Chronology of BuSongora’s History
28,000 BCE - Climate deteriorated and the world entered the last major ice age. As a result of this, the Sahara desert reached up to the Ethiopian Highlands. Central Africa's mountain ranges - including the Rwenjura Range [Mountains of the Moon], heartland of Busongora - were covered by ice flow. The River Nile, North of Khartoum, disappeared.
20,000 BCE - As attested by the discovery of the Ishango Bone, the area that later became BuSongora was already – during the last Ice Age – home to a community that had sophisticated cosmological and scientific awareness.
13,000 BCE - Cattle were already domesticated in central and eastern Africa.
10,000 BCE - End of the Ice Age and dawn of the Holocene Era. The end of the Ice Age was marked by turbulent and extreme weather phenomenon, caused largely by Global Warming. Over the course of several centuries, the thawing ice released a lot of flood water and continuous rains which destroyed an advanced human civilization that had survived and thrived through the Ice Age. The climate also triggered mass extinctions. The only place that survived the Ice Age intact was the region of Central Africa. It had a civilization that was centred around the Mountains of the Moon.
Diodorus [90 BC - 30 BC] claims the central African African civilization became the source of the lost Ice Age culture for the rest of the communities outside Africa, which had become disorganized and culturally impoverished. Diodorus wrote that the Ethiopians (inclusive of all Africa, and not to be confused with the modern Republic of Ethiopia) sent out, under one Osiris [Warusiri in Rusongora], a great army, "with the intention of visiting all the inhabited earth and teaching the race of men how to cultivate ... for he (Osiris) supposed that if he made men give up their savagery and adopt a gentle manner of life he would receive immortal honors..." Diodosrus credited Osiris with having brought an end to canibalism.
In his Book III Diodorus wrote “They say also that the Egyptians are colonists sent out by the Ethiopians, Osiris [Warusiri] having been the leader of the colony. For, speaking generally, what is now Egypt, they maintain, was not land but sea when in the beginning the universe was being formed... And the larger part of the customs of the Egyptians are, they hold, Ethiopian, the colonists still preserving their ancient manners. For instance, the belief that their kings are gods, the very special attention which they pay to their burials, and many other matters of a similar nature are Ethiopian practices, while the shapes of their statues and the forms of their letters are Ethiopian; for of the two kinds of writing which the Egyptians have, that which is known as ‘popular’ (demotic) is learned by everyone, while that which is called ‘sacred’ is understood only by the priests of the Egyptians, who learn it from their fathers as one of the things which are not divulged, but among the Ethiopians everyone uses these forms of letters. ...Many other things are also told by them concerning their own antiquity and the colony which they sent out that became the Egyptians, but about this there is no special need of our writing anything.”
8000-2000 BCE - People from central Africa occupy the plains of north-western Africa.
6000 BCE - Africans settle in the islands of the Mediterranean and in Europe.
5500 BCE - By this time, impressive images of animals and humans are engraved and later painted on rock surfaces in the still temperate Sahara. The Large Wild Fauna style features hunting scenes with big game, including the giant buffalo. The Bovidian Pastoral style refers to images of domestic herds thought to have been drawn by early farmers. Tissili and Tibesti Massifs are major centres of African culture, to which communities across Africa trace origins. The harp is depicted in rock art of the Sahara dating back over 7,000 years ago.
5000 BCE – BuSongora suffers massive volcanic explosion craters and tectonic instability destroying life and causing massive inundation. A high civilization centred in Busongora is forced to abandon the region. Center of political organization in Africa moves northward to what is now the Sahara, and Central and Northern Sudan, and later on to Egypt.
4000 BCE - People in the Nile Valley were rearing cattle, goats and sheep. They also engaged in fishing and collected grasses. In 1909 the London Exploration Fund exhibited a chess board and its pieces that had been found in the 6000 year old grave of an African medicine man. The grave, found at El-Muhasna, near Abydos in Upper Egypt, contained a clay board of 3x6 squares and 11 conical pieces. The board, along with its pieces, can be seen at the Musée du Cinquantenaire in Brussels, Belgium.
4500-2500 BCE - Africa is dominated by the Bovidian (cattle herder) culture, which also produces fine pottery vessels that were typically round, with wavy line, combed or dotted decorations. The drying of the climate forces the herders to move out of the Sahara.
3800 BCE - Africa already under the rule of pharaohs established in Qustul, Sudan.
3400 BCE - Writing is already developed in Africa.
3300 BCE - Bone and ivory labels with writing on them are sealed in the tomb of the King Scorpion I, at Abydos in what is now Southern Egypt.
3310 BCE - Sorghum and millet were being cultivated in Africa.
3000 BCE - Rice was being cultivated in Africa. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since then dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa.
2500 BCE - The climate of the Sahara changes rapidly, as it dries up, nomadic herders turn to farming and start to settle in cities and towns across Africa. The international phenomenon known as the Beaker Culture begins to affect western North Africa. Named for the distinctively shaped ceramics found in graves, the Beaker culture is associated with the emergence of a warrior mentality. North African rock art of this period continues to depict animals but also places a new emphasis on the human figure, equipped with weapons and adornments. People from the Great Lakes region of Africa settle along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to become the Canaanites who dominated the lowlands between the Jordan river, the Mediterranean and the Sinai desert. The 20th Century’s leading mythographer and historian Robert Graves attributes the founding of the Canaanite and Mediterranean civilization to East Africans, and specifically to migrants from Western Uganda. Evidence of advanced manufacture and manipulation of glass across Africa.
2250-2050 BCE - Rise of Central/Southern African Kerma civilization in Kush and Egypt. The Kerma culture is centered around cattle rearing and refined pottery.
2300 BCE - Royal scribes in Egypt wrote that Egyptian civilization generally – and the founders of the various dynasties up to that time – came from the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon. They claimed the land was home to the god Hapi – the Egyptian and Kushite god of cattle and water – indicating that at that time and prior, intensive cattle-rearing was already established there.
1700 BCE - Egyptian inscriptions refer to a region in Africa named Punt whose exports include giraffe, apes, ostriches, lions, leopards, elephant tasks, gold and precious stones. The 20th century pan-Africanist and historian WEB du Bois writes that Punt was located in what is now the region of Uganda.
1570-1090 BCE - Kerma cattle culture begins gradual decline over the course of 500 years in Egypt and Kush, although it remains strong in the rest of Africa.
1550 BCE - Use across Africa of acacia gum which contains lactic acid, as a natural spermicide, for contraceptive purposes.
1473-1458 BCE - Reign of female Pharaoh Hatshepsut who builds temples in Upper Egypt and conducts trade and tribute exchanges with Punt in East Africa, and Ophir in Central and South Africa. The name “Ophir” is simply a Greek variant for “Afar”, the root for the name “Africa”.
450 BCE – Herodotus records claims by priests in Egypt that the Nile rose from two mountains in central Africa. Herodotus gave the names of the mountain ranges as Crophi and Mophi. The names refer to the Rutshuru and the Rwenjura [Rwenzori] ranges. Herodotus also notes that Meroe was Africa’s metropolitan centre, and makes descriptions of various representatives of people from all over Africa who had come to trade or to live in Meroe.
