Www.WorldHistory.Biz
Login *:
Password *:
     Register

 

23-03-2015, 20:41

Mutesa (Kabaka) (1856-1884)

Buganda Monarch

Mutesa epitomizes the traditional Buganda monarchy. However, his reign and person also marked the passing of old monarchism and the coming and embracing of enlightenment in Buganda, as the kingdom faced a new world.

Mutesa succeeded Kabaka Suuna as king in 1856, after a marvelously staged maneuvering and jostling for the throne by the elitist oligarchy at court. Being an insignificant prince, and therefore the least expected to contest the throne, the chiefs and promoters of other more eligible princes were caught unawares, only to finally accepted Mutesa as king.

By this time, there were already many Arab traders in Buganda. Mutesa wanted Buganda to be the terminus of all trade, rather than a thoroughfare. He coveted the monopoly to redistribute trade goods, especially firearms, to his neighbors.

Mutesa spoke both Kiswahili and Arabic and could read and write Arabic. At the time of his death he could converse with missionaries in English and translate to his courtiers in Luganda. He adopted Islam, outwardly observing all its rituals, but refused to undergo circumcision. In 1867 he decreed the Islamic calendar as official in Buganda and demanded the use of Islamic etiquette at court. The presence of Arab slave hunters from Khartoum in neighboring Bunyoro became a potential threat to Buganda and of great concern to Mutesa. He was persuaded to back a losing Bunyoro prince, but his forces were badly repulsed by Kabarega. By 1871 Mutesa had a minimum of a thousand armed troops.

Mutesa was suspicious of the activities and motives of Richard Gordon, who was openly working for the khedive of Egypt, intending to extend the Egyptian Empire into the Lake Region. Under these circumstances, therefore, political alliance with Sayyid Bargash, sultan of Zanzibar, made good political sense. In 1874 Cahille Long got Mutesa to sign a document, the contents of which he did not understand, but which amounted to ceding his kingdom to the khedive of Egypt. In April 1875 Mutesa tactfully jointly received both Gordon’s agent, Ernest Linant, alias Abdul Aziz, and H. M. Stanley with the hope of playing them off one against another. In his dealings and discussion with both Stanley and Gordon’s agents, Mutesa constantly demanded that Bunyoro remain as a buffer zone between Buganda and Egyptian territory to the north.

The famous 1875 Daily Telegraph letter by Mutesa calling for missionaries to come to Uganda was a result of these politicoreligious discussions with Stanley. However, evidence clearly shows that Mutesa’s major concern was to have a group of European allies in his kingdom who would assist him when faced with the Egyptian (Gordon’s) expansionist threat. His accommodating attitude to, and encouragement of, subsequent missionary enterprise in Buganda was part of his defense policy.

In 1877 the Egyptian threat became real when Nuehr Aga arrived with troops in the Buganda capital at Rubaga to claim the kingdom for the khedive, on Gordon’s orders. Aga met very stiff resistance from Mutesa, and ended up as his captive. As a show of strength, Mutesa rounded up some seventy Muslims, who were executed publicly for Nuehr Agas benefit. However, Mutesa avoided open confrontation with Gordon who eventually sent Edward Schmitzler, alias Emin Pasha, to Rubaga to negotiate Nuehr Aga and his troops release by Mutesa.

The arrival of both the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the Roman Catholic White Fathers missionaries in Buganda in 1879 provided a good opportunity for Mutesa to revive his long-term objective of getting both arms assistance and political alliance with a superior European power against threats of Egyptian encroachment from the north. Mutesa quickly noted the denominational and personal differences between the missionaries and exploited these to the fullest in achieving his personal aims. While he maintained relations with the Zanzibari Arabs, whose trade offered him the only sure supply of goods and arms, he also feigned conversion to Christianity to get maximum benefit from all foreigners in his country. Mutesa derived great satisfaction in staging impromptu theological and political discussions at his court between Muslims, Protestant missionaries, and Catholic missionaries.

Dr. Kirk, the British resident representative in Zanzibar, had promised Mutesa British intervention to ensure Buganda’s independence in face of Egyptian aggression. Kirk’s friendly gesture inspired Mutesa to try to enter direct negotiation with the British government; he decided to send an embassy to England. Three emissaries of Mutesa were escorted to England by CMS missionaries and were received by Queen Victoria in 1879. They returned to Buganda in 1881 with presents and messages of good will from Queen Victoria to Mutesa, but with no practical proposal of a political alliance between the two kingdoms, which was a great disappointment to Mutesa.

When, after the rise of Mahdism in Sudan in 1880, Gordon finally withdrew the southern garrisons in the Somerset Nile region, the Egyptian threat, which Mutesa had persistently felt, dissipated, leading to a sudden and dramatic change in his attitude toward the Christian missionaries who had refused his constant appeals to engage in trade. Christian missionaries henceforth suffered great hardships, including physical attacks on their persons.

One can only but guess what Uganda would have been like today if Mutesa was not the kabaka of Buganda and the person that he was at the time of the arrival of missionaries and subsequent European contact and colonization of Uganda. Mutesa’s determined resistance to Egyptian domination saved Buganda from a possibly ravaging struggle for independence. Alternatively, Buganda could have become embroiled in the Mahdist upheavals with unpredictable consequence, as happened in the Sudan. Mutesa’s decisions to ally with Britain, as opposed to France, may have determined the relatively liberal and unrestrictive relationship Britain had with Buganda, and subsequently with colonial Uganda.

Mutesa passed his kingdom on intact to Kabaka Mwanga, his son. The Mutesa I Foundation was started to commemorate Mutesa’s achievements. The organization recognizes Ugandans who have made significant contributions to the development of their country.

David Kiyaga-Mulindwa

See also: Uganda: Early Nineteenth Century; Uganda: Mwanga and Buganda, 1880s.

Biography

Mutesa was born in 1856. He was one of the sons of Kabaka Suuna. Mutesa’s mother was sold into slavery by Suuna. She entrusted her son to another king’s wife, Muganzirwazza Nakkazi Muzimbo, who eventually became very dear to him. He was born as Mukabya, but later took on the names of Walugembe Mutesa. He took the throne in 1856. He died in 1884.

Further Reading

Ashe, R. P. Two Kings of Uganda. London: Frank Cass and Company, 1970.

Church Missionary Society. The Victoria Nyanza Mission Chwa II. Capt. H. H. D. Basekabaka Ababiri, W. M. Mutesa I ne D. Mwanga II Busega Mengo; G. W. Kabajeme 1922.

Grant, J. A. A Walk Across Africa. London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1878.

Gray, J. M. “Mutesa of Buganda.” The Uganda Journal. 1, no. 1 (1934): 22-50.

Kiwanuka, M. S. M. Mutesa of Uganda. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1967.

Speke, J. H. Journal of the Discovery of the Nile. London: W. M. Blackwood and Sons, 1863.

Stanely, Sir H. M. Through the Dark Continent. London: Sampson Low, Saston, Scarcrow and Relivton, 1878.



 

html-Link
BB-Link