From Kabaka Muteesa to Kabaka Mwanga

Kabaka Suuna was a warlike Kabaka, who had even escorted his father Kabaka Kamanya in his expeditions
into Busoga. He was known as a very cruel man; brave in war; an ardent hunter of wild animals and very fond
of hunting dogs. A story is told of his favourite dog named Ssenkungo; the name of which means “the
lamentation of many” – when it died, Suuna wept out publicly for it. He had the dog wrapped up and buried
in the same way as humans were buried, in contrast to throwing it on the jjirikite tree, as was the custom. He
went ahead and ordered all his subjects to mourn for his beloved dog Ssenkungo – when a Muganda found
on the road without the mourning girdle and sorrow depicted on the face, he was seized or killed or fined
for neglecting the Kabaka’s order.

Kabaka Suuna sent chief Nakamali, a brother to one of his numerous wives, to Kaitaba, the King of Buzongola/ Kiziba
(now part of Bukoba district in Tanzania). Nakamali admired the ladies of his host’s harem and when his request for
one were denied. He returned to Buganda plotting revenge against King Kaitaba by rousing the anger of Kabaka
Suuna. He alleged mistreatment and how the vassal king had exalted himself over his master the Kabaka. Enraged,
Suuna called his Katikiro Kayiira and took council with him and all his great chiefs; but they tried to dissuade him from
attacking Buzongola at the time when famine and smallpox was ravaging it – they realizing the risk it would pose to
the Kabaka (who wanted to individually lead the expedition) and the army. Suuna was not satisfied with their counsel
so he sought the counsel of his mother, the Namasole (Queen Mother); who also counseled against him launching a
war expedition at that time.

The war-like Suuna could not be deterred in his resolve to punish Kaitaba – therefore he led a war expedition into
Buzongola. He was successful in defeating the Kaitaba, who fled away from him, but this came at a heavy loss to him
and his men. A great number of his men died due to the famine and to smallpox. On his way back to Buganda, Suuna
too contracted smallpox and thereof died. He died in the last half of 1852.

Kabaka Suna had some one-hundred-and-fifty recognised wives (not counting the concubines) and thus on his death,
he left behind over two hundred children (Kagwa – Empisa, pp. 65-71). Of these children, sixty one were sons of
sufficient age to be deemed eligible candidates for the throne. Different chiefs allayed with different princes, which
only complicated the process of choosing a successor. One of these chiefs, Mukwenda Nduuga, went to the Katikiro
to persuade him to agree to his nephew Prince Kikulwe (the son of his sister; the mother of Kikulwe being Zawedde).
A number of chiefs endorsed Prince Kikulwe’s right to the throne and notable among these were: Nduuga the
Mukwenda(1), Bakabulindi the Sekiboobo, Sebuko the Muwemba(2), Nkedi the Omuwambya, Setuba the Luwekula(3),
Sengendo the Kisubika. Katikiro Kayiira agreed with them but later had a change of heart.

Having made enemies among many of the clans, Kayiira sought to make an alliance with a clan (and their prince) that
would not turn on him and that he might control. Muganzirwaza Nakazzi Omufubiro (the ‘Cook’) and her feeble-
looking son Prince Mukabya, did not look much imposing for Kayiira to control – he thought. He moved to ally with
Muganzirwaza, having her make blood brotherhood with his son – in essence making her his daughter too and prince
Mukabya his grandson. Women did not ordinarily participate in the ritual of blood brotherhood (‘okutta omukago’),
used to cement the relationship between two men and their families, so Kayiira’s action was rather unusual. But by
doing so, Kayiira allied himself with the namasole-to-be and her soon-to-be-powerful kin.

1
Mukwenda and Sekiboobo are titles of the chiefs of the counties of Singo and Kyagwe.
2
Muwemba, Omuwambya and Kisubika are titles of minor chieftainships; some say that Sebuko was not Muwemba, but held the
chieftainship of Musuna.
3
Luwekula was formerly the Sabawali, a sub-chief under Mukwenda; owing, however, to the addition of further territory to Buganda
the chiefdom has become a separate county called Buwekula and the Luwekula is now the chief in charge.
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Now when day for choosing the successor dawned, the Katikiro ordered Kasuju(4) to bring the princes to the open
space before the Royal Enclosure and there they placed them in two lines and when they were stood thus the Katikiro
got ready brave men of his who were skilled in battle, about 500 in number or more, and exhorted them that if they
saw anyone was trying to fight or quarrel with Prince Mukabya with a view of preventing him from being Kabaka, they
should spear him out of hand. He informed them that he was the prince their father had willed to him in secret, to
succeed him notwithstanding the fact that some chiefs wanted prince Kikulwe to ascend the throne.

With the princes drawn in line, Katikiro Kayiira moved down the line and chose the ‘unlikely’ prince, Mukabya, which
drew the protest of Mukwenda Nduuga who is reported to have remarked, “Sir, the prince they have brought is the
wrong one, did you not choose another?” Which drew the unexpected reply from the Katikiro, “What you are
reminding me about is correct but there is a true reason for selecting Mukabya; further it is impossible to choose
another for this is upon whom his father’s choice fell as is publicly known.” These words humbled the chiefs who had
supported prince Kikulwe except for Mukwenda Nduuga who was greatly enraged. He then began to pass a rumor
that This prince is sick, he has the sickness Bronchitis also he has a wasting disease in his body wherefore he is
emaciated and not plump as his companions the other princes. Further, this is important, he has no mother as she was
sold by the Kabaka [Suuna] to the Coast men (i.e., Swahilis or Arabs), and her name was Gwolyoka.”

At first glance Prince Mukaabya appeared to be a quiet, unassuming young man. But under his praise name
“Muteesa”5 he would become one of the greatest Kabakas. His mother turned out to be a strong personality as well.
In the year following Muteesa’s accession, the combined forces of the namasole’s kinsman and Kayiira – who retained
the Katikiroship – moved to consolidate their power behind the young Kabaka, turning back any attempts to overturn
the succession. Sixty-one of the sixty-three possible rivals of Muteesa were rounded up on orders of Muganzirwaza,
put in a stockade at Namugongo and starved to death6 (Philippe – Au Caur de l’Afrique, p.23). The two survivors of this
holocaust were infants and therefore not reckoned as dangerous. Both outlived Muteesa. One, Mayinja, was put to
death in the civil war of 1888 (Kagwa – Basekabaka, p. 65). The other, Nuhu Mbogo, was for a brief period during the
civil wars following on Muteesa’s death recognised by the Mohammedan party as king of Buganda, but subsequently
formally renounced all claim in favour of Mwanga and died at a good old age in 1921. The disloyal chiefs also met the
same fate while loyal chiefs were selected to fill up vacancies.

Outwardly, the opening years of Muteesa’s reign very much resembled those of his predecessors. The Katikiro, who
had placed him on the throne in the hope that he had found in him a pliant tool for his own ends, had the inevitable
disillusionment which had befallen so many Katikiros before him. In a few years’ time, the young Kabaka decided that
he was too old to look after his own affairs and dismissed him – replacing him with his young age-mate, Katikiro
Mukasa. There were the usual raids into the territories of adjacent rulers. Inside the Royal enclosure there were the
usual conspiracies against Muteesa himself. Suuna had issued a prohibition on the entry of Arabs and Swahili trading
caravans into Buganda past the Kagera River, because certain of the Zanzibar traders were guilty of extremely high
handed conduct in their dealing with the Baganda, which prohibition Muteesa also continued. Muteesa was therefore
left untrammeled by what might be called foreign affairs and was able to pursue the same life as many of his
predecessors had pursued.

The portrait of Muteesa is not a favourable one as compared with that of Suuna. His father had been a warrior from
his childhood days. Muteesa was fond of the chase, but left to others the leadership and dangers of the raids which he

4
Kasuju – this is the title of the chief in charge of the county of Buganda called Busuju. Part of the duties of his office was formerly the
charge of all the “balangira” or princes.
5
Muteesa, i.e., the Organizer or Wise Counsellor, was the name by which Mukabya (the Groan Maker) became known later on in his
reign. The names are indicative of how his character changed.
6
It was a taboo for anybody in Buganda Kingdom to spill royal blood, so Muganzirwaza found a way round this by starving them
as nobody could spear them or club them.
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set on foot, being, however, very insistent upon rigid account to himself of all the spoils of such raids. Suuna’s interest
in matters theological had not apparently descended to his son.

The prohibition placed upon the entry of traders into Buganda was not in those early days unreasonable. Until
Muteesa felt really secure in his kingdom, it was undesirable to have foreigners in the land, who not only may lend
their retinues and their weapons to rivals claimants for the throne but also might actively stir up rebellion for their
own ends. In 1860 the embargo was removed (Speke – Journal, January 7, 1861) and the leader of the first caravan
informed Muteesa of the presence of Europeans at the southern end of Lake Victoria. In the guise of traders or
emissaries to brother rulers, various of Muteesa’s spies found their way south to spy upon this new race of men. Their
reports were satisfactory and Muteesa decided to extend to the Europeans a cordial invitation to visit his kingdom.

On 19th February 1862, Speke and Grant met with Muteesa at his palace Banda-balogo (currently called Banda)
conveyed by Namugundu and Kasolo, whom Muteesa had sent to Karagwe to show them the way. The Kabaka gave
them a place to live at down below and some distance away by the river but Mr. J. H. Speke did not like this being far
away from the Kabaka, he not knowing the customs of the Baganda wherefore they were afraid of a stranger from an
unknown country being near the Kabaka; further, he being a man unlike the black people they considered him a
different type altogether, having regard to his whole circumstances.

A number of mixed motives appear to have prompted Muteesa’s invitation of Speke and Grant. Curiosity was
undoubtedly one. Another was doubtlessly a desire to achieve notoriety as having achieved a record, which none of
his predecessors had had the opportunity to achieve. But there seem to have been other motives which were not born
of a mere fleeting whim. Speke and Grant narrated in detail the story of their stay in Buganda. They each of them
described Muteesa as a selfish and irresponsible young man with one or two amiable traits as well as many others
which were revolting and cruel. Both inveighed against him because his appalling egotism prevented him from
concentrating for any length of time upon any rational topic of conversation, but in doing so, they did not do him
entire justice. Neither Speke nor Grant had any great mastery of any African language. However we cannot blame
Muteesa for the short attention time-span, for it was somewhat difficult to maintain a prolonged conversation, when
all discussions had to be through the medium of an indifferent interpreter. Muteesa realized this disadvantage and in
order to get into more direct communication with his visitors, went so far as to learn little Kiswahili – a fact, which at
least shows he was capable of concentrated application to matters of more than momentary interest.

Both Speke and grant inveighed in particular against Muteesa’s continuous procrastination in his promises to expedite
their journey down the Nile. But a very good motive underlay this procrastination. Speke was continually seeking
information in regard to Petherick, the British Consul at Khartoum, who had undertaken to proceed up the Nile to
meet him. Muteesa had heard some vague rumours of a European traveler, who was exploring the countries to the
north of Buganda. These rumours in actual fact referred to a Maltese named Debono, a none too reputable individual
of whom Consul Petherick had a great deal to say. The reports, which came to Muteesa’s ears regarding the activities
of Debono and his agents, were none too reassuring. Debono maintained an armed part at Faloro in the Acholi country
and his men waged more or less perpetual war on the countryside. A number of Bantu traditions recited that the lake
regions had once been invaded by a light-skinned race, who had crossed the Nile and had overthrown the existing
rulers of the land. There was a distinct fear in the minds of Muteesa and his advisers that history might repeat itself. If
Speke were to get in touch with this mysterious European trader, he or the trader might return and overrun the land
with their firearms and the days of Muteesa’s reign would be speedily numbered.

Furthermore, when Muteesa decided to annul the prohibition on the entry of foreign traders, he was nonetheless
firmly resolved that this country was not going to be used by such traders as a thoroughfare. He was resolved that
Buganda should be the terminus of their trade route and monopoly off distribution of their wares – and in particular of
firearms – to countries adjacent to his own should remain in his hands.

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There was considerable method therefore behind Muteesa’s apparent procrastination and his attempts to induce
Speke and Grant to make their way home by way of Busoga and the Masai country (Speke – Journal, March 3, 1861).
Eventually, however, he succumbed to the importunities of his visitors and dispatched them on the road along which
they desired to proceed, possibly hoping Omukama Kamurasi of Bunyoro or else the Nilotic tribes to the north of
Bunyoro might effectively bar the way. As we know, after further delays at Kamurasi’s court Speke and Grant made
their way down the Nile to Gondokolo, where they met Baker and his wife.

The next news, which reached Muteesa, was that Mr. and Mrs. Baker had reached Kamurasi’s court. The news was
none too reassuring – more especially when it was followed by the news that Debono’s freeholders had followed in
Baker’s wake and but for Baker’s personal intervention would have made Kamurasi a prisoner (Baker – Albert Nyanza,
pp. 369 et seq). Whilst he bore no particular affection for Omukama Kamurasi, Muteesa did not want the kingdom of
his hereditary enemy entirely overrun by a band of marauders. He wanted Bunyoro as a buffer state between himself
and the “Turk”(as the Egyptians were called) slave traders. Spies were sent in the guise of emissaries to pay Baker a
complimentary visit and to learn what was really happening in Bunyoro. (Baker – op. cit ., p. 368).

It was undoubtedly with the profoundest relief that Muteesa heard from these spies that Mr. and Mrs. Baker had
returned whence they had come. Muteesa’s desire to close his country to “Turk” traders rom Khartoum received the
cordial support of the Zanzibar traders, who naturally did not want to have competitors in the market. They poured
cold water on any project for promoting a “Turk” caravan to enter Buganda and painted their rivals in the worst
possible colours. Rumours of the misdeeds of these latter, which were no doubt exaggerated threefold in
transmission but none the less had a very dark and solid substratum of fact, convinced Muteesa that the Zanzibar
traders were right in their advice. He therefore did everything he possibly could to encourage the importation of
firearms by giving the Zanzibar traders increased facilities or trading in slaves and ivory.

Shortly after the departure of Speke and Grant, Muteesa had a serious illness (Kagwa – op. cit., p. 138). Hitherto he
had led an extremely active life. The enforced sedentary life, which he was compelled to lead for a number of months
after this illness, seems to have had a considerable effect upon his character. It was at this stage of his career that the
selfish and rather repulsive overgrown schoolboy of Speke’s days became a man with something more than fleeting
glimpses of his responsibility as the ruler of a large and populous kingdom. His trade in firearms brought him into close
touch with Arabs and Swahili visitors and he learnt that they could do more than supply him cotton goods and
firearms. His conversations with them showed him that they had a civilization and creed, which were better than
anything then to be found in Buganda. He resumed once more the lessons in Kiswahili, which he had begun during
Speke’s visit, and also started to learn Arabic. His instructors were a certain Muley bin Salim and a certain Ali,
nicknamed by the Baganda “Nakatukula.” They found him an apt and intelligent pupil endowed with a splendid
memory. He not only learnt to speak Kiswahili well and Arabic terribly well, but also expressed a desire to learn to
write these languages. It will be remembered that at this time Kiswahili was invariably written in Arabic script. An old
and tattered Koran, which had been left with Suuna by some trader, was found somewhere in the royal enclosure and
brought to Muteesa who proceeded laboriously to learn to describe the characters appearing in it (Kagwa –
Basekabaka, p. 139; Long – Central Africa, p. 120).

These elementary attempts at calligraphy led on to enquiries about the contents of the book. What his instructors told
him attracted him. He mastered some of the elementary principles of Islam. His royal office was too much wrapped up
with the old religious cults of his country for him to shake himself entirely free of his pagan ideas, but at this stage of
his career religion had found such favour with him that he introduced an official calendar on Islamic lines. His zeal
carried him so far that he declared it to be a criminal offence for his subjects not to greet him or each other in Arabic
fashion and with the appropriate Arabic words. He brooked no opposition from the stalwarts of the old beliefs.
Twelve of his disciples, who failed to comply with his edict, were put to death. The influence of the Zanzibar traders
increased and several of the Swahili amongst their number were appointed to chieftainships (Kagwa – Ebika, p. 106).

Page 4 of 53
In 1869 Muteesa’s neighbour and rival, Kamurasi of Bunyoro, was gathered to his fathers. According to invariable
custom several of Kamurasi’s innumerable sons proceeded to fight each other for the vacant throne. On this occasion
the strife was prolonged and embittered by the intervention of the ivory traders from Khartoum.
“Each aspirant sought the aid of the traders. This civil strife exactly suited the interests of the treacherous
Khartoumers. The several companies of the slave-hunters scattered over the Madi, Acholi, and Unyoro
countries represented only one interest, that of their employer, Agad and Co. Each company commanded by
its independent vakeel arrived in Unyoro, and supported the cause of each antagonistic pretender to the
throne, and treacherously worked for the ruin of all, excepting him who would be able to supply the largest
amount of ivory and slaves. The favourite sons of Kamurasi were Kabarega and Kabugumire, while the old
enemy of the family, Rionga the cousin of Kamurasi, again appeared on the scene. The companies of Aboo
Saood supported all three, receiving ivory and slaves from each as the hire of mercenary troops.” (Baker –
Ismailia, p. 284).

But the ivory hunters were not the only people to take advantage of this fratricidal war. Muteesa saw the opportunity
of weakening the power of his country’s hereditary enemies by fermenting strife and by endevouring to secure the
throne for his own nominee. He decided to support Kabugumire and sent an army to his aid. The Baganda found
Kabarega supported in considerable strength by the ivory traders, who had built themselves a fort. Though they were
only armed with spears the Baganda attempted to storm the position. The traders easily repulsed the assault with
their firearms. One of Muteesa’s favourite chiefs was mortally wounded and the Baganda incontinently fled. Therefore
Kabarega secured the throne of Bunyoro (Kagwa – Basekabaka, p. 141).

The failure of this expedition gave Muteesa serious grounds for reflection. There was not only the resulting loss of
prestige. The ivory traders had managed to make their nominee ruler of Bunyoro. They had also shown their superior
weapons and marksmanship that they might prove formidable allies of their nominee and a serious menace to
Buganda. Having burnt his fingers badly, Muteesa decided to make a complete volte face. Kabugumire had fled to
Buganda. He was told that his presence was not wanted and retired to the Chopi country on the north banks of the
Nile, where he was murdered by certain adherents of Kabarega. A conciliatory embassy was sent to the new ruler of
Bunyoro to express Muteesa’s congratulation upon and entire approval of his selection (Bikunya, p.69; Fisher, p. 167).

Learning his lesson from the defeat of his ill-equipped army, Muteesa decided to arm as many as his fighting men as he
possibly could. Trading caravans from Zanzibar were encouraged and large quantities of firearms imported. By 1871
Muteesa was able to place in the field over a thousand men armed with guns (Baker – Ismailia, p. 264). In the previous
year he had received information that certain of Khartoum traders wished to visit his country. The Zanzibar traders
raised a protest, but Muteesa decided to allow the Khartoumers enter Buganda. These visitors received a rude shock
after their experiences with the petty chiefs in the Acholi country. They brought with them little or no stock in trade
for purposes of barter. In so far as business was concerned they were hopelessly outbid by the Zanzibar traders.
Muteesa’s previous suspicions of them were confirmed. Throughout his life he never gave anything away without
receiving its equivalent or more than its equivalent in return. He gave them clearly to understand that they were not
wanted. They “slunk back abashed and were only too glad to be allowed to depart. They declared such a country
would not suit their business; the people were too strong for them.” (Baker – Ismailia, p. 264; Mr. Churchill to Earl
Granville, Nov. 18, 1870 (State Papers)).

Though he dismissed the Khartoum traders with ignominy, Muteesa was shrewd enough to realize that they might still
prove a formidable danger to his independence. He had sufficient wisdom to realize that the slave dealers had an
organization and a discipline, which might easily outmatch his thousand firearms. He therefore looked around him for
assistance. The hereditary enmity between his people and those of Kabarega, and of other neighbouring rulers made a
confederation out of the question. The Zanzibar traders had, however, told him of the power and influence of their
Sovereign, Seyyid Burgharsh, Sultan of Zanzibar, at their suggestion he resolved to send an embassy to endevour to
conclude some form of alliance with him and to ask for shipbuilders to be sent to him. The emissaries were given a
Page 5 of 53
large quantity of ivory, as a present to the Sultan of Zanzibar and also a young elephant, which actually reached the
coast, and was sent by Dr. Kirk to Bombay. The embassy were two years in their journey to and from the coast. On
their way they were plundered of most of their ivory by the Wanyambo.

Seyyid Burgharsh received them with great courtesy, but failed to realize the fact that they came with a serious offer
of an offensive and defensive alliance. The emissaries were sent back laden with gunpowder, guns, soap, gin and
brandy and a polite message to their master. Dr. David Livingstone met them at Tabora on their return journey. Two at
least of the members of the caravan entered the explorer’s service. One, Majwara, was with Livingstone when he died,
and was one of that little band of faithful servants, who devotedly carried their dead master’s body to the coast
(Munno (1915), pp. 115, 116, 160; Waller – Last Journals of Livingstone, II., 176; J. A. Grant in P. R. G. S., XLII., 268).

The return of this embassy from Zanzibar more or less coincided with another event, which filled Muteesa with a
certain amount of alarm. In 1872 Sir Samuel Baker arrived in Bunyoro with an armed force and formally annexed the
country in the name of the Khedive of Egypt. Baker left behind him a name amongst as one of the great and good
administrator under the old Egyptian regime. But Kabarega had suffered much at the hands of other of Khedive’s
servants and subjects; he also firmly believed that on his former visit to Bunyoro Baker had tried to bewitch him, when
he accidentally dropped some cigar ash in some coffee which Baker offered him to drink. It is not surprising that
Kabarega attacked Baker’s camp at Masindi and eventually forced him to retire fighting a costly rearguard action all
the way to the Nile (Baker – Ismailia, Passim; Fisher – Twilight Tales of the Black Baganda, p. 161).

Muteesa received the news of these events in Bunyoro with mixed feelings. It was not unpleasing to him to hear that
his hereditary enemy had become involved in a war and that his royal residence had been burnt. Muteesa was wise
enough to know that events in Bunyoro equally affected him. If Baker’s Forty Thieves burnt Omukama Kabarega’s
enclosure today, Muteesa’s enclosure may share the same fate tomorrow. Muteesa therefore decided he had better
intervene. He sent a force of six thousand strong Baganda fighters into Bunyoro and instructed the commander to get
in touch with Baker. In his Ismailia Baker treated this as a demonstration of Muteesa’s friendly disposition towards the
Egyptian Government and of his desire to rid Bunyoro of the “cowardly and treacherous Kabarega.” But, when he
reached Foweira a few years later, Dr. Felkin was informed that a very different motive had prompted the dispatch of
the expedition. Rionga, the chief of the Chopi district on the banks of the Nile, mistrusted Baker as much as Kabarega
and sent an urgent message to Muteesa to send troops to aid him in attacking Baker. The six thousand men were
accordingly despatched, but delayed on the road. Rionga tried to keep Baker with him by outward professions of
friendship, but Baker withdrew to Fatiko in the Acholi country before the Baganda arrived. When found that his men
had arrived too late, he sent a message to Baker to inform him that they had been intended to assist him in his war
against Kabarega (Wilson – Uganda and the Egyptian Sudan, II., 41-2).

Felkin’s authority for this story is admittedly that of a single informant, but it receives corroboration from Baker
himself. It is somewhat significant that the spokesman of the envoys, whom Muteesa sent to Fatiko, was one of the
Zanzibar traders. Equally significant is the fact that Baker was informed that Muteesa “begged me to visit him as soon
as possible, as if he had only one desire i.e., ‘to see my face’ and that ‘he did not wish for presents.’” (Baker – Ismailia,
p. 447). The man whom Emin Pasha subsequently described as the most arrant beggar of all African potentates whom
he had ever met, was not likely to decline gifts without good reason. When we remember the length of time during
which Arab traders, Speke, Grant, and subsequent missionaries were involuntarily detained at Muteesa’s court, it
seems clear that Baker was to be invited into a trap. Muteesa wanted a valuable hostage as security against future
Egyptian aggression. This trap, however, failed, Baker sent one of his soldiers, who had formerly served under Speke,
in his place and shortly afterwards himself resigned his post under the Egyptian Government (Baker – Ismailia, p. 449).

