- 2 days ago
Casely-Hayford travels to Uganda to explore the rise and fall of two great kingdoms. For centuries Bunyoro was the region's dominant power, using history and mythology to make a claim on the land. But its position was challenged by the rapid rise of Buganda, a neighbouring kingdom that had once been…
Category
🏖
TravelTranscript
00:04The Great Lakes of East Africa.
00:09A jewel in the African crown.
00:14This is just incredible.
00:17Straight away you can see why this part of Africa
00:20has drawn people for thousands and thousands of years.
00:27It's an area dominated by the largest tropical lake in the world, Lake Victoria.
00:34Even from up here, its scale is hard to grasp,
00:38but the fertility of the land around is clear to see.
00:46For centuries, people have fished these plentiful waters
00:50and cultivated the rich soil.
00:54But such abundance has brought with it strife.
00:58This region has been the site of intense rivalry and great power struggles.
01:04And it's a place whose history is still shrouded by legend and myth.
01:13We know less about Africa's past than almost anywhere else on earth.
01:17But the scarcity of written records doesn't mean Africa lacks history.
01:22That can be found in the artefacts, culture and in the traditions of the people.
01:28In this series, I'm exploring some of the most vibrant histories in the world.
01:32I've come to Uganda to find out how centuries of conflict have shaped this region of Africa.
01:40This is a tale of two kingdoms.
01:43A story of rivalry, of warfare, of opportunism.
01:47For over 200 years, the kingdoms of Bonyoro and Buganda jostled for position,
01:53competing for valuable resources and using history and mythology to make a claim on the land.
02:10For centuries, the interior of East Africa was unknown to the Western world.
02:22But that changed in the 1860s, thanks to a geographical puzzle that had been the obsession of Europeans for decades.
02:33The European adventurers were all desperate to claim the glory that would come with the supposed discovery of one particular
02:41place.
02:45The accolade went to a young British soldier named John Hanning Spiek.
02:51In 1862, he claimed he had discovered the source of the River Nile.
03:02Right now we are going to the source, where the source of the Nile begins from.
03:06Spiek had searched East Africa for six years, hoping to solve the mystery of where the Nile began.
03:13He was finally able to tell the outside world that the River Nile flowed out of Lake Victoria.
03:22A guide, James Bacoma, is taking me to the spot where the water starts its 4,132-mile journey to
03:31the Mediterranean.
03:33So this, this is the source of the Nile, James?
03:36This is the real point where the Nile gets the water from the lake.
03:40This is exactly where the Nile begins.
03:43This is the source? Here.
03:50But the significance of Spiek's adventure went far beyond the confirmation of where the Nile began.
03:57His journal is the earliest first-hand account of Buganda, the kingdom he found here.
04:05His excitement is plain, from his description of Buganda's king, Mutesa I.
04:13A more theatrical sight I never saw.
04:16The king, a good-looking tall young man, was sitting on a red blanket, scrupulously well-dressed in a new
04:23embuger.
04:23On his neck was a very neat ornament.
04:28Not a fault could be found with a taste of his getting up.
04:32The writing might sound condescending today, but European adventurers provided historians with valuable testimony.
04:41It's easy to question the methods and motives of explorers like Spiek today, but I do think that they were
04:50amazed by the sophistication of the kingdoms that they encountered here in this region.
05:00Spiek was captivated by the beauty of the landscape, but it was Buganda itself that was perhaps the biggest surprise
05:08to him.
05:12He'd stumbled upon an advanced kingdom with complex structures of government.
05:18It had a road network, established trade, and an organised and well-armed military.
05:24At the end of the 19th century, Buganda's power was reflected in a map drawn up by the British.
05:32It recognised Buganda's dominant position on the north-western shores of Lake Victoria.
05:37Buganda, overshadowing its neighbour, the Kingdom of Bunura, just half its size and on the banks of Lake Halbert.
05:45Today, both kingdoms are provincial powers within the modern state of Uganda.
05:51But the country's capital, Kampala, is Buganda's traditional power base.
05:57And the current king's palace overlooks the city from a prominent hilltop, as his predecessors did.
06:04The fact that Uganda gets its name from Buganda shows the kingdom's historic influence.
06:10But it doesn't tell the full story.
06:14Buganda established itself at the expense of its neighbour, Bonura.
06:18400 years ago, it was Bonura which was the region's major power.
06:24While Buganda was then an insignificant group of lakeside communities.
