Bamasaba want king
Dec 03, 2002
JUST when you thought the restitution of the traditional leaders debate was reaching an end, here comes the Masaba (Bugisu) kingdom of Mbale and Sironko districts.
By Geresom Musamali
JUST when you thought the restitution of the traditional leaders debate was reaching an end, here comes the Masaba (Bugisu) kingdom of Mbale and Sironko districts.
For starters, I should state that the Masaba Kingdom (Buhiinga) existed briefly in the 1960s, before all traditional institutions were first suspended and later abolished under the Binaisa constitution.
“It served little purpose then. It only duplicated the functions of the Bugisu District Administration and laid to waste the tax payers’ money propping up the family of Mungoma Buuyi, the then Umuhiinga (king),†said Budadiri East MP David Wambi Kibaale.
“But now the situation is different. Where there was only one district that looked after circumcision, the main traditional culture and fulcrum of the Bamasaba, there are now two districts with divergent political leaderships. We need an institution that will unite our people,†Wambi Kibaale added.
Wambi told The New Vision recently that the central government has aggravated the problem by setting aside large sums of money to cater for traditional leaders in other parts of the country.
“If it is also just the question of money, then the Bamasaba had also better get their share,†said Wambi Kibaale.
Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi said over a billion shillings has been spent on traditional leaders every year, and that this year Parliament has approved almost sh1.5b for the purpose.
He said therefore any ethnic community that has no provision for such leaders misses out on the funds which are used to put in place a royal infrastructure and maintain the leader.
Edward Kamana Wesonga, Bubulo West MP and David Wakikona, Manjiya MP, said the issue of tribal unity has become so important that the Bamasaba urgently need a king of some sort.
“We are not looking for an old fashioned hereditary monarch, but most likely we shall find someone who is well educated, well experienced and highly respected among our people.
Such a person should be able to hold the people together without bringing back anachronism,†said Wesonga.
Hassan Wasswa Masokoyi, Mbale LC5 vice-chairman, said he is aware of a committee that has been researching into the subject to establish that there was once a traditional authority for Bamasaba long before the arrival of imperial agent Semei Kakungulu to subject Bamasaba to British indirect rule through Buganda.
Masokoyi said the 1963-66 Buhiinga was conceived along those lines.
He said when the research committee, whose members he declined to name, has finally come up with its findings, the issue will be tabled in the both district councils for debate to map the way forward.
Mungoma (now in his late 80s) is not however, enthusiastic about the idea and is in any case unlikely to be considered for the seat when it comes up. He would prefer to have in the place of Umuhiinga, a broad-based cultural board to look after the interests of Bamasaba in the districts and even beyond.
“Bamasaba were mainly living in Bugisu at the time of the post-independence Buhiinga. But now there are large Bamasaba communities in far away districts such as Kayunga, who practice circumcision and other cultural rites as enthusiastically as ever.
Moreover, the practice has also spilled over into the neighbouring districts of Pallisa, Tororo, and Kumi where you find the Iteso, Banyole and Bagwere indulging in it. We need to take all that in mind when contemplating the next step,†said a frail Mungoma.
His daughter, Sarah Mungoma, an employee of the auditor-general’s office in Mbale, is not anxious to reclaim a royal title either. Sarah said people think that our prosperity revolved solely upon the royal cleavage.
She said yet her father was very successful junior and senior secondary school teacher before becoming king.
She said after losing the royal status her father remained around to serve Uganda in other civil capacities, including that of being district commissioner of Lango (Lira and Apac Districts) and other areas.
Unfortunately where royalty demands political non-partisanism Mungoma himself is an avowed member of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), and his son, Charles Mungoma, came to the limelight in the 1980 elections.
During the elections Charles attempted to wrestle the party’s nomination to Mbale West Constituency from Obote’s then blue-eyed boy, Patrick Massette Kuuya. Most of Mungoma’s children are dead. So he lives with just one or two grand-children in his crumbling palace on the banks of the Nambaale stream in Bungokho, Mbale.
Thus as the Bamasaba toy with the idea of reinstituting Buhiinga they are also spending sleepless nights on issues of political neutrality, economic viability, and authenticity.
Are they just up to copying what is happening elsewhere or do they have an original concept? Would the new umuhiinga serve a term of office like elected politicians or would his be a life-long seat with hereditary virtues?
And by the way, the Bamasaba have over the last decade been reforming the practice of circumcision.
Where every adolescent Mumasaba boy used to undergo an unanaethetised cut in full public view, the modern one is now increasing taking to the modern hospital for a quiet ritual.