384–322 BCE - Aristotle writes about the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, and its effects on the Africa’s climate.
371-287 BCE - Theophrastus, a Greek native of Lesbos and a student of Aristotle and his successor as head of Aristotle’s school in Athens, also wrote confirming the existence of the Mountains of the Moon in the heart of Africa.
275–194 BCE - Eratosthenesˌ Greek scholar, geographer, and astronomer - famous for having made accurate calculations of the circumference of the Earth, wrote describing the location of the Mountains of the Moon in central Africa.
29 BCE - Augustus Caesar invades Africa after having defeated Cleopatra and captured in 31 BCE. One of the thrusts by the Roman forces entered as far as Lake Chad, and set up garrisons on what is now the border between Cameroon and Nigeria. The other Roman thrust went through Arabia and attempted to gain the shore of what is now Somalia. Another thrust led by the 3rd August Legion took control of Mauretania and the north-west coats of Africa. However, the main invasion forces of Rome tried to force their way up the Nile right through the main hub of the Kushite Empire. The war lasted 5 years. The Africans - under the command of the Empress [Kandake] Amanirena - defeated the Roman legions and halted their advance. Romans were thereafter confined to Egypt and the North African coast. Many of the troops that went to the battles in what later became Sudan were taken from all parts of Africa, including the Central African interior. It is also notable that the Kushites also used troops from China and India.
- [Transition from CE Common Era - also know as ‘AD’ Ano Domino] -
50 CE - Diogenes, a Greek trader reported that he had travelled inland and westward from Rhapta [probably Pemba]on the coast of East Africa for twenty-five days and had found the source of Nile. He reported that the Nile flowed from a group of massive mountains called the Mountains of the Moon, into a series of large lakes in the middle of Africa.
60 CE - The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written in Greek, describes navigation and trading opportunities from Egyptian ports along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along the coasts of East Africa and India.
70 CE - Flavius Josephus [ben Matthias] the famed Jewish commander and historian writes that all of Africa - including Egypt - was under the administrative control of the Kandake at Meroe. At the time the ruler of Africa was Kandake Amanikatashan.
150 CE - Ptolemy the Alexandrian Greek geographer at Alexandria records descriptions of the “Land of the Moon” in the African interior. Ptolemy referred to a snowcapped massif in the heart of Africa by the name of Selenes Oros, which was later Latinized as "Lunae Montes", and in English became “Mountains of the Moon.”
250 CE - Foundation of the Kingdom of Aksum, in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea (capital: Axum)
300 CE - Aksumite King Aphilas conquered Meroe but left the city standing, instead demanding they pay homage to Aksum. The military expedition sent by Aphilas marches into Central Africa and reaches what is now BuSongora and treks up to the snowline of Mount Rwenjura [Rwenzori]. Aphilas’ expedition recorded that the people at the base of the mountains claimed that they were independent and had never been conquered by outsiders. Aphilas becomes the ruler of all the territories conquered by his expeditions.
350 CE - Aksumite King Ezana, the first Christian monarch of the empire, led his troops north and demolished Meroe - causing the collapse of the Kushite Empire and emergence of X-Group Ballana and Tannqasi states in Sudan. The Tannqasi and Ballana states gave rise to the Nubian civilization.
495-570 CE - Olympiodorus the Younger, a Neoplatonist philosopher, astrologer and teacher who lived in Athens and Alexandria mentions the Mountains of the Moon - he also referred to them as the Silver Mountains - in the centre of Africa, as being responsible for condensing and compressing the clouds carried by north winds and so caused rain across Africa in the middle of the summer heat, whereas Europe remained dry in that time [July and August].
600 CE - BaSongora herders already living, and grazing cattle, in what is now Queen Elizabeth National Park in what is now the Republic of Uganda.
630 CE - Rise of the Shenzi Empire to the south of the Nubian Federation. BuSongora became an integral province of the Shenzi Empire until the close of the 1300s.
650 CE - Islamic tradition and the Koran describe the Mountains of the Moon in the vicinity of the source of the Nile. According to ancient Islamic sources, a king named Am Kaam is reputed to have ruled the region [Busongora] around and inclusive of the Mountains of the Moon early during the start of the Holocene Era. However, in the ancient Kushite language, the name “Am Kaam” literaly translates simply as "prince of the blacks".
652 CE - Rise of Islamic slave trade after the inconclusive Battle of Dongola between the armies of Caliph Omar and King Kalidurut of the Nubian confederation. The Baqt of 652 prevented the spread of Islam southward, in exchange for supply of slaves by the Nubians. The Nubians began by supplying people captured from the Shenzi Empire to the south.
969-1171 CE - The Fatimid, a sudanese dynasty, rule in Egypt; attack on Nubia by al-Umari. The Fatimid are a political and religious dynasty that dominated an empire in North Africa and subsequently in the Middle East and tried unsuccessfully to oust the Abbasid caliphs as leaders of the Islamic world. It took its name from Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, from whom the Fatimids claimed descent. The Fatimids became allies of the Shenzi, and helped the Shenzi to defeat Abbasid encroachments on Central and Eastern Africa.
969 AD - Nubian King George II reigns and invades Egypt.
1000 CE - Nilotic cattle pastoralists from southern and central Africa expand into southern Sudan and western Africa.
1071 - 1083 CE - The Sung Shi (History of the Sung Dynasty) records visits to China in 1071 CE and 1081-3 CE of the embassy of Zenjistan. Zenjistan is the Persian for "Land of the Shenzi", in Africa. The leader of the embassy - whose name is recorded in Chinese as Zengjiani - made a considerable impression at the imperial court (the Chinese called Africa "Zengdan"). On his 2nd visit, he received a large amount of "white gold" in exchange for tribute, and was given treatment due an honored guest. He is said to have taken 160 days to reach China, passing through Sohar in Oman, Kulam-Malay in South India and Palembang in Sumatra.
1090 CE - Founding of BuSongora Kingdom by Kogyere I Rusija-Miryango. Break up of the Shenzi Empire in the reign of Emperor Bukuku. The BuSongora region is already famous and prosperous because of pastoralism and salt trade. The Basongora will be increasing referred to as BaChwezi on account of breaking away from the Shenzi empire. The phrase Chwezi means “lord” or “ruler” and derives from the word “cwa” - to excommunicate, or to make decrees. Those who rebelled against the Shenzi Empire were royals and commanders - followers of Kogyere [Koogere, Kogelo] - who all became known as ba-Chwa, or as ba-Chwezi.
1160 CE - Mulindwa of BuSongora succeeds Ndahura I as ruler of the Chwezi-Shongora Empire/Dynasty.
1160s CE - The Al Adrisi map clearly depicts an accurate representation of Lake Victoria and attributes it as being the source of the River Nile.
