Kingdom of Rwenzururu
Encyclopedia
Rwenzururu is a region in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda
on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
, as well as an armed historical movement to achieve either autonomy or sovereignty for that region, and the name of a kingdom declared in that region. It includes the districts of Bundibugyo
, Kasese
and Ntoroko
.
The Rwenzururu region is inhabited by the Konjo
and Amba people
s. In the early 1900s, these two tribes were integrated into the Kingdom of Toro as a political maneuver by the British colonialists: the neighboring Bunyoro
monarchy was anti-colonialist (see 1907 Nyangire rebellion) and the British wished to strengthen the pro-British Toro. The Bakonjo and Baamba initially accepted being arbitrarily made subjects of the Toro monarch with resignation, but asked the Uganda Protectorate to provide them their own district
in the 1950s, separate from Toro District. The movement declared that they were not part of the Toro Kingdom on 30 June 1962, three months before national independence.
intervened against the separatists, doing such significant damage to the Rwenzururu that the movement was suppressed for some time. However, the movement achieved fame through a local folk epic.
The Rwenzururu gradually re-established itself in the collapse of the regime of Idi Amin
in 1979. As government soldiers retreated in the Uganda-Tanzania War
, the Rwenzururu looted the weapons and supplies left behind. Thus well-armed, the Rwenzururu was once again able to pose a serious threat to regional control from 1979 to 1982. However, in 1982, the administration of President Milton Obote
negotiated a settlement with the Rwenzururu leaders in which they agreed to abandon the goal of secession
in exchange for "a degree of local autonomy," the appointment of Bakonjo and Baamba to government administrative posts and economic benefits such as vehicles and educational scholarships to be distributed by local elders. During the negotiations, the government preferred direct talks, as they believed third-party mediation would give legitimacy to the Rwenzururu claim.
Amon Bazira
, had been a key person in the negotiations between the Rwenzururu and Obote government. His insight was that the Rwenzururu was a largely middle class
organization that could be placated with commercial prizes. He later approached President Mobutu Sese Seko
of Zaire
and President Daniel arap Moi
of Kenya, who both had grounds for disliking the new Ugandan government led by Yoweri Museveni
, for support for new Bakonjo rebellion under an organization called the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). Bazira was shot dead in the State House in Nakuru
, Kenya
in 1993, a probable target of Ugandan agents. In 1995, Sudan
ese agents engineered the merging of the remnants of NALU with the Uganda Muslim Liberation Army (UMLA) and the Baganda monarchist Allied Democratic Movement (ADM) in order to give these latter organizations a local constituency, creating the Allied Democratic Forces
.
found that 87% of the local population in Rwenzururu favored the creation of a kingdom. In 2005, President Yoweri Museveni
directed a ministerial committee headed by Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Public Service Henry Kajura
to investigate the Rwenzururu claim to a kingdom and issue a report of his findings. The report stated that over 80% of the Bakonjo and Baamba favored the creation of a kingdom with Charles Mumbere
as the Omusinga (King). It further found that there is no historical claim for a Rwenzururu kingdom or a group of people called Banyarwenzururu, but recommended that the government bow to the wishes of the people. Pursuant to the recommendations of the Kajura report, on 17 March 2008 the Ugandan Cabinet endorsed the Kingdom of Rwenzururu as a cultural institution. Three contenders for the throne criticized the government's recognition of Mumbere as Omusinga.
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, as well as an armed historical movement to achieve either autonomy or sovereignty for that region, and the name of a kingdom declared in that region. It includes the districts of Bundibugyo
Bundibugyo District
Bundibugyo District is a district in Western Uganda, bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Like other Ugandan districts, it is named after its 'chief town', Bundibugyo, where the district headquarters are located.-Location:...
, Kasese
Kasese District
Kasese District is a district in Western Uganda. Like most other Ugandan districts, it is named after its 'chief town', Kasese, where the district headquarters are located.-Location:Kasese District is located along the Equator...
and Ntoroko
Ntoroko District
Ntoroko District is a district in Western Uganda. The district is named after 'chief town', Ntoroko, where the district headquarters are located.-Location:...
.