Would the advocates of a return to Buhiinga possibly be creating an institution only to find that what that institution is set to look after has disappeared or are they creating the institution specifically to save the practice from extinction?
JUST when you thought the restitution of the traditional leaders debate was reaching an end, here comes the Masaba (Bugisu) kingdom of Mbale and Sironko districts.
For starters, I should state that the Masaba Kingdom (Buhiinga) existed briefly in the 1960s, before all traditional institutions were first suspended and later abolished under the Binaisa constitution.
“It served little purpose then. It only duplicated the functions of the Bugisu District Administration and laid to waste the tax payers’ money propping up the family of Mungoma Buuyi, the then Umuhiinga (king),†said Budadiri East MP David Wambi Kibaale.
“But now the situation is different. Where there was only one district that looked after circumcision, the main traditional culture and fulcrum of the Bamasaba, there are now two districts with divergent political leaderships. We need an institution that will unite our people,†Wambi Kibaale added.
Wambi told The New Vision recently that the central government has aggravated the problem by setting aside large sums of money to cater for traditional leaders in other parts of the country.
“If it is also just the question of money, then the Bamasaba had also better get their share,†said Wambi Kibaale.
Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi said over a billion shillings has been spent on traditional leaders every year, and that this year Parliament has approved almost sh1.5b for the purpose.
He said therefore any ethnic community that has no provision for such leaders misses out on the funds which are used to put in place a royal infrastructure and maintain the leader.
Edward Kamana Wesonga, Bubulo West MP and David Wakikona, Manjiya MP, said the issue of tribal unity has become so important that the Bamasaba urgently need a king of some sort.
“We are not looking for an old fashioned hereditary monarch, but most likely we shall find someone who is well educated, well experienced and highly respected among our people.
Such a person should be able to hold the people together without bringing back anachronism,†said Wesonga.
Hassan Wasswa Masokoyi, Mbale LC5 vice-chairman, said he is aware of a committee that has been researching into the subject to establish that there was once a traditional authority for Bamasaba long before the arrival of imperial agent Semei Kakungulu to subject Bamasaba to British indirect rule through Buganda.
Masokoyi said the 1963-66 Buhiinga was conceived along those lines.
He said when the research committee, whose members he declined to name, has finally come up with its findings, the issue will be tabled in the both district councils for debate to map the way forward.
Mungoma (now in his late 80s) is not however, enthusiastic about the idea and is in any case unlikely to be considered for the seat when it comes up. He would prefer to have in the place of Umuhiinga, a broad-based cultural board to look after the interests of Bamasaba in the districts and even beyond.
“Bamasaba were mainly living in Bugisu at the time of the post-independence Buhiinga. But now there are large Bamasaba communities in far away districts such as Kayunga, who practice circumcision and other cultural rites as enthusiastically as ever.
Moreover, the practice has also spilled over into the neighbouring districts of Pallisa, Tororo, and Kumi where you find the Iteso, Banyole and Bagwere indulging in it. We need to take all that in mind when contemplating the next step,†said a frail Mungoma.
His daughter, Sarah Mungoma, an employee of the auditor-general’s office in Mbale, is not anxious to reclaim a royal title either. Sarah said people think that our prosperity revolved solely upon the royal cleavage.
She said yet her father was very successful junior and senior secondary school teacher before becoming king.
She said after losing the royal status her father remained around to serve Uganda in other civil capacities, including that of being district commissioner of Lango (Lira and Apac Districts) and other areas.
Unfortunately where royalty demands political non-partisanism Mungoma himself is an avowed member of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), and his son, Charles Mungoma, came to the limelight in the 1980 elections.
During the elections Charles attempted to wrestle the party’s nomination to Mbale West Constituency from Obote’s then blue-eyed boy, Patrick Massette Kuuya. Most of Mungoma’s children are dead. So he lives with just one or two grand-children in his crumbling palace on the banks of the Nambaale stream in Bungokho, Mbale.
Thus as the Bamasaba toy with the idea of reinstituting Buhiinga they are also spending sleepless nights on issues of political neutrality, economic viability, and authenticity.
Are they just up to copying what is happening elsewhere or do they have an original concept? Would the new umuhiinga serve a term of office like elected politicians or would his be a life-long seat with hereditary virtues?
And by the way, the Bamasaba have over the last decade been reforming the practice of circumcision.
Where every adolescent Mumasaba boy used to undergo an unanaethetised cut in full public view, the modern one is now increasing taking to the modern hospital for a quiet ritual.
Would the advocates of a return to Buhiinga possibly be creating an institution only to find that what that institution is set to look after has disappeared or are they creating the institution specifically to save the practice from extinction?