On August 16, 2009, Ssabasajja Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II excited Baganda all over the world when he made it clear that, despite president Museveni thinking that Federo is out of question, Buganda will continue her fight for self-determination and ultimately win. Kabaka Mutebi was addressing tens of thousands of Baganda who turned up at Lubiri to celebrate the 16th anniversary of his coronation onto the Namulondo of Buganda.
Kabaka Mutebi, who returned from a 3 day tour of his Buvuma county during the middle of last week, drew thunderous cheers when he said: “When we hear some people saying that they don’t know what Federo means, I think they have failed to understand what we mean. You should reply to them that Federo is all about justice and truth, and this is what we demand.” The Kabaka made it clear that Federo, with some powers leaving the center and going to regional governments like Buganda, is essential for Uganda to be stable and grow. And he lamented the fact that, even the colonialists practiced more justice than seen today. He told his attentive audience: “If someone is fighting for what has been stolen from him, you may not be able to stop him. It may be impossible for you to make him forget his cause. Whenever our people talk about Federo, what they mean is ‘we want justice’.”
Before the Kabaka spoke, the Chairman of Abataka Abakulu b’Ebika, Omutaka Nakirembeka, Alan Waliggo, told the mammoth crowd of Baganda that President Museveni’s claim that Buganda will never get Federo should be a warning to us, to be careful about voting for non-Baganda leaders. He said: “We are fed up with being used and abused. We shall remain in constant tears until we are in charge of what we get instead of letting others decide.”
The crowd broke into extended laughter when Kabaka’s Minister of State for Information, Medard Lubega Sseggona, told President Museveni’s vice, Gilbert Bukenya: “Please go and educate you friends on how to be loyal to the Kabaka of Buganda.” According to our sources in Mmengo, Bukenya takes full advantage of his very close and long friendship with Katikkiro JB Walusimbi to get himself invited to virtually every public event attended by Kabaka Mutebi.
While it is too early to tell, reports from around Kampala, Mukono and Entebbe, as well as emails from Los Angeles, London and Nairobi, suggest that Baganda here and overseas are very pleased by the Kabaka’s performance. One short email from London fairly represents the general pleasure expressed by Baganda we have heard from: “Nakato: I don’t know if you guys are reporting the news from Kampala about Kabaka’s and Omutaka’s statements in Lubiri. Emplogoma ebogodde! We feel much better after the weak and safe voices of the last 10 days. Awangaale Ssabasajja!”.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Tara,
Ebifananyi bye Mengo nabirabye era byampomedde nnyo nkyekomba. but the pictures after the maginificent and brave words from Bbeene and jajja Nkirembeka. Since 1900 foreigners have manipulated Buganda by partnering with Mengo to isolate Kabaka from the Bataka (and his people).
Magulu nnyondo and the bataka are clearly on the same page this time. Ate even in Mengo there are many fighting the old ‘divide and conquer’ games. It is time for us to ignore on bwaana who models “winter clothes in summer” and his friends and go full speed behind Magulu Nnyondo.
Awangaale nnyo Nanyini nsi!
DK
August 20th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Oh, my! Oh, my!! If M7 and his cohorts had thought that the Baganda and their Kabaka can easily be intimidated out of their democratic rights in the sharing of the common resources entrusted to a country called UGANDA in the same way he does to the Banyoro, Basoga,etecetra then they should be better prepared for what is to come next if they do not revise their wicked ways. The Kabaka couldn’t have stated it any better: FEDERO = JUSTICE + TRUTH in the sharing of Ugandan resources; not just for the Banyankole alone who are filling all juicy positions in the politics, military, civil service, security organizations, etecetra, but for all Ugandans irrespective of their creed, race or ethnic backgrounds. M7 and his hangers-on should better listen up to a voice of wisdom and sanity. You may fool someone for some time, but not all the people for all the time.
Webaale nnyo Ayi Ssabasajja kutukulembera bulungi! Webalire ddala Maggulunnyondo okwogezza obugumu no’bumalirivu! You are a great inspiration to all the the majority Baganda and non-Baganda.
I also salute my fellow Baganda and other Ugandans who turned up in Lubiri palace on 08/16/09.
Ondabiranga ddala Ssebo Ssabasajja!
Nze musajjawo Busagwa Ali!
