Danieri Basammula-Ekkere Mwanga II Mukasa (1868 – 8 May 1903)
[D. A. Low]
''Fabrication of Empire: The British and the Uganda Kingdoms, 1890-1902''
Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 210, note 196. was
Kabaka of Buganda
the kabaka Palace in kireka
Kabaka is the title of the king of the Kingdom of Buganda.Stanley, H.M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: G. Newnes, According to the traditions of the Baganda they are ruled by two kings, one spiritual an ...
from 1884 until 1888 and from 1889 until 1897. He was the 31st Kabaka of
Buganda.
Claim to the throne
He was born at
Nakawa
Nakawa is an area in the city of Kampala, Uganda's capital. It is also the location of the headquarters of Nakawa Division, one of the five administrative divisions of Kampala.
Location
Nakawa is located on the eastern edge of the city of Kamp ...
in 1868. His father was
Muteesa I of Buganda, who reigned between 1856 and 1884. His mother was ''Abakyala'' Abisagi Bagalayaze, the 10th of his father's 85 wives. He
ascended to the throne on 18 October 1884, after the death of his father. He established his
capital on
Mengo Hill.
Reign
Mwanga came to the throne at the age of 16. He increasingly regarded the greatest threat to his rule as coming from the
Christian missionaries who had gradually penetrated Buganda. His father had played-off the three religious traditions -
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
s,
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
s, and
Muslims - against each other and thus had balanced the influence of the powers that were backing each group in order to extend their reach into Africa. Mwanga II took a much more aggressive approach, expelling missionaries and insisting that Christian converts abandon their faith or face
death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
. A year after becoming king he executed Yusufu Rugarama, Makko Kakumba, and Nuuwa Sserwanga, who had converted to Christianity. On 29 October 1885, he had the incoming
Anglican archbishop
James Hannington
James Hannington (3 September 1847 – 29 October 1885) was an English Anglican missionary and martyr. He was the first Anglican bishop of East Africa.
Early life
Hannington was born on 3 September 1847 at Hurstpierpoint in Sussex, England, ...
assassinated on the eastern border of his kingdom.
For Mwanga, the ultimate humiliation was the male Catholic pages of his harem resisting his advances. According to tradition, the king was the centre of power and authority, and he could dispense with any life as he wished. It was unheard of for mere pages to reject the wishes of a king. Given those conflicting values, Mwanga was determined to rid his kingdom of the new teaching and its followers. Mwanga therefore precipitated a showdown in May 1886 by ordering converts in his court to choose between their new faith and complete obedience to his orders and kingdom.
It is believed that at least 30 Catholic and Protestant neophytes went to their deaths. Twenty-two of the men, who had converted to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, were burned alive at
Namugongo
Namugongo is a township in the Central Region of Uganda.
Location
Namugongo is in Kyaliwajjala Ward, in Kira Municipality, Wakiso District, approximately north-east of Uganda's capital Kampala. The township is bordered by Nsasa to the north, ...
in 1886 and later became known as the
Uganda Martyrs
The Uganda Martyrs are a group of 22 Catholic and 23 Anglican converts to Christianity in the historical kingdom of Buganda, now part of Uganda, who were executed between 31 January 1885 and 27 January 1887.
They were killed on orders of Mwang ...
. Among those executed were two Christians who held the court position of Master of the Pages,
Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe and
Charles Lwanga. They had repeatedly defied the king by rescuing royal pages in their care from sexual exploitation by Mwanga.
[Kabaka Mwanga Ordered the Killings of the Uganda Martyrs](_blank)
/ref>
These murders and Mwanga's continued resistance alarmed the British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
, who backed a rebellion by Christian and Muslim groups who supported Mwanga's half brother and defeated Mwanga at Mengo in 1888. Mwanga's brother, Kiweewa Nnyonyintono, was elevated to the throne
A throne is the seat of state of a potentate or dignitary, especially the seat occupied by a sovereign on state occasions; or the seat occupied by a pope or bishop on ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the mona ...