Background
Konjo people
The Konjo , or Konzo, are a people located in the Rwenzori Mountains of southwest Uganda. Numbering 361,709 in the 1992 census, they live on the plains, hills and mountain slopes up to an altitude 2,200 meters...
and Amba people
Amba people
The Amba are a people located in border area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda south of Lake Albert in the northern foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains. On the Uganda side, they are found in Bundibugyo District. On the Congolese side, they are located in the Watalinga and Bawisa...
s. In the early 1900s, these two tribes were integrated into the Kingdom of Toro as a political maneuver by the British colonialists: the neighboring Bunyoro
Bunyoro
Bunyoro is a kingdom in Western Uganda. It was one of the most powerful kingdoms in East Africa from the 16th to the 19th century. It is ruled by the Omukama of Bunyoro...
monarchy was anti-colonialist (see 1907 Nyangire rebellion) and the British wished to strengthen the pro-British Toro. The Bakonjo and Baamba initially accepted being arbitrarily made subjects of the Toro monarch with resignation, but asked the Uganda Protectorate to provide them their own district
Districts of Uganda
Uganda is divided into 111 districts and one city across four administrative regions. Most districts are named after their main commercial and administrative towns....
in the 1950s, separate from Toro District. The movement declared that they were not part of the Toro Kingdom on 30 June 1962, three months before national independence.
Conflict and kingdom
After their request was denied by the colonial authorities, the Bakonjo and Baamba launched a low-intensity guerrilla war that continued through independence. The movement carrying out the armed struggle was named "Rwenzururu." While the movement began to achieve recognition as a separate district, it eventually became a movement to secede and form their own kingdom. The movement declared an independent Kingdom of Rwenzururu on 30 June 1963, three months before national independence, with Isaya Mukirania as king. The violence reached a height in 1963 and 1964, when Toro soldiers massacred many Konjo and Amba people as they sought to control the lower valleys. The Ugandan armyUganda People's Defence Force
The Uganda Peoples Defence Force , previously the National Resistance Army, is the armed forces of Uganda. The International Institute for Strategic Studies estimates the UPDF has a total strength of 40–45,000, and consists of land forces and an Air Wing.The IISS Military Balance 2007 says there...
intervened against the separatists, doing such significant damage to the Rwenzururu that the movement was suppressed for some time. However, the movement achieved fame through a local folk epic.
The Rwenzururu gradually re-established itself in the collapse of the regime of Idi Amin
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada was a military leader and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military...
in 1979. As government soldiers retreated in the Uganda-Tanzania War
Uganda-Tanzania War
The Uganda–Tanzania War was fought between Uganda and Tanzania in 1978–1979, and led to the overthrow of Idi Amin's regime...
, the Rwenzururu looted the weapons and supplies left behind. Thus well-armed, the Rwenzururu was once again able to pose a serious threat to regional control from 1979 to 1982. However, in 1982, the administration of President Milton Obote
Milton Obote
Apolo Milton Obote , Prime Minister of Uganda from 1962 to 1966 and President of Uganda from 1966 to 1971, then again from 1980 to 1985. He was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda towards independence from the British colonial administration in 1962.He was overthrown by Idi Amin in 1971, but...
negotiated a settlement with the Rwenzururu leaders in which they agreed to abandon the goal of secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
in exchange for "a degree of local autonomy," the appointment of Bakonjo and Baamba to government administrative posts and economic benefits such as vehicles and educational scholarships to be distributed by local elders. During the negotiations, the government preferred direct talks, as they believed third-party mediation would give legitimacy to the Rwenzururu claim.
Amon Bazira
Amon Bazira
Amon Bazira was a Pan-Africanist leader and organiser who created an extensive intelligence network that was a clandestine component of the struggle to end the regime of Ugandan military dictator and president, Idi Amin. After helping to remove Idi Amin, Bazira served as Deputy Director of...