Charles Gordon succeeded Baker in his post of Governor of the Khedive’s Equatorial Possessions. He brought with him
to the Sudan an American named Chaille Long, who has written two different accounts of his experiences in the
Khedival service. These two accounts different in a large number of important details and in many important respects
Page 6 of 53
are not corroborated by contemporary evidence from other sources. They have therefore to be accepted with
considerable amount of reserve. According to Long himself he was personally instructed by the Khedive behind
Gordon’s back to make his way to Uganda and obtain from Muteesa a treat ceding his country to the Egyptian
Government. Whether this is correct or not, the fact remains that in April 1874, he set off with five other persons and a
horse from Gondokoro and in due course arrived – horse and all – at Muteesa’s court. It cannot be denied that this was
a remarkable achievement carried through with a very inadequate equipment. No doubt if personnel and equipment
had been more adequate, Long would never have achieved his object. In the light of subsequent facts it seems clear
that the party would have been refused admission to the country.

At the very first audience, which Long had with Muteesa, thirty men were seized at a given signal from the King and
done to death in the sight of his visitor. “The scene,” said Long, “as revolting as it was unexpected, froze me and my
companions with horror.” (Long – Central Africa, p. 106). There can be no doubt that it was a carefully thought out
plan designed to produce the effect, which it did produce. With all his reckless regard for human life, Muteesa, as the
missionaries and other travelers testify, did not as a rule order executions to take place in his presence. The human
sacrifices, which were ordered from time to time to propitiate offended deities, always took place at some secluded
spot. Political offenders and ordinary malefactors were usually haled forth from Muteesa’s presence to meet their
doom. It is significant that the only Europeans, who were regaled by Muteesa with these appalling holocausts, were
both of them emissaries of the Khedive. The executions witnessed by Long were something more than mere display of
omnipotence by a revolting egoist. They were calculatedly designed to impress Long with what might be the fate of
any man who incurred Muteesa’s displeasure.

On July 19, 1874, a day which he has variously described as the day of or the day before his final departure from
Buganda, Long produced a document to Muteesa and requested him to sign it. Muteesa, who was proud of his newly
acquired calligraphy, affixed his signature in Arabic. Long then went on his way rejoicing with the precious document
preserved in a place of security. That document was a treaty whereby the entire headwaters of the Nile – including the
kingdom of Buganda – were ceded to the Egyptian Government (Long – My Life in Four Continents, I., 157; Central
Africa, p. 306).

Long has preserved in his books a discreet silence as to the precise circumstances in which Muteesa was induced to
sign the document. The intermediary between Muteesa and Long had been an Arab trader from Zanzibar, who out of
self-interest would not have been likely to take any part in the transaction if he had been aware of the actual contents
of the document. Furthermore throughout the whole of Long’s visit Muteesa had manifested his nationalism in a
manner most unusual for an African ruler. He had most ostentatiously displayed a white and red banner, which he had
declared was the national flag of Buganda, and had insisted on its being carried wherever Long’s Egyptian flag was
carried. There can be no doubt whatever that Muteesa was not in the least aware of the purport of the document,
which he signed.

None the less Long reported that “Mteza, King of Uganda, had been visited and the proud African monarch made a
willing subject; and his country, rich in ivory, and populous, created the southern limit of Egypt.” All of which
information would have given both Long and the Khedive far greater cause for self-congratulation, if Muteesa had
been really aware of what he had purported to do. The treaty was a veritable scrap of paper. Doubtless the incident of
signing the document was completely forgotten by Muteesa within a very few hours of its occurrence. At any rate
subsequent to signing Muteesa continued to rule in the same autocratic way as ever, oblivious of Khedives and other
potentates.

Nevertheless Long’s achievement led the Khedive to develop grandiose schemes for the annexation of the whole of
Africa as far as the Equator. For a time, at any rate, Gordon was filled with the same enthusiasm for a Greater Egypt,
which he believed might be instrumental in destroying the slave trade. He mooted an ambitious project for the
opening of Central Africa and expanding the Khedive’s dominions by “concentrating myself in the south near
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Kabarega, and trying to do the only thing, which will open Africa, viz ……., coming down on the coast at Mombasa
Bay, north of Zanzibar . . . . . . . . . . . . I hope the Khedive will let me do it. It is the only mode of helping these
countries.” (Birkbeck Hill – Colonel Gordon in Central Africa, p. 68). It was a remarkable scheme born of a very
imperfect knowledge of distances and geography. It completely overlooked the political rights of the Sultan of
Zanzibar, which Gordon had heard of as “a large place, (which) is near Mombasa” (Ibid). He had apparently not heard
that the Sultan claimed to exercise very real sovereign rights over Mombasa and the adjacent coast.

In order to carry out his plan Gordon decided that he must obtain a permanent footing in Muteesa’s territory. He
therefore proposed “to get the Nile communication open to the Lake, to start Chippendall on the Lake, to put boats
on the Victoria Nyanza, to say goodbye.” (Birkbeck Hill – op. cit., p. 78). With is object in view he decided to send an
expedition to consolidate the position, which Long had apparently gained in Buganda. The Khedives had proposed to
send two sheiks to teach Muteesa the Koran. A magnificent coach was also despatched from Cairo to be delivered to
the Khedive’s supposed vassal. It was too cumbersome a present to be delivered once. Perhaps if it had reached its
destination, Muteesa would have written to acknowledge receipt in words similar to these, in which he accepted
another present from Gordon himself a few years later, namely, “You sent me sometime since the saddle and bridle
for a horse; I have no horse and would thank you if you would send me one.” (Long – My Life in Four Continents I., 164;
Central Africa, p. 132; Gessi, p. 79; Birkbeck Hill – op. cit., p. 160).

Gordon decided to entrust his mission to a Belgian named Ernest Linant de Bellefonds. At the same time he
despatched another officer, Romolo Gessi, to hoist the Khedival flag at Magungo on the shores of Lake Albert (Gessi –
p. 316). Linant was given an escort of seventy men and supplied with a number of carpenters to build a house on
European lines near Muteesa’s residence. A Mohammedan sheik also accompanied the expedition. Linant was to have
started in the last days of 1874, but was delayed by illness. He met with further delays en route and did not reach
Muteesa until the following April (Birkbeck Hill – op. cit., pp. 58, 60, 106; Long – My Life in Four Continents, I., 164). His
reception is best given in his own words:-

“The King is standing at the entrance to the reception hall. I approach and bow low to him a la turque. He
holds out his hand, which I press. I immediately perceive a sunburnt European to the left of the King, whom I
imagine to be Cameron ……. I address the traveler, who sits in front of me on the left of the King: ‘Have I the
honour to speak to Mr. Cameron?’ ‘No Sir; Mr. Stanley.’” (Stanley – Through the Dark Continent, I, 204, 205).

On 5th April 1875, H. M. Stanley arrived at Busabala on the shores of Lake Victoria. Stanley came to Buganda by lake
from Buvuma in his boat. The Kabaka had been informed that there was a European with a boat in the Buvuma islands
and Mukasa Kipamira was sent to bring him to Busabala where the Kabaka was in the year 1875. He was then
conveyed to Muteesa’s capital at Rubaga. Stanley was despatched to Africa on a journey of exploration under the
auspices of the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph and the New York Herald. Whilst in Buganda Stanley appears to have
shown considerable tact and regard for the feelings of his host and left a remarkable good name behind him amongst
a people who are prone to be extremely critical of foreigners. Of one side of his character there can be no possible
doubt. Stanley was a man of very strong and very earnest religious convictions. There was an almost child-like
simplicity about these convictions, but they were there and they were very genuine.

One must be left to imagine what were the feelings of Muteesa when he learnt that two armed parties were
advancing to his capital from two different directions and that a third party was threatening Bunyoro. Certain of his
advisers urged him to refuse admittance to both. Others were in favour of his receiving one party and not the other.
Muteesa, however, decided to receive both. As Linant chose to go by the name of Abdul Aziz, Muteesa may well have
classified him as Turk. On the other hand, he was well aware that Stanley was of the same rate as Speke and Grant. He
might therefore have thought that he could play Stanley off against Linant. At any rate he realized the impolicy of
offering serious opposition to either party. He decided to allow both men to enter his country. He took, however, one
precaution. As he did not want the arrival of both men to coincide, he gave instructions to his outlaying chiefs to delay
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the approach of Linant until after the arrival of Stanley by those passive methods of outward ceremony and courtesy,
which contemporary writers describe as so dear to the hearts of the Baganda.

The result was that Stanley reached Muteesa from the southern end of the Lake Victoria five days before Linant.
Though he little knew it at the time, those five days had great consequences for both Muteesa and for Buganda. The
story of Stanley’s visit to Buganda has been so often told that it is unnecessary to retell it at length here. Stanley was
much struck by Muteesa’s intelligence, and whenever opportunity offered, led the conversation round to the subject
of Christianity. Linant, who was a clavinist, was present at several of these conversations and displayed a sympathetic
interest in Stanley’s efforts to convert Muteesa. Eventually Stanley penned his memorable letter to the Daily Telegraph
calling for missionaries to come to Uganda and water where he believed he had planted. The letter was entrusted to
Linant, who subsequently returned to Labore where he met Gordon. From Labore the letter was despatched to
London and in due course was published in the Telegraph to meet with the response which is well known.

Stanley genuinely believed he had sowed seed in good ground, nut external evidence shows that he was duped by
Muteesa – in the light of after history one must say splendidly duped. It is only by appreciating this fact that one can
realize the heart-breaking difficulties which confronted the very earnest band of missionaries who answered Stanley’s
call.

Gordon, who once described Muteesa as an “abib” or slave, decided to take no notice of this letter, but it contained a
great deal of sound sense. The writer warned Gordon to keep his hands off Bunyoro, and further warned him that if he
continued his purpose, there would be an appeal to Bombay. If the Bombay Government did not intervene, Muteesa
would enforce his request by some “other road.” If Gordon wished to keep on good terms with Muteesa, let Bunyoro
be treated as a buffer state.

Having decided to disregard the letter, Gordon now resolved to put into execution his plan of securing Lake Victoria
for the Khedive. For this purpose he proposed to dismantle a 108 ton steamer, which had been placed on Victoria Nile
and carry it overland to the Lake (Birkbeck Hill – p.172). He decide to go personally to Mruli, where the River Nile
debouched from Lake Kyoga and thence overland to Owen Falls, and after hoisting the Khedival flag on the Lake to
return back by the Nile to Mruli. If possible, he wished to avoid trouble with Muteesa but was resolved to carry out his
plans, whether Muteesa liked it or not. In order to have a base for his operations he sent his advance force of 160 men
under Nuehr Aga and Mohamed Effendi to establish a stockade at Bulondoganyi - Bugerere, a district which actually
lay in Muteesa’s dominions.

For various reasons Gordon delayed his own advance. In August, 1876 he received the somewhat surprising
information that his advance party was not in Bulondoganyi, but had proceeded at Muteesa’s request to his capital,
Rubaga. Gordon’s commentary on receiving this news was;
“As it is Muteesa’s own wish, I will let the 160 soldiers stay there. It is his own fault. I wished him to preserve
his independence, and therefore chose the Nile route, viz., Urodogani and Cossitza (Owen Falls). But now
Mtesa has the garrison at his capital, a very few men will suffice for those places, as I can make him a prisoner
if he is troublesome. You see, also, I secure all Zanzibar trade; and in fact he has virtually given up his
independence . . . . . . . . I know what he will be at viz., trying to reduce the officers and men to go and attack
his enemies.” (Birkbeck Hill, p. 178).

It may be that Gordon accurately guessed one of the motives which prompted Muteesa to invite the enemy inside his
gates. But it seems clear it was not the only motive. If he was to have an armed body of foreign troops in his territory,
it was preferable to have them at the capital, where possibly he might be able to cope with them rather than on the
outskirts of his kingdom, when the task of dealing with them in case of hostilities would be much more difficult. From
his conversations with Muley bin Salim, Muteesa had already appreciated the fact that Islam had loftier ideals than had
the strange medley of animism and hero worship, which constituted the religion of his people. His few conversations

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with Stanley showed him that Christianity had ideals and held out hopes, which were even greater than those of Islam.
But his early upbringing and the fact that most of the religion of his people centered round his kingship made it
impossible for him to divorce himself utterly from the ancient beliefs of his country. If upon one occasion he showed
himself disposed to favour Christianity and another to favour Islam or Paganism, such disposition was not the result of
any temporary conviction. The motive therefore was purely political.

Nothing illustrates the truth of the foregoing better than an incident, which happened within a very few days after
Stanley’s memorable letter was penned. That letter was handed by Stanley to Linant on the shores of Lake Victoria.
Stanley then set sail to circumnavigate the lake. Linant stayed six weeks longer at Muteesa’s court. During that time he
was requested to build the first brick building which was ever constructed in Buganda. This building was a mosque.
One is led to wonder what were the feelings of Linant after the very recent and earnest conversations which he had
witnessed pass between Muteesa and Stanley. As he chose to style himself Abdul Aziz in front of the natives, he
perhaps rather invited this unconscious piece of sarcasm. Linant attempted to comply with Muteesa’s request, but
was not entirely successful in his efforts at brickmaking. He was unable to bake his bricks and left the mosque in an
unfinished condition (Kagwa – Basekabaka, p. 147; Schweitzer, I., 33).

Linant’s visit was marked by one other incident, which hardly evidenced that change of heart in Muteesa in which
Stanley so genuinely believed. One day Muteesa picked up a gun, which Stanley had given him, and, bidding Linant
watch, deliberately fired at one of his many wives, blowing her head off. He then turned to Linant and asked him if he
did not consider him a good marksman. It was an unusual act of ferocity on Muteesa’s part. He never attempted any
such acts in the presence of Stanley. As in the case of Gordon’s other emissary, Long, the outburst appears to have
been deliberate and done for the special purpose of impressing an emissary of the “Turk” government (Long – My Life
in Four Continents, I., 165).

Linant in fact did not find favour with Muteesa for many reasons. He refused to cooperate with Muteesa in an
expedition against the Bavuma (Birkbeck Hill – p. 178). At a later date Stanley proved more obliging. Linant’s refuse is
to his credit but did not enhance his popularity. Though he found Linant “a very agreeable man” Stanley could not but
observe “that there was a vast difference between his treatment of his men and the manner in which I treated mine,
and that his intercourse with the Waganda was conducted after exactly opposite principles to those which governed
my conduct. He adopted a half military style, which the Waganda ill-brooked, and many things uncomplimentary to
him were uttered by them. He stationed guards at the entrance to his courtyard to keep the Waganda at a distance,
except those bearing messages from Mtesa, while my courtyard was nearly full of watongolehs, soldiers, pages, and
children.” (Stanley – op. cit., I., 206).

As the accredited agent of the suzerain power, Linant felt he must exercise some measure of outward authority. As
neither Muteesa nor his people realized that they were subject to any suzerainty whatever, they failed to appreciate
the necessity for this outward display. They still more intensely disliked the presence in their country of a camp of
armed foreigners. It was therefore with considerable relief that they saw Linant and his men take their departure.
After an absence of four months Stanley returned to Muteesa. He assisted the Baganda in a campaign against the
Bavuma. To his credit it must be said that in the hour of victory he restrained Muteesa from a wholesale massacre of
the defeater islanders. In the intervals of campaigning and of other distractions he renewed his religious conversations
with the Kabaka. Muteesa showed such enthusiasm that with the help of one of Stanley’s followers, Dallington
Muftawa, Stanley prepared an abridgment of the Bible in Kiswahili. Muteesa and many of his chiefs read the
abridgment with avidity. Stanley was persuaded to leave Dallington behind to act as a Bible reader until such a time as
the European missionaries should arrive to confirm the King and his people in the Christian faith (Stanley – op. cit., I.,
297-415).

At the end of 1875 Stanley departed from Buganda to make his way by way of the Congo River to the west coast of
Africa. Muteesa viewed his departure with real regret, but not for the reason which Stanley fondly believed. His
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outward profession of Christianity was not due to any sound sense of conviction or even to any momentary access of
religious favour. It was very calculated and very deliberate. It was clear to him that the time was not far distant when
Egyptian troops might endevour to establish themselves in his country. The chain of posts, which Gordon had
established in the Acholi country, was ominous. Gordon’s attitude to Kabarega gave grounds for uneasiness. The
armed escort, which Linant brought into the country, had behaved in a high-handed manner and Linant himself had
treated him somewhat cavalierly.

For whatever might have been the faith of a few of Khedive’s servants, the Egyptian government stood in Muteesa’s
eyes for Islam. The Zanzibar traders were also Mohammedans. Whilst they were commercial rivals of traders from
Khartoum. Muteesa had learnt that co-religionists often stuck to one another when it came to a dispute with a person
not of their faith. The mission to the coast had come to nothing. The Sultan of Zanzibar had neither given nor
promised any practical assistance to Muteesa. On the other hand, Stanley had done what Linant had declined to do,
namely, assist in a punitive expedition against the Bavuma. He had shown himself to be a leader of men, and like the
Zanzibar trader, this remarkable man’s chief topic of conversation seemed to be his religion. The Zanzibar traders had
proved useful when Muteesa had shown an interest in their faith. Stanley was obviously a far greater man than any
Arab trader. If all his countrymen were like him, a profession of interest in their religion might enlist the aid of
invaluable allies against Egyptian aggression. As I have already said, Stanley was splendidly duped. Neither he nor his
duper could have dreamt what the result of such duping would be for Buganda.

Dallington, the boy whom Stanley left behind, was little more than seventeen years old. He had been a pupil of the
Universities Mission in Zanzibar (Stanley, I., 75). In addition to his duties of Scripture reader he acted as Muteesa’s
secretary, and conducted Muteesa’s diplomatic correspondence in a misspelt and ungrammatical English upon old
scraps of paper left behind by Stanley, whereon he wrote laboriously in a sprawling hand. He was left alone for
eighteen months in a strange land. His position was by no means easy. Not only large bands of pagan diehards but also
the Zanzibar traders showed marked disapproval of his evangelical work. Nonetheless Dallington to the best of his
ability carried out the task entrusted to him by Stanley. When European missionaries did ultimately arrive in the
country, they were surprised to find what he had achieved despite innumerable handicaps.

Conversation with Dallington confirmed Muteesa in his opinion that he had done well to invite Christians to his
country. As a native of Zanzibar, Dallington had learnt something of the strength of the British Government. When in
the past other nations had caused trouble with the Sultan of Zanzibar, the British Government at Bombay had
intervened and matters had been righted. The same Government may well be induced to come to Muteesa’s aid.

On his return journey Linant was attacked by Nyamuyonjo, a nominal vassal of Kabarega, who ruled over the district of
Bunyala (the modern Bugerere). Linant had an escort of the Baganda at the time with him, but they promptly deserted
him – not out of cowardice but with a strong sense of satisfaction in seeing a very unpopular guest in difficulty
(Stanley, I., 443). Gordon resolved to send a punitive expedition against Kabarega in the belief that he had instigated
this attack. At the same time he decided to send an Italian named Romolo Gessi, in a steel boat to explore Lake Albert.
Finally, he announced that “I want to push on to the Lake (Victoria Nyanza) to hoist the flag, and enable the Khedive
to claim its waters.” (Birkbeck Hill, p. 150). The two first of these plans were put into execution at the beginning of
1876. The punitive expedition came too little. Kabarega fled directly Gordon appeared on the banks of the Nile and
Gordon made no attempts to penetrate into Bunyoro in pursuit. Gessi circumnavigated Lake Albert, meeting with a
hostile reception whenever he put close to the shore (Gessi – pp. 99-139).

Intelligence of these expeditions reached Muteesa before they had actually started. Dallington was commissioned at
once to send a letter to Stanley to beg him to return and also another letter to Gordon. His letter reached Gordon at
Labore and it read as follows:-
“To Sir Canell Gorlden. February 6th, 1876.

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 “My dear friend Gorden hear this my word be not angry with Kavarega Sultan of Unyoro I been heard that
you been brought two manwar ships but I pray you fight not with those Wanyoro for they know not what is
good and what is bad. I am Mtesa King of Uganda for if you fight with governour you fight with the King. I
will ask you one thing but let it may please you all ye Europein for I say if I want to go to Bommbey refuse me
to past, will I not find the orther road therefor I pray you my friends stop for a moment if you want to fight
put ships in the river Nile take west and north and I will take east and south and let us put Wanyoro in the
middle and fight against them but first send me answer from this letter. Because I want to be a friend of the
English. I am Mtesa son of Suna King of Uganda let God be with you all Amen.”
“Mtesa King of Uganda.”
“February 6th, 1876.”
(Birkbeck Hill, p.160).

Nuehr Aga and his men arrived at Rubaga and constructed a zeriba. They were accompanied by a large body of
porters, who had been recruited in the Acholi country. Muteesa persuaded Nuehr Aga to discharge these porters on
the strength of a promise that he would replace them by as many Baganda porters as might be required. This promise
was never fulfilled. Excuses were made from day to day for the non-fulfillment, the porters never appeared. Without
them the Egyptian troops were immobile (Birkbeck Hill, p. 187). Their commander tried to be overbearing, and to
bluster, but he found the attitudes of the inhabitants very different to that of the tribes further to the north. The
Egyptian flag was hoisted over the zeriba. This was answered by the hoisting over the royal enclosure the same flag,
which Muteesa had previously displayed when Long had visited the country. The Egyptian commander instructed
Muteesa to haul it down. He was told that the flag was the flag of Christianity and would not be hauled down (State
Papers – Lieutenant Shergold Smith to Dr. Kirk (enclosed in a letter of Dr. Kirk to Lord Derby, Nov. 28. 1877). This gave
Nuehr Aga to think. It was clear that Muteesa had served out firearms to a number of his subjects and that a great
concentration of fighting men was taking place. Nuehr Aga’s own troops were none too well disciplined. He had to
depend for his supplies upon the country. The recollection of Baker’s disastrous retreat from Masindi in the face of a
far less redoubtable enemy was all too recent. The Aga therefore deemed it unwise to insist in his demand. He may not
have been aware that on each occasion, when he visited Muteesa, a couple of men were told off to stand behind him
and each member of his escort to pinion them at the least sign of hostility. It was, however, very apparent to him that
the whole of the countryside was under arms. Great fires were kept burning every night and the Egyptian troops were
in constant fear of an attack (Ashe, p. 115).

Nuehr Aga had other evidence that he was dealing with the most Christian – for the time being – King of Buganda. Just
before his arrival certain Baganda converts to Islam had scoffed openly at Muteesa’s sudden fervor for Christianity.
They had refused to eat meat, which had not been killed according to Islamic rights, and announced that Muteesa was
a mere pagan Kaffir. Such treasonable utterances were speedily silenced. Muteesa’s bodyguards of professional
executioners were sent into the countryside to search out all those who professed and called themselves
Mohammedans. Some two or three hundred managed to escape by joining Arab caravans and making their way to
Zanzibar. Others concealed their faith, but some seventy were arrested and put to death at Namugogo (Nicq., p. 225;
Kagwa – Basekabaka, p. 149). Relics of this massacre still lay about the countryside when the Egyptian troops arrived
(Schweitzer, I., 33).