06:30Somehow, the Bugandans managed to turn the tables on Bonura,
06:34and displace it as the most powerful kingdom in this part of Africa.
06:40To understand how Buganda came to oust Bonura, you have to know more of the history of Bonura itself.
06:54I want to find out how Bonura first became a major power.
06:58And then how Buganda overtook it so dramatically.
07:03I'm travelling to Hoima, the Bonura capital.
07:18Compared to Kampala, Hoima is a fairly modest place.
07:21But when Bonura was at its height in the 17th century, this was a major trading centre.
07:30It may be hard to see now, but 400 years ago, Bonura was a place of considerable political, religious and
07:38economic significance.
07:42Yulamu Nsamba is a court historian and the private secretary to the current king of Bonura.
07:48Bonura was powerful as a trading country.
07:55Hoima was a market town.
07:58There used to be a king's market here.
08:02It was quite a busy place.
08:05And goods sold used to be locally made and also from long-distance trade.
08:11There was a long-distance trade route from Lake Arbat through the Sudan to Cairo and beyond.
08:21In fact, there were several markets scattered over the kingdom.
08:26And there would be routes linking them.
08:28And how did Bonura actually build on its economic successes?
08:32Well, Bonura built on its economic successes in terms of expansion, in terms of building an infrastructure.
08:40It was a big, organized state.
08:44Although the borders kept on shifting, we know that from the clan affiliations and the scattering of the clans,
08:54you find that Bonura's clans are in places as far away as southern Tanzania.
09:00So there was a kind of political sophistication that had never really existed before in this region.
09:06Yes, there was. There was for sure.
09:12The clan chiefs were the recognized custodians of the land.
09:16As a result, they wielded significant power.
09:19So Bonura needed strong kings to keep them in check and to keep the kingdom stable.
09:26This is the throne room of the kings.
09:30The palace throne room is filled with objects designed to make the monarch the focus of the kingdom
09:36and to underline the history of its ascent.
09:39When a king sits here, for the first time, he's handed a number of articles to signify what his office
09:51is all about.
09:53One of the articles he's handed is a traditional hammer.
09:57That puts him in office as a head of all the metal workers in his kingdom.
10:02He's also handed a traditional hoi.
10:10And the message is, encourage your subjects to grow food.
10:15People should not starve. That's why you are a king.
10:19So all of these different things, that they tell a particular kind of story
10:24or they each add a different element to the story of Bonura?
10:27Each item here has a story to tell.
10:31The hoe, the hammer, the iron spears, they indicate aspects of the kingdom's power.
10:37But underpinning it all was something much greater.
10:43The kingdom of Bonura reached its height during the course of the 16th and 17th centuries.
10:49And it did so in part due to one crucial factor.
10:53Bonura claimed that it was directly descended from an ancient empire more powerful than any other in the region.
11:03It was called Kitara.
11:06According to oral history, Kitara had been a vast empire ruled by a powerful dynasty known as the Twayze.
11:14Historians still disagree about whether Kitara or its Twayze rulers ever existed.
11:20But even today, the people of Bonura revere the Twayze as gods.
11:28Every week, dozens of people from towns and villages throughout the region travel to worship at a Twayze shrine.
11:36I've joined them on their pilgrimage to Mabendi Hill.
11:48This sacred tree stands on what some believe to have been an ancient Twayze settlement.
11:56Within each one of these buttresses is a different substrine.
12:00And I think each one of these substrines is dedicated to a different kind of prayer.
12:07The presiding spirit of the shrine is a Twayze matriarch named Nakayima.
12:24Worshippers make offerings of money, coffee beans and milk as they ask for answers to their prayers.
12:43This obviously really matters to people.
12:46The potency of this.
12:48This isn't a tradition frozen in aspect.
12:52This is still alive and well and celebrated.
12:57Since the earliest days of the Bonura kingdom in the 15th century,
13:01there seems to have been a strong belief in the Twayze whether or not they ever existed.
13:08There are those who think that they are real people who existed in this part of the region which was
13:17called Kitara.
13:19But other interpretations also refer to the Batwezi as spirits.
13:26Because their legacy was perpetrated through the worship of the Batwezi cult,
13:33which is what we are now witnessing.
13:36Dr. Efrain Kamuhanguri has researched the Twayze dynasty.
13:41What's the significance of this Twayze ritual to the success of Bonura?
