Bunyoro & Buganda Lost Kingdoms of Africa

The great lakes of East Africa.

A jewel in the African crown.

This is just incredible.

Straight away you can see why this part of Africa

has drawn people for thousands and thousands of years.

It's an area dominated by the largest tropical lake in the world,

Lake Victoria.

Even from up here its scale is hard to grasp

but the fertility of the land around is clear to see.

For centuries, people have fished these plentiful waters

and cultivated the rich soil.

But such abundance has brought with it strife.

This region has been the site of intense rivalry

and great power struggles,

and it's a place whose history is still shrouded by legend and myth.

We know less about Africa's past than almost anywhere else on Earth

but the scarcity of written records doesn't mean Africa lacks history.

That can be found in the artefacts, culture

and in the traditions of the people.

In this series, I'm exploring some of the most vibrant histories

in the world.

I've come to Uganda to find out how centuries of conflict

have shaped this region of Africa.

This is a tale of two kingdoms.

A story of rivalry, of warfare, of opportunism.

For over 200 years, the kingdoms of Bunyoro and Buganda

jostled for position, competing for valuable resources

and using history and mythology to make a claim on the land.

For centuries the interior of East Africa

was unknown to the western world.

But that changed in the 1860s thanks to a geographical puzzle

that had been the obsession of Europeans for decades.

The European adventurers were all desperate to claim the glory

that would come with the supposed discovery of one particular place.

The accolade went to a young British soldier named John Hanning Speke.

In 1862, he claimed he'd discovered the source of the River Nile.

Right now we are going to the source

where the source of the Nile begins from.

Speke had searched East Africa for six years,

hoping to solve the mystery of where the Nile began.

He was finally able to tell the outside world

that the River Nile flowed out of Lake Victoria.

A guide, James Pakoma, is taking me to the spot

where the water starts its 4,132 mile journey to the Mediterranean.

So this is the source of the Nile, James?

This is the real point where the Nile gets the water from the lake.

This is exactly where the Nile begins.

-This is the source.

-Here.

But the significance of Speke's adventure

went far beyond the confirmation of where the Nile began.

His journal is the earliest first-hand account of Buganda,

the kingdom he found here.

His excitement is plain from his description of Buganda's king

Mutesa The First.

"A more theatrical sight I never saw.

"The king, a good looking tall young man, was sitting on a red blanket

"scrupulously well dressed in a new umbugu.

"On his neck was a very neat ornament,

"not a fault could be found with the taste of his getting up."

The writing might sound condescending today

but European adventurers provided historians with valuable testimony.

It's easy to question the methods and motives

of explorers like Speke today

but I do think that they were amazed by the sophistication

of the kingdoms that they encountered here in this region.

Speke was captivated by the beauty of the landscape

but it was Buganda itself that was perhaps the biggest surprise to him.

He'd stumbled upon an advanced kingdom

with complex structures of government.

It had a road network, established trade

and an organised and well armed military.

At the end of the 19th century,

Buganda's power was reflected in a map drawn up by the British.

It recognised Buganda's dominant position

on the north western shores of Lake Victoria,

overshadowing its neighbour the kingdom of Bunyoro,

just half its size and on the banks of Lake Albert.

Today, both kingdoms are provincial powers

within the modern state of Uganda

but the country's capital Kampala is Buganda's traditional power base

and the current king's palace overlooks the city

from a prominent hilltop, as his predecessors did.

The fact that Uganda gets its name from Buganda

shows the kingdom's historic influence

but it doesn't tell the full story.

Buganda established itself at the expense of its neighbour Bunyoro.

400 years ago it was Bunyoro that was the region's major power

while Buganda was then an insignificant group of lakeside communities.

Somehow the Bugandans managed to turn the tables on Bunyoro

and displace it as the most powerful kingdom in this part of Africa.

To understand how Buganda came to oust Bunyoro,

you have to know more of the history of Bunyoro itself.

I want to find out how Bunyoro first became a major power

and then how Buganda overtook it so dramatically.

I'm travelling to Hoima, the Bunyoro capital.

Compared to Kampala, Hoima is a fairly modest place

but when Bunyoro was at its height in the 17th century

this was a major trading centre.

It may be hard to see now, but 400 years ago

Bunyoro was a place of considerable political,

religious and economic significance.

Yolamu Nsamba is a court historian

and private secretary to the current king of Bunyoro.

How did Bunyoro actually build on its economic successes?

So there was a kind of political sophistication that had never really

existed before in this region.

The clan chiefs were the recognised custodians of the land.

As a result they wielded significant power,

so Bunyoro needed strong kings to keep them in check

and to keep the kingdom stable.

The palace throne room is filled with objects

designed to make the monarch the focus of the kingdom

and to underline the history of its ascent.

So all of these different things,

they tell a particular kind of story

or they each add a different element to the story of Bunyoro.

The hoe, the hammer, the iron spears,

they indicate aspects of the kingdom's power.

But underpinning it all was something much greater.

The kingdom of Bunyoro reached its height

during the course of the 16th and 17th centuries

and it did so in part due to one crucial factor.

Bunyoro claimed it was directly descended from an ancient empire

more powerful than any other in the region.

It was called Kitara.

According to oral history, Kitara had been a vast empire

ruled by a powerful dynasty known as the Chwesi.

Historians still disagree about whether Kitara

or its Chwesi rulers, ever existed.

But even today, the people of Bunyoro revere the Chwesi as gods.