1170 CE - Emperor Mulindwa of the Chwezi dynasty is assassinated at Bigo-bya-Mugyenyi by members of the baSingo clan. General Wamara avenges Mulindwa’s murder by going to war with the BaSingo and capturing Bigo-bya-Mugenyi. Wamara with the help of baSiita generals becomes emperor of the Chwezi Empire and excommunicates the BaSingo. Wamara’s reign was disrupted briefly by a claimant to the throne named Kyana who captured and had possession of the royal drums for a while before Wamara got them back. Kyana appears to have briefly ruled a portion of the empire, but Wamara regained the throne. Kyana was eventually confined to Karagwe, which he founded as an independent state. Karagwe was later conquered and entirely reabsorbed by Wamara. After Wamara’s death, his wife Nyabugondo became governor of Karagwe during the reign of Emperor Kyomya II. Karagwe’s independence was re-founded by Ruhinda a few generations later.
1190 CE - Expansion of the Chwezi Empire, under Mugarra I and Ndahura I of BuSongora. Ndahura of BuSongora tries to reverse the fortunes of the Shenzi Empire by conquering and reintegrating breakaway states. Ndahura becomes the most celebrated emperor of the Chwezi Dynasty. When Ndahura dies his body is buried at Irangara Island in BuSongora.
1200 CE - Kyoma II Rurema, son of Wamara and King of BuSongora, becomes Chwezi Emperor after demise of Wamara.
1210 CE - Kagoro, a muSongora general who had served both Wamara and Kyomya, becomes the last Chwezi Emperor.
1220 CE - Kagoro abdicates throne in disgust and is succeeded temporarily by a council of Siita Generals and Shyengya Priests, led by a pre-eminent muSongora seer name Kakara-ka-Shagama. Kakara-ka-Shagama had been born in what later became Igara when it was still part of BuSongora. The Shengya-Siita council eventually abdicates power in favour of Kamaranga Njunaki who becomes the last Empress of the Chwezi Empire. The empire disintegrated and contracted in size having lost much of it territorial domain under Njunaki. Njunaki’s “sons” founded new states. In the collapse of the Chwezi Empire, BuSongora lost its imperial domain but its core remained autonomous and its remaining territory included a large part of western Uganda, including the territories that later became the states of Buganda, Bunyoro, and Mpororo.
1390s CE - Massive drought strikes Africa devastating communities and the environment. Lakes dry up, including Lake Malawi and Chad.
1400s CE - Newly autonomous states arose in the African interior, and although they retained the same religious beliefs and style of government as the Shenzi, the new states lacked the far-ranging strength of the Shenzi Empire. The sophistication of the Shenzi ruins at Bigo-bya-Mugyenyi and other locations were to remain unsurpassed and unequalled by later states.
1430 CE - The Songora princess Wanyana married a Bito named Rukidi, but had twins with a different man - a fugitive Ganda prince - Kalemera. Rukidi rebels against BuSongora in protest and declares autonomy, founding the state Bunyoro out of BuSongora’s northern marches. Wanyana returns to her father’s palace with the two boys named Wasswa Kaganda and Kato Kimera.
1450 CE - BuSongora’s princess Wanyana and her son Kimera are invited to live in Buganda. Kimera become king in Buganda. Wanyana’s other son - Wasswa Kaganda - raided Bunyoro and took its royal drum to found the kingdom of Kiziba in what is now Tanzania.
1509 - Bartolome de Las Casas the Roman Catholic Bishop at Chiapas, proposes that each Spanish settler to America should bring a certain number of slaves. This proposal marks the start of the massive genocidal Transatlantic African slave trade. BuSongora become a major target for Arab slave raiders.
1518 - License to import 4,000 African slaves to Spanish American Colonies is granted to Lorens de Gominot. Slave trade become a massive source of political and economic instability in Central Africa. BuSongora sat astride the main trade route connecting Central Africa to West Africa and East Africa, and BaSongora increasingly came under pressure of the slave traders, who also traded in ivory and salt. BuSongora was a source of both salt and ivory, and had to confront the slave traders more frequently than any of the other states in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
1520 - the Biharwe Incident - an Eclipse of the Sun during a battle at Biharwe between the Banyoro and Banyankore
1526 - Leo Africanus writes about life and the economy in Africa at that time, stating “…more profit is made from the book trade than from any other line of business.”
1545 - The Spanish Council of Trent (1545-1563) is called by Pope Paul III, makes the use of saints names for Christian baptism mandatory. The Protestants resist this "saints" rule and instead baptise with names selected from the Old Testament Bible. The Council of Trent (published in 1563) required marriage be conducted in a church, by a priest, and before two witnesses to be valid and binding. These developments would eventually have a negative and genocidal effect on the Africans. Africans - including BaSongora - taken into slavery, as well as those who stayed home under colonial occupation, were required to go by “Christian Names“ and leave their own African names. Consequently its hard to track down relatives taken into slavery, and even within Africa many have adopted foreign names. Such kinds of outcomes, along with requirements for African children to attend Christian schools, are all part of the process of cultural genocide that has adversely impacted Busongora.
1580 - 1620 CE - Successive droughts and famines cover several decades and end with the Great Famine and cattle disease of the 1620s. Famines with widespread starvation generated mass migrations towards the main lakes and rivers, and the routes of the refugees from northern Uganda fled south towards Lake Victoria and the smaller lakes in the south-west. The period of drought and famines at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is known as Nyarubanga.
1680 CE - Kitami cya Nyawera rules as queen of BuSongora. At that time BuSongora consisted of territories that include what later became Mpororo, as well as Kitagwenda, Bunyaruguru, most of what became Nkore kingdom, as well as parts of what is now Buganda, Toro and Bunyoro. The regnal drums of BuSongora included Mugonzi and Mororwa. Kitami cya Nyawera was renown as an amazon whose divisions of royal body guards consisted almost exclusively of women.
1686 CE - Arabic manuscript written at this time quotes earlier text that says “Mohammed, the highest Prophet of God, says: “The Nile comes out of the Garden of paradise, and if you examine it when it comes out, you would find in it leaves of Paradise”.
1690 CE - A rebelling Rwandan prince named Murari escapes from Rwanda finds refuge in the court of Kitami and is reputed to have married the queen Kitami.
1725 CE - The Rwandan army under Kigeri III Ndabarasa [1708-1741] invades BuSongora and sacks Bunyampaka, capital of Bushongora [in what is now Queen Elizabeth National Park]. During the war with Rwanda, Kitami cya Nyawera dies of anaphylactic shock after being stung by a bee, and BaSongora royals are forced to withdraw from Mpororo. Mpororo breaks away from BuSongora and becomes an autonomous state under Murari [Kamali]. Murari’s father was Kinwa, son of Ntagu, son of Muzora, son of Karagaire, son of Kazi, son of Muntu. Murari was later succeeded by his son named Kahaya Rutindangyezi.
1746 - Malachy Postlewayt justfies Britain's participation in slave trade by showing how essential it is to Britain's economy: "The Negro-trade...and the natural consequences resuilting from it, may be justly esteemed an inexhaustible fund of wealth and naval power to this nation...What renders the Negroe-trade still more estimable and important, is, that near nine-tenth of those Negroes are paid for in Africa...We send no specie or bullion to pay for the products of Africa, but tis certain, we bring from thence very large quantities of gold; and not only that but wax and ivory...".