13:46It is the strength of the religion that actually boosted the political claim of the new rulers.
13:53So it legitimises this relationship with ancient Twayze.
13:57The relationship is the legitimacy they claimed from the former rulers of Kitara
14:05that actually strengthened their control over the new kingdom of Mnion.
14:17Bornura's claim to such an illustrious pedigree was vital.
14:21It gave its people a proud heritage and it meant the kingdom could assert control over the land once ruled
14:28by Kitara.
14:31The fact that the Twayze were regarded as otherworldly gave Bonura a spiritual foundation.
14:37That belief continues to resonate.
14:41And this place is obviously still very special.
14:45Even in modern history, people have sought to make a connection with this place.
14:51And today, it obviously still means an awful lot to a lot of people.
15:01Faith in the Twayze has lasted over the centuries for good reason.
15:07There's physical evidence that suggests the predecessors of Bonura may not be figments of the imagination.
15:24The Uganda Museum is one of the oldest in East Africa.
15:28It houses a range of extraordinary artefacts.
15:32Some historians say they prove the existence of the Twayze.
15:36They may also cast light on the early days of Bonura.
15:41I've persuaded the curator, Jacqueline Neerichiezer,
15:45to show me some of the treasures that fill the shelves behind the scenes.
15:50This is the store, a theologist store.
15:53Oh, Jacqueline, I love places like this.
15:56The contents of these boxes all come from a place called Ntuzi.
16:02It was a vast settlement, and possibly the home of the Twayze.
16:06Some even say that Ntuzi was the capital of the legendary kingdom of Katara.
16:12And how old is this, Jacqueline?
16:15We think that it's like 700 years ago.
16:17Because these sites have been in existence like 700 to 900 years ago.
16:22I mean, the glorious thing about it is that you can see how someone has pushed into the still drying
16:30surface a piece of cloth.
16:31They call it roulette. This must be street roulette, yes.
16:35Yes, which is still dated in the same period.
16:38Yes. I mean, I just have this thing about ceramics.
16:41I mean, this idea that someone actually created and used.
16:46This thing just should have been quite humble, but it's just absolutely exquisitely beautiful.
16:51It gives you a real sense of what ordinary people's lives were like during this period.
16:57Because for so much African history, you don't get a sense of the ordinary.
17:02It's the kings. It's the powerful. But this is just beautiful.
17:10Along with the pottery, beads and iron spearheads have also been recovered.
17:15The finds reveal that the predecessors of Bonura had themselves developed an advanced civilisation.
17:25These were complex cultures. These are water vases, but also that these are very, very sophisticated vessels, some of them.
17:33Some of them used for storage or for foods that would have meant that people travelled, that they traded.
17:39And this just gives us a small insight into Entusi.
17:46The civilisation at Entusi would have been a significant foundation for the kingdom of Bonura.
17:53But Entusi also provides evidence for the secret of Bonura's success.
17:58The reason it became the most powerful kingdom in the region.
18:03I'm heading to Entusi to see it for myself.
18:08Entusi lies in the grasslands of central Uganda, 95 miles south of Bonura's capital, Hoima.
18:17This region isn't in Bonura, according to modern maps.
18:21But at its height, this whole area belonged to the Bonura kingdom.
18:32And it was here, at a time when most historians thought Kitara and their Twesi rulers were simply a myth.
18:40That a discovery was made that forced them to reconsider.
18:48When archaeologists began excavating these sites in the 1920s, they couldn't quite believe what they were unearthing.
18:54In the 19th century, it was also an ancient organised society that dated back a thousand years.
19:04Hidden underneath the dense vegetation are important clues to the foundations of the Bonura kingdom.
19:17Archaeologist Dismas Ongwen has carried out excavations at this site.
19:22Everywhere you move, you see the archaeology of the area.
19:26And everywhere you go, you find iron slag like this.
19:30You find pottery.
19:32Yeah, just look over here.
19:33You find there is massive evidence of pottery.
19:37There are artefacts strewn for miles around.
19:42But archaeologists were fascinated to find a dense concentration of material at two ancient rubbish dumps.
19:56In all history, they're referred to as the male and female mounds, for reasons that remain a bit of a
20:03mystery.
20:04Some people think it's a female mound because it was the female dumping the rubbish here.
20:08And some academia people think that it's basically the female mound because it's smaller than the male mound.
20:14In Africa, people think that being big is being a male.