August 25th, 2009 at 11:28 am
David/Busagwa,
We the Baganda are so much blessed with all our gallant kings that have reined the Kingdom of Buganda since time immemorial. With the exception of the late Sir Edward Mutesa, the first president of Uganda, and possibly Prof. Yusuf Lule who had a short stint at the Ugandan presidency, the rest of the Uganda presidents have committed atrocious acts on the Baganda and other Ugandans largely because of a congenital inferiority complex they have had or still have. Because the whole lot of them has come from an almost obscure and poverty-ridden background, they have carried along an inferiority complex with them to the extent of loading it over to Ugandans. That is why you saw them fidgeting around with the constitution to change term limits so they can become life presidents; they are simply too insecure to behave like normal humans. They are also too afraid of what would happen to them materially, financially, economically, politically or otherwise if they left power to go back herd their cattle or rear ducks. To sum it all in Shakespeare’s words, “The Tragedy of Administration [in Uganda]is to put a small man in a large office because he soon reduces it to his own size” Notice the difference with how His Majesty the Kabaka carries himself and how the Ugandan leaders (read: rulers) carry themselves around. Oh boy, the difference is far too wide!!!
Anyhow, I am just too happy with the way His Majesty has lead his subjects in this most turbulent environment of the Ugandan sectarian/tribal/primitive politics. He has shown
All and sundry that you do not need to threaten folks with “six feet under” so you can influence them. The mammoth gathering at Lubiri as seen through the pictures that are flying all over the entire globe via the internet are a clear testimony that the Baganda are on an onward match to self-liberation, their civility not -withstanding. Any Uganda ruler can either listen to his inner conscience and deliver justice or ignore them at his/her own political peril and oblivion. If you doubt this, ask UPC’s Maama Miria Obote and the rest of them. Obote committed a most foolish blunder and he and his entire tribe, UPC party and family have paid and continue to pay a very big price for this.
Long live Your Majesty Kabaka Muwenda Mutebi II!
August 25th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Eh Muzaana wa Kabaka Nankindi, obaddewa?
Thanks for the posting. I have greatly enjoyed it. I had just finished reading through a similar piece written by the ebulent Father Lawrence Kanyike in today’s Daily Monitor. Both your and the Father’s thoughts on the Kabaka, the Baganda and the Buganda Kingdom struck a chode and I thought that we could share the Father’s as well as yours here on the same platform . Just in case you have not yet read it, just sit back and relax as I reproduce it here for the benefit of all readers. Good reading:
Opinions | August 25, 2009
Why envy Buganda’s prominence?
Fr. Lawrence Kanyike
The early British explorers and very well travelled men, Speak and Stanley, found Buganda with a peaceful, well ordered society , dominated by a clan system united under their Kabaka, something similar to their home country, England. In comparison to the surrounding people, they described Buganda as an Island of civilisation surrounded by hostile tribes. It is this uniqueness that made it difficult for the British to convince Buganda that it should be part of the new country now called Uganda.
The Baganda, despite being the most accommodating culture in Uganda, never desired to federate with any state. They are not against unity but that this should not be done at the expense of sacrificing their culture. For them unity should not destroy their uniqueness and prominence. They rather subscribe to the belief that Buganda must be in Uganda than that Uganda be in Buganda and so their agitation for “federo”. No wonder Buganda declared its own independence from Britain on October 8th,different from the common one of October 9th. Up to now, a Muganda does not feel patriotic enough if after the singing of the National anthem, the Buganda anthem, the Kitiibwa Kya Buganda is not sung. There is a feeling that Buganda must stand out and its greatness, its kitiibwa, its civility, must be preserved. Their civility and their love for their homeland has made many non Baganda elites to purchase land in Buganda. There is no tribe in Uganda that loves its homeland more than the Baganda.