The situation was critical for several weeks. It is a matter of surprise that the Egyptians and Baganda did not come to
actual blows. The credit to this was due to partly Muteesa himself and partly to that of Ahmed bin Ibrahim who many
years previously had given Suuna his first introduction to Islam. Ahmed bin Ibrahim realized that retaliatory measures
on the part of Gordon would have put an end to Zanzibar trade in Buganda. He acted as interpreter between Nuehr
Aga and Muteesa and there can be no doubt that his tactful and conciliatory conduct saved the situation at more than
one critical moment. Muteesa had a bodyguard who were dressed in military uniform and armed with guns, and who
were spoiling for a fight, but Muteesa still had fresh in his memory the disastrous attack by the Baganda on the slave

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traders in Bunyoro in 1869. He had also seen the reprisals meted out to Kabarega when he had Egyptian troops and
was shrewd enough to know that any aggression on his part might be visited with the same consequences. He
therefore kept in check his agitators, but it required a strong man to do so. For several weeks his men and the
Egyptian troops faced each other, in danger every moment of an incident, which would let slip the dogs of war. The
Egyptian troops were confined to their zeriba more or less in a state of siege. Their supplies ran short and were only
replenished by Muteesa on sufferance. He had, however, the wisdom to see that if the garrison was actually reduced
to starvation, they might take matters in their own hands and forage for themselves, thus making bloodshed
inevitable. He therefore ordered them to be supplied with food but kept them on very short commons. Some of the
garrison deserted. Nuehr Aga realized that he had got himself into a hopeless position. He therefore decided to leave
his men and return to Gordon and make a clean breast of the whole affair. Muteesa allowed him to depart unmolested
and entrusted to him a letter to Gordon penned by Dallington, the contents of which were “a jumble of bits of prayers,
etc., and keeps repeating he is the King of Uganda, etc., and the greatest king in Africa.” (Birkbeck Hill, p.181).

When Gordon received Nuehr Aga’s report, his comment was “Mtesa has annexed my soldiers: he has not been
annexed himself.” (Birkbeck Hill, p. 181). He at first resolved to proceed personally to Rubaga, extricate the troops,
and post them in Bulondoganyi. But later hearing that “Mtesa’s court is as fill of etiquette as the Pelkin court,” he
decided to entrust to a Silesian doctor named Edward Schnitzler, who became better known to the world as Emin
Pasha. By training Emin was a doctor. By inclination he was a naturalist and botanist. He was bespectacled and not of
at all imposing appearance. Therein he stood in a striking contrast to Gordon’s previous emissaries to Buganda. A less
military looking individual could not possibly be imagined. Recently he had publicly professed his conversion to Islam.
Thereby he excited the ridicule of his superior officer, and Gordon’s correspondence at this date is full of
contemptuous references to him. What Gordon and Emin himself did not fully realize was that the mission, with which
the latter was now entrusted, was not only extremely delicate but attended by considerable personal risk. Little as
Gordon was able to appreciate the fact at the time, Emin, the one and only European who ever established friendly
relations with Kabarega of Bunyoro, was pre-eminently fitted for the task.

Emin reached Mruli in July, 1876, and started at once for Buganda with an escort of only six soldiers. Muteesa had
been forewarned of his approach. A band of five hundred men had been despatched to the frontier apparently with
orders to refuse him admission into the country. Emin got into communication with this party, who temporized by
informing him that he must wait at the frontier pending the receipt of instructions from Muteesa. Emin grew
impatient. After several days’ delay the leader of the Baganda informed Emin that he would not be allowed to enter
the country without Muteesa’s special permission, and that, without such permission, no porters could be supplied to
him. Emin then decide to put on a bold front and announced he would continue his advance whether he received
permission or not. The commander of the Baganda outpost was apparently without any definite instructions and did
not like to assume the responsibility of a clash of arms. He further realized that Emin’s escort was not at all formidable
and therefore could easily be dealt with if it proved troublesome. Moreover, the curious European, who spent all his
spare time in camp botanizing did not seem very dangerous. He therefore offered no opposition when Emin struck
camp. Emin met with further difficulties on his march and it took him twelve days to reach Rubaga (Schweitzer, I. – 30;
31).

Muteesa had in the meantime decided to receive him. But he was very soon given to understand that it was still the
Most Christian King who reigned in Buganda. On his arrival he was greeted with the following missive penned by
Dallington: -

“To my dear friend, I thank be to God for bringing you home safely. Therefore I send Chambalango my chief to
see how you do and thank be to our Lord Jesus Christ to be thy shield.” (Schweitzer – I., 32).

From time to time during his sojourn he received other letters in the like vein. When he interviewed Muteesa, he was
invited to embark on a religious conversation extolling the merits of Christianity to the disparagement of those of the
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Islam. Muteesa, who had hitherto been rather proud of displaying his knowledge of Arabic, relapsed entirely into
Luganda and conducted all his communication with Emin through the medium of Ahmed bin Ibrahim. As long as
Muteesa insisted on diverting conversation to religious topics, it was difficult to arrive at any arrangement for the
withdrawal of Egyptian troops. But he suddenly changed his attitude. The Zanzibar traders were becoming alienated
by his aggressive profession of Christianity and a wild rumour reached the court that all Christians had been expelled
from Zanzibar. Muteesa thereupon altered his tone and expressed his entire satisfaction with the tenets of Islam. Emin
had done some doctoring whilst he was at Rubaga, and thereby made favourable impression on the Baganda.
Muteesa decided there was no guile in him and acting on the advice of Ahmed bin Ibrahim, decided to allow the
Egyptian garrison an unmolested passage out of the country (Schweitzer, I. 32-39).

On August 31, 1876, the Egyptian troops quitted Rubaga for Mruli, where they met Gordon. News took long time to
travel down the Nile to Cairo in those days. When the Khedive heard the first report of the occupation of Rubaga, he
telegraphed Gordon his congratulations and conferred upon him the order of Medjishih. The telegraph reached
Gordon after the evacuation of Buganda. “This is dreadful,” he wrote, “for it is obtained under false pretences.”
(Birkbeck Hill, p. 196). He had in fact already before the receipt of the Khedive’s telegram decided to make best of a
bad business and had on August 30, written to Muteesa proposing a treaty “recognizing the independence of the
country of Uganda and offering to take his ambassadors (!) down to Cairo” (ibid, p. 183). Muteesa’s reply was a jumble
of prayers and requests for arms and ammunition, but said nothing about the treaty (ibid, p. 192). It was really not
necessary that it should be mentioned. He had clearly demonstrated the worth of the document, which Long had
persuaded him to sign in 1874, and all question of annexation of Buganda by Egypt was at an end.

Gordon now turned his attention to Kabarega, personally leading an expedition to Bunyoro. This did not serve to ally
Muteesa’s fears, but he had by now received the news that the European missionaries, whom Stanley had promised to
send, were on their way from the coast. He eagerly awaited their arrival, not from ay anxiety to hear more of the
doctrines, which he knew they would teach, because he thought they were like all the other missionaries whom he
had previously encountered. He had sized up the Arab missionary fairly well. Muteesa realized that an Arab’s religion
meant a great deal to him, took up a great part of his life and he could often be a zealous proselytizer, but he also saw
that his Arab visitors had time for other mundane matters. They could trade and buy ivory and slaves. They were ready
to supply firearms and ammunition in exchange. Muteesa appreciated their superior knowledge and realized that both
he and his people could learn much from them. He was therefore ready to tolerate their religious zeal and to display a
certain measure of outward willingness to accept their creed in exchange for the other more worldly advantages,
which they could bestow upon him. It was in the like spirit that he prepared to receive the first European missionaries.

The first party of the missionaries were despatched under the auspices of C.M.S. The first to arrive in the country were
Lieut. Shergold Smith and Rev. C.T Wilson. The former had been a naval officer but had been invalided out of the
service with the sight of one eye, badly impaired as a result of illness contracted whilst engaged in the suppression of
the slave trade on the west coast of Africa.

Such was his anxiety to have missionaries at his side that Muteesa despatched a special fleet of canoes to convoy
them and innumerable letters urging them to “come quickly.” In the course of their voyage the missionaries put into
the island of Ukara at the southern end of Lake Victoria. They were attacked by the inhabitants with a shower of
stones and poisoned arrows. Wilson was wounded in the arm by a poisoned arrow. Smith was struck by a stone on his
“best eye,” but despite his pain he had the presence of mind to put the helm about and get his ship out of range. The
reminder of the voyage was without incident and on July 2, 1877, the missionaries presented themselves to Muteesa
at Rubaga (Wilson – I., 100, 191).

Lieut. Shergold Smith wrote an account of this first meeting with Muteesa. The letter is somewhat pathetic reading. It
begins “This was our reception. I could not see, so my report is that of ear” and closes with the words “Eye says, you
must stop.” On the first day Muteesa was most enthusiastic, but on the following day “from some cause he seemed
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suspicious of us, and questioned us about Gordon, and rather wanted to bully us into making powder and shot, saying:
‘Now my heart is not good.” We said we came to do as the letter told him, not to make powder and shot; and if he
wished it, we would not stay. He paused for some time and then said, ‘What have you come for – to teach my people
to read and write?’ We said, ‘Yes, and whatever useful arts we and those coming may know.’ He then said, ‘Now my
heart is good: England is my friend. I have one heart in Uganda and the other in England.’ He asked after Queen
Victoria, and wished to know which was the greatest, she or the Khedive of Egypt. The relative size of their dominions
were explained to him, and referring to our letter, I said how desirous England was that his kingdom should be
prosperous.” (The Victoria Nyanza Mission, p. 53).

After the conversation Muteesa decided the new-comers might be useful to him and allowed Shergold Smith to return
to the southern end of the lake to the remainder of the contingent and more stores. At the end of his journey Smith
penned a letter to Dr. Kirk, Consul-General at Zanzibar, reviewing the political situation in Buganda and concluding
with the words: “If you could exert your influence to prevent the annexation of Mtesa’s dominions to Egypt, I shall be
much obliged. I see by a letter from Colonel Gordon that he speaks of this as already completed, ‘Mtesa has annexed
himself.’ Though it is not the case yet, it shows which way the wind blows; and I can see no greater harm to civilisation
than the inroad of Mohammedan ideas.” Some eighteen months before he had received this letter Kirk had to protest
on behalf of the Sultan of Zanzibar against the Khedive’s unwarrantable annexation at the suggestion of Gordon of
the Sultan’s mainland territories at the mouth of Juba River. That protest had been successful and the Egyptian army
of occupation had been recalled. Kirk therefore gave a sympathetic ear to Smith’s plan for Buganda. He forwarded the
letter to Lord Derby, the British Foreign Secretary, who in due course notified the Khedive that any attempt to
encroach on Muteesa’s dominions would meet with the same disapproval on the part of the British Government as
had the Khedive’s previous attempt to annex the Sultan of Zanzibar’s dominions (State Papers – Dr. Kirk to Lord
Derby, January 7, 1878). Shergold Smith’s brief visit to Buganda was therefore not without good fruit.

After Shergold Smith’s departure from Buganda, Wilson was left alone for many months. He was soon to find that
Muteesa’s enthusiasm for missionaries quickly waned. When Smith failed to return with the stores, which Muteesa
doubtless hoped would include a few kegs of powder and some guns, Muteesa began to bully Wilson and demand
that he should produce arms and ammunition or at least assist in the procuring of these articles. When Wilson refused,
Muteesa showed his resentment by cutting off supplies of food and trying to evict him from his house (Wilson – I.,
112, 113). In the little Wilson published concerning these solitary months he has tried to make light of his experiences,
but it is clear he encountered many difficulties and hardships. To Muteesa’s suspicious mind a foreigner who chose to
settle in his land and neither to trade nor fight must be there for some very sinister motive.

At the end of 1876, wearied in almost his single-handed fight against slave trade and against corruption and
misgovernment of the subordinates on whom he had to rely, Gordon returned to England “with solid conviction that
no good could be done in those parts, and that it would be better had no expedition ever been sent.” Though Kirk’s
dispatch had not then arrived, Gordon was doubtless surprised to find that his activities in the region of the Great
Lakes had received some notice in England. He was asked to call at the Foreign Office, and as a result of an interview,
promised that if he returned to the Soudan, he would not go back to the lakes (Birkbeck Hill, p.210). In 1877 he
returned and in pursuance of his promise decided to enter into friendly relations with the rulers of Bunyoro and
Buganda. He entrusted Emin Pasha with this mission. Emin visit visited Kabarega and concluded arrangement with
him, which appeared to augur well for the future. From Bunyoro he proceeded to Buganda.

Muteesa knew nothing of Shergold Smith’s letter to Kirk or of the effect it was likely to produce. Still less did he know
of Gordon’s change of policy. For him the Egyptian menace was still a very lively one. He stipulated that Emin was to
bring no soldiers into the country (Schweinfurth, p. 68). He further took great pains to conceal that there was already
another European at Rubaga. It was not until five days after his arrival that Emin became aware that Wilson was also
at Muteesa’s court. The two met in Muteesa’s audience chamber and Emin started to take Wilson to his house. On
their way they were stopped by messengers , who told them that Muteesa desired that each to go to his own house
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and not remain together – a command with which Wilson deemed it prudent to comply. The two only had one other
opportunity of meeting. Wilson asked Muteesa’s permission to go and visit Emin at his house. After some hesitation
Muteesa consented but told Wilson that he must go at once and that an escort would accompany him. Muteesa
apparently wished to prevent Wilson of having any opportunity of communicating with Gordon and of possibly
complaining of the treatment which he received. But Wilson outwitted him. He had his letters already written and
slipped them into one of Emin’s boxes when his escort was not looking (Wilson – I., 112, 116; Schweitzer, I., 57-59).

Emin spent three months with Muteesa. He subsequently complained that he found great difficulty in getting his host
to talk business. Emin tried to obtain permission for himself to proceed with an escort to be supplied with Muteesa to
the Mufumbiro Mountains and thence to Zanzibar. Muteesa’s fixed policy of not allowing his country to be a
thoroughfare made that impossible and the proposal only served to arouse his suspicions (Stunlmann – p. 195). Emin
was also instructed to try and induce Muteesa to send an embassy to the Khedive. He was put off by Muteesa
announcing the fact that he was sending an embassy to England or else to Zanzibar. Emin proceeded to enlarge upon
the possibilities of developing an ivory trade between Buganda and Khartoum. Muteesa became more interested and
finally, on Emin promising to act personally as his commercial agent and on his assurance that the Khedive would send
him magnificent presents, agreed to send a deputation to Khartoum (Schweitzer, I., 57-65).

Certain events had in the meantime happened, which explain why Wilson and Emin had no further opportunity of
meeting and also disclose a motive for Muteesa’s changed orientation in his policy. On the last day of 1877 news
reached Buganda Shergold Smith and his colleague O’Neill had been murdered at the southern end of the lake. Their
bodies were never found. The news of this calamity filled Muteesa with considerable alarm. He allowed Wilson, whom
he had kept virtually a prisoner, to leave the country to enquire as to the fate of his comrades and to rescue the stories
of the mission (Wilson, I., 114-117). For the moment it appeared to Muteesa as if the road to Zanzibar was closed. If
that were so, commerce with and assistance from Zanzibar or England would be out of the question. He therefore felt
compelled to negotiate through Emin with the Egyptian Government. At the same time he resolved to reopen to the
east coast and for that purpose sent a punitive expedition to the south of the lake, which ravaged the island and
district where the European missionaries had met their fate (Kagwa – Basekabaka, p. 150).

On hearing the death of Smith and O’Neill the Church Missionary Society decided to send another party to strengthen
the hand of their solitary representative in Buganda. The road from the east coast had already proved costly in more
ways than one. The climate had claimed one of the original band as a victim and others of the party had been
compelled by illness to drop out on the way. The carriage of stores on porter’s heads was wasteful and expensive and
there was the constant risk of interruption on the lines of communication. Until the interior was connected with the
coast by railway – a proposal first mooted by Wilson in 1882 in a paper showing remarkable insight into the political
and commercial possibilities of such a venture (Wilson, I., 339), the Nile route offered decided advantages over the
east coast route. According to reports received by the Society the Soudan, was efficiently policed. Steamers were
available for the transport for a great part of the distance. It was reckoned that a journey from London by Nile to
Buganda would cost 500 pounds less per head than by the other route (Felkin – p. 358) and would also take at least
two months less to complete. Gordon, who was a strong supporter, albeit a strong critic of missionary enterprise, had
offered to defray all the expenses of any missionary travelling through the Soudan and to give them every assistance
on their way. The Society therefore decided to send their reinforcements to Buganda by way of Khartoum.

Wilson had in the meantime returned to Buganda, where shortly afterwards he was joined by Alexander Mackay. They
broached the question of the admission of their colleagues to the country. The project caused Muteesa great
uneasiness. The Europeans had not so far come up to his expectations in regards to commerce, arms, or ammunition.
Now they were asking him to open a door which he definitely desires to keep closed. Were they and the Egyptians in
league? The Zanzibar traders said they were. Muteesa more than once told Mackay of his mistrust of Egypt and even
spoke of going to fight Gordon. Mackay at the same time wrote home to say “I have had some stiff arguments with
him on this point” (Mackay, p. 102). Those arguments did not serve to ally his suspicions. Wilson, however, with his
Page 16 of 53
long experience of Muteesa was able to explain that the newcomers were in no way servants of the Egyptian
Government. Muteesa agreed to let them enter the country and in anticipation of their arrival once more displayed a
strong Christian fervor.

This fresh contingent of missionaries reached Rubaga on February 14, 1879. Three days later two more missionaries
arrived from the south. These were Father Lourdel and Brother Amans of the Order of the White Fathers, which had
recently been founded by one of the greatest modern liberationist, Cardinal Lavigerie. It was almost by accident that
the first Catholic missionaries reached Uganda from the south instead of from the north, and that accident had a very
important effect upon the fortunes of the mission in Uganda. A Catholic Mission had for many years been established
in Khartoum. The southern limit of the Apostolic Prefecture’s boundary had been in the latitude four degrees south.
Until communication was opened up with the lake regions by Gordon no opportunity had occurred for endevouring to
establish mission stations in Equatorial Africa. In 1878 Monsignore Daniel Comboni, the head of the mission, resolved
to establish ports on the shores of Lake Victoria and Lake Albert. Gordon placed one of the government steamers at
his disposal for this purpose. The Vatican, however, had in the meantime decreed that this mission field should be
allotted to Cardinal Lavigerie and Monsignore Comboni abandoned his project (Gessi. pp. 175, 223). One very much
wonders if Catholic missionaries under the aegis of Gordon would be allowed to enter the country.

As it was Father Lourdel and his companion did not enter Buganda under the most favourable auspices. They had
violated an unwritten law by entering the country without the King’s permission. This act naturally aroused Muteesa’s
suspicion and he refused to see them for several days. Fortunately for them, at this date a Swahili named Toli was
attached to Muteesa’s court as bandmaster and drill instructor of his personal bodyguard. Earlier in life he had been a
sailor and he had travelled in one of the Sultan of Zanzibar’s ships to Marseilles. He assured Muteesa that he knew
they were Frenchmen and vouched for their characters. Muteesa then decided to receive them and after an interview
consented to allow the reminder of their party to enter the kingdom (Nicq – pp. 102-106).

The rest of the White Fathers arrived in the due course under the leadership of Father Livinhac, who subsequently
became Vicar Apostolic of the Nyanza diocese and ultimately Superior General of the Order. It very soon came
apparent to Muteesa that these newcomers were people apart from the other band of missionaries. They were
habited differently. They spoke a different language and the doctrines they taught were different. Unfortunately
certain members of the two bands had a personal difference of opinion in front of Muteesa himself. No doubt each of
the protagonists regretted the incident as soon as it had taken place and the story thereof is a thing of the past best
consigned to oblivion – more especially as other members of the two societies lived on quite friendly terms and
frequently rendered each other mutual assistance and acts of courtesy. No the less the fact remains that Muteesa very
quickly perceived that the two bands of missionaries were not likely to combine together.

It was a position of affairs which gave the Kabaka the liveliest possible satisfaction. He soon learnt that the land from
which the French missionaries hailed was apparently as powerful a county as England. The Englishmen had failed to
come up to his expectations. They declined to produce arms and ammunition and now they appeared to be leaguing
themselves with Gordon and the Egyptians. The French might prove less disappointing. They had come from the south
and apparently had no connection with or interest in Gordon. Their friendship seemed therefore to be worth
cultivating. At the same time, just as it had been advisable to guard against a possible alliance between the Zanzibar
traders and their co-religionists from Khartoum, it appeared to Muteesa advisable to ensure that the French and
English missionaries did not form an alliance. It was for that reason as much as any other that Muteesa took a
particular delight inviting the members of both missions and the exponents of Islam to embark in those theological
discussions, which the missionaries of both faiths report as having taken place so frequently at this date.

When the White Fathers arrived Muteesa was seriously debating the despatch of a deputation to England under the
aegis of one of the C.M.F missionaries. When Shergold Smith had informed Dr. Kirk of the position of affairs in
Buganda, the latter had written Muteesa a letter of kindly advice. Kirk had warned Muteesa of the inadvisability of any
Page 17 of 53
act of aggression on his part against the Egyptian troops and had at the same time assured him that, provided
Muteesa obtained from any act affording a casus belli, he would do his best to secure the intervention of the British
Government, if any attempt was made by Egypt to interfere with the independence of Buganda. Muteesa was much
impressed by this letter and late in 1878 or early in 1879 despatched a mission to Zanzibar to thank Kirk for his advice
and also “for keeping the road open to the coast,” a line of communication on which Muteesa had learnt to set great
store (State Papers – Dr. Kirk to Lord Salisbury, October 15, 1879).

Kirk’s letter led Muteesa to consider taking the more important step of getting in direct touch with the British
Government. When the contingent of C.M.S missionaries arrived from Khartoum, it was suggested to him that one of
the missionaries should escort the embassy to England by way of the Nile. The proposal at once aroused Muteesa’s
suspicions. Doubts arose in his mind as to whether the missionaries or Gordon or the Khedive would allow his
delegates to proceed beyond Egypt. The timely arrival of the White Fathers suggested to him the idea of diverting the
intended embassy from England to France.

The subject was broached to Father Livinhac with a great request that either he or one of his confreres should escort
the delegates to France to arrange that Buganda should be placed under French protection. Father Livinhac had
received definite instructions from his Superior not to intermeddle in local politics, but the request was put forward in
such circumstances that anything but a very diplomatic answer might have seriously jeopardized his own personal
safety and that of his colleagues. He therefore replied that he was unable to spare a member of his mission to
accompany the delegates, but if application was made to the French Consul at Zanzibar, that officer might be able to
make necessary arrangements. At the same time he wrote to both the Consul and to Cardinal Lavigerie acquainting
them with what had transpired. The latter got in touch with the responsible French minister and urged that Muteesa’s
offer should be accepted. He was thanked for his interesting information and the interesting documents supporting
his arguments. Thereafter the latter were pigeon-holed in some office in Paris. The time was not favourable for
mooting schemes of colonial expansion. Recent attempts to form settlements’ in Indo-China had cost the French
much both in men and money and public opinion in France was asking whether these colonial ventures were really
worthwhile (Philippe – pp. 50, 51; Nicq, pp. 153-155).

Finding that Father Livinhac would not immediately comply with his request, Muteesa reverted to his old plan and
requested English missionaries to take his delegates to England. In June, 1879, three Baganda departed for Khartoum
under the care of Mr. Wilson and Dr. Felkin. In due course they reached England and were given reception by Queen
Victoria. They returned by way of Zanzibar and arrived in Buganda early in February, 1881, bringing presents from the
Queen to Muteesa. Mackay and other contemporary writers suggest that the mission was barren of results. There can
be no doubt that Muteesa was disappointed with its outcome. Prior to the return of his envoys he had heard of the
gracious reception accorded to them by Queen Victoria. This news so aroused his interest he even proposed to go to
England himself and to leave the Queen-mother to govern in his absence, but his leading chiefs raised strong objection
to this. When his plan was given up, he asked the missionaries to obtain one of Queen Victoria’s daughters as a wife
(Stock, p.81). When the envoys finally arrived, it was a grievous disappointment to him to find that they brought back
with them merely the customary presents of courtesy, which he had previously received from such persons as the
Sultan of Zanzibar, and no practical proposals of alliance. He did not, however, wish to make an outward display of his
disappointment in front of the missionaries and thereupon their return dismissed the envoys from his presence in the
same manner as he dismissed any servant or petty chief after reporting that he had performed some trivial and menial
task (Mackay, p. 210). Afterwards he promoted the envoys to important chieftainships (Munno, 1924, p. 91); and it is
clear that he was very much impressed with their accounts of England, and realized that the English were a powerful
nation, which might render him valuable aid in time of need. There can be no doubt that it was this knowledge, which
induced him to resist the popular clamour which arose more than once in his later years for the death and expulsion of
Christian missionaries.