20:18And what was the bulk of the material found here?
20:21We have pottery, we have bones, we have iron artifacts, we have beads.
20:28Archaeologists can tell from the volume and age of the material that this area was densely populated from the 11th
20:36century to around the 1400s.
20:39That dates in Tusi to just before Borneurus thought to have been established.
20:44It also coincides with their putative predecessors, the Twesi.
20:51This is a proper example of the archaeology of the area.
20:54But some of the most significant finds aren't man-made.
21:00If you look at this, it's a big piece of borne.
21:04And they've been revealed to archaeologists almost by accident.
21:09If you look at it from what is happening here, the running water is actually eroding up the topsoil and
21:16leaving the archaeology.
21:18And I'm pretty sure that much of it has been washed off.
21:21So the water erosion is actually exposing the archaeology of the area.
21:25The erosion has uncovered the centuries-old remains of cattle among the pottery and other objects.
21:32It's great and amazing.
21:34Yeah, there's quite a lot of cattle bones around here.
21:38And you find all mixed up.
21:41Jaw, teeth, horns, and it's everything.
21:46It is very special just picking up something like this that may have been part of a herd of cattle
21:55perhaps 800 or 1,000 years ago that actually moved across this landscape.
22:02I mean, obviously it's changed a lot, but not so much.
22:05I mean, there are still people here working with cattle.
22:10It's just very special.
22:12The presence of cattle bones here is hugely significant.
22:16It gives a clear indication of the wealth of Ntuzi society, which the kingdom of Bonyuru is likely to have
22:22inherited.
22:23The animal bones also tell archaeologists a great deal about the lives of the people.
22:30First of all, these were cattle herders, and they are looking after cattle in big numbers.
22:35And actually, if you look at some of the bones that we find around, we find there's evidence that they
22:41were actually slaughtering the younger bulls.
22:43That means they were doing it selectively, maybe to promote a particular breed of animals that they had.
22:49So these people were actually very smart in what they are doing.
22:56Most communities in East Africa at this time would have shared just one or two cows.
23:03Evidence at Ntuzi shows that Bonyuru's predecessors had vast numbers of cattle.
23:09It might explain why a belief endured in the kingdom that the Twesi had been great providers.
23:22Bonyuru continued the pastoral tradition that had been established in the centuries before the kingdom's rise to power.
23:31They probably would have been tending herds of a breed like these Anconi cattle.
23:37The extraordinary volume of livestock made Bonyuru unusual.
23:48There was a reason why Bonyuru could maintain vast herds of cattle.
23:53The Bonyuru had a mineral that was vital for the welfare of people and cattle alike.
23:59The Bonyuru had salt.
24:09Lake Albert sits on the western edge of modern Uganda.
24:14According to legend, the Twesi people disappeared into it.
24:18But not before they discovered the wealth that surrounded it.
24:24Bonyuru may have claimed its legitimacy from ancient Kitara, but its economic power wasn't mythical.
24:31It was very real.
24:38The hot springs that flow into this lake provided Bonyuru's valuable mineral.
24:44Salt, essential to all animal life, enabled the kingdom to grow in strength.
24:52Healthy herds, in turn, provided more food and helped the kingdom to prosper.
24:57Good morning.
25:01How does this work?
25:07So you're just scraping the top layer of soil?
25:12Yes.
25:13Okay, ladies.
25:14So in this is the salt.
25:17The salt is actually in here.
25:19Yes.
25:20It smells a little bit sulphury.
25:22But obviously this is very valuable material, this earth.
25:27And this for hundreds of years has served these women and these communities incredibly well.
25:35The production of ash salt here at Kabiru, on Lake Albert's shores, is thought to date back some 900 years.
25:44This occupation is hereditary and is carried out exclusively by women.
25:50I hope I'm helping rather than hindering your work.
25:54Oh yeah, I'm obviously hindering it.
25:59There's real skill in this. I just don't happen to have it.
26:06And the thing to understand is, it's very warm.
26:11And doing this sort of work day after day, under these kinds of conditions, it must be pretty tough work.
26:23The salty soil is gathered and dried in the sun for about a week, before being mixed with water and
26:30left to percolate.
26:31The resulting liquid is boiled to produce ash salt.
26:35The same earth is leached over and over again, making this an unusually sustainable technique that produces salt of the
26:45very highest quality.
26:46This has probably gone on unchanged for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, on this very spot.
