Britain meets Ankole at Masha

Apr 01, 2005

IN the peripheral of Masha trading centre, 15 miles from Mbarara town, a 96-year-old cone-shaped mass of round concrete is a silent witness to a covenant between Bucunku (an Ankole king emissary) and Henry Morton Stanley, a Briton.

By Raphael Okello and Pidson Kareire

IN the peripheral of Masha trading centre, 15 miles from Mbarara town, a 96-year-old cone-shaped mass of round concrete is a silent witness to a covenant between Bucunku (an Ankole king emissary) and Henry Morton Stanley, a Briton.

A grueling journey through rutted roads harshly invites you to Masha, an opulent countryside, where herds of cattle nonchalantly graze in the open green plains of Ankole (Mbarara) and birds sing praise to nature’s beauty. If Uganda is the pearl of Africa, then Masha is the pearl in the pearl.

Sadly though, Masha is known more for its ranches than the historic episode that took place on July 23, 1889, when Bucunku, an envoy of Ankole’s king (Ntare V), and Henry Marton Stanley, a correspondent for the New York Herald and The Daily Telegraph, committed to a relationship.

Stanley traversed thousands of miles in his claims to the great stretches of continental African territory. He was charged with the task of finding Dr. Livingstone, a British missionary, who had gone missing for three years. He found the missionary in Ujjiji, on the shores of lake Tanganyika.

On his way back, he passed via Ankole, where he met Bucunku, an envoy of Ankole’s then ruling king, Ntare V. According to Kalunga, an elder in the land, “Bucunku was the king’s representative and leader of pastoralists, who occupied this area during the reign of Ntare V from 1870-1895.”

Stanley reported to Bucunku. Their binding brotherly relationship as a result made, Bucunku the first Ugandan to befriend a European. Uganda had not yet been infiltrated by the western world.

in his book, Conflicts and Collaboration in the Kingdoms of Western Uganda, Prof Edward Steinhart writes, “The relationship meant neither would do the other harm and (Bucunku) would provide Stanley with a fictive kinship relation to a prince of the blood (omwiginya) and thus respected position in Ankole society.”

Stanley towered over the vegetation around him! The local people found his name difficult to pronounce and his height was a stirring feature. So, he was called Kakiramukyenkye (he was taller than the tallest grass).

The spot of their meeting became revered. A monument from which Masha picks its nickname, Ahaibare (at the stone), was built.

A walk, 200 metres from Masha trading centre to this monument is like retracing the foundation of their friendship.

Unlike Stanley who towered above the vegetation, the surrounding thickets dwarf the gray cone-shaped concrete monument. When we get to it, it appears to emerge out of the mists of time.

The smooth wall of the eight-foot high monument is surging under the weight of its age and giving way to multiple cracks and colour change. From far, it assumes an ashy tone and at close range, it has an earthy brown shade.

The wall on one side of the base has cracked revealing a randomised stony interior held intact by concrete. A plaque, which had the words “23rd July1889 Henry Morton Stanley and Bucunku Brotherhood,” used to sit in some form of window, created halfway at the top of the cone.

An old man passing by with a heap of firewood on his head jokes in Runyankole, “Eeh, are you guys making friendship like Bucunku and Stanley?”

The bliss and beauty that abound in Masha is like nature’s effort to recreate that rustic atmosphere under which Stanley and Bucunku met many years ago. Several anthills are scattered around the monument and from far off the hills appear to hug Masha with a scintillating display of beautiful farms stretching up to Lake Mburo National Park.

Maybe, this is after all, a land flowing with milk and honey. The forsaken monument is the anomaly trying to fit in.

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