. He lasted exactly one month and was replaced on the throne by another brother, Kabaka Kalema Muguluma. However, Mwanga escaped and negotiated with the British. In exchange for handing over some of his sovereignty
Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...
to the British East Africa Company, the British changed their backing to Mwanga, who swiftly removed Kalema
Kalema is a settlement in Kenya's Rift Valley Province.
References
Populated places in Kajiado County
{{RiftValleyKE-geo-stub ...
from the throne in 1889. He later converted to Christianity and was baptised.
Final years
On 26 December 1890, Mwanga signed a treaty with Lord Lugard
Frederick John Dealtry Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard (22 January 1858 – 11 April 1945), known as Sir Frederick Lugard between 1901 and 1928, was a British soldier, mercenary, explorer of Africa and colonial administrator. He was Governor of Hong ...
, granting certain powers over revenue, trade and the administration of justice to the Imperial British East Africa Company
The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was a commercial association founded to develop African trade in the areas controlled by the British Empire. The company was incorporated in London on 18 April 1888 and granted a royal charter by Q ...
. These powers were transferred to the crown on 1 April 1893.
On 27 August 1894, Mwanga accepted for Buganda to become a Protectorate. However, on 6 July 1897 he declared war on the British and launched an attack but was defeated on 20 July 1897, in Buddu (in today's Masaka District
Masaka District is a district in Buganda Kingdom in Uganda. Its main town is Masaka City, whose estimated population in 2011 was 74,100.
Location
The district is bordered by Bukomansimbi District to the north-west, Kalungu District to the nort ...
). He fled into German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
), where he was arrested and interned at Bukoba
Bukoba is a city with a population of 128,796 (2012 census), situated in the north west of Tanzania on the south western shores of Lake Victoria. It is the capital of the Kagera region, and the administrative seat for Bukoba Urban District. ...
.
He was deposed
Deposition by political means concerns the removal of a politician or monarch.
ORB: The Online Reference for Med ...
''in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in ab ...
'' on 9 August 1897. Tenacious as he was, he escaped and returned to Buganda with a rebel army, but was again defeated on 15 January 1898. He was captured and in April 1899 was exiled to the Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...
. While in exile, he was received into the Anglican Church
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
and was baptized with the name of Danieri (Daniel). He spent the rest of his life in exile. He died in the Seychelles on 8 May 1903, aged 34 or 35. On 2 August 1910, his remains were repatriated and buried at Kasubi
Kasubi is a hill in Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city.
Location
Kasubi is bordered by Kawaala to the north, Makerere to the east, Naakulabye to the southeast, Lusaze to the southwest, Lubya to the west, and Namungoona to the northwest ...
.
Married life
Mwanga is on record as having married 17 wives:
# Damali Bayita Nanjobe
# Naabakyaala Dolosi Mwaan'omu Bakazikubawa
# Esiteri Nabunnya
# Naabakyaala Eveliini Kulabako, Omubikka
# Naabakyaala Loyiroosa Nakibuuka, Kaddulubaale
# Naabakyaala Samali Namuwanga, Sabaddu
# Nabweteme
# Nakijoba Nabulya (Elizabeeti Oliva Kyebuzibwa born of Mwanje Bikaali)
# Bezza Batwegombya
# Naabakyaala Ntongo, Kabejja
# Naabakyaala Nabisubi, Omuwanga
# Namirembe
# Lakeeri Mbekeka
# Nalwooga, Omuyigiriza
# Elizaabeeti Buteba
# Nattimba Binti Juma
# Amalemba Tutsi
Issue
Mwanga II fathered several sons and daughters from his 16 wives including Daudi Chwa II of Buganda:
# Prince (''Omulangira'') Kagolo, whose mother was Damali Bayita Nanjobe. He was killed by his uncle Kalema, in 1889.
# Prince (''Omulangira'') Mulindwa, whose mother was Nabweteme
# Prince (''Omulangira'') Nganda, whose mother was Lakeeri Mbekeka
# Prince (''Omulangira'') Abdallah Mawanda whose mother was Lakeeri Mbekeka. Perceived as a potential agitator during the reign of Chwa, he was appointed as one of the British Agents to Kigezi in South Western Uganda.