26:54This is a valuable product coming right up out of the very ground itself.
27:01And this salt was just so important to the success of the Bonyoro Kingdom.
27:10The kingdom's control of salt fields, both at Kabiru and further south at Katwe, allowed them to build both a
27:18stable economy and in turn, a strong political base.
27:22Without salt, Bonyoro almost certainly would never have become the great kingdom that it did.
27:29Bonyoro produced volumes of salt far greater than the local population would have needed.
27:35The surplus helped to establish a vitally important network of trade in the region, which was controlled by the state.
27:45Today, the merchandise is prepared in exactly the same way as it's always been.
27:52And this is the final stage of salt production, when these beautiful conicals of salt are produced, ready to go
28:03off to market.
28:05Salt was a much sought after commodity.
28:08When Bonyoro was at its height in the 1600s, salt was as valuable as any precious metal.
28:15Compared to the rest of Africa, this region was cut off from the outside world until relatively late.
28:21But historians believe Bonyoro's salt still travelled long distances.
28:28The kingdom supplied the Great Lakes area with salt.
28:32And via the regional trade network, Bonyoro's salt may have eventually reached the foreign merchants on Africa's east coast.
28:43An economy was emerging.
28:46Bonyoro was wheeling and dealing.
28:50Bonyoro was a kingdom with much to celebrate.
29:00As trading evolved and markets grew, the people of the Bonyoro kingdom turned to their traditional crafts for more commodities
29:07to sell.
29:10Bonyoro's metal craft was renowned.
29:13Its blacksmiths made the king's symbolic hammer and hoe.
29:16And there was a demand for Bonyoro's iron products throughout the region.
29:20The blacksmiths' expertise is acknowledged at festivals such as this one, which celebrates the lunar cycle.
29:30The new moon rises at midnight tonight, and it's a time of renewal.
29:35It's meant to be a period when the women menstruate, but it's also a time when the blacksmiths have special
29:41power.
29:50What only did the blacksmiths conjure iron from the earth, they created the weapons required to defend the kingdom of
29:57Bonyoro.
30:01And by its height in the 17th century, Bonyoro's assets were the envy of its neighbours.
30:25Thanks to the power of the king and the strong clan chiefs, Bonyoro's influence stretched over a vast territory.
30:33The resources that provided the basis for its power also connected the people to their environment.
30:40And the claim of Kitara and Twesi ancestry legitimized Bonyoro's authority and gave the kingdom a strong sense of identity.
30:51But on the other side of the country, on the banks of Lake Victoria, another kingdom had begun to flourish.
30:58Thanks to a crop that would not just change the future of this region, but of the whole of the
31:04African continent.
31:11The kingdom of Buganda began as small groups of clans who cultivated land by Lake Victoria.
31:19Their metamorphosis from a handful of communities to a powerful kingdom was thanks in part to a humble food crop,
31:28the banana.
31:31The high rainfall and fertile land of Lake Victoria's northern shores had encouraged the clans of Uganda to settle here
31:39in the first place around the 15th century.
31:42By the 1600s, a cohesive state had emerged, the result of the organised cultivation of its most important crop.
31:55Bonyoro had its salt, but the bananas of Buganda would create a kingdom that would challenge Bonyoro's dominance once and
32:04for all.
32:11So we're going this way?
32:13We're going this way?
32:16So these are the banana trees?
32:21Ah, bananas at last.
32:23In fact, I was beginning to worry that we'd missed the season because this is obviously that most of them
32:28have been harvested already.
32:30The clans of Buganda grew bananas in the fields and caught fish in the lake.
32:35It's a nutritious diet and one which helped their population to grow.
32:41There are over 50 varieties of banana grown in Uganda, but this one, the plantain or the motoke, is the
32:50most important.
32:51For the people who live here, the banana is both meat and drink.
33:14How wonderful.
33:16So the whole tree has to come down to harvest the banana.
33:20You get a sense of how important these are, that they're not just crops to be eaten.
33:27For the Buganda people of the 17th and 18th centuries, the banana was revolutionary.
33:33They don't only fed them, but its leaves thatched their houses.
33:37It's fibrous stalks were used to make cord, and its stems were used to build their defenses.
33:44The banana and its related products quickly became commodities, which the clans of Buganda,
34:07was also traded in the regional economy, just as bonuro had done with salt.
34:14And it's still part of the staple diet of the region today.