1752 CE - On the death of Kahaya, Mpororo breaks up into six states including Igara, Buwheju, Rukiga, Obwera, Kajara, Nshenyi. The royal drum Murorwa is hidden or destroyed by Kahaya.
1760-1820 - Drought, more severe than any since that time, devastates Africa. Massive crop failure, extremely dry conditions and massive social unrest - coupled with slavery - causes drastic depopulation and displacement. High solar radiation is thought to have been the cause of this drought, as well as of two prior droughts in 1390 and 1560.
1789 - Olauda Equiano, a freedman, publishes his biography in which he explains the profound differences between American slavery and "slavery" in Africa, in order to dispell the myth that American slavery was "normal" or familiar to Africans in their homeland. Equiano explained that unlike in America, African slaves were in fact convicted of some crime or had become prisoners of war, and slavery was punishment. Innocent people were not to be subjected to slavery. Moreover, African slaves were not required to work more than other members of the community, could not be beaten by their masters whim, and that their food clothing and lodging were indistinguishable from that of the master. In fact African slaves could own slaves, and African slavery was largely a distinction of social status demanding deferrence rather than one of economic exploitation entailing physical and verbal abuse as in America.
1798 - General Napoleon, invades Egypt and captures Cairo. An inscribed stone found by the French troops near Rosetta on the western mouth of the Nile in 1799, contained text is written in three scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. The stone was used 24 years later by Jean-François Champollion to decipher of the mysterious and previously incomprehensible hieroglyphs. The stone allowed for the interpretation of the early records of Egyptian civilization. Most notably the study of the Egyptian records revealed that ancient Egypt was an African civilization, and that many of its rulers had come from the African interiror - including from what is now BuSongora.
1805-1849 CE - Khedive Mehemet Ali, Albanian cavalry officer rules Egypt. The Khedive pursues a spirited policy of expansion into Central Africa, sending expeditions as far south as BuSongora. Khedives agents are led by Emin Pasha, Samuel Baker and others European colonial officers. Slaves captured from what is now West Nile and Southern Sudan are sold to Khedive’s officers and later are massively recruited into the King’s African Rifles. These former captives were later used to attack and occupy BuSongora.
1825s CE - Kyomya IV Bwachari becomes king of BuSongora. Kyomya IV is noted as the last great king of Busongora. Busongora under Kyomya had a powerful army and was feared by other regional powers.
1830 CE - With the help of Busongora, Bunyoro’s Prince Kaboyo declares independence and founds the state of Toro consisting of four ma’saza [counties] of Bunyoro that lay on the border between Bunyoro and BuSongora.
1832 - Edward Blyden is born, in the West Indies. He was educated in Liberia, became a Presbyterian minister, professor and statesman; Blyden became the foremost African intellectual of the 19th century. Robert July writes: “Only one man in 19th century Africa was able to see the [African] problem in its entirety and this man was Edward W. Blyden. It was Blyden who tried and succeeded in fashioning a total philosophy of Africanness which not only had great appeal for his contemporaries, but for future generations of Africans as well. It was Blyden who re-established the psychic and emotional sense of security of the African in the face of Europe’s intrusion with a brilliance that foreshadowed to a remarkable degree African thinking in the mid 20th century . . .”
1840s CE - BuSongora is invaded twice by Mutambuka the King of Nkore. As a condition of the peace agreement between Kyomya II of BuSongora and Mutambuka of Nkore, Princess Kibooga of Bushongora marries General Bacwa, son of King Mutambuka and crown prince of Nkore. Kibooga’s children with Bacwa include Rukamisa, Igumira, Ntare V, Bikwatsi, Rwakarombe and a daughter Magwende. Kibooga’s son Ntare V became king of Nkore after Mutambuka. Basongora royals - especially women who served as queens and wives of ranking officials - dominate the courts of the states of Maniema, Rwanda, Nkore, Bunyoro, Buganda and Toro.
1845 - In his biographic narrative, Frederick Douglass, an exceptionally talented orator and political organizer, definitively repudiates the bigoted thought that people of African descent are intellectually inferior to other humans.
1850s CE - Arab, Swahili and Maniema slave raiders start massive invasions of BuSongora. The new slave wars were a departure from the previous Arab and Maniema activities involving small parties of salt, metal and ivory buyers, and slave raiders on the periphery of BuSongora.
April 1859 - Work began on the Suez Canal. An indigenous revolt in the Egyptian Army in 1882 threatened British interests in the Suez Canal, causing the British to attack Alexandria then defeat the Egyptian Army at Tel-el-Kebir, reluctantly taking governmental control of Egypt. Disputes over the ownership of the Suez Canal would eventually compel Britain to colonize Egypt and the entire Nile Valley, including BuSongora. The forcible nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956 by Abdel Nasser would trigger the collapse of the British and French empires and cause the formal end of the European colonial occupation in Africa.
1860-1865 CE - U.S. Civil war creates demand for Egyptian cotton. The world demand for cotton also increased as prices went up, prompting the European powers to start creating cotton plantations in their colonies in Africa. By the mid-20th century Busongora would become the largest cotton producing region in Central Africa.
1860s CE - Buganda raids BaSongora for slaves. The Europeans who entered BuSongora noted the hostility with which the BaSongora met them, refusing even to give them basic geographical directions.
1862 CE - John Hanning Speke while visiting Central Africa, recorded the existence and extensive regional influence of the state of BuSongora to the west of Buganda.
1870s CE - The Shongora princess Kibooga emerges as the dominant leader in the civil war of Nkore, and installs her son Ntare as king of Nkore kingdom.
1875 CE – King Kabarega of Bunyoro begins invasions of BuSongora and attempts to take over the trade in salt, ivory and slaves. but is defeated repeatedly in battles at Kikorongo, Mweya and Kazinga, and finally at Rukooki [Majengo] where the Nyoro army was utterly routed. The battle at Kazinga came to be known as the “Rutaro rwa BaLebeki” [War of the LeBeki]. The BaSongora were led by the muSongora general named Ruhinda. The Banyoro were never able to conquer BuSongora. Henry Morton Stanley is received at Buganda’s court and shortly after writes a letter to the Daily telegraph in Britain appealing for Christian missionaries to come to Buganda.
1876 CE - Queen Kibooga of Nkore - orders the execution of three Toro princes shortly after they are exiled to Nkore by Kabarega's invasion of Toro and BuSongora. The princes Musuga and Kamurasi of Toro are executed, but the third - the infant Kasagama - escapes to Buganda with his mother Victoria Kahinju. By this time Kibooga's main palace is located at Byanamira, about 20 miles north of Biharwe. Kibooga’s son, the king Ntare V Rugingiza, 23rd Omukama of Nkore 1873/1895, married Gwenyonga, daughter of Omukamu Buremu II of BuSongora. Ntare also married Nyamucwangani, also a muSongora princess, and had issue.
1884 CE - The records of John Roscoe dating from 1884 attest to the existence of BuSongora.
Mid 1880s CE - The infamous Arab-African slave-hunter Kilongalonga invades BuSongora with a large army of Swahili, Maniema and Arabs to raid for slaves.