Page 18 of 53
Whilst the envoys were in England, Muteesa’s apprehensions in regards to Egypt began to be allayed. In 1880 Gordon
withdrew the more southerly Egyptian garrisons. In 1883, a Dongolese carpenter named Mohammed Ali raised the
standard of revolt in the Soudan and as Mahdi preached a holy war again the Europeans and Egyptians alike. Two
years later came the tragedy of Khartoum. Thereafter Mahdiism stood for more than a decade as a formidable barrier
to all intercourse between Egypt and the lakes.

The removal of the Egyptian garrisons from the banks of Nile caused Muteesa such relief of mind that he wrote a
letter of thanks to Gordon (Birkbeck Hill, p. 160). Emin Pasha wrote to suggest that Muteesa should occupy the
abandoned post at Mruli. The Zanzibar traders who feared that the occupation of Mruli would divert the slave and
ivory trade to the north, opposed the suggestion and, despite the fact that it was supported by members of both
missions, Muteesa relinquished the idea (Nicq, p.189). Feeling himself rid of this menace, his attitude towards the
Christian missionaries underwent a certain change. They were no longer in his eyes persons to be honoured in the
hope that they might exert their influence in favour of Buganda with the rulers of their respective countries. The fact
that the members of both missions firmly set their faces against all solicitations to embark in trade did not meet with
his approval. The personal rebukes, which one or two of their number administered to him, did not enhance their
popularity.

All external trade was still solely in the hands of the Zanzibar merchants. The missionaries not only preached against
the religious beliefs of those merchants but also denounced the traffic in human beings, in which they indulged. Slaves
comprised a valuable part of the export trade of Buganda and any discouragement of the traffic might seriously
interfere with the imports, which were brought to exchange for this commodity. Muteesa was therefore prone to lend
a ready ear to anything which the Zanzibar traders might have to allege against the missionaries: those traders who
were in many respects remarkably tolerant people and had frequently rendered the members of both missions
valuable assistance in time of difficulty. But the denunciation of the slave trade attacked one of the main pillars of their
economic system and converted them into rabid opponents of all teachings of Christianity. The large ultraconservative
element among the Baganda disliked the radical changes in the established order of things which the missionaries
advocated. They were far too strong a party for Muteesa to ignore, even supposing he felt the inclination to ignore
them. The result was that except for moments when there was a brief reaction in their favour, the Christian
missionaries underwent considerable hardships and perils. Attempts were made on the lives of Messrs. O’Flaherty and
Mackay (Mackay, p. 232). Muteesa must, however, be acquitted of complicity in these attacks. His superior
intelligence and understanding of their superior knowledge and civilisation and his strong hand more than once
protected them from personal violence when popular feeling ran high. Even Mackay in one of his most despondent
moments could write of Muteesa that “through good report and evil report he befriended them to the last” (Mackay,
p. 467). None the less the situation became really dangerous for the missionaries. Mr. Pearson of the C.M.S, was left
for several months during 1880 alone in Buganda and during one of the frequently recurring Mohammedan reaction
suffered real hardships and privation, being more than once on the verge of actual starvation and dependent on the
food on charity of one or two friendly disposed Baganda (Stock, pp. 79-80). Rumours were sometimes spread abroad
that the members of the two missions were combing to hatch some diabolical scheme. On one occasion Mackay and
Litchfield of the C.M.S., started on a friendly visit to take some medicine to one of the White Fathers, who had been ill.
They were stopped by an armed mob and forced to return home. An attempt was made to lodge a protest personally
with Muteesa, but he declined to see the missionaries (Stock – pp. 71-72). The position became so critical that at the
end of 1882 the White Fathers on the instructions of their Superior, withdrew to the southern shores of Lake Victoria
(Nicq – p. 229). Messrs. Mackay, Ashe, and O’Flaherty of the C.M.S., remained in Uganda.

On October 18, 1884, Muteesa, who had been ill, was gathered to his fathers. The scramble amongst the European
powers for Africa was only beginning. How he would have faced this fresh problem, if he had lived, must remain a
matter of speculation.

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Mwanga, on the death of Muteesa, became king on 25th October 1884, and all the young men readers were
delighted that he had succeeded to the throne, thinking that they would be helped with their religion.
Shortly after Mwanga ‘ate Buganda’, Alexander Mackay of the Church Missionary Society wrote this of him:
“When I came to Uganda, Mwanga was only a little boy. But in all these years a whole generation of little black
fellows has shot up into manhood. It would be very hard to describe Mwanga’s character. I have perhaps had
more opportunity of knowing him than my brethren have had. He knows how to behave with dignity and
reserve when the occasion requires that; but he soon throws off that assumed air, and chats familiarly . . . . . . .
But none can fail to see that he is fitful and fickle, and, I fear, revengeful. One vice to which he is addicted is the
smoking of bhang . . . . . . . This being so one cannot place much confidence in Mwanga’s stability . . . . . . Under
the influence of the narcotic he is capable of the wildest unpremeditated actions. Recently I have had reason to
find him guilty of such. But generally the young fellow is amiable.”

Archdeacon Robert Walker, who first met Mwanga in 1888, formed the following information regarding him
after their first meeting:
“A man with a weak-looking mouth, and rather a sill sort of laugh and smile; he raises his eyebrows very high,
and twitches them in surprise, or giving assent to a statement. He looked a young, frivolous sort of man, very
weak and easily led; passionate, and if provoked petulant. He looked as if he would easily be frightened, and
possessed of very little courage or self-control.”

T. B. Fletcher, another member of the Church Missionary Society, who knew Mwanga at a later date, wrote
this of him:
“Previous to his ascension Mwanga had spent the larger part of his life away from the capital, living at some
distance, as distance was accounted in those days, away from the movements and the new civilisation, which
were rapidly appearing in and around Mengo. As a youth much of his time was spent at Golola in the county of
Gomba, fifty miles from Mengo, and for a few years prior to his being called upon to succeed the throne he lived
at Nkanaga in the county of Butambala, which is still more distant. At both places he was entirely surrounded by
pagan life and thought. For a short period only was he in contact with the missionaries and Arabs at Natete. So
short was the time, and at a period of such unrest in the country, that no good results could be expected.
“Mwanga’s temperament is somewhat difficult to describe. He was nervous, suspicious, fickle, passionate – a
man whose one desire and object was to live his own life to the full. Self in all its many and varied aspects was
his guide . . . . . .
“In a man of the type of Mwanga, lacking any outlook beyond his own small country, with no idea whatever of
self-discipline, without regard for life or property as long as he achieved his own end – a man with a guilty
conscience which was with him all his life – the various movements which took place so rapidly produced
confusion in a weak and undisciplined mind. To steer a straight course through a time when such radical changes
were taking place needed a man of strong character, a firm will and wide vision. Those characteristics Mwanga
did not possess.”

Within three months of his ascension Mwanga showed his hostility to the Christian missionaries in his land
by seizing and burning alive three boys attached to the Protestant mission. On 29th January 1885 Alexander
Mackay obtained Kabaka Mwanga’s grudging permission to cross to the south of Lake Victoria. At 10 a.m.
next day – 30th January – he set off from the mission house at Nateete for the landing at Mutungo-
Busabala7, at which the mission boat named Eleanor was kept. With him were Rev. R. P. Ashe who was to sail
only as far as Entebbe; five personal followers and the boat crew of eight hired Coast men. Of the five
followers it was Sambo, Mackay’s personal servant who, with eight Coast men, were to go with Mackay to
the south of the lake, while the rest of the followers were also to sail as far as Entebbe as Rev. Ashe and

7
Mutungo is found in the bay between Kazzi and Lutembe; not to be confused with the Mutungo of the Luzira side.
Page 20 of 53
disembark, to escort him on his journey back to Nateete. These four followers were Yusufu Lugalama 8,
Makko Kakumba9 and the two little boys who had been redeemed from slavery named Balibanange and
Butukula.

The journey went on ahead, with Mackay and Rev. Ashe following at a leisurely pace, until when about two
miles from the lake they were ambushed by an armed mob of the Kabaka’s army. They were hustled back to
the Lubiri in Mengo, and after a stormy interview with Katikiro Mukasa, Mackay and Rev. Ashe were allowed
to make their way back to Natete where they arrived at sunset – without their five followers, who remained
behind detained. They at once warned their adherents around the mission station to disperse; but one of
them, Nuwa Sserwanga, was not quick enough in his escape and was unfortunately captured by the invading
Kabaka’s search party. Next morning, 31st January, Makko Kakumba, Yusufu Lugalama, and Nuwa
Sserwanga were taken to the execution place of Mpima-Erekera in Busega – in the River Mayanja swamp –
where they were first butchered and then burnt.10 It has ultimately been accepted upon Rev. Ashe’s
testimony, and contrary to the sensational first reports, that though these boys may have sung a favourite
hymn on the way to execution they did not “sing in the fire” (C.M.I., July 1902, pp. 512-514).

The account of Rev. Ashe – which he gathered from Kidza, an eye-witness – is worth noting here;
‘“Oh! you know Jesus Christ,” said Mujasi, “you know how to read? You believe you will rise from the dead?
Well I shall burn you and see if it be so.” These were some of the taunts which they endured and loud was the
laughter which greeted such sallies. And so the wound on their way till they reach the borders of a dismal
swamp called Mayanja – a place I had often visited with Lugalama. Here they halted. Part of the crowd bring
firewood, others made a kind of rough framework under which the fuel is heaped. Then the prisoners were
seized and a scene of sickening cruelty is enacted.
Some lay hold of Seruwanga, others of Kakumba and others of Lugalama, brandishing their long curved knives.
Seruwanga had committed his cause to Him who judgeth righteously and the cruel knife cannot wring from
him a cry; bleeding he is cast into the fire. Kakumba appealed to Mujasi, Mujasi believes in Allah – the all-
merciful – he pleaded a relationship with him. But alas! there is as much mercy in the knife in the executioner’s
hands as in Mujasi’s heart and he too undergoes the short agony and the flame.
And now the saddest scene of all – Mujasi bids them treat Lugalama as they had treated the others. Surely
even these men hardened by the frequent executions have never had to do a deed like this. They come nearer
and he cries out. “Oh, do not cut off my arms, I will not struggle, I will not fight, only throw me into the fire.”
Surely this was the saddest prayer ever prayed on this sad earth. “Only throw me into the fire.” . . . . . . . The
butchers do their work and mar what was so wonderfully made, and the poor bleeding boy is placed on the
frame-work that the slow fire might finish what the cruel knife has begun. A wail of anguish goes up becoming
fainter – a last sob, and then silence.”’ (cited by Bishop A. R. Tucker, 1905)

The boys were executed on the charges of attempting to leave Buganda without royal permission – which
was treasonable. This was interpreted from the request that Mackay had made request for his travel and
now he was attempting to sneak out of the country with Rev. Ashe and the Kabaka’s subjects. Because
Sambo was not a Muganda, he was spared and released in the afternoon of the fateful day – 31st January;

8
Yusufu is the Luganda equivalent of the English Joseph. Yusufu Lugalama was a Muhima boy, who was emancipated from
slavery by a prominent Protestant chief of Buddu, Nikodemu Sebwato, and handed over to the care of the C.M.S
missionaries at Nateete. He became Rev. Ashe’s ‘adopted’ and favourite boy.
9
Makko is the Luganda equivalent of the English Mark. Makko Kakumba had attached himself willingly to the mission
station at Nateete and was made use of by Rev. Ashe as a porter – who would help him lift his belongings.
10
It is here, in 1910, that the Martyrs Memorial was erected and is the site of the current Busega martyr’s church.
Page 21 of 53
and the two boys (Balibanange and Butukula) owing to their infant ages, were also pardoned and released
at nightfall.

Both Rev. Ashe and Mackay, who had been particularly close to the murdered boys, were extremely upset
and asked permission to leave. At first Mwanga did not want them to go but the Katikiro Mukasa seemed
anxious to take their offer. Finally Mwanga agreed that they could depart if Mackay would mend a broken
revolver first. However after agreeing to their departure, the Katikiro had second thoughts as did the
missionaries themselves after their initial shock had passed. The Katikiro said that he would be pleased to
have them stay and presented Mackay with a broken rifle to be repaired for him (Rowe, 1964). The
missionaries stayed though not without tension in their dealings with the unpredictable Kabaka Mwanga.
Nine months later they found themselves in another predicament – pleading for the life of Bishop
Hannington.

Bishop Hannington, in the letter, which arrived towards the end of September 1885 at Natete, had outlined
his plan of advancing only as far as Kavirondo (Kenya), where he asked that the mission boat should meet
him, so that he would proceed to Buganda by lake. Charles Stokes (the C.M.S transport leader at the south
of Lake Victoria) actually took the boat ‘Mirembe’ to the north-east corner of the Lake early in October, but,
hearing nothing of the Bishop, left after two days. Relying on the Bishop’s letter, Mackay had assured wary
Kabaka Mwanga that Hannington would not pass into Busoga. Thus his arrival at Chief Luba’s enclosure in
Busoga had every appearance of calculated deceit; Mackay appeared to have made a flat out lie.

Having left Rabai, the mission station near Mombasa, on 23rd July 1885 with a caravan of 200 porters and his
assistant was Rev. William Henry Jones.11 They succeeded in passing through the Kikuyu and Masai country,
though with a fair share of difficulty and annoyance; and on 8th October 1885, reached Kwa Sundu on the
eastern bank of the Nzoia river, Eastern Kenya. Though almost lame with a swollen foot, Bishop
Hannington’s restless spirit persuaded him to resume his march with a small party of only 50 porters on 12th
October, the greater part of the caravan remaining with Jones at Kwa Sundu. On 16th October the first
Basoga, people of the chief Wakoli, were encountered and passing through a densely populated country,
the night was spent in a village. Early morning of 21st October 1885 Bishop Hannington’s caravan reached
the headquarters of Luba12.

In his dairy Bishop Hannington recorded that on 19th October “We fell in with a Waganda [meaning
Baganda] mob sent to subdue Usoga [meaning Busoga] . . . . Most of their leaders were drunk, and in a most
dangerous mood, coming round me, shouting and yelling, and ordering me about. Whereupon I took a high
hand, and in spite of overwhelming numbers, I refused to stop.” Two days later he records that on arrival at
Luba’s they “demanded that I should stay three days; this I refused, and when the same demands were
made, I jumped up and said, I go back the way I came. Meantime the war drums beat. More than a thousand
soldiers were assembled. My men implored me not to move, but laughing at them I pushed them and the
loads through the crowd and turned back. Then came an imploring message that I would stay but for a short

11
William Henry Jones (‘Fundi Jones’) was a Yao from Nyasaland who, as a child, had been rescued from slavery by a British
cruiser. He was then trained by the C.M.S at Nasik in India as a blacksmith but was later sent to the C.M.S Mission Station at
Frere Town, near Mombasa, as a catechist. He was ordained by Bishop Hannington shortly before the two set out to reach
Buganda through Masai country.
12
Luba was one of the head of Bunyha – one of the six traditional chiefdoms which form up Busoga kingdom; in current Mayuge
district
Page 22 of 53
time I refused to hear until several messages had arrived; then, thinking things were turning in my way, I
consented; said I would give a small present and pass. My present was returned, and a demand made that I
should stay one day; to this I consented, because I fancy this man can send me on in canoes direct to
Mwanga’s capital, and save me a week’s march.” Later that day, when taking some of his men to look at
what he believed to be the Nile, the Bishop was forcibly seized and made a prisoner.

Meanwhile in Buganda, the C.M.S missionary trio got hear of the Bishop’s arrival and imprisonment at
Luba’s. For two days they spent the better half of the day at the palace in Mengo hoping to gain the ear of
Mwanga, hoping perhaps he would send away the Bishop unharmed at worst. Unfortunately, the King
refused to grant them audience and realizing the importance of acting on time, on 26th October 1885, they
implored the White Father Pére Siméon Lourdel ‘Mapera’. He was able to gain Mwanga’s audience and
“obtained from Mwanga (the promise) that he would not put the white man to death, but would simply
send him the order to retrace his steps.”13 As history has it, this proved to be a lie. Rumours which reached
Mwanga led him to believe that the Bishop was an advance guard of an even stronger invading force and to
factor in the fact that Mackay had informed Mwanga that Bishop Hannington was “an important man.”
Mwanga, was already on the edge by learning from the Arabs at his court of the German invasion of the
territories of the Sultan of Zanzibar – who was a kingdom friend of his departed father Muteesa.

On the seventh day of the Bishop’s prison time, messengers from Mwanga arrived – on the 28th October
1885 – however Bishop Hannington was kept in the dark as to the message from Mwanga; whether he had
been granted passage or rejected. The events of 29th October 1885 can be best given in the words of
Christopher Boston – one of the 50 porters who escaped the massacre;14
About 7 a.m. some soldiers came and began to bind us. Some of us struggled a good deal, and then those
who did, had their hands tied behind, and were put in wooden slave collars, but those who submitted were
only tied with their hands in front. Some Waganda, whom we had not previously seen (they had come back
with the messengers) came and talked to us. They asked, “Who gave you permission to come this way? You
have come without leave, and must return at once.” About 2 p.m. the Sultan came to see us: he had the
Bishop’s umbrella in his hand, and when it rained he put it up. He divided us among his soldiers putting one of
us to two soldiers, and then we were taken away, each one to the soldier’s house who had charge of us. At 3
p.m. we were brought out and put together in a line and marched off, taking a road leading in the way by
which we had come. Before leaving the house our guards had taken away our clothes, and gave us pieces of
bark-cloth to wrap round our loins. We were marched a long way – it took us more than two hours to reach
the spot where we halted. Shortly before reaching that place we saw in front of us the Bishop and his boy
Ikutu, who carried his chair; they were surrounded by a great many soldiers. Pinto, the Bishop’s cook, was
with us, with his hands tied behind him. We came to a place where there were many trees on one side and the
valley on the other. Here the Bishop was with the soldiers. We stopped within a few yards of where he stood
and could see him quite plainly. He tried to sit down but the soldiers could not let him. They began to pull his
clothes off. They took away all his clothes and left him naked, with only his boots on. This they did for they
wanted his clothes. Then most of the soldiers left the Bishop and came and stood near us. Suddenly a gun
was fired off as a signal; then two soldiers who were standing on either side of the Bishop stabbed him in his
sides with their spears, and he fell down on his back. (C.M.I., August 1887, pp. 493-6.)

13
Letter of Father Siméon Lourdel to Cardinal Lavigerie dated 24 November 1885; Printed in French in Nicq, Le Pére Siméon
Lourdel, pp. 309 – 310.
14
Christopher Boston was speared at the time the Bishop was murdered. He was left on the ground for dead, but during the
night revived and crawled for many miles through the forest, until eventually he was befriended by a native, who knew
Mackay.
Page 23 of 53
One of the Kabaka’s pages, Yosefu Mukasa Balikuddembe the Omusalosalo15, who was a great friend of the
Kabaka and a Roman Catholic, approached the Kabaka and admonished him for killing Bishop Hannington by
saying, ‘Sir, why did you kill a European, whom your father would not have killed?’ Mwanga did not answer
him back and Balikuddembe did not also venture to say any more. Shortly after this conversation, Mwanga
was taken ill with an inflammation of the eyes and a slight fever. When Katikiro Mukasa came to see the
Kabaka and to inquire after his health, he told him what Balikuddembe had told him. Then the Katikiro
Mukasa, on leaving the Kabaka’s presence – without any delay – seized Balikuddembe and said, ‘Do you
abuse the Kabaka with the bones of his father?’ and they carried him to the executioner, the Musigula
Mukajjanga, and he burned him alive on 15th November1885 at the edge of the swamp in Nakivubo.

The Kabaka’s palace was burnt down in the flame of February 1886 though Mwanga was able to escape
unscathed to the temporary palace in Munyonyo16. Fear gripped the kingdom, with a rumour circulating that
the palace was burnt as a result of Mwanga killing the ‘white man’ – Bishop Hannington. This only served to
make Mwanga even the more paranoid and suspicious of the ‘white man’ – Protestant and Catholic
Missionaries. The chiefs added to this by charging the ‘readers’ of ritual worship of killing sheep and snakes
(a species known as amatemankiima) and then boiling them together. In addition, the Kabaka was also
getting frustrated by the missionaries knowing the goings in of his inner chambers as the pages were wont
to send ‘news’ of anything they had heard or seen to their respective missions. This made the paranoid
Kabaka feel as if he was surrounded by spies of ‘foreign elements.’

The result of this paranoia is best described in the words of Sir Apollo Kaggwa – who wrote in collaboration
with Rev. Henry W. Duta17 (1947, pp. 110-117);
Then without waiting he [Kabaka Mwanga I] went to hunt hippopotamus on the lake, and when he came back
from the hunt the king asked about a boy, Tomasi Muwafu, the son of Katikiro Mukasa, saying, ‘Where has he
gone?’ and they told him that he has gone to [Matayo] Kisule the blacksmith. When the king heard that, he was
furious and sent to fetch him, and when they brought him he bound his arms with a rope and came with him
into his treasury house, and he found me, Apolo Kagwa, there and asked me, ‘Where are my spears?’ and I
replied, ‘We took them to the blacksmith Kakoza to be polished’ and he said, ‘Where is my sword?’ and I
answered, ‘Here is one,’ taking it down and giving it to him, and he drew it and left the sheath in my hand.
Then he was about to cut Tomasi Muwafu with it, and asked him, ‘Now tell me the name of your teacher,’ and
he said, ‘Sebugwawo Semukutu taught me.’ Thereupon they went to fetch that boy [Denis] Sebugwawo
Semukutu. When they brought him to the king, he was seized and made to lie down in the courtyard, and the

15
Originally abasalosalo were menials, attached to the court and to the great chiefs, who satisfied their hunger by picking
scraps of food from the ditches (ensalosalo) where they had been thrown by the rich. Kabaka Muteesa I raised their status
by creating Kaddu (later Andereya) Omusalosalo; and they became a group of junior pages. Kabaka Mwanga took a further
step when, in 1887, he created the ekitongole Ekisalosalo, putting Henry Nyonyintono at its head and giving it a
headquarters on the hill Kamuli (Kireeka), previously owned by ekitongole Ekisigula (the department of executioners).
16 The current site of the Catholic martyrs shrine in Munyonyo is where the palace was situated.
17 Rev. Henry Wright Duta Kitakule, of Lugave clan, was a nephew of Namalere Kangawo (county chief) of Bulemezi. The

name ‘Duta’ is a contraction of the name Luttamaguzi. He served in the household of the Mukwenda. About 1878 he
became a pupil of Rev. C.T. Wilson. In 1880, he with other pages, refused to join in the Muslim prayers held in the Kabaka
Muteesa’s enclosure. As a punishment, he was marooned with others for some time on an island on Lake Wamala as a
punishment. After numerous attempts to leave the country, in 1881 he was able to travel to the coast and was enrolled at
the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. He travelled back to Buganda with Bishop Hannington’s first caravan of June
1882. He again temporarily left in 1884 because of Christian persecution but was able to come back shortly. In 1886
persecution, he escaped to Bulemezi where he changed his name to Kitakule to be able to easily blend in and hide. In 1891,
he was licensed by Bishop Tucker as one of the first lay-evangelists. In 1893 he was ordained a deacon, and 1896 as a priest.
He was a close friend of Sir Apolo Kaggwa and acted as his personal secretary while he was the Katikkiro of Buganda.
Page 24 of 53
 king took a spear and wounded the boy and then handed him over to the executioner Mukajanga saying, ‘Take
him away, and kill him.’