, had been a key person in the negotiations between the Rwenzururu and Obote government. His insight was that the Rwenzururu was a largely middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
organization that could be placated with commercial prizes. He later approached President Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga , commonly known as Mobutu or Mobutu Sese Seko , born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, was the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997...
of Zaire
Zaire
The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...
and President Daniel arap Moi
Daniel arap Moi
Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was the President of Kenya from 1978 until 2002.Daniel arap Moi is popularly known to Kenyans as 'Nyayo', a Swahili word for 'footsteps'...
of Kenya, who both had grounds for disliking the new Ugandan government led by Yoweri Museveni
Yoweri Museveni
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is a Ugandan politician and statesman. He has been President of Uganda since 26 January 1986.Museveni was involved in the war that deposed Idi Amin Dada, ending his rule in 1979, and in the rebellion that subsequently led to the demise of the Milton Obote regime in 1985...
, for support for new Bakonjo rebellion under an organization called the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). Bazira was shot dead in the State House in Nakuru
Nakuru
Nakuru, the provincial capital of Kenya's Rift Valley province, with roughly 300,000 inhabitants, and currently the fourth largest urban centre in the country, lies about 1850 m above sea level...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
in 1993, a probable target of Ugandan agents. In 1995, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
ese agents engineered the merging of the remnants of NALU with the Uganda Muslim Liberation Army (UMLA) and the Baganda monarchist Allied Democratic Movement (ADM) in order to give these latter organizations a local constituency, creating the Allied Democratic Forces
Allied Democratic Forces
The Allied Democratic Forces is a rebel group opposed to the Ugandan government. It is based in western Uganda with rear bases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It began as a minor group in the forested Ruwenzori mountain range along the border in 1996, but expanded its activities over the...
.
Government recognition
A survey carried out by Makerere UniversityMakerere University
Makerere University , Uganda's largest and second-oldest higher institution of learning, , was first established as a technical school in 1922. In 1963 it became the University of East Africa, offering courses leading to general degrees from the University of London...
found that 87% of the local population in Rwenzururu favored the creation of a kingdom. In 2005, President Yoweri Museveni
Yoweri Museveni
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is a Ugandan politician and statesman. He has been President of Uganda since 26 January 1986.Museveni was involved in the war that deposed Idi Amin Dada, ending his rule in 1979, and in the rebellion that subsequently led to the demise of the Milton Obote regime in 1985...
directed a ministerial committee headed by Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Public Service Henry Kajura
Henry Kajura
Henry Kajura Muganwa, commonly known as Henry Kajura is a Ugandan administrator and politician. He is the Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Service in the Cabinet of Uganda. He is also an ex-officio Member of Parliament, on account of his cabinet appointment...
to investigate the Rwenzururu claim to a kingdom and issue a report of his findings. The report stated that over 80% of the Bakonjo and Baamba favored the creation of a kingdom with Charles Mumbere
Charles Mumbere
Charles Wesley Mumbere is the king of the African kingdom of Rwenzururu, which is part of Uganda.-Biography:Rwenzururu was established in the 1962 as the result of a secessionist movement by the Bakonjo people in the mountainous region of western Uganda. The revolt was led by Mumbere's father,...
as the Omusinga (King). It further found that there is no historical claim for a Rwenzururu kingdom or a group of people called Banyarwenzururu, but recommended that the government bow to the wishes of the people. Pursuant to the recommendations of the Kajura report, on 17 March 2008 the Ugandan Cabinet endorsed the Kingdom of Rwenzururu as a cultural institution. Three contenders for the throne criticized the government's recognition of Mumbere as Omusinga.
Further reading
- Arthur Syahuku-Muhindo, "The Rwenzururu Movement and the Democratic Struggle," in M. Mamdani and J. Oloka-OnyangoJoe Oloka-OnyangoJoe Oloka-Onyango is a Ugandan lawyer and academic. He is Professor of Law and Director of the Makerere University Human Rights and Peace Centre in Kampala, Uganda, as well as the former Dean of Makerere Law School...
, eds., Uganda: Studies in Living Conditions, Popular Movements and Constitutionalism (Vienna: JEP Books, 1994), 273-317.
External links
- Official Site
- "Uganda: Rwenzururu Wants Recognition - Mumbere", New VisionNew VisionNew Vision is one of two main national newspapers in Uganda.-History:It was established in its current form in 1986 by the Ugandan Government. New Vision is broadly sympathetic to the government of President Yoweri Museveni. It was founded in 1955 as the Uganda Argus, a British colonial government...
, 26 September 2007 (accessed 6 June 2009)