Nov. 15, 1884 - Feb. 26, 1885 - 12 European States and the USA divide Africa amongst themselves at the Berlin West Africa Conference. The Berlin West Africa Conference apportions out differents parts of Africa between European states, with requirement that the Europeans would make efforts to effectively occupy their assigned portions. In the agreement is a provision that requires Europeans to occupy the land they claim in Africa. The BWAC triggered a stampede as officers and explorers from Europe and America descended on Africa and tried to obtain treaties from African “chiefs” using unethical and often time brutal and genocidal methods to occupy and colonize Africa. Leading European states declare "protectorates" over all of Africa.
February 1885 - Opponents of imperialism began to openly challenge the prime minister in the British Parliament.
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February 1885 - Dec 1886 - European army officers, missionaries, government agents, and agents of trading companies obtain fraudulent treaties by force, and by deception from Africans. After buying out its French competitors, the NAC recieves royal charter and changes its name to the Royal Niger Company, becomes the first of the British chartered companies in Africa. These treaties are used to justify military occupation of Africa by the troops of states that are party to the Berlin West Africa Treaty. In 1886 Joseph Chamberlain, Conservative politician ends opposition to imperialism after visiting Egypt. In Oct. 1886 France and Britain settled East African land claims.
1886 - 1889 CE - Queen Kogyere III Ikamiro rules BuSongora. She was born in 1845 at Rwamushakara in BuSongora. Her father was named Rugaaju and her mother was called Kaikara. Her grandfather was Gen. Ruhinda, prince and commander of the armies of BuSongora, and a leader of the ba’LeBeki Clan.
1886 CE - Mwanga king of Buganda sends envoys to BuSongora’s Queen Kogyere III Ikamiro n order to obtain help in Buganda’s struggle against the European and Arab imperialists.
1888 CE - Roden Noel’s publications inform the British public there was a queen on throne of BuSongora, and that the Kabaka of Buganda had sent Christian envoys to BuSongora to obtain help.
1888 CE - Henry Morton Stanley passes through BuSongora and Nkore on his way to the East African coast with an expedition that had set out to "relieve" Emin Pasha in Sudan. In Nkore terrified residents relayed news of white men to Nkore’s Songora queen Kibooga, and to her son, Ntare, king of Nkore.
Henry Morton Stanley, later wrote a book purporting to predict that the “Negro’s domination by the rising Frank” would somehow constitute “the essence of human history.”
1890 CE - Ntare V of Nkore sends his army [specifically the Abatahunga Division [omutwe], led by commanders that include Irabira and Rugumayo] - to BuSongora to aid prince Kaihura [Queen Kibooga's brother] in quelling rebellion in BuSongora and Bunyaruguru. Nkore warriors raid parts of BuSongora during the expedition. Many Nkore warriors are killed in Bunyaruguru and BuSongora but Kaihura manages to maintain control and to emerge as the dominant royal prince and commander in Busongora.
1890 CE - The French conquer Segou in the Middle Niger Valley. Karl Peters, German explorer collected treaties around Lake Victoria. France recognizes British Protectorate over Zanzibar, and Britain recognizes French claims in Madagascar. IBEAC nearly bankrupt from failed plantation schemes. Frederick Lord Lugard arrived in Buganda to extend IBEAC influence, and starts making preparations to invade BuSongora. Anglo-German Colonial Agreement [a.k.a "The Heligoland Treaty"] recognized British claim in East Africa, and also recognized German Tanganyika. White settlers in a column of over 100 wagons arrives in Zimbabwe from the South to exercise mineral rights fraudulently obtained by Cecil Rhodes.
Mid 1890s CE - Outbreak of sleeping sickness in BuSongora - the outbreak of sleeping sickness claimed the lives of 250,000 BaSongora, accounting for about 70% of the total population of the community. Some historians blame Henry Morton Stanley as the cause of the epidermic on account of his expeditions movements across the Congo and Busongora. The epidermic had originated on the banks of the Senegal - triggered by harsh colonial conditions under the French in West Africa. The epidermic was brought t the Congo River Valley by Arab traders who crossed from West Africa. Stanley’s massive expedition connected at a critical juncture the affected regions in Congo and Busongora.
Mid 1891 CE – Prince Kuriafire rebels against Rwigi III and becomes king. However, shortly after other royals led by Prince Rutairuka rebel against Kuriafire. Kuriafire and Rutairuka serve briefly as joint co-rulers of BuSongora, but they lose control of three of BuSongora’s provinces which then proceed to breakaway from the rest of BuSongora, leaving the largest province of Kisaka-Makara [includes QENP-Virunga] as the centre as the remaining state, as well as the provinces of Buyondo [Cyambura-Kazinga] and Bunyaruguru. The seceding three states were Bugaya and Kiyanja, under the Babito and Bamaoli clans, and Kitagwenda under Rwigi III [as Regent] and the infant Buremu III as king-elect.
Aug. 1891 CE - Capt. Fredrick Lugard invades BuSongora in his efforts to establish control of the IBEAC over the salt mines at Katwe and tries to annex BuSongora as part of the hither-to defunct Toro kingdom. Lugard installs Kasagama - brother to Musuga and Kamurasi - as King of Toro. Toro had originally been founded in 1830 and had ceased to exist in 1873. The original Toro had included only a total of four counties “ama’saza”. BuSongora was not part of the Toro kingdom between it’s founding in 1830 and its demise in 1873. Lugard sought to incorporate BuSongora into Toro, on account of the fact that Katwe was the most important source of income in Central Africa at the time. The creation of Toro was encouraged by Apolo Kagwa and other rulers of Buganda, as a means to conquer BuSongora.
Early 1893 CE - Major Roderic “Roody” Owen - for whom the Owen Falls Dam on the Nile is named - arrived in BuSongora after several failed attempts to forcibly incorporate BuSongora into a new confederacy with Toro, in which Kasagama would be the "primus inter pares". The BaSongora chiefs and the rival princes and their representatives all came to the negotiations, and they all collectively refused to accept Toro suzerainty. They also turned down Commissioner Henry Colville’s suggestion to create a federation with Toro and Bunyoro. The BaSongora informed the colonial officers including Owen, that whereas they acknowledged that the Batoro were their brothers, they would not accept the overlordship of Toro or Kasagama. However, the BaSongora told Major Roderic Owen that they were willing to negotiate protectorate status with BuSongora as an autonomous state under the British Empire. Owen’s negotiations with the BaSongora brought a temporary end to the encroachment by Toro as Owen was the commander responsible for creating the garrisons along the cordon between Lake George and Lake Albert. Owen and Kasagama then left BuSongora and went north to Toro proper, which at that time consisted of four Sazas, none of which were in BuSongora.
July 1893 CE - the commander of the British forces in BuSongora, Major “Roddy” Owen, was forced by multiple threats - including resistance by BaSongora and a Muslim rebellion in Buganda - to abandon the British outposts in Toro and retreat through Nkore to Buganda. Owen's withdrawal left Kasagama of Toro free and in charge for the first time. Kasagama’s first act was to immediately organize an invasion against BuSongora. However, at the time of Toro’s invasion, BuSongora was also under attack simultaneously by Bunyoro, and by the Maniema. Victoria Kihunju, mother of Toro’s King Kasagama, was leading Toro’s army in the invasion. All three forces: BaNyoro, BaToro and the Maniema, were repulsed by the BaSongora. Toro’s army was forced to seek refuge in the Rwenjura Mountains.
