mpitirivu bulungi.

Pawulo agamba nti kye nva nfukamira kitaffe, buli kika eky'omugulu n'eky'oku nsi, eh, kwe kijja erinnya, eby'e Buganda, eby'e Busoga, eby'e Tooro, ebya Ankole, eby'Abacholi, eby'Abalango, buli kika kyonna, ggwe kasita omanya nti kiri ku nsi de mu ggulu ate nga bya mukama ye yabikola, mm, ki kye nva nfukamira Katonda? Ebika byonna, mmh, buli kika eky'omugulu n'eky'oku nsi kwe kijja erinnya Abawe mmwe ng'obugagga obwekitibwa kye bwe buli, okunywesebwa n'amaanyi mu moyo gwe mu muto ogw'omunda.

Krisitaatule nga mitima gyammwe olw'okukkiriza.

Mm-hmm.

We're exploring the history of this region, really zeroing in on the Kingdom of Buganda up to the late 19th century.

And we are using an excerpt from The Fortunes of Africa as our main source to unpack all this.

Yes, exactly.

So to really understand how this kingdom became a superpower, you have to mentally set the stage.

You really do.

For centuries, the Central African kingdoms, and we're talking about Buganda, Bunyoro, Rwanda, Burundi, they evolved in profound isolation from the rest of the world.

Complete isolation from Europe, from the major coastal trade networks-