Ankole Kingdom

I met with an OB (old boy) today who went to Kabwohe Boys Primary school who is 70 now, I don’t want to do the math.  I was meeting with him to drum up a list of alumni for his sister school (Kabwohe Girls Primary – which used the same buildings where my university now stands) but it turns out he had already turned in a list so our meeting went on to other subjects.

We ended up talking about the Ugandan Kingdoms.

Of late the kingdom of Buganda has been causing headaches for the central government and the feud is taking up pages and pages of newspaper space.  Space that I think could be better used looking at the fact that this country is running out of anti-retrovirals because they can’t come up with 200,000 US dollars to improve their supply chain.

What I learned today was that the kingdoms in Uganda were abolished under the Obote I regime.  OB says that around Kabwohe there were people drinking and partying for days to celebrate this milestone.

President Museveni attempted to reinstate them back in 1993 (mainly to win votes with the central and powerful Bugandans) but on Dec 4^th many representatives from Ankole met him at his house with a long petition to avoid getting their kingdom back.  Among those in the group that went to visit Museveni was the actual past king of Ankole.  The man who had been dethroned back in the 60’s!  The President brought it to a vote that was clear in its decision.

Councilors from Mbarara District: 2 for, 1 abstain, 60 against.

Councilors from Bushenyi District: all against

Councilors from NtungamoDistrict : was new at the time and agreed to accept the decision of Mbarara and Bushenyi as their own.

There are some in Ankole who still wish to have a kingdom.  A recent poll taken by I don’t know who but quoted to me by many non-supporters resulted in 78% against having a kingdom.  The gentleman I met with today believes a handful of the hold outs may be of the same group that once held the position.

OB maintained that culture is only about a king.  It is about food, dance, literature, language, etc etc.  He maintains that the last kings added nothing to the Ankole culture but a bill for his own food, dance, etc etc.  If being a munyankole makes you susceptible to having "insults and criticisms hurled at us on account of our tribe orientation, which tribe is nearly non-existent!" then perhaps you should spend your money not on a king who will defend you but on cultural exchanges that lead to understanding and acceptance.  Who really wants to breed anger between goups?  I know, sad naive question.

It wasn’t just the two of us.  There was another older gentleman who didn’t speak much English and seemed to be there mainly as a chaperone smiled and nodded as the OB and I chatted away.  OB said that if I could speak Runyankore and asked the other gentleman about the kingdom he would look me squarely in the eye and say “the whole issue makes me want to barf.”  I have never wanted to speak Runyankore so badly.