Buganda Post has received a copy of what appears to be the draft program book for the Uganda North American Association (UNAA) convention (View Program Book here), which attempts to give the impression that the conference will focus on Buganda culture and royalty. It includes a total of 21 photographs, excluding those of the organizers, out of which 1 shows Katikkiro Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere, 2 include the keynote speakers, 2 are for articles and 16 (76 percent of the total pictures) cover members of the Buganda Royal Family. The well typeset document seems to contradict the traditional so called anti-sectarian rhetoric that characterizes UNAA programs. They also appear misplaced given UNAA’s reliance on Uganda government funding.

It is these contradictions that led Buganda Post to investigate the origins of the royal family pictures. What the Post has learnt is that the images showing Kabaka Mutebi, Ssekabaka Mutesa II, the late Prince George Mawanda, and other royals could only have gotten in the hands of UNAA organizers through theft. The photos in question are part of a library which belongs to one Muganda prince who lives in the northeast United States. And a source close to his family has, on condition of anonymity, informed Buganda Post that one Ms. Kironde previously borrowed those pictures on the pretext that she wanted to “show them to her friends”. According to our source members of the royal family in Uganda and in Boston have come to the conclusion that Ms. Kironde scanned and took the images to UNAA for unauthorized use.

The UNAA conference will take place on August 28 to September 1, 2008 in Florida, USA. Its published program from the conference website allocates on 2 hours to land issues, the only item which can be interpreted as important to Baganda. Buganda royal family and culture are not addressed at all. The strong emphasis on Buganda royal family in the program book is therefore a deliberate attempt to mislead naive or uniformed Baganda into thinking that UNAA has learnt to address Buganda interests.

(Download a pdf copy of the UNAA program book here.)