34:21I've had plantain before, but this is motoke, cooked the traditional Ugandan way.
34:29I can't wait.
34:34Oh, what a glorious smell.
34:35Oh.
34:36Oh, that looks lovely.
34:41Mmm.
34:42It's very delicious.
34:44Absolutely wonderful.
34:55As Buganda's economy grew, structures of government developed.
34:59The early clan chiefs held much power, with the king merely the most senior among them.
35:06But gradually, power centralised with the monarch, and he became much more than the first among equals.
35:13The loyalty of the clans was assured, however.
35:16The king took wives from different clans, meaning his successor could come from any clan in the kingdom.
35:21And the clans remained vitally important to Buganda.
35:34Today, more than 50 clans exist in Buganda.
35:38Each takes an emblem from the natural world.
35:40These men are from the mushroom clan.
35:49The role of Buganda's clans now is to safeguard the kingdom's cultural heritage.
35:55Drums are particularly treasured, as they are believed to hold the spirit of the nation.
36:05None of us has lived as long as these drums.
36:09So what they tell is something of such a long time ago that you wouldn't want to let go of
36:16in your lifetime.
36:20Mr Gombe is the custodian of his clan's drums.
36:24They aren't only used as a method of communication.
36:27Each clan is identified by a unique rhythm.
36:31For you to have an identity, you have to have a drum.
36:34Because it is on that drum that you sound who you are.
37:06And so on, and so forth.
37:08And how important are drums for Buganda?
37:13They mean a lot to us, but most important,
37:18they remind us of our ancestry.
37:23The clan structure was hereditary,
37:25but the increasingly powerful kings also appointed chiefs.
37:29That engendered a competitive spirit
37:32among Buganda's ambitious young men, as well as their loyalty.
37:49The 18th century Buganda had a stable economic base
37:53and a growing centralised government.
37:56It was self-confident and ambitious,
37:59keen to make the most of its resources
38:01and perhaps also to reinforce a sense of nationhood.
38:05It chose a special cloth which was associated with Buganda royalty.
38:10I come down here to Nsangwa.
38:13There's a family down here who'd been making bark cloth
38:16for Buganda kings for generations.
38:19I'm going to see how they do it.
38:27I'm going to see how they do it.
38:28Bark cloth is made from various types of fig tree.
38:31There's long been a symbol of the kingdom of Buganda.
38:36Omutaka Kabugosa is the official maker of Royal Bark Cloth.
39:04Barkov provided kings and clan chiefs with a visible symbol of the Buganda nation.
39:12So you take off the the outer bark and then it's the inner bark that you actually want which
39:18actually creates this one is the one we want yeah that's the cloth itself it's very thick and rubbery
39:27here but this is this isn't the finished cloth this is just the beginning of the harvesting
39:36the value of bark cloth was more than symbolic during the second half of the 18th century
39:43Buganda's people were encouraged to wear it not just the chiefs and royalty
39:50a nationwide industry took off and the material was renowned among Buganda's neighbors
39:56it's lovely work to do because the results are just so immediate you can see the fibers already
40:03beginning to separate and widen and it's beginning to feel a little bit more like cloth
40:11the desire to increase bark loss production had a profound effect began to expanded its territory
40:18to acquire new lands on which to plant fig trees and its aggressive approach to commerce
40:23meant its influence in the region grew it's actually products like bark cloth that allow Buganda
40:31to forge a cultural identity but it also allows them to participate in new emerging economies
40:48the state capitalized on the productivity of the people taxation paid for a network of roads
40:54that pushed Buganda's commerce further afield and the kingdom took advantage of its geography in other ways
41:03Buganda's position on the northern shore of lake victoria gave it access to the burgeoning trade routes
41:09to the east coast of africa
41:12the fiercely competitive kingdom of buganda was now ready to take any advantage to aid its growth
41:20control of trade over the lake was critical if buganda was to increase its power and influence in the region
41:28the kingdom built up a vast royal navy of canoes just like this one each one could carry between 60
41:34and 100 men the enormous vessels that the craftsmen built were put to good use the fleet was used to
41:43conquer islands and new territory along the shore
41:49the kingdom's navy also escorted traders from the east coast directly to buganda ensuring the kingdom
41:56controlled the lion's share of new commerce coming into the region
42:02in the mid-19th century the first foreign traders arrived swahili and arab merchants were interested in ivory and slaves
42:22from the east african coast had great impact uh one they brought in guns that tilted the balance of power
42:31in favor of buganda because it controlled that trade from the east african coast two they brought
42:38in goods that had not been in this region and were sought after so the buganda kingdom controlled
42:45this new trade so this was a formidable culture both in terms of trading but also in terms of military
