Who are the Banyala people
KAYUNGA district, home to most Banyala, is in Bugerere, an area that Buganda captured from Bunyoro Kingdom more than 100 years ago. Of all the 56 tribes living there today, it is only the Banyala who can claim ancestral grounds in the area.
By Chris Kiwawulo
KAYUNGA district, home to most Banyala, is in Bugerere, an area that Buganda captured from Bunyoro Kingdom more than 100 years ago.
Of all the 56 tribes living there today, it is only the Banyala who can claim ancestral grounds in the area. The rest of the tribes seem to have their origins in other places, including Sudan.
Where did they come from?
The history of Banyala can be traced to the wars of Buganda against Bunyoro before 1900 when colonialists established their rule in Uganda.
According to Francis Matovu Mutundi, 73, an elder in Bugerere and the secretary for the Banyala Association and their representative on the Mengo Lukiiko, the Banyala are a result of intermarriages between Banyoro and Baganda.
Mutundi says Namuyonjo, Bunyoro’s late King Kamurasi’s son, rebelled against his father in the late 1800s and allied with the then Kabaka of Buganda, Mwanga II.
“Mwanga welcomed him because Buganda was at loggerheads with Bunyoro,†says Mutundi.
As a token of appreciation, Kabaka gave Namuyonjo control over the captured county of Bugerere, which was predominantly occupied by Banyoro. Namuyonjo did not occupy Kayunga at the time because the area was infested with dangerous flies known as embwa.
It was not until Buganda, helped by the British, flushed out the flies, that people started living in Kayunga.
Namuyonjo proceeded to Budali, Bugembo, Kitwe and Bbale villages. At Misanga, he met Koojo, a self-imposed leader. “Since Koojo was not from the royal family, he was forced to surrender his leadership mantle to Namuyonjo without any resistance,†explains Mutundi.
One day, Kabaka Chwa II’s lead hunter, Kyesswa Mulondo, visited Bugerere and liked it. Mulondo asked and received a piece of land from the Kabaka, settling him in Nateta. Mutundi says Mulondo drove the Mpindi clan from Nateta to Kyaggwe, which angered Namuyonjo.
This led to conflict over territorial boundaries. As the row deepened, Kabaka Chwa II, with the help of his regents (Stanislas Mugwanya, Zakaria Kisingiri and Apollo Kaggwa) solved the impasse.
Mulondo’s land streched from Nakyesa to Maligita in Kangulumira while Namuyonjo’s border stretched from Nakyesa to Galiraya on the shores of Lake Kyoga. Although it is not clear how big Mulondo’s land was, it is said Namuyonjo got 11.5 square miles of land.
Namuyonjo has had at least 12 successors in his lineage, says Charles Ssenkungu, 43, an elder in Buganda.
He adds that both Namuyonjo and Mulondo’s Baganda subjects married Banyoro women, bringing forth the current day Banyala.
The Banyala have a close link with the Baruli in Nakasongola who were also a result of the intermarriage between Banyoro and Baganda. In 1980, the Baruli and Banyala formed an association.
“But in 2003 when the Baruli attempted to incorporate Banyala under the Sabaruli, the Banyala broke off, forming an independent association,†says Ssenkungu.
Why the controversy around Kimeze?
According to Mutundi, Baker Kimeze is the son of Nathan Mpagi whose origin is uncertain.
Mpagi went to Bugerere to visit his brother-in-law Kiwanuka, a Muganda who had married Mpagi’s sister Kinoge and lived in Namatogonya.
“The claims by Kimeze that he is a Sabanyala are false. He does not fall anywhere in the royal lineage,†notes Mutundi. Kimeze has not been able to identify his grandfathers’ graves in Bugerere as proof that he had ancestral origins there.
His father, Mpagi, failed six times to be crowned as the Sabanyala because he failed to climb Wabirumba cultural hill in Bbale sub-county.
“Mpagi slipped and fell and eventually died,†says Mutundi. Kimeze’s spokeman, James Rwebikire, Mutundi maintains, is a Langi from Kabaleri who migrated to Buruli in the early 1980s.
Kitaka Gaweera, the chairperson of Kayunga district service commission, who supports Kimeze’s coronation, was born in Kalyamese in Kaberamaido district.
“Gaweera’s father, Yokana Ibangu, and their family came from Teso to settle in Bbale where his sister Katiko was married,†Mutundi says.
Sabanyala’s response
But Kimeze and his team insist they are true Banyala and have vowed to fight on until the Sabanyala is enthroned. He dismissed allegations that he is not a Munyala.
