The tale of Kigaanira's failed revolution
Aug 01, 2013
Kigaanira, a self-styled traditional prophet, gave a headache to the colonial masters when Kabaka Mutesa II was exiled. Popularly known as “Kibuuka Omumbale” after Buganda’s god of war, Kagaanira’s daring moves, many believe, contributed to the fight against colonialism.
Kigaanira, a self-styled traditional prophet, gave a headache to the colonial masters when Kabaka Mutesa II was exiled. Popularly known as “Kibuuka Omumbale” after Buganda’s god of war, Kagaanira’s daring moves, many believe, contributed to the fight against colonialism. Jeff Lule revisits this real life tale still revered at a shrine near Kampala
It is now 58 years since Kigaanira pitched camp at Mutundwe hill from where he launched his short-lived religious revolution. Mutundwe hill, located in Rubaga Division, Kigaga, Kisugula Zone, is also popularly known as akasozi ka Kigaanira (Kigaanira’s hill). It is just a 30-minute drive from the city, through Kajjansi or Nateete.
The hill stands at 4,312 feet with modern mansions below it. The house of former President of Uganda, Godfrey Binaisa and telecom masts can be seen at the top. The peak offers an outstanding view of Kampala city and other surrounding areas like Entebbe, Lake Victoria and Wakiso.
Kigaanira’s Shrine
The tree that Kigaanira used to climb to communicate to his followers is still here. The ground below the tree is covered with dry grass with several fireplaces around it. There are calabashes, spears and dry coffee seeds around the base. The fireplaces are named after ancient Ganda gods.
Two men play the game, Omweso, using neat depressions on a rock as the board and cowrie-shells and a few stones. The head of this shrine, Mohamed Musamya Kayizi, 55, says Kigaanira used to play omweso on this rock with his gods.
There is a rock that Kigaanira is believed to have used as his seat while meeting people. Several people sit by the different fireplaces puffing at pipes, but they scamper in different directions when I approach.
Kayizi says many people visit to ask for blessings from Kigaanira. Each fireplace serves a different purpose, depending on one’s needs.
Though he denies carrying out sacrifices, residents around the area say many people climb the hill with chickens and goats, which they slaughter at the tree.
“People bring meat and local brew after getting visions from Kigaanira’s spirit,” Kayizi says, adding that they are only required to bring a bundle of firewood for the fires and two sachets of coffee beans, which are sold nearby.
Kigaanira’s rise to fame
Kigaanira, whose real name was Matayo Sewanyana, was born in Kyamaganda village in Masaka district. He was raised in a Catholic family. His real date of birth is not known, and he is said to have dropped out of primary school. Kigaanira worked with an Indian transport company as a turn boy and later became a driver in the mid-1940s.
Mzee Benjamin Kizza Mpanga 93, a resident of Mutundwe, says Kigaanira purportedly got possessed by Buganda’s god of war, Kibuuka, while on duty in Mityana along Fort Portal road.
After being possessed, Kigaanira went to Kibuuka’s shrine in Mpigi district and started managing the shrine like a witchdoctor. Kigaanira gained prominence shortly after Kabaka Mutesa was forced into exile by then British Governor, Sir Andrew Cohen, after a disagreement in 1953. Mpanga says Kigaanira exploited the situation to gain fame.
“He relocated to Mutundwe hill from Mpigi shortly after the Kabaka was exiled. He claimed that he had been possessed by Kibuuka’s spirit to prepare for the return of the Kabaka and heal people.
He allegedly cured barrenness among women and gave out medicines to solve people’s problems. He used to climb a tree at the top of the hill and denounce the practices of the colonialists.
“Kigaanira told his followers that he had communicated with the Kabaka in London through his spirits and wrote letters to the Queen of England through his hollow stick.
He always looked serious and people were afraid of him. He wore a bark cloth mantle and held a long spear. He had dreadlocks and carried a snake around his neck,” Mpanga recalls.
Because of all these features and the situation at the time, Mpanga says many people from different parts of Buganda, both illiterate and literate, believed in Kigaanira and continued to gather at the hill to listen to him.
Mzee Mpanga says reasonable people did not believe what Kigaanira was saying, but still, many were curious. “He might have had some super-natural powers, but I think he was exaggerating,” he adds.
Kigaanira is said to have warned people against paying taxes to the British and attending churches and mosques, saying the gods were not happy.
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Kigaanira arrested
Mpanga says the British were soon alarmed by the numbers of people believing in Kigaanira’s powers and instructions sent him orders to disperse his crowds but he turned a deaf ear.
The police was then sent to disperse them and during the scuffle, the head of the Kabaka’s police, identified as Ssemanda, was killed. The colonial police, together with Kabaka’s police, later dispersed the crowd and arrested Kigaanira, who was hiding in his shrine.
Kezia Sembusi, 75, a longtime resident of the area, recalls the saga. She says on the day Kigaanira was arrested, she saw him in handcuffs. British policemen stopped in her compound as he tried to resist being taken. “He was demanding to be handcuffed with a white person which they refused,” she recalls.
Kigaanira’s trial in court went on for a year. The real killer was not identified, but Kigaanira was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for organising unlawful assembly which led to the murder of a police officer.
Robert Sewankambo who visits this hill often, says it was the second time Kigaanira was being imprisoned. “The first time he was imprisoned, he escaped from his cell,” he says.
A year following Kigaanira’s imprisonment, Mutesa returned to the country. When Mutesa became president after Uganda got her independence in 1962, Kigaanira’s supporters wrote to him seeking his release.
Mutesa wrote to Godfrey Binaisa the then attorney general, who studied Kigaanira’s files and later reduced the sentence to 13 years on grounds that Kigaanira was a disciplined prisoner.
Sewankambo says while still in prison, Kigaanira threatened to kill Binaisa for refusing to pardon him.
“He even sabotaged the construction of Binaisa’s house at the hill at the time, that’s why it was never completed,” he claims.
Kigaanira walks to his death
After his release, Kigaanira went back to Mutundwe and built a small house. His excited supporters gave him a 15 year-old-girl to marry, among other gifts, thanking him for ‘returning’ the Kabaka. Kigaanira told his followers that he would show more powers by walking on water like Jesus Christ. So he got his wife and a few followers onto a bus to Busabala on the shores of Lake Victoria.
“He took a boat far from the shores to an isolated rock in the water and got into the water which covered the lower part of his body,” Sewankambo narrates.
“Later, he returned to the rock to begin walking on the water as he had promised. However, he accidentally slipped and drowned. His body disappeared, but was later discovered with a tube around the waist. Many people suspect it was the tube he used to float halfway in water and pretended that he was walking,” he notes.
And thus, Kigaanira’s life ended, leaving only this shrine in Mutundwe to retell his marred legacy. His story did provide good fodder for colonial staff who have documented it in books and memoirs about the Uganda Protectorate.
Kigaanira loyalists playing Omweso on a rock