After dealing with Sebugwawo, the attention now shifted to the sword bearer too – Sir Apolo Kaggwa –
who was only saved from death by the ingenious pleadings of his master, the Omuwaniika Kulungi. However
he did not escape unscathed, as he was given a thorough beating and instructed never to ‘read’ again. While
they were still working on, another page Mukasa Nyonyintono came and the Kabaka asked him where he
had been all the time and instantly instructed that he should be taken to Sebata, to be mutilated; and they
carried him off. He was not killed for some reason and was later re-instated as majordomo. As it was coming
to evening, the Kabaka instructed that the palace gates be locked and that no page should be found missing
on the following morning. The events of the next morning are still best described by Sir Apolo Kaggwa and
Rev. Henry W. Duta (1947, pp. 110-117);
In the morning the king came into his treasury, and sat down, and called all the Lubiri boys, and they went into the
courtyard and the king said, ‘Let those who read separate themselves and sit on one side,’ and they did so, and he
said to them, ‘Do you know how to read?’ And they agreed, saying ‘We do.’ Then he commanded them saying
‘Mukajanja shall carry you off,’ and he was in the act of doing so when a Roman Catholic boy called Waswa denied
saying, ‘I do not read.’ The king said, ‘I know him to be a reader, carry him off and kill him.’ Now there was a
Protestant boy Musa Mukasa who had been thoroughly instructed in the religion of our Lord, and the king said, ‘Do
not take him to the place of execution he is too strong.’ So he was killed at Munyonyo.

This finally culminated into the now famous 3rd July 1886 martyrdoms. It goes almost without saying that the
Christian missionaries and their followers were intensely unpopular with the stalwarts of the old pagan cults
of the country. It was inevitable that the ultra-conservative elements in the country should dislike the
novelty of the missionaries’ teaching and that many of them should feel that these teachers were
undermining fundamental customs and institutions. The missionaries had also incurred the dislike of the
Arab and Swahili traders and their Baganda converts to Islam. In addition to their religious enmity the
Muslim elements in Buganda detested the manner in which the missionaries attempted to thwart and to
suppress all slave-trading activities and thus to destroy a very lucrative source of income to the traders 18. The
constant vigilance of the British Consul-General at Zanzibar and the British Navy had led to the capture of
more than one compatriot off the East African coast and to the liberation of many of their slaves and had
added fuel to the fire in so far as all Europeans were concerned. In the circumstances it is not surprising to
discover that the Muslim section of the community spread reports that the missionaries had come to the
land for the purpose of “eating it up” and that their reports obtained ready listeners.

A number of events seemed to lend colour to these reports. In the first place the British Consul-General in
Zanzibar was trying to open communication through Buganda with Emin Pasha in the Equatorial Province of
the Sudan. Emin was known to be in the Egyptian Government service and during Muteesa’s reign there had
been an attempt to annex Buganda to Egypt and to impose an Egyptian garrison on the country. That
attempt was all too recent to be forgotten. Every person and thing which came from the north was the
object of intense suspicion. Therefore when the C.M.S missionaries, at the Consular-General’s request,
broached to Mwanga the question of allowing letters to pass through the land of his hereditary enemy,

18
“The Arabs . . . . themselves allowed to me that their action was partly in Mwanga for the action of the British authorities at the
coast in checking their slave selling” (Alexander Mackay to Colonel Euan-Smith, 8th April 1888; printed in Africa No. 10 (1888), pp. 27-
30). “The reason they gave me long ago” (Mackay to Emin Pasha, 1st May 1889; printed in Stuhlmann, Die Tagebucher von Dr. Emin
Pascha, III, p. 359).
Page 25 of 53
Kabarega of Bunyoro, to Emin, Mwanga’s thoroughly suspicious mind attributed the most sinister motives
to the missionaries.

Suspicion was further increased in July 1887 when the garbled reports reached Buganda regarding Stanley’s
expedition for the relief of Emin Pasha. As readers of In Darkest Africa will remember, Stanley left Zanzibar
on 25th February in that year on board the Madura for the mouth of the Congo with six hundred Zanzibari
porters and close to two hundred Sudanese and Somalis. His original plan to proceed direct from the East
African coast through Uganda to Emin at Wadelai had been relinquished at the request of the British and
French Governments, who feared that such a proceeding might endanger the lives of the British and French
missionaries in Buganda. According to the altered plan Stanley was to proceed up the Congo and its
tributary the Aruwimi and thence strike across the country to Lake Albert, where he hoped to make contact
with Emin Pasha.

But the most distorted versions of these plans reached Buganda. On 26th June 1887 an Arab announced that
“there is a Muzungu coming here with a thousand guns.” Mackay endevoured to explain the true facts
regarding Stanley, but his explanation was received with ill-disguised incredulity. When Mackay announced
that Stanley was accompanied by Tippu Tib, an Arab announced that this latter person “was a great and-
eater, and that his method was as if he came here and fired guns and shot people, thus by degrees took the
whole country.” Other Arabs insisted that Stanley had at least two thousand guns with him. The contents of
a letter addressed by Mr. Holmwood, Acting British Consul-General at Zanzibar, to Mwanga were completely
distorted by an Arab who undertook to translate it. Though Mackay subsequently insisted on its being
correctly translated, it is evident that a highly suspicious audience preferred to believe the first translation of
the letter rather than the revised version.

On 27th June an earlier letter from the British Consul-General was produced and an Arab was asked to
translate it. The interpreter began to read: “We are astonished to hear that you have killed Padre Muzungu
in Usoga.” Mackay says he then “asked him to look again, and he could find no mention of Usoga in the
letter, nor of a Padre being killed. He looked and allowed that the word Usoga was not there, but insisted
that it was written that a Padre was killed. Mwanga demanded who accused him of killing a Muzungu? I said
that the letter did not say that, but referred to him having killed people who were taught kusoma. On this,
he grasped the Katikiro’s hand, saying, ‘Do you hear? That is what they are at!’”

No attempt could avail on Mackay’s part to impart the true version of the contents of the letter. Two days
later Loudrel was called in and examined as to Stanley’s intentions. He explained that Stanley’s sole purpose
was to relieve Emin Pasha. But, as Loudrel subsequently wrote, “Mwanga who was feeling Hannington’s
blood raising in his throat, would not believe me at all. He was persuaded that Stanley was coming to avenge
the Anglican Bishop’s death. ‘They are coming,’ he kept on saying, ‘to eat the country.’”

Unfortunately, only a few months later, another letter reached Mwanga, which appeared to confirm his
previous impressions that the Europeans were determined to avenge Bishop Hannington’s death.
Hannington’s successor, Bishop Parker, reached the southern end of Lake Victoria at the end of the year
1887. Thence, on 28th December 1887, he addressed a letter to Mwanga which contained the following
passage:
“Perhaps you are aware that the European who was killed in Usoga is our brother. Some of his servants, who
came from the coast and gave us full information of his death, how you ordered him to be killed and his goods
brought to Uganda.
Page 26 of 53
 “let me answer you that he came, as we come, only in friendship. We do not ourselves desire to take
vengeance for this action of yours, we are teachers of the religion of Christ, and not soldiers. Nor do we wish
the English to do so. We believe that you must see now that you were deceived as to the object for which he
had come.”

It is a very well-intentioned letter, but the writer completely failed to understand the mentality of the man to
whom it was sent and who inevitably judged others by his own standards. Why should Hannington’s brother
make mention of Hannington’s death at all, unless in fact he intended to avenge that death? As for the
protestations of forgiveness, who could possibly believe them? Plenary forgiveness was something quite
beyond the comprehension of a pagan Muganda. Then something happened which seemed absolutely to
confirm Mwanga’s belief. Bishop Parker had sent the letter to the Rev. E.C. Gordon, who was a nephew of
Bishop Hannington and was the only Protestant missionary in Buganda at that time. For some reason, which
is not apparent, Gordon caused the contents of the Bishop’s letter to be translated to Mwanga on three
separate occasions. We are told that Mwanga listened to the contents with ill enough grace the first time.
He managed to restrain himself during the second reading, but at the final reading he completely lost his
temper. He called for ashes and paced them upon the letter as a sign that he accepted the arbitrament of
war, and Gordon was given to understand that he was a prisoner. At various time between 24th and 5th
February 1888, Gordon managed to write the following letter to his Bishop:
“But what the king had said, and the captain19 will tell you the same, I am a prisoner. The king charged the
captain to say it would be no use to send a letter asking for my return, unless another white man comes to live
in Mackay’s house. The understanding is that the king may have someone here, as he says openly, to kill if he
hers reports of the English coming to avenge the death of the Bishop or to eat his country. The position is this,
Mwanga did not like to be reminded of his crime; he now shows himself ready to repeat it on a helpless white
man. We accept our position, which is what we have known all along, is it not? That should the king hear of war
from the English, he would be sure to kill the white man stationed here. We know that the king will not have an
expedition of English soldiers sent against him; hence our safety here. Bot on the other hand, we know not
what reports of war may reach him, and it appears he needs only to hear reports, and will not wait to prove
them, but revenge himself on the white man here; hence our danger.”

When this letter reached Bishop Parker and the southern end of the Lake, Robert Walker volunteered to join
Gordon and share in his perils in Buganda. Mwanga gave him an outwardly friendly reception. When shortly
afterwards the news arrived that Bishop Parker had died at Usambiro, his suspicions were calmed, but it was
no more than an uneasy lull. Though the sword of Damocles appeared no longer to be suspended over him,
Mwanga was forever by the fear that Hannington’s countrymen would one day seek to avenge the Bishop’s
murder.

Mwanga’s suspicions were for the time being diverted to his own people. ‘The foreign devil’ – were he
European missionary or Arab trader – was after all very much in a minority in the land and could, if it were
deemed necessary, easily be disposed of by expulsion, if not by other means. But Mwanga and the stalwarts
of the old pagan beliefs viewed with alarm the dangerous doctrines which both Christians and Muslims were
instilling into the minds of the younger generation of Baganda. These doctrines were in their eyes utterly
subversive of everything which they valued and struck at the very foundations of existing society.

In this respect converts to Islam gave as great a cause of offence as did Christian proselytes. During
Muteesa’s reign certain Muslim converts had refused to eat meat killed by the Kabaka’s butcher, because

19
sc. of the C.M.S sailing vessel Eleanor.
Page 27 of 53
the latter was a pagan. Muteesa had dealt with this recalcitrance by ordering a number of the converts to be
burnt alive. A similar protest was made by adherents to Islam some fifteen years later, but Mwanga did not
dare to deal with them as his father had done. His only method retaliation was by exacting labour and fines
from them. For a time the Muslim Baganda were forced to submit, but the continued exactions slowly but
surely filed the cup of bitterness.

But Mwanga’s greatest suspicions fastened on the converts to Christianity. What they were being taught
and what they themselves were beginning to preach was to his mind and to the mind of the followers of the
old religion far more dangerous to peace, good order and government than anything preached by the
followers of Islam. In 1886 a blind anti-Christian fury, which was in no small measure inspired by a sudden,
momentary feeling of panic, had brought about a hecatomb of Christian martyrs, but soon afterwards that
fury had apparently spent itself. Like Muslims the Christians were for the time being allowed to escape with
nothing worse than the exaction of forced labour and fines.

Nevertheless, as one year succeeded to another, it became more and more evident that the Christian
Baganda were deliberately seeking to break with the past and to overthrow customs and institutions of very
long standing. An outstanding example of this occurred at the end of 1887. Nalumansi was a daughter of
Muteesa and had originally become a convert to Islam. Later still, she had become an adherent of the
Protestant Mission and had been baptized as a Christian. But she did not give entire satisfaction to her new
instructors. Mackay reported that she “was ever slow to learn to read, and, being imperfectly instructed
besides, was easily led away by her lover.” This said lover was in fact a former page of Muteesa, named
Yosefu Kaddu, who was a “reader” with the White Fathers. In due course Yosefu Kaddu contracted a
Christian marriage with Nalumansi, who had been received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1885 and had
taken the name Clara. In November of the same year, shortly after Bishop Hannington’s death, she gave a
striking proof of her continued goodwill to her former instructors of the Church Missionary Society by
sending them warning at dead of night that they must avoid Mwanga’s wrath by at once making friends with
him and giving him large present.

According to the ancient custom of the Baganda, abambejja (princesses) were neither allowed to marry nor
to have children, and the penalty for violation of this custom is said to have been death by burning alive.
Though it would appear that later kings had somewhat relaxed the rule, nonetheless a princess was
occasionally made to pay the full penalty for her transgression of this custom. Possibly Clara Nalumansi ran
little risk of suffering the extreme penalty, but nonetheless her marriage caused grave offence to many of
her fellow countrymen and that offence was deemed to be aggravated because she claimed a right to marry
by virtue of her being a Christian. But she was to scandalize public opinion even further. Shortly after her
marriage she was appointed to succeed a namesake as guardian of the tomb of Junju, generally reckoned
the twenty-sixth king of Buganda, at Luwunga in Busiro county. On arrival she found her predecessor’s
house was full of amulets and charms. The new guardian and her husband promptly drove away the
medicine man in attendance and made a bonfire of the amulets and fetishes. Clara Nalumansi followed this
by cutting up to pieces and throwing away her umbilical cord, which every princess was expected to
preserve with superstitious care. All these acts were in pagan eyes crimes of the gravest character and there
was a general demand that Clara and her husband should expiate them by paying the supreme penalty. But
very shortly afterwards public indignation was diverted on to the heads of others and for the time being
their lives were spared. But Nalumansi’s neophytic zeal would not allow her to rest. He grandfather Suna

Page 28 of 53
had dedicated a magnificent elephant tusk to the lake god, Mukasa. On the night of 17th December 1887 the
White Fathers learnt that Nalumansi had caused it to be carried off. It would appear that for a time
suspicions did not fasten upon her, but in August 1888 she was killed by a rifle shot. Her mother afterwards
asserted that Mwanga had ordered her to be killed because of her faith and because he was afraid that the
Christians might follow the example of the people of England and proclaim her as ruler of Buganda.

Clara Nalumansi’s case obtained a certain amount of notoriety for two reasons. In the first place she was a
mumbeja and the daughter of the late Kabaka. In the second place she was a woman and feminism was
something novel in a community which had for centuries regarded the tutelage of women as one of the
bedrock foundations of the society. But there were also members of the other sex who as a result of the
teaching of Christian missionaries had become imbued with ideas which the stalwarts of the old pagan
institutions and cults could only regard as highly dangerous. The letters and reports, which both Protestant
and Roman Catholic missionaries sent to their respective headquarters, are full of examples of this
radicalism, of which perhaps the most outstanding example was that of Yosefu Mukasa Balikudembe, a
follower of the White Fathers, who paid with his life for publicly rebuking Mwanga for having caused Bishop
Hannington to be killed. But possibly one of the gravest grounds of offence which these early converts gave
to Mwanga was the fact that they were constantly sending news of what he had to say about the
missionaries to the missionaries themselves. “They are, besides,” wrote Mackay on 29th September 1885,
“very eager to learn to write, and at all times scribbling on boards or any scrap of paper they can pick up.
Invariably someone or other of them sends us a semi-legible note containing news of anything said by the
king affecting us.” It was in the circumstances very understandable that Mwanga and the adherents of the
old pagan cults should attempt measures for the destruction of what in their eyes [was] a thoroughly
dangerous movement which was undermining the very foundations of society.

In August 1888 Mwanga determined to enlarge the piece of water living in the valley between Mengo and
Rubaga, which is now known as King’s Lake and gave orders for the calling out of his subjects to complete
the task. His Christian and Muslim subjects objected and refused to turn out. In fact the exaction of
compulsory labour upon public works of this description was in the native eyes perfectly legitimate, but
insistence on following a procedure which is both legitimate and constitutional may not always be advisable,
more especially when public opinion is known to be against it. There had been many demands for
compulsory work of this description during the preceding months and these had fallen with undue weight
upon Mwanga’s Christian and Muslim subjects. The call for work upon the King’s Lake met with little or no
response and it once came plain to Mwanga that this was a deliberate challenge to his authority.

On 22nd August 1888, a Roman Catholic chief, named Honorat Nyonyintono, who held a post at Mwanga’s
court, came to the White Fathers to seek their advice. He told the Fathers that the Kabaka had expressed his
dissatisfaction as to the slow manner in which the work on the King’s Lake was being performed and had
given orders that the chiefs concerned should muster their men one night for the purpose of continuing the
work. He had also heard, that Mwanga had given orders to Tebukoza, the Saza Chief of Budu, who was one
of the leaders of the pagan party, to come to the Lake at daybreak with an armed party and to attack the
Christians. The White Fathers advised Nyonyintono that he was in the circumstances under no obligation to
obey the order. None the less a number of Christian and Muslim chiefs and their adherents made their way
to the King’s Lake, taking with them their firearms. The war drums sounded throughout the night and it
appeared as if the morrow would see a terrible carnage. During the night Katikiro Mukasa, who was one of

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the stalwarts of the pagan party, sent a message to Mwanga advising him to hold his hand, as he was
outnumbered and out-weaponed by the Christians and Muslims. The next morning Mwanga proceeded with
a strong escort to the King’s Lake. When he say that he was confronted by a formidable body of armed men,
he decided to take the Katikiro’s advice and beat a hasty retreat to the royal enclosure.

It was clear to Mwanga that this was an overt act of rebellion and that not only his throne but also his life
was in jeopardy. But he obtained a respite which was probably wholly unexpected. There were divided
counsels among his opponents. Some were in favour of an immediate attack upon the royal enclosure, but
others, chief amongst whom was Nyonyintono, was opposed to such a measure. As with David in the cave at
Engedi, so with many Baganda it was a grievous sin to stretch forth their hands against the ruler of the
country. Eventually Nyonyintono’s counsel prevailed and so Mwanga obtained a short respite.

Mwanga made full use of this respite to concoct another plan for the extermination of his opponents. He
gave it out that he had resolved to destroy all pagan deities (balubale) throughout the country, to strip all
medicine men of those deities (mandwa) of their property and to being operation by a raid upon the island
of Bugala in Lake Victoria, where the mandwa had many herds of cattle. The Christians and Muslims were to
be summoned to embark on board canoes with their firearms. Having embarked, the Christians and Muslims
were to be landed upon some pretext on a desert island and there abandoned to perish miserably. But there
was a delay in putting the plan into execution. The soothsayers (balaguzi) had to be consulted and, as the
omen proved unpropitious, Mwanga decided to postpone execution of his plan for several days. Acting on
the advice of soothsayers Mwanga also gave orders for two sacrifices of nine person each. The victims were
chosen at hazard and it is said that there were no Christians amongst them. Very obviously these
preliminaries could not be entirely concealed and enquiries led to the divulging of Mwanga’s plans.

Eventually 9th September 1888 was fixed upon for putting the plan into execution. Mwanga was at Entebbe
and the Christians and Muslims were also assembled with their firearms. Orders were given for the Christians
and Muslims to embark, but were not carried out. Mwanga then embarked upon his canoe Waswa and told
Nyonyintono to accompany him. Nyonyintono did so, but declined to allow any of his followers to
accompany him. When Waswa had put a little way out into the lake, Mwanga ordered Apolo Kagwa, the
leader of the Protestants, to embark in another canoe. He also obeyed, but enjoined his followers not to
accompany him. Similar orders were given to two Muslim leaders, Lubanga and Sekeyeru, but both declined
to comply. Nyonyintono then said to Mwanga, “All Buganda refuse to take you to Sese. There is no old chief
here, and we are not able to take you.” Mwanga saw that his plan had miscarried and hastily made an
excuse for returning by canoe to Munyonyo, the port of Mengo, whilst his army made their way back
overland.

The Muslim party in particular was now determined that Mwanga must be deposed. They got in touch with
the Katikiro, Mukasa, who agreed that no other course was possible. The question then arose, and had to be
decided quickly, as to who should be Mwanga’s successor. The Muslims put forward a son of Muteesa,
named Kalema, who was well disposed towards their faction and who was living, according to recognized
custom, more or less in captivity in the custodianship of Kasuju, the chief of Busuju County. The then Kasuju
was a certain Kabizi, who had been appointed to that post in the latter days of Suna. Messengers who were
sent to get in touch with Kalema returned, saying it was impossible to reach Kalema and that it would be
better if an armed party was sent to rescue him from captivity.

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On hearing this Nyonyintono suggested that Muteesa’s oldest son, Kiwewa20, should be given the kingship.
Hitherto it had been the immemorial custom that the eldest son of the king should not succeed his father.
But Nyonyintono managed to pursued the Christians and Muslims that, as they were people of dini
(religion), the time had come to break with heathen custom. Messengers were accordingly sent to fetch
Kiwewa. At first he refused to accompany them, saying that it was unthinkable that he should violate ancient
custom in the manner they proposed. The emissaries then took him by force and carried him off to the
insurgent leaders at Rubaga. In the meantime the royal battery of drums known as Mujaguzo had been
seized by the insurgents and carried it off from Mengo to Rubaga.

On 10th September 1888, before daybreak, the royal drums were heard booming from Rubaga hill to the
cries of, “Kiwewa Kabaka! Kiwewa! wewa! wewa!” Mwanga hastily left his residence to discover that the
whole of Rubaga hill was covered with armed men. Except some hundred pages nobody was prepared to
stand by him. The Katikiro Mukasa’s followers went over to the insurgents who advanced en masse on the
royal residence at Mengo. A volley was fired and one of Mwanga’s pages fell dead. Mwanga thereupon fled
to Munyonyo on Lake Victoria. As when Saul ruled in Israel so when Mwanga ruled in Buganda the slaying of
kings was a heinous offence, however detestable that king might be, and might even be visited with the
punishment of death by the supplanter of the murdered man21. So Mwanga was allowed to escape
unmolested. By this time every single chief had deserted him except Kawuta (Kauta), who was nominally the
chief cook but in reality a person of some political importance. At Munyonyo Mwanga embarked in a canoe
and set off for the southern end of Lake Victoria. After an eventful odyssey he reached the Arab settlement
at Magu.

But to return to Buganda, not much is known of the new Kabaka. The Christian missionaries saw very little of
him. Ham Mukasa says he “tried to be a Muslim and heathen at the same time.” Sir Apolo Kagwa alleges that
he was a friend of drunkards, but the general impression one obtains is that he was a somewhat colourless
person. He began by placing himself more or less unreservedly in the hands of Honorat Nyonyintono. He
appointed this latter Katikiro in place of the veteran Mukasa, who retired to take up his residence at
Muteesa’s tomb at Kasubi.

Nyonyintono had the confidence and respect of all parties. The C.M.S missionary, Robert Ashe, wrote of him
that “he was a Roman Catholic and a confessor, having suffered cruelly during the persecution. He was a
fine character, and his death, which took place a little later on, was a heavy loss to the cause of Christianity in
Uganda.” He appears to have made an honest attempt to distribute the chieftainships equally amongst the
three parties which were responsible for placing Kiwewa on the throne. Amongst others Apolo Kagwa was
given the post of Mukwenda, chief of Singo, and a number of posts were also given to Muslims.

On 11th September – the day after his ascension – Kiwewa held a public baraza, which was attended by
English and French missionaries and Arab traders as well as his own subjects. At this meeting he lifted the
ban, which Muteesa and Mwanga alike had placed on Arabs trading with Bunyoro, and promised to reduce
the payments which his predecessor had been in the habit of exacting on the import or export of
merchandise. He also announced that he would build a mosque for the Muslims. At the same time he

20
In Buganda, the oldest son of the Kabaka – Kiwewa – was exempted from the throne.
21
The Bakunta, who were responsible for the death of Junju in a war between the Kabaka and his brother Semakokiro were ordered to
be put to death by Semakokiro on his ascension to his brother’s throne. They fled from Buganda and settled on the shores of Lake
Edward; Roscoe, The Bagesu, pp. 159-161; Sir Apolo Kagwa, Basekabaka be Buganda, pp. 84-84.
Page 31 of 53
conceded to the Europeans full liberty to preach the doctrines of Christianity and announced that none of
his subjects should in future be interfered with on the ground of his religion.

But Kiwewa’s popularity soon waned. There were disputes amongst his followers over the distribution of
the chieftainships and estates, the Muslim party alleging that two Christian parties had obtained more than
their fair share of these. But according to Cyril Gordon, “even here no real quarrelling nor passionate strife
took place, and all such matters were passing on to a successful conclusion. So, had there been no other
foreign element and watchfully self-interested party in the country all would eventually have worked well
and prosperously.” The foreign element to which Gordon thus referred, was the Arab traders. They
particularly disliked the appointment of Nyonyintono to the post of Katikiro. His predecessor Mukasa had
often stood between them and the wrath of Mwanga, but they did not feel that they could place the same
confidence in the new man. Mwanga had left the country owing them large quantities of ivory and Kiwewa
had undertaken to pay this debt. He had indeed done his best to carry out his promise, but he lacked the
wherewithal to satisfy his creditors in full. The Arabs could expect little assistance from the new Katikiro and
the other Christian chief in trying to collect their debts. It consequently appeared to them that the only
possible means of obtaining satisfaction of their demands was by ensuring that their co-religionists got the
monopoly of power.