42:54might
42:55it was actually an organized an organized state that could organize law and order and had at one time
43:02a standing army and it could it it could defend the lives and property of its people so it was
43:10a state
43:11although not exactly in the modern sense of the word but it was a state that could organize such a
43:17big
43:17force feed it and manage to control it and command it the point however is that baganda kingdom could amass
43:29such a force in that period without any external assistance which demonstrates that africans before
43:38the coming in of foreigners were organized and could amass a standing army of such a big force
43:44and deploy it at any one time this sophisticated kingdom had shown that it would use its resources
43:56to further its own interests a predatory politics was emerging buganda had the power to take what it
44:03wanted from its neighbors at will valuable export commodities like ivory were collected buganda was on the make
44:15for 200 years buganda had lived in the shadow of its more powerful neighbor bonura now buganda was
44:23ready to seize any opportunity to replace bonura as the region's greatest kingdom
44:31while the kingdom of buganda had developed and grown bonura had also continued to trade and prosper
44:39but unlike its neighbor bonura had not centralized political power and the clan chiefs still held
44:45a great deal of authority the structure of bonura's royal succession meant that the clan chiefs could
44:52contest the throne the kingdom became mired in a series of internal divisions and wars of succession
44:58the once great kingdom was in decline the once great kingdom was in decline
45:09began to exploited its rivals weakness it began occupying bonura's more vulnerable territories
45:18with a combination of their strategic lakeside position
45:21and their unrivaled military power buganda seemed unstoppable
45:28began to seize land that cut off bonura from the lake
45:33and from the lucrative trade that crossed it
45:39then around 1830 a shattering blow
45:43bonura lost crucial territory that would weaken the kingdom as never before
45:48bonura lost its salt the chiefs of the toro province declared it an autonomous kingdom
45:59its territory included bonura's most valuable sword fields
46:05it was a devastating blow to the economy of the kingdom but whilst bonura threatened to fall apart
46:11buganda was ever stronger
46:14the days of growing banana crops and expanding their plantations had instilled the notion of communal
46:21effort in buganda at the height of the kingdom's power was able to marshal its people and resources
46:28to act in the national interest but its neighbor bonura was not about to give up the fight
46:35these are the tombs of king cabalega remembered as one of the greatest kings this country ever knew
46:53in 1869 cabalega took the bonura throne he rallied the kingdom's forces and began pushing buganda back
47:03to its original borders oh this place there's a real poignancy to this grave site
47:13it's actually buried down in a chamber beneath here but up at the top level you can see that
47:21they've marked the spot with nine hose i think iron is so important to people here
47:29it's just wonderful these are his personal effects there are things like spears there are shields that
47:38would have been used in battle this was a man who he fought for this place himself
47:47cabalega reinforced the trade routes that brought firearms into bonura that strengthened the kingdom and
47:54challenged buganda's trade position his actions gave him heroic status
48:03i think because he brought a kind of renewed sense of confidence to bonura it was a sort of
48:12last stand and obviously he's still loved i mean look these things are still venerated
48:18and in a way they tell the story of bonura under cabalega bonura was once again a force to be
48:26reckoned with
48:30the kingdoms were toe to toe and into this volatile situation new players arrived the european explorers
48:48john hanning speaks 1862 account of buganda and the source of the nile had inspired other expeditions to
48:56the region in 1874 henry morton stanley was making his own journey across the continent three years after
49:04he'd found david livingston his explorations left him convinced of livingston's argument that christianity
49:12would improve the people's lives stanley wrote a plea to the daily telegraph oh that a pious practical
49:21missionary would come here who can teach people how to become christians cure their diseases construct
49:28dwellings and turn his hand to anything and stanley's letter had the desired effect in 1877 the trade
49:36routes from the coast brought a new kind of import across lake victoria missionaries
49:48the arrival of missionaries in buganda had profound implications for the kingdom and its rival
49:55the missionaries discovered a country full of willing converts
50:00many chiefs believed the kingdom was in need of divine assistance
50:06it had suffered military defeats and skirmishes with bonura
50:13epidemics had struck without warning
50:16king mataza was weak with disease
50:20those offering salvation were welcome
50:23whether european protestants catholics or muslims from the coast
50:45religious conversion didn't result in peace and goodwill however