Rwebikire and his Baruli-Banyala association of 19 members say they are Banyala who intend to revive their culture irrespective of whether Mengo recognises them or not.
KAYUNGA district, home to most Banyala, is in Bugerere, an area that Buganda captured from Bunyoro Kingdom more than 100 years ago.
Of all the 56 tribes living there today, it is only the Banyala who can claim ancestral grounds in the area. The rest of the tribes seem to have their origins in other places, including Sudan.
Where did they come from?
The history of Banyala can be traced to the wars of Buganda against Bunyoro before 1900 when colonialists established their rule in Uganda.
According to Francis Matovu Mutundi, 73, an elder in Bugerere and the secretary for the Banyala Association and their representative on the Mengo Lukiiko, the Banyala are a result of intermarriages between Banyoro and Baganda.
Mutundi says Namuyonjo, Bunyoro’s late King Kamurasi’s son, rebelled against his father in the late 1800s and allied with the then Kabaka of Buganda, Mwanga II.
“Mwanga welcomed him because Buganda was at loggerheads with Bunyoro,†says Mutundi.
As a token of appreciation, Kabaka gave Namuyonjo control over the captured county of Bugerere, which was predominantly occupied by Banyoro. Namuyonjo did not occupy Kayunga at the time because the area was infested with dangerous flies known as embwa.
It was not until Buganda, helped by the British, flushed out the flies, that people started living in Kayunga.
Namuyonjo proceeded to Budali, Bugembo, Kitwe and Bbale villages. At Misanga, he met Koojo, a self-imposed leader. “Since Koojo was not from the royal family, he was forced to surrender his leadership mantle to Namuyonjo without any resistance,†explains Mutundi.
One day, Kabaka Chwa II’s lead hunter, Kyesswa Mulondo, visited Bugerere and liked it. Mulondo asked and received a piece of land from the Kabaka, settling him in Nateta. Mutundi says Mulondo drove the Mpindi clan from Nateta to Kyaggwe, which angered Namuyonjo.
This led to conflict over territorial boundaries. As the row deepened, Kabaka Chwa II, with the help of his regents (Stanislas Mugwanya, Zakaria Kisingiri and Apollo Kaggwa) solved the impasse.
Mulondo’s land streched from Nakyesa to Maligita in Kangulumira while Namuyonjo’s border stretched from Nakyesa to Galiraya on the shores of Lake Kyoga. Although it is not clear how big Mulondo’s land was, it is said Namuyonjo got 11.5 square miles of land.
Namuyonjo has had at least 12 successors in his lineage, says Charles Ssenkungu, 43, an elder in Buganda.
He adds that both Namuyonjo and Mulondo’s Baganda subjects married Banyoro women, bringing forth the current day Banyala.
The Banyala have a close link with the Baruli in Nakasongola who were also a result of the intermarriage between Banyoro and Baganda. In 1980, the Baruli and Banyala formed an association.
“But in 2003 when the Baruli attempted to incorporate Banyala under the Sabaruli, the Banyala broke off, forming an independent association,†says Ssenkungu.
Why the controversy around Kimeze?
According to Mutundi, Baker Kimeze is the son of Nathan Mpagi whose origin is uncertain.
Mpagi went to Bugerere to visit his brother-in-law Kiwanuka, a Muganda who had married Mpagi’s sister Kinoge and lived in Namatogonya.
“The claims by Kimeze that he is a Sabanyala are false. He does not fall anywhere in the royal lineage,†notes Mutundi. Kimeze has not been able to identify his grandfathers’ graves in Bugerere as proof that he had ancestral origins there.
His father, Mpagi, failed six times to be crowned as the Sabanyala because he failed to climb Wabirumba cultural hill in Bbale sub-county.
“Mpagi slipped and fell and eventually died,†says Mutundi. Kimeze’s spokeman, James Rwebikire, Mutundi maintains, is a Langi from Kabaleri who migrated to Buruli in the early 1980s.
Kitaka Gaweera, the chairperson of Kayunga district service commission, who supports Kimeze’s coronation, was born in Kalyamese in Kaberamaido district.
“Gaweera’s father, Yokana Ibangu, and their family came from Teso to settle in Bbale where his sister Katiko was married,†Mutundi says.
Sabanyala’s response
But Kimeze and his team insist they are true Banyala and have vowed to fight on until the Sabanyala is enthroned. He dismissed allegations that he is not a Munyala.
Rwebikire and his Baruli-Banyala association of 19 members say they are Banyala who intend to revive their culture irrespective of whether Mengo recognises them or not.