The hood - Banda

Kampala is pretty big and it has quite an amazing ensemble of hills and neighbourhoods that make it.

Banda is one of them and it is important we look at what makes it what it is. I bet you didn’t know all of what I am about to write up here.

Location

Banda is a hill that lies in Nakawa Division, within Kampala, the capital of Uganda, the third-largest economy in the East African Community.

Banda also refers to the neighborhoods on the slopes between Banda Hill and Kireka, extending all the way to the Kampala-Jinja Highway.

Banda is made up of 11 zones demarcated as B1 to B11. It attracts large crowds of people because it is in the vicinity of Kyambogo Univeristy.

Most of these are university students who seek accommodation in the area. As a matter of fact, business is always at an almost stand still when the students break off for holidays.

Banda is bordered by Kiwaatule to the north, Kireka to the east, Kinnawattaka to the southeast, Mbuya to the south, Nakawa to the southwest, Ntinda to the west and northwest.

The location of the hill is approximately 11 kilometres (6.8 miles), by road, east of Kampala's central business district.

 

Front-view of Kyambogo University Administration block 

The History

The full name of Banda is Bandabalogo.

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, Kabaka Muteesa I Mukaabya Walugembe Kayiira, the 30th Kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda, who reigned from 1856 until 1884, maintained a palace on the hill.

It was at this palace that British explorer John Hanning Speke met Kabaka Walugembe Muteesa I in 1862.

Muteesa detained Speke for some months before finally releasing him in his quest to look for the source of the Nile River.

At Banda, Muteesa faced many misfortunes, which he attributed to ill luck or witch-craft, thus the name Bandabalogo ("Wizards of Banda").

He left Banda and built another palace at Nabulagala which he later called Kasubi, named after his mother’s village in Kyaggwe County, which is now known as Mukono District.

Today, the great, great grandson of Muteesa I, Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, the reigning Buganda monarch, maintains a palace on the hill.  Like all places in Buganda the main entrance is in the west facing Bunyoro, who were traditional rivals of the Baganda.

Starting in 1958, the government of Uganda began establishing educational institutions on the southern and southwestern slopes of the hill, in the neighborhood known as Kyambogo.

The institutions were merged in 2001 to form Kyambogo University, the third public university established in the country and as they say the rest is history.

Kyambogo University

Business

Banda is a beehive of activity when the students are back at the University.

On the higher reaches of the hill are located upscale residential homes and several student hostels sprouting out every now and then.

On the lower reaches of the hill, there are shops, small-scale industries, a stone quarry, warehouses and low-income rental residencies.

Lifestyle

 The hill also is very cosmopolitan and has been host to many cultures of people with many Itesots and Acholi settling there.

It led to springing up of many Malwa joints, which at some point gave Banda the name Bandamalwa, coined from the very many Malwa joints in the neighbourhood.

To know more about your hood and so many other neighboUrhoods, follow Kyle on Urban Television every Saturday at 7pm.