1895 CE - Ntare V of Nkore dies in the same year as his mother Kibooga, and is succeeded by Kahaya Sulaiman [Solomon] - son of Igumira and grandson of BuSongora’s princess Kibooga.
1900 CE – With orders from Commissioner Colville to “Drive BaSongora to the wall”, Capt. MacAllister who was in charge of Nkore, conducts a massive military expedition against BuSongora – taking action against 11 chiefs of BuSongora, burning several villages, massacring hundreds of BaSongora, and killing Dari, a leading muSongora general.
1907 CE - King Kasigano of BuSongora is arrested and interned at Sheema. Bunyaruguru - part of BuSongora for hundreds of years - is made part of kingdom of Ankole as a result of the British-Nkore Agreement. Bugaya and Kiyanja end up as part of the Congo Free State when the British and Belgians draw the international frontier. Kitagwenda is absorbed by Toro with some difficulty. The Toro kingdom sought to defuse Kitagwenda’s refusal to be part of Toro by making the infant Bulemu III the ruler of Kitagwenda under the regency of the aged Rwigi III. Eventiually both Rwigi III and Bulemu III rebelled against Toro. A colonial Toro/British government policy later settled Kitagwenda with a large influx of people from Kabale and other parts of Uganda.
Early 1910s CE - The colonial government evacuated all the people from the area around the shores of lakes George and Edward and along Kazinga Channel, to the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains. The ostensible reason for the evacuation was to end the epidermic of sleeping-sickness. Some historians say this was done to punish the BaSongora. Many BaSongora migrated to other parts of Uganda such as Ankole, Bunyoro and Buganda. Others joined their kin in the Congo. Some remained on the periphery of the Bunyampaka [Queen Elizabeth National Park] around Nyakatonzi and Bukangara, while others turned to fishing. The fishing villages such as Kahendero, Hamukungu, Katunguru [Kantunguru] and Katwe, which accommodated the pastoralists-turned-fishermen, were also swallowed up by the park boundaries when it was formalized in 1952.
1914 - 1919- Outbreak of World War I. BaSongora men are forcibly conscripted into the British army and sent to do battle against the Germans.
1920s CE - After the out-break of sleeping sickness and rinderpest in BuSongora, the BaSongora population and that of their herds of cattle were greatly diminished. The BaSongora became a minority in their own homeland.
1931 CE - There was another outbreak of rinderpest that decimated the cattle population of the Nyakatonzi BaSongora, again forcing them to disperse to other areas of Uganda and the eastern DRC. BaSongora believe the outbreak began as a result of a vaccination program started by the colonial govt. The biggest group that fled to the DRC did not return to the area until 1964 due to the strife caused by the Mulele rebellion in the DRC.
1939 - 1945 - Outbreak of World War II. BaSongora men are forced to join the British army and sent to do battle against the Germans and Italians. Many BaSongora did not return home from the war.
1940s CE - The colonial government introduces cotton growing in the region. By coincidence, the best soil and suitable climate for cotton growing was Nyakatonzi and other plains of the current BuSongora County in Kasese.
1950s CE - BaSongora communally-owned grazing lands were gazetted as Queen Elizabeth National Park by the colonial administration in the 1950s. The BaSongora are evicted upon its creation in 1954. This left only limited lands for the pastoral BaSongora. Although some remained in the park – albeit illegally, according to the Ugandan government – others moved across the border with their herds into the Virunga National Park in the DRC, in search of pasture.
1950s-1970s CE - Insecurity in the region drove other ethnic groups – particularly the Bakonjo – from the high lands to the low lands. This has also increased pressure for land, and led to tribal clashes in BuSongora. By the 1962, the Rwenzururu Freedom Movement had displaced a lot of the population from the mountains, forcing them to settle in parts of the rift valley.
1962 CE - Some BaSongora started returning to their original areas only to find that the Toro (kingdom) Development Company (TDC) that wound up in 1970, had leased some of their land which today has projects such as the Mubuku Irrigation Scheme. Later Idi Amin gave some of the land back to the district. By the 1962 independence time, the Rwenzururu Freedom Movement had displaced a lot of the population from the mountains, forcing them to settle in parts of the rift valley.
1970s CE - When the cotton industry plummeted in the 1970s, the BaKonzo lost interest in cotton, thus enabling the BaSongora pastoralists a chance to return to their former grazing ranges on the same vast plains. But the freedom was short-lived. Cotton production resumed between 1987 and 1989.
1980s CE - The BaSongora made futile efforts to regain their Nyakatonzi pastureland. To advance their claims, they formed the BaSongora Natives United Association through which they started applying to lease this land. Interestingly, fresh private applicants were in the 1980s easily offered land leases in the same area the BaSongora had applied for before.
1981 – 1985 CE - Amon Bazira, a muSongora serving as State Minister for Lands and as a member of the Parliament of Uganda – takes the initiative to promote rezoning of parts of the park – notably Busunga – in order to resettle people there. Bore-holes and other amenities to assist herders are introduced into the areas surrounding the park.
1982 CE - The Rwenzururu war ended in August 1982, largely due to the peace initiatives of Amon Bazira. He had started negotiations to end the Rwenzururu war while serving as Director of Uganda’s Intelligence in 1980. The end of the Rwenzururu war also increased pressure for land, and led to clashes initially between the BaSongora and Batoro, and later between the BaSongora and Bakonjo.
1989 to 1993 CE - the NALU-NRA war forced many people to flee from the mountains. To prevent the youth, most of whom were idle, from being recruited in the NALU rebel ranks, the Kasese leadership decided to engage them in productive work. The youth were allocated about 750 acres for cotton production, including big chunks of the previously BaSongora-owned Rwehingo. This was done to displace the BaSongora. They gave the youth land in Bukangara, Rwehingo and Bwanika, where BaSongora normally grazed our cattle. However, Bukonzo MP Bihande Bwambale says nobody lost land because when Rwehingo was taken for cotton growing, the BaSongora were compensated with Busunga Parish in Lake Katwe sub-county.
1991 CE - Massacres and genocide of BaSongora begin in the Congo. Amon Bazira intervenes to represent BaSongora’s grievances to Congo’s president Mobutu Sese Seko and arranges a halt to the violence.
1995 CE – New constititution os promulgated in Uganda and includes BaSongora as a recognized indigenous cultural/ethnic community traditionally resident in Uganda.
July 1, 2005 CE - a bloody conflict between the cattle keepers and the cultivators in Kayanja II and Bigando villages, Kichwamba sub-counties, left about 20 head of cattle and a dog killed. Residents in the area clashed over ownership and boundaries of some of the 2,000 acres of land which the Government recently degazetted from Hima Army Farm.
2005 – Only 13 registered leased properties existed in Kasese district at the time.