Unfortunately, Buganda’s civility, historical prominence and love for its homeland has been interpreted as arrogance and has made them a subject of envy by other surrounding tribes , accusing Britain of favouring it over other areas by starting all developmental programmes in Buganda. Of course for any historian who is not incapacitated by envy would know that this is not true. It is Buganda’s civility that solely attracted the explorers to open up educational and social institutions in Buganda and from Buganda to spread to other areas. After all, it is the king of Buganda who invited missionaries to come and educate his people. The Baganda are so patriotic for their homeland that they have always been suspicious of any foreigner occupying their land lest that person ruins its civility. The root cause of the 1966 crisis is not what lawyers and politicians have all along called a constitutional crisis. The Constitution could be committed to the flames for all the Baganda care. The real crisis was, if in the Baganda culture there is no occupant of a chair higher than the Kabaka, then where is the Prime Minister or for that matter the president’s chair ? This, in my view, is still the problem with the present administration. The President does not know what to do with the Kabaka’s prominence in Buganda. As long as the central government situates its administration in Buganda, the kingdom of Buganda will always remain a problem for the government. There was even a suggestion that Obote removes his government from the Buganda soil or move his capital to Mbale. If Obote was not blinded by his hatred for the Baganda, probably the 1966 crisis would have taken a different route. So, it was more than simply a constitutional crisis. The Baganda’s love for their Kabaka and their land is in their blood stream and in my view, there is no law that can change this. Creating laws that suppress Buganda’s natural prominence can only aggravate the problem.
Envy for Buganda’s prominence by the surrounding tribes is, in my view, the root cause of all the problems we have in this country and unless we learn to accept each other’s cultures, tribalism and hatred will continue to thrive. It all started with Obote who, after becoming prime minister, was bothered by Buganda’s prominence in the Uganda he was going to lead and instead of learning from what made Buganda prominent he enviously tried to destroy it by destroying its centre, the Kabaka. Indeed his violent attack on the Baganda ushered in a culture of violence, the militarism which is still with us today and civility which was the characteristic of Buganda ceased to exist. Ironically, all the leaders who have militarily captured power are non Baganda and they all have tried to suppress Buganda’s prominence by creating laws that weaken it.
Unless the leadership of this country stops being envious of Buganda’s prominence and allows its rightful position in Uganda, Buganda will continue to believe that there is a deliberate intention to grab its land and render Baganda vagrants in their own homeland. Several years ago, a prominent leader in the present system of government was heard to have made an unfortunate statement that “Nammwe Abaganda mujja kusaka nga ffe bwetwakolonga.” Otherwise would the Banyankore or any other tribe be satisfied to have their land be administered by foreign tribes?
My heart bleeds to see that the supposedly intelligent Baganda have turned a deaf ear to the plight of their own people, sacrificed the dictates of their consciences and intellectual honesty and for selfish motives, have jumped into the bandwagon of the system that oppresses their own people. This indeed is a tragedy! In a land that was described as an island of civilisation and therefore inevitably made the centre of civilisation where all educational and social institutions continue to thrive, why has it become the battle ground for political power?
Why all the corruption, the atrocious acts like human sacrifice; why all the sorry situation our hospitals and roads are in and all other social institutions established for us by the colonialists, why in short, has Buganda lost her glory? Where has all her civility disappeared to ? Should we conclude with the ominous statement of William Shakespeare that the Tragedy of Administration is to put a small man in a large office because he soon reduces it to his own size? God forbid!
larrykanyike@hotmail.com
Awangaale nnyo Ayi Ssabasajja Kabaka!
August 26th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Awesome! Busagwa, your posting of Father Kanyike’s article is just awesome!
See, Father Kanyike touches base on an important factor that runs deep within the veins of the Baganda, namely that the Baganda’s love for their Kabaka, land and Kingdom cannot just be wished away or simply erased like what M7 and his so-called advisers or friends thought. Nada!! To the Baganda, the Kabaka is a demi-god, so to speak. No any other human in their social and political lives can match this love and reverence with him amongst the Baganda. That is why he is given so many titles of power and reverence: Maggulunnyondo, Baffe, Cucu, Lukomwanantawetwamuge, Nyanjatemanyirwa, etecetra. He is an awesome being. He is His Majesty! He is the man of all men! So, when individuals like Obote, Binaisa and M7 errously think that they can equate themselves to the level of the Kabaka, they are simply calling their bluff. It can’t just happen! It is like saying that I can love another person’s mother or father more than my own father! No way! Unless my father or mother has done something fundamentally wrong. Or unless I am insane!The Kabaka is the Baganda’s collective point of diginity, identity and inspiration the same way our own parents are to each and every one of us. And I want to believe the good Father that as long as Ugandan presidents do not calm to peace and terms with the Baganda’s Fountain of Honor(i.e. His Majesty the Kabaka), anything else they do is bound to fail. Balekere awo okuba abamalala! The Kabaka’s natural power is just awesome. It can even move mountains and shift rivers!
Awangaale nnyo Baffe Maggulunnyondo Kabaka Muwendi Mutebi II!