A pretext very soon arose for attacking the Christians. During the rebellion a Protestant chief, named
Ddungu, had been in Kiziba collecting tribute from a chief named Kaitaba. He had returned to find that all
the chieftainships and estates had been distributed in his absence. He was said to have given vent to his
disappointment by saying: “Kiwewa prefers the Muslims to us; he has put them at the head of all large
provinces; if he continues to do this, we shall place a woman of the royal family on the throne.” Whether he
actually said this or not cannot now be ascertained. But it suited the Arab’s purpose to believe the story and
to make most of it. The Baganda were strong believers in the Salic law. In their eyes the ascension to the
throne of a woman would have been a gross violation of all constitutional precepts. On the evening of 11th
October Gordon and Walker of the Church Missionary Society were returning home from the capital they
met a leading Muslim chief, one Muguluma, returning from a visit to the Arabs at Natete.

Next day Kiwewa held a Lukiko at which he charged the Christians with wishing to supplant him and place a
woman on the throne. The Katikiro Nyonyintono strongly denied the allegation, but he was not believed. He
therefore abruptly left the Lukiko. Gordon tells us that “he had hardly got back to his house, when he was
summoned back to the open space outside leading to the King’s courts. The fight had begun. Thus taken by
surprise, the Christian leaders and their followers had to fight for their lives. They had to fight at a great
disadvantage and against desperate odds. The determination of the Muhammadans was to turn out the
Katikiro. The battle waged fiercely for some time, but the Christians had not been able to collect in sufficient
numbers, nor yet in time. The Katikiro and Mukwenda had been heard to say that they never intended to
fight. They were forced into battle and defeated. Two, if not more, of the chief Christian leaders were killed,
the young Admiral and another chief. The body of the Christians fled with the Katikiro and Mukwenda.”
Honorat Nyonyintono and a small party retreated towards the Roman Catholic Mission at the foot of Rubaga
and offered to escort the White Fathers to a place of safety, but the Fathers had a number of orphan
children in their care and declined the offer. Thereafter Nyonyintono and Apollo Kaggwa retreated in a
westerly direction in good order.

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The Muslim party then proceeded to make prisoners of all Christian missionaries. These included Messrs.
Gordon and Walker of the Church Missionary Society, Monseigneur Leon Livinhac (Vicar Apostolic), Fathers
Simeon Loudrel and Denoit, and a lay brother named Amans. Both mission stations were pillaged and the
missionaries were despoiled of almost everything they possessed22. Their lives were spared. After having
been kept as prisoners for several days and treated with the utmost ignominy, on 18th October they were
placed on board the Church Missionary Society’s vessel Eleanor together with Gordon and Walker’s two
native servants and twenty-two orphans in the care of the White Fathers. As the Eleanor pushed off into the
lake, the following parting message was delivered to them:
Let no white man come to Buganda for the space of two years. We do not want to see Mackay’s boat in
Buganda waters for a long time to come. We do not want to see a white teacher back again in Buganda until
we have converted the whole of Buganda to Muslim faith.

Shortly after setting sail a hippopotamus made two holes in the keel of the vessel, which filled with water
and turned over. Five of the orphans were drowned, but the reminder managed to get to the nearby island,
where with the help of a friendly fisherman Walker succeeded in repairing the damage. Thereafter, the
Eleanor continued her way to the southern end of Lake Victoria.

Sometime before these events Kiwewa had said to Father Loudrel in secret, “I hate the Muslims who want
to circumcise me by force. When I shall be able to do so, I shall pray with you.” On the day when the
missionaries finally left the shores of Buganda, a blind man, named Kanyambo, came to bid them farewell.
As he wrung the Catholic missionaries by the hand, he whispered, “It is not Kiwewa who is expelling you.”
Very probably Kanyambo was speaking the truth. But Kiwewa was powerless to intervene, even if he had
wished to do so. When Mackay had heard of Mwanga’s deposition, he had informed the British Consul-
General at Zanzibar that he did not “expect that Kiwewa would be long on the throne, as the old fetish-
worshipping party is still the majority in Buganda, and they stoutly cling to the old rites and customs, one of
which is that the eldest son may not become Kabaka; we shall, by and by, hear of another reaction.” For the
time being the Arab traders had completely obtained the upper hand. Some of these had been present at
the fight with the Christians, and others had sent contingents of their slaves to assist the Baganda Muslims.
Other Arabs took a conspicuous part in pillaging the European missionaries of their goods. Whether he liked
it or not, Kiwewa had to watch in silence all things coming to pass.

Like his father before him, Kiwewa strongly objected to the rite of undergoing circumcision. According to
information received by Alexander Mackay, when leading Muslim chiefs broached the subject to him, “day
after day he put them off, and in the meantime planned how he might rid himself of them. He tried poison,
but only one chief seems to have died, so that the scheme died.” Information then reached him that there
was a plot to seize his person and to perform the rite by force. He determined to anticipate the plot by
sending for the leading Muslim chiefs on the pretext that he wished to arrange about the matter. On their
arrival Kiwewa personally attacked them with a spear, killing two of them. Muguluma, the new Katikiro, was
the third member of the deputation. He owed his life to the prompt action of a page, who fired a gun at
Kiwewa’s feet. This had the effect of so frightening Kiwewa, that he incontinently to the Namasole (Queen

22
One of the ringleaders of the attack and pillaging of the Christian missionaries was a certain Suleman bin Zoher. On the return of this
individual to Zanzibar in 1890 the Sultan imposed a fine equivalent to pounds 3,000 upon him and ordered him to be transported from
Zanzibar for five years. Out of the fine the Sultan awarded the equivalent of pounds 2,000 to the Church Missionary Society for their
loss.
Page 33 of 53
Mother). In the confusion the Katikiro made good his escape and go the opportunity to rally the Muslim
party.

As soon as he was able to collect a sufficient number of armed men, Muguluma returned and set fire to the
Queen Mother’s enclosure. Kiwewa then fled to Mutesa’s tomb at Kasubi, where was Mukasa, the former
Katikiro of both Muteesa and Mwanga. Until that time, Kiwewa had been acting largely on Mukasa’s advice
in resisting the demands of the Muslims, but at this juncture the old Katikiro and the guardians of Mutesa’s
tomb refused to render him any assistance. They even drove him and his followers away with violence,
killing five of his men.

Kiwewa then retreated in the direction of Singo, where he hoped to rally the pagan elements to his side and
to get in touch with the fugitive Christians. He had a momentary respite whilst the Muslim party sent for
Kalema, their original nominee, and proclaimed him as Kabaka. The next day they attacked Kiwewa at
Kyebanda. Kiwewa lost about twenty of his supporters killed and eventually fell into the hands of Kalema’s
partisans. According to one account certain of his own followers betrayed him to the enemy. Be as it may,
on 22nd October 1888, Kiwewa ceased to reign after having ruled for the brief period of six weeks. He was
placed in the stocks and deliberately starved. He was, however, to remain alive for some nine months more
and in the end his death was neither quick nor merciful.

On 6 Rabi-el-Akhir 1306 (12th December 1888) Kalema addressed a letter to the Sultan of Zanzibar. That
letter reads as follows:

“We received a letter from Seyyid Barghash telling us to help, assist, and to do honour to the Christians, and we
did according to his order. But the Christians taught our subjects without our permission, and there were two
parties, one Muslim and one Christian. After that all the people of Buganda agreed to remove their Sultan, and
put his brother Kuyu bin Mutesa in his place, and then all the Christians agreed to remove Kuyu, and to put his
sister in his place. The Muslims did not like what the Christians wished, and the Muslims and Christians fought,
the Christian after some time returning to their homes.”
“After that Sultan Kuyu wished to kill all Muslims; he killed two chiefs, and the others ran away from him. Then
the Muslims fought until they captured Kuyu the Sultan, then I became Sultan of Buganda, and I am now a
Muslim. I believe in God and Mohamed: I thank God for that. Now, what I wish for is for you to send me powder
and guns to help us fight with the Washenzi, and to make them Muslims. Please send us Misahafu (books i.e.,
Korans) and some books which the Muslims use to read, and we also want one teacher and one of your men
with your flag.”
“Please take this trouble: we have got none but God and you. And if any Christians come to you for letters to
come to Buganda, do not give them; we do not want them to come to Buganda. If they come, it would be their
own fault (sc., if they suffer harm). And we have Sultan Kuyu in prison; he will give no more trouble. And I send
you nine frasilas, seven maunds, and twenty-one ratils of ivory. Please accept these things from me.”
“SULTAN KALEMA–BIN–SULTAN MUTESA–BIN–SUNA,”
“Sultan of Buganda”23

As the letter shows, the new ruler of Buganda was ready to satisfy in full all demands of the Arabs and the
Muslim party in that country. He underwent the rite of circumcision and was ready to take steps to enforce
Islam on all his subjects. For this purpose he was prepared to use force of arms in particular against the
pagan section of the community, whom in imitation of his Arab dictators he described as Washenzi. As these

23
Muguluma, Kalema’s Katikiro, also wrote on the same date to the Sultan of Zanzibar in almost identical language.
Page 34 of 53
formed the great majority and the most conservative of all his subjects, he was setting himself a Herculean
task.

There is another very notable feature about the letter. It treats the Christian parties in the land as no longer
force to be reckoned with, but in this Kalema had fallen into a grave error. On 12th October 1888 both
Christian parties had been taken by surprise and had been quite unable to offer any effective resistance to
the Muslim party’s onslaught, but a number of them had managed to retreat in good order. When the Arabs
and Muslim Baganda turned to vent their wrath on the Christian missionaries and despoil them of all their
possessions, attention was distracted from their converts, who thus were enabled to continue their retreat
with little or no molestation. When a few days later Kiwewa proved recalcitrant, the wrath of the visitors
descended upon him and his supporters and once again attention was diverted from the Christian converts.

On the day of their defeat by the Muslim party a number of members of the Roman Catholic party set out
under the leadership of Honorat Nyonyintono for Buddu, whence in due course they made their way
unmolested into Ankole. After recovering from the effect of the first surprise other parties of Roman
Catholics followed Nyonyintono’s footsteps. On the evening before the White Fathers were finally expelled
from Buganda, Gaburieli Kintu managed to let Father Loudrel know that he was leading another party into
exile. From time to time other small bands of Roman Catholics followed.

One of the Protestant fugitives was Hamu Mukasa, who was later Sekiboobo and, was then a youth of about
eighteen and spoke of how he set off for Ankole in a party of five hundred persons, but for these only one
hundred and four eventually reached Ankole. “Very many of our number turned back on the road and for
the time became Muslims.”

Apollo Kaggwa, county chief of Singo, took with him one hundred and fifty persons; with one hundred and
ten guns through Singo into Ankole. Thence he sent back a messenger to persuade others to follow him. The
messenger managed to make his way into the capital and to induce a number of Christians to retire to
Ankole. A special message was sent by Apollo Kaggwa to the people of Grasshopper (Nsenene) clan, and the
ancestral home of the clan at Kisozi in the County of Gomba became the assembly point for many of the
parties which ultimately reached Ankole, with the result that in the course of some four or five months
Apollo Kaggwa, who was regarded as the leader of the Protestant partisans, found that he had a thousand
guns at his disposal.

The arrival in this country of these formidable bodies of armed strangers must at first have caused concern
to Ntare, the Mugabe (King) of Ankole. Some of the immigrants settled in the county of Bukanga, where
there is a colony of Baganda to this day. Others were allowed to settle in the district of Kabula on the
frontier of Ankole. Mbaguta, who was later to acquire the Christian name Nuwa and to become Enganzi
(First Minister) of Ankole, was given the task of looking after the vanguard of thirty of the exiles when they
reached Kabula. Later, as their numbers grew, he was given permission by the Mugabe to enroll some
seventy of the immigrants as a band of fighters, who were concentrated at Katete on the south bank of
River Rwizi, opposite Mbarara, the capital of Ankole. These acquired the name of Abagonya and were even
employed by Mbaguta in raids into adjacent territories. Ntare presented the newcomers with five tusks of
ivory, thirty to forty heads of cattle and a number of villages. The newcomers repaid this generosity by
raiding the county of Buddu in Buganda and coming back with one hundred and sixty cattle which they gave
to Ntare.

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Others of the refugees raided the cattle-owning Banyarwanda. In addition the visitors set to work to bridge
rivers and embank swamps – and in particular the Ruizi near Mbarara – and also to do other works of public
utility. The result was, in Sir Apolo Kaggwa’s words, that “Ntare was pleased because we became like his
people.” Within a short time the number of refugees increased to about two thousand men armed with
guns, a formidable fighting force to be reckoned with in contemporary East African warfare. One thing,
however, greatly impaired their value. As Sir Apolo Kaggwa’s account of those days of exile shows, mutual
differences, jealousies, and suspicions were already beginning to prevent the Protestant and Roman Catholic
sections from pulling together. On 4th March 1889 Nikodemu Sebwato, who was later to become County
Chief of Kyagwe (Sekiboobo), wrote the following words from Ankole to Alexander Mackay:

“At this time the Christians are very many here in Ankole. They number about one thousand in all, with
women. From over there in Buganda they are coming out of their hiding places, and on the road they do not
cease to come. So for this reason we have found much trouble, and hunger in plenty; the people are nearly
dying. And now all the people are wanting to return to Buganda, to fight with the people of the Koran, a
second time. Well then, we want you, our brethren, if you accept these plans to write to us a letter quickly
that we may hear. Besides, also, all matters that you have, do you write to us about, that we might
understand your counsel, what you are advising and thinking about. But then, our brethren, when we left
Buganda we came in two crowds, we and our brothers who are followers of the Pope. But we do not pull well
together. They want always to fight with us who are in these troubles and difficulties. However, we want you
to write a letter and send it to the French priests, that they may make us come to an agreement.”

Other Christian refugees managed to obtain canoes and proceeded in them to the southern end of Lake
Victoria. The Roman Catholics had settled at Bukumbi where the White Fathers already had a mission and
the protestants at Usambiro where was a C.M.S. station. On 3rd December 1888 one fugitive reached
Bukumbi who was not a Christian. As already mentioned, when he fled from Buganda, Mwanga had taken
refugee with the Arabs at Magu on Speke Gulf at the south-east corner of Lake Victoria. Shortly after his
arrival he then sent Kauta, the one and only chief of any importance who had shared in his flight, back to
Buganda with a letter (written by his hosts) craving permission to return! “At first,” as Mackay wrote on
24th October 1888, “Mwanga was hospitably entertained by Said bin Seif, but now the Arabs are fleecing
him terribly. He had with him thirty snider rifles, which he had just bought from Stoke’s agent before the
rebellion, and most of them he has already sold to the Arabs at Magu for calico and food. What he means to
do when all his guns are gone I do not know.” The inevitable day came when the last gun was sold, his two
wives had been seized, and the dethroned Kabaka could be fleeced no more. At the same time reports came
that Kalema was sending an expedition to seize Mwanga so as to put him to death. Fearing that he himself
might become embroiled in the business, Said bin Seif allowed his guest to escape by night. So Mwanga
made his way to Bukumbi.

“He has come,” wrote Monseigneur Leon Livinhac, “to beseech us to grant him hospitality, promising us
that he will allow himself to be introduced. He has implored pardon, with his forehead in the dust,
acknowledging that it was because he had persecuted the religion that God had removed him from his
throne.”

“Poor potentate,” added Loudrel, “quantum mutatus ab illo! (how much changed from what once he was).
He has thrown himself on his knees and begged me for pardon for all that he did against our Christians.”

Page 36 of 53
When news of Mwanga’s arrival at Bukumbi reached Ankole, there was much debate amongst the Christians
as to what should be done. Eventually it was decided to send a deputation consisting of Protestants and
Roman Catholics to Mwanga to invite him to return to Buganda. Amongst the emissaries was Hamu Mukasa.
On their arrival at Bukumbi, Hamu Mukasa noted, “Mwanga was very glad to see us. We found him sleeping
on a bedstead made of papyrus, which gave way with him every day; it gave way because it was not strongly
tied. They made Mwanga sleep on this bedstead that he might learn humility by remembering what he had
to suffer. As a matter of fact all this happened to no purpose. He never learnt to be thankful.”

The messengers brought with them a letter from Honorat Nyonyintono, which was addressed to the White
Fathers and told them that “if Mwanga is with you and his disposition is better, deliver him over to us, we
will take him back to his own country, because the Baganda realize now that they have done him wrong in
allowing him to be expelled.” He also suggested that Mwanga should try to make a rendezvous with the
Christians from Ankole at Damu on the Buddu shore of Lake Victoria and that they should advance thence
overland to Mengo. The Protestant portion of the deputation proceeded to Usambiro to ask Mackay to
lend them the C.M.S vessel Eleanor so as to take Mwanga back to his kingdom; but Mackay refused to lend
them the boat, being of the opinion that any attempt to replace Mwanga on his throne by force of arms
would be exposing all missionaries in Central Africa to serious and unnecessary danger24. On the other hand,
Monseigneur Livinhac held that he and his confreres ought to do nothing to prevent the exiled Baganda
from carrying out their project. “I had already told Mwanga and his people,” he informed Mackay, “that
their project was a dangerous one. All replied that they knew the danger, but that would not hinder them . . .
. . I do not know if they will be able to land in their country, and to join their brethren. Perhaps in a few days
we will see them come back as they went.” Both Mackay and Livinhac were much criticized at the time in
certain circles for the respective attitudes which they took up in regard to this matter, but at this distance of
time we can say that the opinions of both men were honest and were given from the best of motives and
that for that reason they ought to be treated with the greatest possible respect – even by those who may
regard them as having been wrong.

Though Mackay declined to assist, another European came to the aid of the Christian Baganda. This is not
the place to give at any length the strange history of Charles Henry Stokes, but some biographical details
must be given regarding him in order to explain how he came to perform the role of deus ex machina in the
history of Buganda. Stokes was born in about 1851 in Northern Ireland and was by profession civil engineer.
In 1878 he took service under the Church Missionary Society and went out to East Africa. During this period
he was stationed in various places, including Buganda, where he stayed for brief periods during 1879 and
again in 1881 when he brought back the Baganda envoys whom Muteesa had sent to Queen Victoria. A
Belgian artist who met him in Tabora in 1882 drew a sketch of him which depicts him as having a long beard
down to the collar, a turban, a joho and a kanzu. In 1883 Stokes had married an English lady, a member of
the Universities’ Mission at Zanzibar; but she had died in 1884 in childbirth and her infant daughter had been
sent to England to be looked after by her mother’s relatives. Subsequently, Stokes had severed his
connection with the Church Missionary Society and on 27th July 1886 he went through a ceremony of
marriage at the Consulate General, Zanzibar, with a woman named Limi, who was the daughter of the
paramount chief of the Wanyaturu, dwelling in central Tanzania. Whilst still in missionary service, Stokes had

24
In a letter of 26th November 1889 to Lord Salisbury the British Consul-General at Zanzibar concurred in this view. As a letter from
Mackay to Stanley of 5th January 1890 shows, the Eleanor was no longer really seaworthy and was very shortly afterwards broken up.
(In Darkest Africa, II, p. 392).
Page 37 of 53
proved himself a capable caravan leader and persona grata with many of the leading chiefs in Central Africa,
including the redoubtable Mirambo and Muteesa. After severing his connection with the Church Missionary
Society, he established himself as a trader. In this capacity he amassed considerable quantities of ivory,
acquired the most part in exchange for firearms and ammunition. This method of barter had called forth a
protest from Mackay, who wrote on 18th April 1888 from Usambiro to the British Consul-General at Zanzibar
in the following terms:

“Another evil of growing magnitude claims attention. You are probably aware that Mr. Stokes has this year
brought up to this place a caravan of supplies of Stanley [sic] who is expected to return from Wadelai by way
of Buganda . . . . . . . It seems a strange proceeding for the same trader to bring here some 200 loads of
provisions, cloths and beads for Stanley, who travels on a peaceful mission, and at the same time to send 100
Winchester repeaters, Snider and Martini-Henry rifles, with nearly 20,000 rounds of cartridges into Buganda, to
help Mwanga not only defy Stanley, but all peaceful travelers.”
“Mwanga’s head will only be inflated with pride and a sense of his own invincibility. Stokes believes he is doing
the mission a good turn by supplying these arms; but the policy is a very short-sighted one.”

Complaints such as these and the personal estrangement between the two, which followed upon Stoke’s
second marriage, naturally coloured their mutual opinions of each other and serve to explain the acerbity
which each refers to the other in the course of their correspondence. This is not the place to give an
estimate of the character of either man. But is not out of place to put on record here what Apollo Kaggwa
wrote on learning of the tragic and untimely death of Charles Stokes:

“We were very grieved because Sitokisi was very much our friend; truly it was he who helped us when we
fought against the Muslims, and we shall not forget that European from England; our children will remember
him; he preserved us from much distress when we were in Busagala (Ankole).”25

But to return to the manner in which Stokes helped the Christian refugees from Buganda, in July 1888 Stokes
had paid one of his periodical visits to Zanzibar and in response to a request from Colonel Euan-Smith, the
British Consul-General, had agreed to be the bearer of a personal letter to Mwanga explaining the pacific
intentions of the British, and in particular of the Protestant missionaries. Stokes did not reach the southern
shores of Lake Victoria until March 1889. But that time Mwanga had been driven in exile and no useful
purpose could be affected by delivering the Consul-General’s letter to him. Stokes therefore turned his
immediate attention to his own personal affairs. He later reported to the Consul-General that:

“My ivory arrived from Buganda in charge of my servant, Wadi Maftaha, about the end of March. It came in
Buganda canoes, along with a lot of other ivory belonging to the Arabs. The Arabs were afraid to seize it
themselves, but did their best to persuade the new King to do so. He, however, refused, and so it reached
Magu, the Arab settlement, in safety. I went up with my boat to Magu, and took it and my people to Bukumbi.”

Having secured his ivory, Stokes returned to Bukumbi to find that the Christian deputation had just arrived
from Ankole (18th April 1889). According to Hamu Mukasa, “Mr. Stokes told us that he had a thing that
would set Kalema’s capital on fire. Perhaps the thing he spoke of had not the power ascribed to it, but we
quite thought it had, and told the people so. We told them that the European had a gun that would destroy
everything, and this became greatly believed.” The secret weapon might have been a rocket, which could

25
For the circumstances leading up to the execution of Stokes in the Congo Free State in 1895, see Blue Book Africa No. 8 (1896).
Certain litigation in regard to his will, whereby he left all his property to the Church Missionary Society, is reported (Stokes v. Stokes) in
Law Times, LXXVIII, 1897, pp. 50-53.
Page 38 of 53
have worked devastation amongst the grass-thatched huts of the Baganda. But whether the weapon
existed or not, it had a very effective propaganda value.

After discussing the matter with Monseigneur Livinhac, Stokes decided to lend his boat for the proposed
expedition:

“Mwanga and I then started26,” says Stokes, “for Buganda in my boat and about forty guns, principally Le Gras
and Sniders, and 500 to 600 rounds of ammunition. On arrival at our first point, Buddu, many thousand fighting
men joined Mwanga’s standard, and after waiting about ten days the Christians, about 800 strong, joined us.”

They then learnt that the Christians had already been in action. In order to assist them in their journey from
Ankole to Bukumbi, Mukotanyi, chief of Kiamutwara, had supplied the Christians with canoes. When Kalema
heard of this, he sent a punitive expedition against Mukotanyi, who appealed to the Christians in Ankole for
help. The Christians responded by intercepting Kalema’s expedition in Buddu and putting it to flight with
fairly heavy loss. But most unfortunately, a later action in the course of pursuit across the Katonga River, the
Christian leader Honorat Nyonyintono was killed and the Christian forces withdrew to Ankole. They now
heard the arrival of Mwanga and Stokes in Buddu and hastened to join them at Dumu.