March 2006 CE - BaSongora in Virunga were evicted. They returned to Uganda. UWA says those who returned were less than 1,000 people with less than 10,000 cattle. Some of the returnees drove their herds into Queen Elizabeth National Park where UWA gave them temporary grazing land on the western side of River Nyamugasani as they awaited relocation to Ibuga refugee resettlement scheme. A report by veterinarians and lecturers at the country's main Makerere University found that the number of lions, leopards and hyenas had plummeted since the tribesmen entered the park in March 2006. The park's lion population had slipped from 94 in 1999 to 39 in 2006. The report estimated it would take 20 years to undo the damage done over the past 15 months. Over 80% of the hyenas had been killed and all leopards along the Nyamusagani River had been poisoned. The BaSongora herdsmen vehemently deny poisoning the cats. "These are false allegations," said Wilson Okaali, chairperson of the BaSongora Group for Justice and Human Rights.
August 2006 CE - President Yoweri Museveni set up an inter-ministerial committee headed by the agriculture minister, Hillary Onek, to find a permanent solution to the BaSongora issue. But the BaSongora spread to other areas within the park and resisted attempts to confine them to the allocated area.
2007 CE - Wildlife officials once again tried to evict BaSongora from the park. But after claims that excessive force was being used, the government eventually offered the BaSongora alternative land outside the park. It also stated that it recognised that it had an obligation to address the historical injustices and post-independence marginalization of the BaSongora. However this settlement has also proved problematic: there were reports of the forcible removal of small-scale farmers to make way for the BaSongora. BaSongora claim the land given to them has been insufficient, and that they are living in 'deplorable' conditions.
May 2007 CE - An outbreak of foot and mouth disease hit the cattle in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Fearing the disease would spread out to the wildlife, Uganda Wildlife Authority, in consultation with the agriculture ministry and Kasese District leaders, decided to relocate the BaSongora herdsmen to an isolated area. A fracas ensued as the pastoralists resisted.
June 2007 CE - President Museveni ordered the BaSongora to quit the Queen Elizabeth Park. Some government land in Kasese and Kabarole districts had been proposed for their resettlement. But the BaSongora vowed not to leave the park until the government had met their conditions.
2010 CE - Beginning on May 26, some 50 huts belonging to BaSongora were destroyed in the QENP by rangers.
12 May 2012 - the BaSongora elders meet at kabirizi on the banks of the River Nyamugasani and reconstitute the ancient Council of Accession [Abashoganisa] and the Council members vote to restore Busongora Kingdom and also install Rwigi IV Bwebale Rutakirwa as the king of BuSongora, thus re-establishing a centuries-old tradition of cultural unity.
1 July 2012 - public coronation at Muhokya of Rwigi IV Bwebale Rutakirwa as the king of BuSongora.
11 July 2012 - Raid of BuSongora’s King Rwigi IV’s residence at Muhokya by Rwenzururu militants results in the desecration of the BuSongora regnal drum Bakyengana, and the loss of a flag and some money and documents belonging to the king. Bakyengana has since been replaced.
22 July 2012 - Raid by Rwenzururu on police post responsible for the security of king Rwigi IV at Muhokya is repulsed by police. The Rwenzururu were attempting to raise their flag at the police police. The police responded by beating them with sticks and expelling them from the police precinct. The Rwenzururu made threats and promised to return in force.
27 July 2012 - About 60 Rwenzururu militants carry out an intense and highly co-ordinated dawn attack on Muhokya directed at the King Rwigi IV of BuSongora. The armed attack involved an exchange of gunfire, and close contact body combat [using blades and improvised weapons] lasting over an hour. The attack resulted in the deaths of 2 police officers and 3 of the Rwenzururu attackers, with several persons injured.
Aug. 2013 – the petrochemical multinational corporation SOCO insists on pursing a program of exploration for oil in Park National de Virunga, prompting resistance by BaSongora, and by international NGOs and civil society groups, worried about the potential environmental and ecological impacts of oil drilling in the park and in Lake Rueru [L.Edward]. The UNESCO includes BaSongora in its annual inventory of the most endangered and marginalized cultural communities.
Sept. 2013 - President Museveni visits Kasese district twice in one month and cautions Rwenzururu leaders against carrying out acts of repression against other cultural communities, notably the BaSongora and the Bamba.
Nov. 2013 - Cabinet of BuSongora Kingdom designates Ikamiro Hall located at Rukooki-Kiharara as an official royal palace and provisional administrative centre of BuSongora Kingdom.
07 Dec. 2013 - The Rwenzururu king Mumbere returns from a trip to Germany and attempts to hold a rally near the royal residence of BuSongora’s King Rwigi IV. Uganda Police scuttle the rally and prohibit attempts by Mumbere to hold a function in Muhokya or in other places in BuSongora. The king of Rwenzururu is escorted to his residence in Kasese city, and later collapses at Kasese city’s Rwenzori Square after denying responsibility for the land-grabbing and attacks against BaSongora. He is hospitalized for two days at the Kilembe Mines Hospital.
June 2014 - SOCO International withdraws from Virunga and signs agreement with UNESCO not to undertake any more exploration or drilling in Virunga, after protests by Busongora Kingdom and environmentalists around the world.
July 5 2014 - Rwenzururu supporters mount simultaneous attacks across three districts in the Rwenzori region that claimed the lives of 11 BaSongora, 5 UPDF troopers, and 12 police officers. The army in Bundibugyo manages to shoot a large number of Rwenzururu attackers - estimates put the dead attackers at about 50 killed by the army. Other attackers in Bundibugyo are lynched by Bamba crowds. The death toll - including both victims and attackers - at about 93. In the days following the attacks over 130 Konzo persons were arrested and charged with crimes to be tried by Military Court Martial. Several members of the cabinet of the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu - including the Prime Minister, deputy prime ministers and other ranking officials - were arraigned before the court martial. Two cabinet ministers who had escaped arrest went on radio and confessed to having participated in mobilizing the attacks - they also expressed remorse for their involvement.
April 28 2015 - King Rwigi IV Bwebale Rutakirwa dies while under treatment for cancer at Kadic Hospital in Kampala. His body is returned to Busongora the next day.
April 29 2015 - Imara Kashagama is designated as King by the Council of Accession [Abashoganisa].
April 30 2015 - The Council of Accessions [Abashoganisa] halts Imara’s installation as king at the request of Imara Kashagama in response to protest by Elphaz Rutahaba, a member of the Council of Elders [Abajwarakondo]. Imara asks the Council of Accession to review and address rutahaba’s concerns before proceeding. The Council of Accession sits for most of the day and decides to investigate claims that Rwigi IV may have left a written will regarding a successor to throne. When no will is found, the Council resolves to ask Rwigi IV’s eldest son - Apollo Rubyahi - if he knows of such a will. The Council notes however, that regardless of the wishes of the last king, the Council has a final say as to who gets to serve as king. However, the Council is obligated to hear the wishes of the past king as he was a member of the Council of Accession. The Council passes a resolution to meet Apollo and explains terms of kingship if there is no will, and that if Apollo agrees to the terms of service he would be made king, but that if he is unable to satisfy the terms then Imara Kashagama would remain king. The resolution regarding Apollo was in violation of the ethos and conventions of prior resolutions not to allow persons who were not involved in kingdom affairs to be considered for the throne, as well as in violation of the earlier decision to install Imara Kashagama. The indecisiveness and conditions set by the Council on the advice of Rutahaba and elder James Bwebale seemed designed to create conflict, and may have been the result of poor deliberation skills on the part of some members.