# Daudi Chwa II of Buganda, who reigned from 1897 until 1939. His mother was Eveliini Kulabako.
# Prince (''Omulangira'') Yusuufu Suuna Kiweewa, whose mother was Esiteri Nabunnya. He was born at Mengo, Uganda
Mengo is a hill in Rubaga Division, Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city. The name also applies to the neighborhood on that hill.
Location
Mengo is bordered by Old Kampala to the north, Nsambya Hill to the east, Kibuye to the south-eas ...
on 16 February 1898 and was educated at Mengo High School and King's College Budo
King’s College Budo is a mixed, residential,
secondary school in Central Uganda (Buganda).
Location
The school is located on Naggalabi Hill, in southern Wakiso District, off the Kampala-Masaka Road. This location lies approximately , by road, ...
. Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank.
Australia
The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until 1 ...
in October 1914. He served in the Great War from 1915 until 1919. Promoted to Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
in the 7th Territorial Battalion on 25 May 1939. He served in the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
in Eastern Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa:
Due to the historica ...
and in North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
, from 1939 until 1940. Retired on 18 March 1940. He was implicated in the Buganda riots of 1949 and exiled to the Ssese Islands, where he died in 1949.
# Prince (''Omulangira'') Tobi, whose mother was Nabisubi
# Prince (''Omulangira'') Nayime?, whose mother was Loyiroosa Nakibuuka
# Princess (''Omumbejja'') Najjuma Katebe, whose mother is not mentioned
# Princess (''Omumbejja'') Anna Nambi Nassolo, whose mother was Samali Namuwanga
# Princess (''Omumbejja'') Mboni Maliamu Kajja-Obunaku, whose mother was Nattimba. She was educated at Saint Monica's School in Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...
.
Quotes
"I do not want to give them my land. I want all Europeans of all nations to come to Buganda, to build and to trade as they like."
* Mwanga's message to Euan Smith, British Consul in Zanzibar, 1890
"I am Mutesa's son, and what Mutesa was in Buganda that I will also be, and against those who will not have it so I shall make war."
* Mwanga to Karl Peters, 1890
"The English have come; they have built a fort; they eat my land; they have made me sign a treaty; they curtail my powers; and I get nothing from them in return."
* Mwanga after signing treaty with Captain Frederick Lugard
Frederick John Dealtry Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard (22 January 1858 – 11 April 1945), known as Sir Frederick Lugard between 1901 and 1928, was a British soldier, mercenary, explorer of Africa and colonial administrator. He was Governor of Hong ...
, 1890
"''Abalangira timba buli afuluma amira munne.''" rinces are like pythons they swallow each other.* Mwanga after defeating the Muslim faction, 1893
"When I die it will be the end of the kingdom of Buganda. Europeans will take over (eat) this country of mine."
* Mwanga before joining forces with Kabalega, 1898
Quotes about Mwanga II
"To his (Mwanga's) distorted view the missionaries were men banded together for the undermining of his authority, for sapping the affections and loyalty of his subjects and for ultimately occupying the whole of Buganda."
* Henry Morton Stanley, ''In Darkest Africa'', 1890
"... there was, however, much good feeling and even tenderness in his character when he could be kept from bad habits and was free from evil influences."
* John Roscoe, ''Twenty Five Years in East Africa'', 1921
"Mwanga was a jovial, friendly person who had many friends."
* Batolomewo Zimbe, ''Buganda ne Kabaka'', 1939, p.53.
"Mwanga fought to free himself and his country of the intruders for all his reign. He did not like or want them; he was impressed by their power, but not interested in their ideas. He could not recover the old way of life nor adapt himself to the new, and in his perplexed and unhappy groping in the gap between he seems to me to deserve some sympathy."
* Kabaka Mutesa II
Sir Edward Frederick William David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Mutesa II (modern spelling: Muteesa) (19 November 1924 – 21 November 1969) was Kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda in Uganda from 22 November 1939 until his death. He was the thirty- ...