50:49of it instead it destabilized buganda even further
50:59i'm on the outskirts of the capital city kampala
51:02to witness one of the country's biggest annual christian holidays martyrs day
51:15this pilgrims are commemorating the deaths of 22 catholic martyrs who in 1886 paid with their lives
51:24for choosing god over their king their executions were followed by those of 23 protestants
51:41the killings had been ordered by king muanga
51:45he'd inherited a weakened monarchy after mataza's death
51:49his assertion of authority was an attempt to control the religious factions
51:54that were now competing at buganda's court
52:01the christianity had a significant following among buganda's chiefs
52:06they felt that muanga needed to be reined in they turned to the british
52:12at the same time protestant missionaries implored the british government to intervene in buganda
52:18to prevent the loss of potential converts to islam the british were keen to extend their influence
52:26in east africa and declared bugandra protectorate in 1894 the british benefited from buganda's well-formed
52:35social and political structures as a means to rule but this wasn't just the british taking advantage of
52:41africans began to realize that this was an extraordinary opportunity to ensure that they
52:46rather than bonura were the most powerful kingdom in the region
52:55for the chiefs of buganda the alliance with the british was a marriage of convenience
53:08their new partners established themselves in a fort on old campana hill
53:20and so there was actually a flag that sat over a building on this site yes a union jack the
53:26union jack
53:27this historian dayo katona has analyzed the relationship between the british and buganda
53:33when the protectorate was established i think the protectorate was a benefit for both parties
53:44because for one part for buganda it helped them to stabilize to create a new foundation for the kingdom
53:52of buganda in buganda and then for the british the declaration of a protectorate over buganda laid the
54:02foundation for establishment of uh the colony over uganda so the benefit was on both sides the british
54:14which gained gained on their part and the kingdom of buganda gained also on their party
54:23in 1896 two years after signing the treaty with buganda the british extended the protectorate over the
54:30territory that would become uganda it included the kingdom of bonura
54:38the bonura's king cabalega had no intention of cooperating so the began the british alliance launched
54:46a pre-emptive strike with the british calling the shots it involves the majority of the soldiers are
54:52buganda soldiers so they they use buganda as a stepping stone now as a springboard they're using the
55:02personnel they use the military system of guna to invade bunura isn't this humiliating for buganda as
55:14well isn't this to be subservient to the british in this war no it's not no no it is an
55:22opportunity
55:24buganda looks at it as an opportunity to expand but i imagine that the long-term strategic aim
55:30of getting rid of the bonura is completely obscuring the kind of the the everything else yes and they're
55:39actually losing sight of the fact that that they are being taken over their country is being taken
55:43over by the british you lose sight of that one yes the gander's chiefs were focused on ensuring their
55:49kingdom's supremacy over their rival and they succeeded during the violence bonura is thought to have
55:56lost three quarters of its population tens of thousands were killed in action many more succumbed
56:03to famine or fled the country the deaths of such a staggering number of people decimated the kingdom
56:10not just physically but spiritually too and for a kingdom that believed in its permanence in this
56:16environment it was a brutal blow bonura was crushed but just when buganda might have been expected to
56:29celebrate its king made an astonishing decision mawaka realized he was little more than a puppet
56:37he rebelled in 1897 joined forces with his arch enemy cabalaga and waged war on the british
56:46their joint effort resulted in the two men being captured and exiled to the seychelles in 1899
56:54but in the centuries-old contest for supremacy buganda had emerged the victor the british protectorate
57:01was named uganda and the british used administrators from buganda to enforce the law across all the
57:09kingdoms of the nation many outside buganda felt unfairly treated the old rivalries would never die
57:19in 1967 however the kingdoms themselves did under the dictatorships of milton abote and idi amin
57:27they ceased to exist for a generation but while the kingdoms may have seemed dead they weren't buried
57:36they were reborn when uganda's government sanctioned their restoration in 1993
57:49in both buganda and bonura there was common cause for celebration
58:00the traditions such as began the royal music were revived all of uganda's kingdoms had suffered during
58:08the turbulent years of the country's modern history but the fact that the culture and the history
58:15return with them quite so readily tells us how much these kingdoms continue to mean to the people
58:23in the country
58:24and the nations of the country
58:50in the country
58:51are
Comments