Hamu Mukasa was with Mwanga, on arrival at Sango Bay, said; “Mwanga sent me to the Sese Islands to call
on the islanders to revolt from Kalema and follow Mwanga. So I set off to the islands and I captured on the
way a Swahili from Zanzibar named Khalifan. He had with him eighty women and sixty boy slaves. The
people with me wanted to kill the man at once, but I refused to allow this and went off and told Mr. Stokes.
He refused to kill the man and said I had done right. He said, “You are a sensible man, Hamu.” Mr. Stokes
was always very fond of me ever afterwards up to the day of his death.”27

The events which followed almost immediately afterwards are best told in Stokes’ own words:

I had great difficulty in getting the Roman Catholic and Protestant community to join together. Very strong and
bitter feelings are held by both parties . . . . . . When I arrived, the Christians came down in a body to meet and
greet me. I, of course, joined no side. I told them in matters of religion every man ought to follow the dictation
of his own conscience; if they choose to accept Mwanga, then their duty to him and to their country was to
obey him, the lawful Kabaka, and fight for their liberty.
“ . . . . . . When the Arab party got to know of Mwanga’s arrival, they gathered another large party and
advanced to Mwanga’s camp with about 2,000 guns, a joint party of Arabs, Wangwana (coast men) and
Waganda. . . . . . Mwanga had by this time about 1,000 guns; he had a great number of spears, and we were
very short of powder ammunition. I tried to get our party to go out and surprise the enemy in ambush, but it
was no good; they delayed and delayed, and suddenly, one Sunday morning, the Arab party broke on the
camp. It was the very day I had arranged for Mwanga to rejoin me in the boat. I was in force on the lake with
about 150 canoes and about 120 guns close to the camp.
“Mwanga had already left with his guard of about 150 guns when the Arab party broke into the camp. When I
heard the first volley, I ordered the canoes into the water and paddled to the nearest landing place. After
waiting about an hour Mwanga arrived, and shortly afterwards messengers to inform us our party had been
repulsed with the loss of the Katikiro (general in command)28 and were retiring towards Antari’s (sc., Ntare of

26
Le lundi de Quasimodo (Nicq) = 29th April 1889.
27
This would have occurred in the latter half of May 1889. According to Ashe (‘Chronicles of Uganda’) the Arab Halfan, whose ransom
was subsequently paid to Mwanga, was captured in Gabureli’s brilliant action of 2nd September (page 39 post). See H. B. Thomas,
‘Arabic Correspondence captured in 1895,’ in Uganda Journal, Vol. 13 (1949), p.34. Hamu Mukasa’s personal recollection seems more
likely to be correct.
28
In a letter to the C.M.S dated 30th July 1889 Mackay refers to him as Mwanga’s “chief general Mwemba”
Page 39 of 53
 Ankole). We then took all our party on board the canoes and retired towards the Sese Isles. The second day
the Christians made another stand and checked the Arab party, and after a great deal of trouble I got Mwanga
and his party to try and give them further check by attacking them from behind close to the capital. This had
been my plan from the first, but the generals were all not agreed; had they done so, they would not have been
repulsed.
“We burnt a large tract of country advancing on the capital, and this had the desired effect of drawing the
Arabs back to the capital, Rubaga. I then brought the army into camp on a small island close to the place where
Stanley met Muteesa long ago, a place about two hours walk from Rubaga. The rest of the war party of
Mwanga came into camp at Buddu, South Buganda. I remained with Mwanga about ten days, during which
time the islands sent embassies to swear allegiance to Mwanga.
“I then found it necessary to return to Busukuma to get supplies of powder and ammunition for Mwanga.”

Nyonyintono’s death before the return of Mwanga was a more serious loss to the Christian cause. Although
he was an adherent of the White Fathers, he had equally gained the respect of the Protestants. He had
proved himself a brave and intrepid leader and he had shown that he had greater vision than most of his
fellow countrymen. Sir Apollo Kaggwa referred to him as ‘our leader’ and he had been the one man who
might at length have persuaded the two rival factions to pull together harmoniously, even if he had not been
able to put an entire end to the petty rivalries and jealousies amongst his followers. After his death those
rivalries and jealousies became even more accentuated.

It had come as a surprise and a shock to Kalema to find that the Christians were still a potent force and also
that they were ready to support their former persecutor. About the time that the news of this reaction in
favour of Mwanga first reached him, one of Muteesa’s sons named Bamweyana managed to bribe the jailor,
in whose custody he was, to let him escape. He tried to make his way to the Christians in Ankole, but was
caught and brought back to his prison. His escape led Kalema to believe that only one course lay open to
him, if he wished his throne to remain secure. Mwanga might be discarded by the Christians for Bamweyana
or indeed for any other prince or even princess of royal lineage. Therefore the decree went forth that not
only Bamweyana but every other prince and princess should suffer death by being burnt alive. Mayinja, one
of the only two sons of Suuna, who had been allowed to live when Muteesa ascended the throne (in the
action of Muganzirwaza), was one of the victims. Kayondo, a son of Muteesa, had been suggested as
Mwanga’s successor at the time of the enthronement of Kiwewa and therefore had to suffer in this general
proscription. A princess named Nasuswa had actively assisted many Christians to escape from Busiro to
Ankole; she therefore could expect no mercy. In the course of a quarrel seven years before Kalema had shot
his half-brother Mawanda by discharging both barrels of a heavy gun at point-blank range and had wounded
him fatally. Mawanda’s three sons had at this date fallen into Kalema’s clutches and were destined to die a
far more terrible death than their father.

In all some thirty princes and princesses perished in this massacre. Amongst them was the former Kabaka
Kiwewa, “but,” wrote Sir Apollo Kaggwa, “the manner of killing him was not a fit manner in which to kill a
king. He (Kalema) began by refusing him food and water for seven days on end. Afterwards he was shot
with a gun and they killed him, and then they burnt him in the prison.” Many of Kiwewa’s wives shared his
fate, being put to death in circumstances of disgusting brutality. Only one prince was saved. This was
Mbogo, a son of Suuna, who owed his life to the fact that he had embraced Islam. As a child, he and Mayinja,
one of Kalema’s victims, has escaped the general slaughter of Suuna’s sons after the accession of Muteesa.
Having now been spared a second time, he lived till 1921. Some of the princesses also saved their lives by
professing Islam.
Page 40 of 53
Two others of Kalema’s thirty victims should be mentioned. Kyonya and Kagalo were mere infants, but they
were the sons of Mwanga. Therefore they had to suffer the same terrible fate as their elders. When the
news reached Mwanga on the island of Bulingugwe, he gave these words to his sorrow when writing to
Mackay29:

“Consider how Kalema has killed all my brothers and sisters; he has killed my children too, and now there
remains only we two princes. Mr. Mackay, do help me; I have no strength, but if you are with me, I shall be
strong.”

Kalema also vented his wrath on one other person who was not of royal blood. Mwanga’s former Katikiro,
Mukasa, was still living at Muteesa’s tomb at Kasubi. It was notorious that he clung to the old religion of the
country. It was he who advised Kiwewa against circumcision and reports reached Kalema that he was now
making overtures to his former master. Kalema therefore gave orders that he should be put to death. The
story as to how that order was carried out is best told in the words of Robert Ashe:

“When the messengers came, he behaved with much dignity, and met his death with the greatest courage.
He saw that his murder was intended, and made no resistance. He was shot, and his body cast into one of the
houses (huts), which was then set on fire, so that all that was mortal of him thus perished in the flames. This
man was one of the most remarkable Africans that I have ever met. He possessed an astonishing insight into
character. He was courteous and as polite as an Arab. Emin Pasha called him the one gentleman in Uganda.
When not carried away by the cruel passion of revenge, he could take a statesmanlike view of affairs. I have a
vivid recollection of his proud and handsome face, which yet was so difficult to read.
“But underlying all his suavity and politeness there was a determined and bitter hatred for foreigners; and
whether it was consummate acting or genuine feeling, he displayed a touching fidelity to his old master, King
Mutesa. Though he could read a Gospel, and knew something of the Koran, he died as he had lived – an
adherent of the old Uganda religion.”

Whilst all these things were happening in and near to Mengo, Mwanga was only a few miles away on
Bulingugwe, an island situated in the Murchison Gulf close to Munyonyo on the western shore of that inlet.
Bulingugwe was evacuated early in the nineteenth century because of sleeping sickness and has only been
re-occupied in recent years. As a result, much of it was by then covered by a thick undergrowth of bush
timber. From a sketch plan of the island made by Major J. R. L. Macdonald in 1893 one gathers that
Bulingugwe was always well wooded, but there was an open space at the northern end of the island.

Mwanga was destined to occupy this island on more than one occasion. Stokes first conveyed him there in
May 1889. At the end of ten days Stokes left in his boat to fetch more ammunition from the southern end of
Lake Victoria. He promised to return as quickly as possible, but he was delayed. His boat had to be recaulked
and painted and he himself fell ill. In the meantime Mwanga had to hold out as best as he could on
Bulingugwe with few followers and little ammunition. After their defeat in Buddu the Christians from Ankole
had once more returned to that country and only a relatively small band had accompanied Mwanga to
Bulingugwe. As the island lay so close to the mainland and so near to Kalema’s headquarters it would seem a
matter of some surprise that Mwanga and his handful of followers were able to hold out at all.

Mwanga owed his safety to the fact that he had “command of the sea.” For this great advantage he has to
thank the Basese. Many of the Sese Islands were centres of Lubare worship and majority of the islanders
were staunch supporters of the old cults. They naturally resented Kalema’s forceful attempts to convert

29
This forms part of the letter of 25th June 1889.
Page 41 of 53
them to Islam and this induced them to support Mwanga. The navigation of the lake was almost entirely in
their hands and the result was that Kalema and his supporters found it well-nigh impossible to obtain
canoes.

All the same, the island was within effective rifle range of the mainland, and as Mwanga’s party was very
short of ammunition, one would have expected the foothold of Bulingugwe to have been extremely
precarious. But by this time two things were beginning to tell in favour of Mwanga’s supporters. Whatever
popularity Kalema may have had when he came into power was rapidly dwindling. He had obtained the
throne by coup d’état and not as the result of popular acclamation. From the outset he had shown that he
was a mere puppet in the hands of the Arab traders. By trying to force Islam upon them, and in particular the
rite of circumcision which was repugnant to the ideas of the Baganda, he had made himself intensely
unpopular with the pagan element of the population, who formed the greater number of his subjects and
included a number of influential chiefs. Full of iconoclastic zeal, members of the Muslim party set to work to
destroy the shrines and temples of the pagan deities of the Baganda. Amongst other places they destroyed
the temple of the war god, Kibuka, at Mbale, Mawokota. The mandwa (medium) managed to save certain
relics of the deity by burying them30, but the destruction of this and other temples served to increase
Kalema’s unpopularity.

Furthermore, Kalema’s wholesale destruction of his kinsfolk (the princes and princesses) had outraged
public opinion. The past history of Buganda shows that its people were ready to submit to much cruelty and
oppression at the hands of the Kabaka, provided that their oppressor had other attributes which they
regarded at befitting a ruler of their land. But as more than one Kabaka had learnt to his cost, there were
limits to that endurance and, when the Kabaka had few kingly attributes, the cup of bitterness often
overflowed rapidly. More so, as Sir Apollo Kaggwa said, the manner of slaying Kiwewa gravely offended
public opinion. A Kabaka might be starved to death or he might be killed in battle, but deliberately to stretch
forth the hand against the ruler of the land and to slay him in cold blood was in the eyes of the Baganda a
heinous crime. Kalema was therefore very rapidly alienating public opinion. As after events showed, except
for the few fanatical devotees of Islam, few of his subjects were ready to answer his call to arms, and
Kalema had perforce to rely largely on the Arabs and their bands of armed slaves.

Another serious problem for Kalema was that of ammunition. He was running just as short of this
commodity as were his opponents and his difficulty in renewing supplies was even greater. The overland
route by the southern and western shores of Lake Victoria was slow and tedious. The right of way was
dependent on the goodwill of a number of local chiefs, and ammunition caravans were exposed to the risk
of interception by the Christian refugees in Ankole. The water route was in the circumstances the only
practical one. For this carriage by canoes was unsatisfactory, if not out of the question. The only hope which
Kalema and his Arab supporters had of getting fresh supplies of munitions lay in being able to obtain the use
of one or more of the Arab’s dhows at the southern end of the lake. As will be seen, the issue of the struggle
between Kalema and the supporters of Mwanga depended largely on which party was able to obtain more
quickly a sufficiently large supply of ammunition.

30
These relics were later taken to the Museum of Ethnology at Cambridge, and finally returned to the Uganda Museum.
Page 42 of 53
In the early days of Mwanga’s occupation of Bulingugwe there was some exchange of rifle shots between
Kalema’s supporters on the mainland and the people of the island, but it seems to have been singularly
ineffective, few (if any) casualties being inflicted on either side.

Obviously operations such as these were not going to lead to any great strategic advantage and were only
serving to diminish an already fast dwindling supply of ammunition. Kalema, or more probably his Arab
supporters, realized that the replenishment of this commodity was an increasingly urgent matter. With this
object in view the Muslim party managed to get in touch with the Arabs at Magu at the southern end of Lake
Victoria. There were two dhows at that place, the larger of these vessels belonged to Said bin Seif (Kiponda)
the man who had received and fleeced Mwanga when first he was a fugitive from his kingdom. The smaller
of these vessels belonged to a half-caste Arab named Songoro (Rabbit). This latter was the first vessel of its
kind to sail the waters of Lake Victoria. Stanley had seen it in the course of construction when he reached
the lake in 1875. Obviously these two vessels could carry far large cargoes of munitions than the ordinary
canoe and they also ran less risk of interception by small craft.

News of the proposal to send these two vessels to Kalema reached Stokes at Bukumbi: “I wrote to these
people,” he told the British Consul-General in Zanzibar, “warning them of the danger they would run, if they
sent their dhows anywhere near Buganda. I offered, if they remained neutral, to make arrangements and
get all Arabs out of Buganda before attacking the capital. Arab like, they refused; they told me Mwanga and
his party were fools and had no strength.” So the dhows set sail for Buganda. A private letter from an Arab
to a relative in Zanzibar tells us that nine Arabs and Baluchis and one hundred slave embarked on the large
vessel together with a considerable quantity of gunpowder. The smaller dhow also contained men, arms,
ammunition and trade goods. Both vessels sailed in a leisurely fashion, plundering the islands as they went,
until they got within a day’s journey of Bulingugwe.

As was only to be expected, news reached Bulingugwe well ahead of the two vessels. Gabureili Kintu was
ordered to try to intercept them and to prevent their supplies from reaching the enemy. He divided his
forces into two parties. He sent one party overland along the western shore of the lake and himself
embarked with the reminder in twenty canoes. On 2nd September 1889 they found the two vessels at
anchor at Entebbe. The Arabs were actually pitching their tents on the lake shore and had discharged part of
the smaller dhow’s cargo when Gabureili’s two parties fell on them. Hamu Mukasa was a member of the
boat party and he has this to tell us regarding the ensuing fight:

“I told the Basese paddlers in my canoe to go up close to the Arab’s boat, but they were afraid and refused
to do so. So I said to them, ‘Very well then, put me ashore.’
“So I was taken ashore. Then I, with my ten boys, went along the shore to the boat. And one of the Arabs
saw me coming, as we were many, and took aim at me and hit me in the knee.
“The bullet broke my leg and I fell. The boys carried me back to the canoe, where I lay to watch the fight.”

Meanwhile such of the Arabs, and their slaves as were on the shore were hastily endevouring to get on
board the two dhows. A number of them were either killed by the land party or else drowned in the attempt.
Gabureili Kintu in the meantime had managed to rally the Basese paddlers and to persuade them to bring
their canoes within effective gunshot of the dhows. The occupants of the larger dhow took cover behind the
bulwarks of the vessel and opened a brisk fire on the attackers. But the reply was so vigorous that nobody
dared to go on to the poop to weigh the anchor. Eventually somebody managed to cut the anchor chains
and a sail was hoisted. For a moment it look as if the dhow would make good its escape, but suddenly there
Page 43 of 53
were three loud explosions in quick succession and the dhow caught fire. All the Arabs and Baluchis were
either killed or died later of the injuries which they had received and only a few of their slaves were saved.
Whilst this attack was being made on the larger dhow, the smaller dhow managed to put out into open lake.
As soon as the canoes had finished dealing with the larger dhow, they set off in pursuit of the smaller one,
opening a brisk fire upon it. Very soon there was another terrific explosion on this vessel, which caught fire.
The whole of its crew is said to have perished in the flames. It was a remarkable and wholly unexpected
success, which indeed proved to be the turning point in the war. If the two dhows had managed to get
through and deliver their ammunition, the history of Buganda, and Uganda in general, might have been
different. A certain element of luck doubtless entered into the results of the fighting, but this cannot be
allowed to detract from the skill and intrepidity with which, in this novel amphibious operation, Gabureili
Kintu pushed home an attack on the enemy vastly better harmed and equipped than his own forces.

Kalema and his supporters had fully realized what it meant to be deprived of command of the waterways of
the lake and made determined efforts to remedy the situation. Kalema’s Gabunga (Admiral) had been
ordered to build canoes on the shores of Kyagwe county. On 31st August 1889, Nikodemu Sebwato had
raided the canoe builders and destroyed the canoes. According to Stokes, Kalema persuaded Luba to believe
that the Europeans were about to retaliate upon him for having caused the death of Bishop Hannington.
Luba thereupon agreed to supply five hundred canoes for an attack upon Bulingugwe. But, as usual, the
news of this alliance reached the people on the island and Mwanga set a force of five hundred guns under
the command of Abusolomu Seviiri to intercept them. The expedition was entirely successful and the
Basoga were repulsed with heavy loss.

Though Mwanga’s immediate following was not large, the island of Bulingugwe was quite incapable of
supplying all the food required for its swollen population. The garrison therefore had to raid the mainland
for supplies. In particular Munyonyo, the landing place on the mainland facing Bulingugwe, was attacked
and destroyed despite the fact that the landing was severely contested. Most of these raids were conducted
under the leadership of Gabureili Kintu and were carried out with comparative impunity. One other very
successful raid was conducted by Semei Lwakilenzi Kakungulu. These successes added considerably to
Mwanga’s prestige and, though they did not immediately bring in any large number of adherents to his
fighting forces, at least they gave an indication to the sitters on the fence as to which would be the better
party to support when things culminated in a final struggle between Kalema and Mwanga.

Elsewhere things were going far from well for Kalema and his supporters. After rather indecisive fighting
which took place in Buddu in June 1889 the Muslim forces were attacked by a body of pagan Baganda as
they were returning to the capital. According to Sir Apollo Kaggwa, they were instigated to do so by Kalema
himself, who was anxious to free himself from the Arab yoke. Be it as it may, the pagans, though not entirely
successful, are said to have inflicted a number of causalities on their opponents and their attack on the
Muslim party was symptomatic of things to come. In addition to the fact that, notwithstanding their success
against the Christians from Ankole, Kalema’s forces had to withdraw from Buddu, indicted the very slight
hold which Kalema had on the outlying districts of Buganda. After their defeat in June 1889 the majority of
the Christians returned to Ankole but a considerable number stayed behind and established pockets of
resistance in Buddu.

Nevertheless Mwanga and his immediate supporters were living on a small island in a narrow inlet of Lake
Victoria and the whole of the adjacent mainland was in the hands of his enemies. There was always the risk
Page 44 of 53
that supplies might be cut off and there was the constant danger that a surprise landing might somehow or
other be effected on the island. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that Mwanga wrote to a number of
Europeans imploring them to come to his aid. On 25th June 1889 one such letter had been sent to Alexander
Mackay saying:

“Do not remember bygone matters. We are now in a miserable plight, but, if you, my fathers, are willing to
come and help me restore my kingdom, you will be at liberty to do whatever you like . . . . . . Sir, do not imagine
that if you restore Mwanga to Buganda he will become bad again. If you find me become bad, then you drive
me from the throne; but I have given up my former ways and will follow your advice.”

In his letter to Monseigneur Livinhac Mwanga wrote:

“If you refuse religious aid to me and my brother Christians, I will abandon the idea of regaining my kingdom,
and I shall return to be near you.”

Before leaving Bulingugwe Stokes had given Mwanga a letter to be sent to the I.B.E.A Company’s expedition
which was known to be making its way from Mombasa through Masailand to the shores of Lake Victoria
under the leadership of Sir Frederick Jackson. In forwarding this letter on 15th June 1889 Mwanga sent a
long covering letter signed “Leon Mwanga, Kabaka of Buganda31” and addressed to “the Europeans,
Englishmen, who are passing through the land of the Masai towards Busoga.” It begged those Europeans
“to be good enough to put me on my throne. I will give you plenty of ivory and you may do any trade in
Buganda and all you like in the country under me.” Mwanga had also learnt that Stanley, having effected the
relief of Emin Pasha, was making his way from the southern end of Lake Albert through Ankole to the coast.
He therefore instructed the Christian refugees in Ankole to appeal to Stanley. 32 His message was dully
communicated to Stanley by Samwiri Mukasa (afterwards Kangawo (County chief of Bulemezi)) and
Zakariya Kizito (afterwards Omuwanika (Treasurer) and one of the three Regents during the minority of
Daudi Chwa) at Katera in Ankole on 9th July 1889.33 But the primary duty of the Emin Pasha Relief
Expedition, which had already been through many exceedingly trying experiences, was to escort Emin Pasha
and the refugees from the Equatorial Province to the coast. So Stanley had to explain that his other duties
prevented him from making a diversion into Buganda.

In the meantime Stokes was making preparations to return to Mwanga’s assistance. The one month, in
which he had promised to return, had long passed before he finally set sail. Urgent messages had in the
meantime reached the mission stations at Bukumbi and Usambiro imploring the missionaries to send some
of their number to administer to their flock in Bulingugwe. Monseigneur Livinhac resolved to send Father
Loudrel and Denoit. After some consultations amongst themselves the members of the Church Missionary
Society decided that the time had come to send two of their member back to Buganda. The two selected
were Cyril Gordon and Robert Walker. Alexander Mackay was at this time busily engaged in putting together
a steam launch for service on the lake, and much as he longed to return to the people amongst whom he
had laboured, he felt that in the interests of the Mission the construction of this vessel was of paramount

31
Léon was Monseigneur Livinhac’s Christian name.
32
“Mr. Stanley and Dr. Emin Pasha never came to me, but they passed Busagala (sc., Ankole), and I sent them principal men saying:
‘Come and help me.’ And they said, ‘We have not permission to help you.’” – Mwanga to Euan-Smith, 28th October 1889 (Zanzibar
Archives).
33
I have adopted the date given by Surgeon-Major Parke in his journal printed in My Personal Experiences in Equatorial Africa, p. 452
Page 45 of 53
importance and that the evangelical work could be safely left in the hands of his two colleagues 34. Only one
day after Gordon and Walker had left to join Stoke’s expedition, the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition reached
the Church Missionary Society’s station at Usambiro. Mackay urged Stanley to assist in replacing Mwanga on
his throne but, for reasons already given, Stanley once again declined to assist.35

Stoke’s second expedition got under way on 29th August 1889. Loudrel and Denoit travelled in Stokes’
vessel and Gordon and Walker in canoes which had been sent by Mwanga. On 13th September 1889 the
flotilla reached Mfu, a barren island opposite Entebbe. Here they found a crowd of men, women and
children who had fled thither to escape from the ferocity of Kalema’s partisans.36 All along the coast were
fires which had been started by Kalema’s people to destroy the houses and plantations of their opponents.
On 14th September the flotilla reached Bulingugwe.

Stokes later told the Consul-General that “on arrival at Buganda the second time I sent a letter on behalf of
Mwanga, warning the Arabs both to join Kalema and offering to respect them if they remained neutral. This
letter they never replied to. We delayed the attack for about fifteen days in order to give them plenty of
time for thought.”