, ''Desecration of My Kingdom'', 1967
"He had wanted to be master in his own house, but unfortunately for him and for the monarchy, chieftainship triumphed over royal authority in a manner that had never happened before."
* MSM Kiwanuka, "Kabaka Mwanga and His Political Parties", 1969
"When Mwanga was brought to the capital as a captive the administration expected the people to be happy now that the enemy of their peace and religion was going into exile. On the contrary, people wanted him pardoned."
* Fr. John-Mary Waliggo, The Catholic Church in Buddu, 1976
"Mwanga ... was demonstrably unequal to the task of controlling the foreigners who were subverting his kingdom under his very nose. He did not have the experience or the prestige that had enabled his father to keep foreigners in their place within his kingdom."
* Samwiri R. Karugire, ''A Political History of Uganda'', 1980
"Mwanga was quite right to seek to be the master in his own kingdom just as his forefathers had been, all his excesses and fault of character notwithstanding. Some of his predecessors had been guilty of worse acts of cruelty and injustice and nothing drastic had befallen them. In other words even if all the charges levelled against Mwanga by his numerous Christian and Muslim detractors were true, he was still right to claim supreme authority in the kingdom of his forefathers."
* Samwiri R. Karugire, ''A Political History of Uganda'', 1980
"... Mwanga struck them (Ganda elders) as being kinder and gentler than Mutesa had been while a youth. For sheer tyranny, Mwanga II was easily outclassed by his father, grandfather and great grandfather, each of whom was remembered in Ganda tradition at the time of the British colonial take-over as having become uncontrollable at some stage during their respective reigns. This is something Mwanga never became."
* Morris Twaddle, ''Kakungulu'', 1993
"No Kabaka of Buganda had ever faced the challenges that Mwanga faced, dealing with mighty religious parties which eventually drove him from the throne and his kingdom."
* Samwiri Lwanga Lunyigo, ''Mwanga II'', 2011, page 4
"Mwanga II should be judged within the context of nineteenth century Buganda, where kings had absolute executive, legislative, judicial, military and even economic power. To see him through the lenses of his foes, those who took away the sovereignty of his country and their local collaborators is to miss him. He cannot be understood through the fairy tales of his enemies who denounced him."
* Samwiri Lwanga Lunyigo, ''Mwanga II'', 2011, p.35[Lwanga-Lunyiigo, S. (2011). ''Mwanga II: Resistance to Imposition of British Colonial Rule in Buganda, 1884-1899''. Kampala: Wavah Books]
Succession table: First time
Succession table: Second time
See also
* Kabaka of Buganda
the kabaka Palace in kireka
Kabaka is the title of the king of the Kingdom of Buganda.Stanley, H.M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: G. Newnes, According to the traditions of the Baganda they are ruled by two kings, one spiritual an ...
* Uganda Martyrs
The Uganda Martyrs are a group of 22 Catholic and 23 Anglican converts to Christianity in the historical kingdom of Buganda, now part of Uganda, who were executed between 31 January 1885 and 27 January 1887.
They were killed on orders of Mwang ...
References
Further reading
*Ashe, R. P. (1889). ''Two Kings of Uganda: Or, Life by the Shores of Victoria Nyanza''. S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.
*Kaggwa, Sir Apollo K,
Basekabaka be’Buganda
' ranslated by MM Semakula Kiwanuka Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1971.
*Kiwanuka, M. S. M. (1969). "Kabaka Mwanga and his political parties." ''Uganda Journal, 33(1)'', 1-16.
*Lwanga-Lunyigo, Samwiri (2011). ''Mwanga II : Resistance to Imposition of British colonial rule in Buganda, 1884-1899''. Wavah Books.
External links
List of Kings of Buganda
The vilification of Kabaka Mwanga
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mwanga 02 Of Buganda
1868 births
1903 deaths
19th-century LGBT people
19th-century monarchs in Africa
Anti-Christian sentiment
Converts to Protestantism from pagan religions
Kabakas of Buganda
LGBT people from Uganda
LGBT royalty
Persecution of Christians
Ugandan chiefs
Ugandan Protestants
20th-century LGBT people