The council meeting adjourned about 3 pm, after sending for Apollo who was present in the city of Kasese only minutes away. The Council members and other elders retired to their homes in the night without having met Apollo to discuss terms. Apollo arrived at Muhokya at mid-night. The only member of the Council of Accession present to brief him was Imara Kashagama - whose briefing was delivered in front of witnesses. Imara asked Apollo to meet with the elders at dawn at 6 am, before the burial of his father in order to discuss terms, and explained that if Apollo agreed to the conditions he would become king at dawn and he would leave, as the king is not allowed to take part in a funeral. Imara explained to Apollo that if he declined or was uncommitted then Imara would remain king. A few hours later - at 3 am - Apollo and his friends left to return to have drinks in Kasese.
May 1 2015 - At dawn the council members returned to continue deliberations but Apollo did not return to meet them. As the hours progressed arguments broke out after police intelligence informed the Council members that some of the elders had protested Imara’s appointment in order to go crown other individuals who were opposed to the creation of the kingdom in the first place. Several princes from the families of several former kings including Kasigano, Kikamba, Rutairuka, Njuganja, Rwigi IV, all presented themselves to the Council members and heated discussions followed. Imara sent messengers to kasese city to look for Apollo who’s phone was turned off. At 1:30 pm, the Council resolved to uphold their decisions of the prior meeting, and also that they would install imara if Apollo did not return. However, they didn’t specify a deadline - and it was presumed that since the funeral was already in progress, the installation of Imara would take place afterward. Imara - in protest of the Council decision to review his own installation in order to wait for a stranger to the kingdom - declined throne but promised to work for the kingdom regardless of whoever else became king.
Apollo did not return until 2 pm during the funeral service. Imara Kashagama and Allan Kyomya together left the funeral service to go look for Apollo Rubyahi in order to avert a disaster. The police had informed the council that if the installation of the new king didn’t take place that day, security would become tenuous and it might become impossible to install a king later. Imara stopped stopped a car on the road that he thought might be Apollos but it turned out to be the wrong car. Allan identified the correct car and they flagged it down. Apollo exited the car and both Imara briefed Apollo as they walked him back to the funeral service. As there was no more time left to discuss terms or to induct Apollo into the kingdom affairs, Imara gave up his seat at the funeral service and provided a list of regnal names for Apollo to choose from, and then went around the crowded place corralling the Council and community elders members so they could form the Accession Procession and install Apollo. Imara then went to microphones and halted the funeral service, and then began the Accession service for Apollo - which includes a reading out of the names of all successive past kings and queens of Busongora, and the major events in Busongora’s history. The names and history were read by Imara Kashagama. As king elect and a meber of the Council of Accession, Imara then led Apollo from his seat and brought him to sit down in the middle of the public, as the Hon. Sam Ntungwa announced Apollo’s new regnal name Kyomya V and declared him to be king of Busongora. Imara removed his own shuka [cloth covering the shoulders and torso] and dressed Apollo with it. Imara also took a mwigo [grazing staff] and handed it Apollo, as completion of the ceremony. The crowds cheered as Imara then led Kyomya V away to an undisclosed location as tradition demands.
15 Oct 2015 - The Council of Accession at a meeting at Muhokya resolves to review that status of Kyomya’s kingship after Kyomya V failed to return to Busongora or to respond appropriately to the communities demands since his coronation on 7 May 2015 at Muhokya. The meetings noted that Kyomya V ignored multiple summons to Busongora despite having promised to return, and that he declined to communicate formally or to explain his absence and lack of co-operation to the cabinet and elders. The meeting notes that claims that Apollo is waiting for the president to “crown” him, or that he is too busy to return to Busongora until after elections, are confusing as they don’t explain his absence. Members present point out the Busongora Kingdoms constitution stipulates that is a king is missing for 2 [two] months they are presumed to have resigned, and so technically Kyomya V ceased to be the king of Busongora on 7 July 2015. Moreover, the Uganda constitution prohibits that cultural leaders and employees of kingdoms from serving in government or political parties, thus exempting anyone serving as a resident district commissioner from serving as king of Busongora.
During the meeting Imara Kashagama is informed that Apollo has claimed that he did not receive a letter that the Council of Accession jointly with the Council of Elders and the Cabinet had Imara deliver to Apollo recalling Apollo as a final warning, and this after even an earlier meeting between Imara and Apollo in which the elders had tasked Imara to inform Apollo of the urgent need to comply with the requirements of the Constitution of Uganda and the Constitution of the Busongora Kingdom in regard to the office of King. Imara affirms that Kyomya V Apollo Bwebale Rubyahi received the council letter from Imara at a brief meeting with Apollo at Nando’s in Kampala, and expressed shock that the Kyomya V could have denied receipt of the letter. In protest of the king’s conduct and the conduct of the accusations of the elders, Imara confirmed his earlier resignation from the cabinet and also threatened to resign from the kingdom entirely if the king and elders continued to display dishonest habits.
28 Nov 2015 - A meeting called by the prophetess of Busongora Glady’s Ikurato at Kabirizi and attended by representatives of the Council of Accession, the Council of Elders and the family of Kyomya V, resolved to appoint Imara kashagama as king and caretaker of the kingdom with full powers of king until further notice. The meeting also resolved that they would review the matter of the kingship if and when necessary. Kennedy Bwebale was disqualified from consideration of the kingship over concerns of excessive alcohol consumption, and Robert Bwebale [who was not present] was disqualified on account of his poor and rude conduct towards the elders. Kennedy Bwebale then demanded that a committee of regents be appointed with powers equal to those of the new king Imara Kashagama - all the others at the meeting declined, even after persons interested in serving on such a committee had been named. Imara protested the creation of such a committee as unnecessary as regents are only useful if a king is missing, or if the monarch is an infant, but as neither condition held true for Busongora.
30 Nov 2015 - At a press conference at Muhokya, Imara Kashagama announced the resolutions of the 28 Nov 2015 Kabirizi meeting - and in assuming full powers as required announced the regnal name of Ndahura II, as well as the programs and projects he was going to pursue, in order to resolve the problems the kingdom was facing as a result of disorder in the kingdom.
Dec 2015 - King Ndahura II visits Basongora in Bulemezi region in Uganda, and conducts lectures and discussions on the culture an history of Busongora Kingdom, as well as fund-raising for the kingdom. The kind Ndahura II also attends working meetings of the Specialized Technical Committee responsible for drafting the Code of Ethical Conduct for Cultural Institutions in Uganda. The technical committee - on which ndahura II is a member - is also drafting the proposals for the formation of the National Assembly of Cultural Communities in Uganda. The committee was responsible for the drafting, publication and launching of the Statement of Cultural Institutions 2015-2021. The Statement was ratified by 27 cultural institutions in Uganda.