In his life of Siméon Loudrel the Abbé Nicq gives an interesting description of the encampment on
Bulingugwe as it was in those strenuous days. The following is a translation:

“The banks and sides of the hill were covered with temporary huts, where the Baganda took shelter, and one
could estimate them at about four thousand. Each hut housed three or four inmates; there was therefore a
population of twelve or fifteen thousand souls, waiting upon Divine Providence for their daily bread, for the
formation of reserve stocks of provision is not known in this country. They had to collect the bananas and
potatoes required for so many mouths day by day from abandoned plantations, often at a distance of one or
two days’ journey by canoe. It was truly a miracle that all these people could have lived thus for the past for
months.
“During the first week of their stay the missionaries occupied their time in hearing confessions, and looking
after the sick, who were numerous. Shortage of food, bad housing and crowding was causing innumerable
diseases; one of the orphans who accompanied the Fathers was stricken by the plague and died the second
day.
“Each night brought hundreds of refugees, whom the canoes went to fetch from the coast: the population of
the island was increasing beyond all calculation; and it would have made stay there impossible if it had been
prolonged.”

Robert Walker attended to the sick and wounded and some astonishing feats of surgery were performed by
him. There were other matters for the missionaries to attend besides their spiritual ministration and tending
of the sick. In a letter of 25th October 1889, Gordon informed the British Consul-General, “only the first
Sunday after our arrival (15th September 1889) we so good reason for our coming amongst them. For we
were enabled by our presence to quiet some hostile feelings, which had long worked in the minds of the two
34
“It was your son who decided that the time had come for the missionaries to return to Uganda. He was so sorry not to return
himself, but he sent Mr. Walker and me. Who can tell his great sorrow at heart at his own detention at the south end of the lake at
that time? So great was his devotion to duty that he felt himself detained at Usambiro by the heavy work which he had at hand. But his
longing was to be able to return to Uganda in the boat which he was diligently building. He was spending all his strength upon this
work, for whatever he undertook to do, he did with all his might.” – Rev. E. C. Gordon to Mackay’s father, 4th January 1892 (printed in
The Story of the Life of Mackay of Uganda by his sister (15th Ed.) p. 310).
35
“Mr. Stanley declines to aid meantime in this enterprise of aiding Mwanga (as I have suggested to him), as he has no instructions to
do so” – Mackay to I.B.E.A Company 2nd September 1889 (copy in Zanzibar Archives).
36
Hamu Mukasa was on the island at the time recovering from the wound in his leg.
Page 46 of 53
bodies of Christians towards each other.” Loudrel gives us further details. It is not necessary to go in the
rights and wrongs of this particular controversy, but it suffices to say that, had not both Gordon and Loudrel
at this critical moment exercised a restraining influence on the members of their respective flocks and
proclaimed entire liberty of conscience for all Baganda, there might well have been so serious a rift between
the Protestant and Catholic factions as to have ruined completely any prospect of bringing the operations
against Kalema to a successful conclusion.

On 23rd September some deserters arrived from Kalema’s forces, bringing with them news of the Christian
refugees in Ankole. Very soon after the arrival of these refugees in Ankole, Ndaula, Mukama of Koki, the
small buffer principality between Ankole and Buddu, had taken sides with the Christians and had assisted
them in the unsuccessful operations near Dumu port and, despite that temporary check, was ready to
continue his assistance. In addition there were, as already mentioned, a number of pockets of Christian
resistance which had remained behind after the defeat at Dumu. According to the information given to
Stanley by the Baganda in Ankole these numbered some two thousand. This figure might be exaggerated,
but in any event the refugees were there in sufficient numbers to be able to render very material help if at
any time the Christians in Ankole should renew the offensive in Buddu. Kalema’s Katikiro, Muguluma,
combined with that role that of Pokino, County Chief of Buddu. He was not proving very fortunate in either
capacity and, in particular, was singularly unsuccessful in maintaining law and order in Buddu. Besides this,
he had found it by no means easy to get on with the Arabs at Kalema’s headquarters. He had therefore
retired to Buddu and had sent thence a letter to the Christians in Ankole suggesting that they should
combine with him in operations against the Arabs. Suspecting the trap, the Christians declined the proposal,
but decided that the time was ripe for an invasion of Buddu.

The invaders were led by Apollo Kaggwa. They speedily overran Buddu and in the course of the fighting
Muguluma was killed. The Muslim forces retreated into Mawokota. Here they rallied and counter-attacked at
Kasenyi. In that counter-attack they killed some two hundred of the Christians and drove the rest back in
confusion. Apollo Kaggwa tells us that he found himself alone on the battle except six companions, that he
and these six retired into a small forest, whence after resisting all attempts of the enemy to dislodge them,
they retreated to Jungo. Thence Apolo Kagwa sent a messenger to Bulingugwe to ask for help. Cyril Gordon
tells us that on receipt of the news of Apollo Kaggwa’s plight, “the Christians and Mwanga were very much
discouraged, and we were asked to plead for help from Mr. Stanley. We wrote to Mr. Mackay and told him
the state of affairs as it then was.” But Stanley had left Usambiro on his way to the coast long before the
letter reached Mackay. In the meantime Mwanga was persuaded to send one thousand men with guns to
Kaggwa’s aid. The original commander, Sepiriya Mutagwanya (afterwards County Chief of Buwekula) fell ill
and his place was taken by Semei Kakungulu. There was a halt of seven days, during which time Apollo
Kaggwa was able to rally his scattered forces. On 4th October 1889 the combined force advanced to
Bunakabira, where they arrived at about three o’clock in the afternoon. Here they found a strong force
belonging to the Muslim party, whom they promptly attacked and by nightfall drove back to Kitebe, which
was only a few miles from Mengo. Stokes tells us that, “a very severe battle was fought this day, and no
doubt it was the deciding battle. Kalema and his party fought bravely, but the Christian boys’ blood was up,
and, though fighting against heavy odds, were irresistible and drove the Arab party back to the capital. News
came of their success late in the evening, and we sent them more ammunition and strict orders not to dally,
but next morning at cock crow to storm the capital.”

Page 47 of 53
It was, however, the Muslim party who renewed the attack at daybreak. But, they failed to take their
opponents by surprise and after a short, sharp struggle were put to flight, taking Kalema with them. The
Christians took possession of the capital. Here they found Mwanga’s mother, Abisagi Bagalyaze. She was in
irons. It had been Kalema’s intention to put her to death and she owed her life to the hurried flight of her
captors.

Kalema and his supporters fled in the north-westerly direction towards Singo. The victors followed them for
two days, but abandoned their pursuit when the scattered remnants of the defeated force had crossed the
Mayanja River. Loudrel’s diary gives a very full account of events of the days which immediately followed
Kalema’s defeat:

“7th October – I left early in the morning for the scene of combat. It was not without emotion that I set foot
again on the shore of Buganda . . . . . .
“What a change in the course of a single year! There is no trace of the main road which led from here to the
capital. Of the hundreds of reed huts, which housed the king’s women, there now remain only ashes. The
banana plantations, which were once so green, have disappeared to give place to brambles. Even Mengo,
Mwanga’s capital, has disappeared in the long grass. There now only remains the post of a lightning
conductor37. Rubaga and Mengo have become the prey of flames. At every step one comes across dead and
wounded. Swarms of vultures are hovering in the air and swooping down on corpses which nobody troubles
to bury.
“I have tended nearly one hundred wounded, all Mwanga’s soldiers; not a single Muslim who was wounded
or taken by surprise in the retreat has escaped the spears of the bakopi (country people). It is impossible to
stop these last-named in their grim task.
“In the evening I went to Namasole’s place. On seeing me, she fell at my knees, and poured blessings on me,
calling me her father, her brother, her liberator, her son, and even her husband! . . . . . .
“Overcome with fatigue, I returned to take some rest at Gabureili’s place, poor hut, half burnt, in the middle
of the battlefield.
“To-day I found two of our orphans, who had been carried off by the Arabs last year.
“8th October – I hastened to visit our beloved house at Rubaga38. On the way I came across a number of
corpses which exhaled a fetid smell. What sorrow I experienced on seeing this house, which had cost us so
much toil, completely in ruins; no doors, no windows, no verandas; the walls tumbled down; the ceiling
broken; and long grass and brambles growing over all these ruins. The eucalyptus, guava and mango trees
planted by us are hardly visible in the undergrowth which has taken the place of our garden. Rain put an end
to my sorrowful visit and compelled me to return to Gabureili’s, where I continued to tend the wounded . . . . .
. . In the evening I returned to Bulingugwe.

Robert Walker was about the same time looking at the house which Mackay had built over on the other side
of Rubaga Hill. “Natete”, he informed the British Consul-General at Zanzibar, “is simply hopeless pori
(wilderness): all race of human dwelling has disappeared.” So French and English missionaries alike had to
start building again.

On 9th October the Christians returned for the pursuit of Kalema to report that he and his followers, who
were still to number one thousand, were making for Bunyoro. The same day Mwanga crossed over from
Bulingugwe to the mainland and spent the night at Nsambya. On 11th October he formally re-entered his old
capital at Mengo. According to Walker “on the day of Mwanga’s return here, at the very moment of his

37
Erected by Mackay.
38
This house had been built by Loudrel. It was on the side of Rubaga Hill, lying to the north-west of and about half a mile below the
present Cathedral.
Page 48 of 53
arrival at the temporary palace, Stokes fell down in a fit, and was very violent and out of his mind for about
an hour. We were sent for and did our best for him.”

The events of the next few days are perhaps best given in the words of Cyril Gordon in a letter addressed to
the British Consul-General at Zanzibar:

“While the Christians pursued Kalema, the spearmen remained behind to plunder the capital and the houses
of the Arabs and coast men. These spearmen, or common people, carried off a great deal of spoil, which they
have probably hidden in the country. Moreover, a large quantity of ivory fell into the hands of the Christians,
and the king received his portion of the spoil according to the custom of the country . . . . . .
“. . . . . . . The next few days were occupied with the business of the division of the country among victors. The
whole land had been divided between the two bodies of Christians. The protestants and Roman Catholics
have taken up all the chieftainships, dividing the land attached to these chieftainships equally between
themselves. The numerous heathen party has hardly got anything at all, but had still less when the
Mohammedans were in power.
“The Katikiro39, the Mukwenda40, and the Pokino41 are Protestants, the Sekibobo42, the Mujasi43, and the
Kangawo44 are Roman Catholics. Most of these chiefs, with many subordinate chiefs, have gone off to the
country to see their various possessions. Therefore, the capital is nearly deserted.”

Another person who put in his claim for reward was Charles Stokes. According to Walker he demanded one
thousand frasilas of ivory. Eventually he received about one hundred and thirty frasilas 45, but, according to
Gordon, “another year when he returns to Buganda, Mr. Stokes expects to receive more ivory for this
business.” Stokes also received grants of land in different places. “One bit,” Walker complained, “is our old
post46: another is the house of Sese which the people built for Mwanga.” Eventually, Stokes left the capital
on 21st October taking with him the only three Arabs who had survived the fighting. The three reached the
southern end of Lake Victoria and in the due course sent word to their relatives in Zanzibar that, “now the
place is spoilt, and Uganda is in the hands of the Europeans.”

But despite of the jubilation over the recent victory Gordon rightly reported to the British Consul-General at
Zanzibar that “the conquest of Christians cannot be called complete, for Kalema is still a power in the land.
He tried to enter Bunyoro, but was refused admittance; he has turned aside and has taken possession of art
of Buganda which lies near Bunyoro; there he has stationed himself with the Muhammadans, and probably
some coastmen and Arabs. They have plenty of food and have put up houses of reeds. From their retreat
they will probably harass, and give much trouble to the Christians.”

Gordon’s prediction was soon confirmed. On 20th October news reached Mengo that Kabarega of Bunyoro
had come to the assistance of Kalema and had invaded Singo. Apollo Kaggwa was sent to deal with the
situation. On his way to Singo he collected over two thousand men with guns. He attacked Kalema’s forces
at Kinakulya. At first the day appeared to be going well but during the fighting Apollo Kaggwa was
39
Apollo Kaggwa.
40
Yona Wasswa, County Chief of Singo.
41
Nikodemu Sebwato, County Chief of Buddu, afterwards Sekibobo.
42
Alikisi Sebowa, County Chief of Kyagwe, afterwards Pokino.
43
Gabureili Kintu, commander-in-chief. Lugard gives some account of this man in Volume II of The Rise Of Our East African Empire.
Regarding his subsequent rebellion cf. Africa No. 2 (1898) and Sir Apolo Kagwa, Basekabaka be Buganda, p. 200
44
Yozefu Kiwanuka, County Chief of Bulemezi.
45
One frasila = 36 lb.
46
At Munyonyo. Stoke’s claim was not forgotten by the Regents when allotting estates under the Buganda Agreement, 1900; for his
son was given a certificate for this piece of land.
Page 49 of 53
wounded. The command then devolved upon Yona Waswa, County Chief of Singo. According to information
given to Loudrel, the new commander insisted, against the wishes of the men under his command, in
pursuing the enemy when his men were worn out with fatigue and running short of ammunition. Three days
later the enemy ambushed their pursuers in some tall grass and successfully routed them. The flight
developed into panic and eventually the retreating army arrived back at Mengo with reports that Kalema
was hard upon their heels. The day after the news reached Mengo, Mwanga fled by night to Bulingugwe.
The Protestant and Catholic missionaries accompanied him. The next day (26th November) Kalema’s
vanguard set fire to Mengo and fifteen days later Kalema re-occupied Rubaga at the head of a strong force
of the Banyoro. On 1st December 1889 Loudrel wrote at Mwanga’s request to the leader of the I.B.E.A
Company’s expedition in Kavirondo begging him to come to the Kabaka’s assistance. “In return,” wrote
Loudrel, “besides the monopoly of commerce in Buganda, he offers you as a present one hundred frasilas of
ivory, which he will give you when he is put back on his throne. He also takes upon himself the feeding of
your men and accepts your flag.”

Reasons, which need not be discussed, prevented Jackson from entering Buganda at the time. The result
was that Mwanga was forced to make a long sojourn on the island of Bulingugwe. For some time, both sides
were so utterly war-weary that there was a lull in fighting. After their defeat Mwanga’s forces had dispersed
throughout Buganda. Some had gone eastwards into Kyagwe and others westwards into Buddu. Time was
therefore required before a sufficient force could be mustered to resume the offensive. Innumerable
difficulties led to further delays. At one time personal as well as religious jealousies looked as if they might
lead to such disunion amongst Mwanga’s supporters that a counter-attack on Kalema would be entirely out
of question.

In December 1889 Nikodemu Sebwato, the County Chief of Buddu, had been sent to attack Kalema’s people
when they were engaged in a raid in Kyagwe, “but,” in Apollo Kaggwa’s words, “Sebwato did not fight;
instead he ran away and came to the island of Bulingugwe.” When at the beginning of the following year
plans were being made for a renewal of the offensive, Nikodemu Sebwato “showed some annoyance at
receiving orders from Kaggwa, since Kaggwa was nothing in the church, where he himself was the principal
man. Walker and Gordon felt that in showing this spirit he was quite wrong, though many of the Christians
supported him; when, however, he understood that the missionaries desired him to conform to some kind
of discipline, he greatly furnished his contingent. It was a matter for astonishment that anything was
accomplished at all, so little discipline of any kind was there amongst the Christian faction. The same want of
order doubtless obtained among the Muhammadan party, and this no doubt somewhat equalized the
contending armies.”

Religious discords almost inevitably cropped up again. Neither faction would agree to co-operate with the
other, unless and until it had reached a firm guarantee that there would be no treachery on the part of the
other faction. At length on 3rd February 1890 the leading members of each faction entered into an
agreement whereby they pledged themselves upon oath, “we shall not betray and shall never ill our friends
of the opposite religion, and furthermore, if we are stronger than them, we shall not kill them. Any person
who breaks these words and kills his friends, will be answerable for it in the final day of judgment.”

To add to all this, plague broke out in the crowded encampment on the island of Namulusu, whither
Mwanga removed from Bulingugwe in January 1890. According to Apollo Kaggwa over four thousand

Page 50 of 53
persons were killed either by plague or else by starvation, but this figure has doubtless to be received with
some caution.

The arrival of Stokes’ boat at the end of January brought fresh heart to the Christians. Stokes was on his way
to Zanzibar, but his nahoda brought the ransom for Khalfan bin Farid, the man whom Hamu Mukasa had
captured on Lake Victoria some eight months before. The ransom consisted of a quantity of gunpowder,
guns, and calico and proved as timely as it was acceptable.

It was eventually agreed that Gabureili Kintu, whose previous exploits had certainly earned him promotion,
should command the combined Protestant and Catholic forces, which had been raised in Kyagwe, Singo, and
Buddu and eventually assembled at Jungo, Apollo Kaggwa’s rallying point in the earlier fighting. Rubaga was
retaken on 11th February 1890 and the Muslim forces retreated into Bunyoro. At Bulwanyi the final battle
was fought. The Muslims were defeated. According to information given by a young Christian Chief to Major
Macdonald a few years later, over eight hundred Muslims were left dead on the field. The survivors fled to
the borders of Bunyoro taking with them Kalema and the royal drum Wango. A few days later Mwanga
returned in triumph to his ruined capital at Mengo.

Shortly after his hurried flight, Kalema died of smallpox. When news of this reached Mwanga, he sent Semei
Kakungulu to attack the Muslims. Kakungulu attacked and defeated them at Kijungute in Singo. He also
managed to obtain possession of Kalema’s body, which was brought back to Buganda and buried at Mengo.

After Kalema’s death the Muslim Baganda chose as Kabaka Suuna’s son, Nuhu Kyabasinga Mbogo, who had
survived Kalema’s massacre of the previous year, but he was in reality only leader of a faction. For a time it
was feared that he and his supporters might obtain material assistance from Kabarega of Bunyoro and even
from the Mahdists in the Sudan, but these fears proved groundless. Fedl el Mula Bey and the remnants of
Emin Pasha’s Sudanese garrison in the Equatorial Province declined to throw in their lot with the Mahdists
and held on to Wadelai, thus providing an effective barrier to communication between Bunyoro and
Khartoum. There was a small colony of Arabs and Swahili in Bunyoro, some of whom had managed to
escape from Buganda, but their political influence was very small indeed. Though an occasional caravan from
the Germany Territory might smuggle arms and ammunition through Ankole into Bunyoro, such supplies
were limited. The destruction of the only two dhows on Lake Victoria and the effective barring of the land
route through Buddu made supplies from any other quarter out of the question. In Stuhlmann’s words,
“they were sitting at Juwagu, Kabarega’s capital, because the way through Buganda was closed and they
could not return home but must brood idly over their stores of ivory like Fafnir over the Nibelungen hoard.”
Whilst Kabarega continued to give aid from time to time, it was for the most part not upon a very generous
scale. This parsimony was due in in part to his own shortage of arms and ammunition and in part to the fact
that a losing cause had little appeal for Kabarega.

None the less the Muslim Baganda were for a time able to raid the counties of Singo, Bulemezi and Kyagwe,
with comparative impunity. One such raid took shortly before Lugard’s arrival in Buganda, but was repulsed
by Alikisi Sebowa, who was then County Chief of Kyagwe (Sekiboobo) but was later to become County Chief
of Buddu (Pokino). These raids continued after Lugard’s arrival, and eventually led to Lugard himself
collaborating with the Christian Baganda in an expedition which, on 11th May 1891, inflicted a severe defeat
on Mbogo’s followers and Banyoro allies. Twelve months later the Muslim party agreed to recognize
Mwanga as their ruler. In Lugard’s words, “the giving up of their king meant to the Mohammedan Waganda

Page 51 of 53
their annihilation as a faction struggling for supreme power in the country, and was a mark of extraordinary
confidence. Mbogo remained a guest at Kampala and during all the troublous times that followed he never
wavered in his loyalty.”

BOOKS CONSULTED

Asha, R. P. … …. … Two Kings of Uganda.

Baker, Sir Samuel … … Ismailia.
The Albert Nyanza.
Bikunya, Petero … … Ky’Abakama ba Bunyoro.
Burton, Sir Richard F. … … The Lake Regions of Central Africa.
Chaille Long, Colonel C. … Central Africa – Naked Truths of Naked People.
My Life in Four Continents.
Church Missionary Society … The Victoria Nyanza Mission.
Fisher, Mrs. B. … … … Twilight Tales of the Black Baganda.
Felkin, R. W. … … … Journey to Victoria Nyanza and back via the Nile (P.E.G.S).
Gessi, R. … … … Seven Years in the Sudan.
Grant, J. A . … … … My Walk across Africa.
Kagwa, Sir A. … … … Mpisa za Baganda.
Basekabaka ba Buganda.
Ebika bye Buganda.
Mackay of Uganda (by his Sister).
Nakirayi, and Lwanga, K. … Kabulireyo Sengiri Mpwanyi (Munno (1915)).
Nicq … … … Le Pere Simeon Lourdel.
Petherick, J. … … … Egypt Travels in Central Africa.
Philippe, A. … … … Au Caeur de L’Afrique, Ouganda.
Rellse, H. … … … Kiziba – Land and Leute.
Sabalangira, Y. G. K. … … Abaganda abasoka okugenda e Bulaya (Munno (1924).
Schweinfurth, G. … … Emin Pasha in Central Africa.
Schweitzer, G. … … The Life and Work of Emin Pasha.
Speke, J. H. … … … Journey of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile.
Stanley, Sir H. M. … … Through the Dark Continent.
State Papers … … … (Letters from Dr. Kirk to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs).
Stock, Sarah G. … … The Story of Uganda.
Stuhlmann, F. … … … Mit Emin Pasha ins Herz von Africa.
Waller, H. … … … The Last Journals of David Livingstone.
Wilson, C. T., and Felkin. R. W. … Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan.

Africa No. 8 (1888). ‘Correspondence respecting Expedition for the Relief of Emin Pasha, 1886-7’
Africa No. 10 (1888). ‘Correspondence respecting Germany and Zanzibar.’
Ashe, Rev. R. P. Two Kings of Uganda (1890).

Page 52 of 53
_________ Chronicles of Uganda (1894).
Clarke, Rev. R. F. Cardinal Lavigerie and the African Slave Trade (1889).
Fletcher, T. B. ‘Mwanga – the Man and His Times’ (Uganda Journal, Vol. 4).
Harrison, Mrs. J. W. Mackay of Uganda (1890).
__________ The Story of the Life of Mackay of Uganda (1911).
Jackson, Sir F. J. Early Days in East Africa (1930).
Pere, J. M. La Mission Cathholique et les Agents de la Compagnie Anglaise (1893).
Kagwa, Sir A. Basekabaka be Buganda (1912).
_________. Ebika bya Buganda. (1908).
_________. Mpisa za Baganda (1918).
(In his Chronicles of Uganda, Ashe expressed his acknowledgments to Kagwa’s Wars of the Baganda, which is
no longer extant, but the text thereof appears to be incorporated in Basekabaka be Buganda).
Lugard, Lord. The Rise of Our East African Empire (1893).
_________. The Story of the Uganda Protectorate (1900).
Macdonald, J. R. L. Soldiering and Surveying in British East Africa (1897).
Mackay, A. (cf. Harrison, Mrs. W. J. L).
Mbaguta, Nuwa. Ebigambo by’ Owekitibwa Nuwa Mbaguta Katikiro (Munno, January 1930).
Mukasa, Hamu. Life of Hamu Mukasa (1904).
(Translated by Ven. Archdeacon R. H Walker and printed in the next work)
Mullins, Rev. J. D. The Wonderful Story of Uganda, 1st ed. (1904).
Nicq, Abbe. Le Pere Simeon Loudrel (1922).
Peters, C. New Light on Dark Africa (1891).
Philippe, A. Au Coeur de l’Afrique – Ouganda (1928).
Roscoe, Rev. J. ‘Kibuka, the War God of the Baganda’ (Man, 1907).
Stanley, Sir H. M. In Darkest Africa (1890).
Stock, S. G. The Story of Uganda and the Victoria Nyanza Mission (1892).
Stuhlmann, F. Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (1894).
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