Every week dozens of people from towns and villages

throughout the region travel to worship at a Chwesi shrine.

I've joined them on their pilgrimage to Mubende Hill.

This sacred tree stands on what some believe to have been

an ancient Chwesi settlement.

Within each one of these buttresses is a different sub shrine

and I think each one of these sub shrines is dedicated to

a different kind of prayer.

The presiding spirit of the shrine

is a Chwesi matriarch named Nakayima.

Worshippers make offerings of money, coffee beans and milk

as they ask for answers to their prayers.

SHRIEKING

It obviously really matters to people, the potency of this.

This isn't a tradition frozen in aspic.

It is still alive and well and celebrated.

Since the earliest days of the Bunyoro kingdom in the 15th century,

there seems to have been a strong belief in the Chwesi,

whether or not they ever existed.

Dr Ephraim Kamuhangire has researched the Chwezi dynasty.

What's the significance of this Chwezi ritual

to the success of Bunyoro?

-So it legitimises them?

-Yes.

-This relationship with ancient Chwezi.

Bunyoro's claim to such an illustrious pedigree was vital.

It gave its people a proud heritage and it meant

the kingdom could assert control over the land once ruled by Kitara.

The fact the Chwezi were regarded as otherworldly

gave Bunyoro a spiritual foundation.

That belief continues to resonate.

Now this place is obviously still very special.

Even in modern history, people have sought to make

a connection with this place and today it obviously still means

an awful lot to a lot of people.

Faith in the Chwezi has lasted over the centuries for good reason.

There's physical evidence that suggest the predecessors of Bunyoro

may not be figments of the imagination.

The Uganda Museum is one of the oldest in East Africa.

It houses a range of extraordinary artefacts.

Some historians say they prove the existence of the Chwezi.

They may also cast light on the early days of Bunyoro.

I persuaded the curator, Jacqueline Nyiracyiza,

to show me some of the treasures that fill the shelves

behind the scenes.

This is the store, archaeology style.

Oh, Jacqui, I love places like this.

The contents of these boxes all come from a place called Ntusi.

It was a vast settlement and possibly the home of the Chwezi.

Some even say that Ntusi was the capital

of the legendary kingdom of Kitara.

And how old is this, Jacqui?

I mean the glorious thing about it, is you can see how someone

has pushed into the still drying surface a piece of cloth.

It gives a sense...

Yes, I just have this thing about ceramics,

this idea that someone actually created and used this thing,

which would have been quite humble

but is just absolutely exquisitely beautiful,

gives you a real sense what ordinary people's lives were like

during this period because for so much African history

you don't get a sense of the ordinary,

it's the kings, it's the powerful, but this is just beautiful.

Along with the pottery,

beads and iron spear heads have also been recovered.

The finds reveal that the predecessors of Bunyoro

had themselves developed an advanced civilisation.

These were complex cultures, these are water vases,

but also that these are very, very sophisticated vessels, some of them.

Some of them used for storage or foods that would have meant

that people travelled, that they traded.

This just gives us a small insight into Ntusi.

The civilisation at Ntusi would have been a significant foundation

for the kingdom of Bunyoro.

But Ntusi also provides evidence for the secret of Bunyoro's success,

the reason that it became the most powerful kingdom in the region.

I'm heading to Ntusi to see it for myself.

Ntusi lies in the grasslands of central Uganda,

95 miles south of Bunyoro's capital Hoima.

This region isn't in Bunyoro according to modern maps

but at its height this whole area belonged to the Bunyoro kingdom.

And it was here, at a time when most historians thought Kitara

and their Chwezi rulers were simply a myth,

that a discovery was made that forced them to reconsider.

When archaeologists began excavating these sites in the 1920s,

they couldn't quite believe what they were unearthing,

an ancient organised society that dated back a thousand years.

Hidden underneath the dense vegetation

are important clues to the foundations of the Bunyoro kingdom.

Archaeologist Dismas Ongwen

has carried out excavations at this site.

There are artefacts strewn for miles around

but archaeologists were fascinated to find

a dense concentration of material at two ancient rubbish dumps.

In oral history, they're referred to as the male and female mounds

for reasons that remain a bit of a mystery.

And what was the bulk of the material found here?

Archaeologists can tell from the volume

and age of the material that this area was densely populated

from the 11th century to around the 1400s.

That dates Ntusi to just before

Bunyoro is thought to have been established.

It also coincides with their putative predecessors, the Chwezi.

But some of the most significant finds aren't man-made.

And they've been revealed to archaeologists almost by accident.

The erosion has uncovered the centuries old remains of cattle

among the pottery and other objects.

It is very special just picking up something like this

that may have been part of a herd of cattle,

perhaps 800 or a 1,000 years ago

that actually moved across this landscape.

Obviously, it's changed a lot but not so much,

there are still people here working with cattle.

It's just very special.

The presence of cattle bones here is hugely significant.

It gives a clear indication of the wealth of the Ntusi society

which the kingdom of Bunyoro is likely to have inherited.

The animal bones also tell archaeologists a great deal

about the lives of the people.

Most communities in East Africa at this time

would have shared just one or two cows.

Evidence of Ntusi, shows that Bunyoro's predecessors

had vast numbers of cattle.

It might explain why a belief endured in the kingdom

that the Chwezi had been great providers.

Bunyoro continued the pastoral tradition that had been established

in the centuries before the kingdom's rise to power.

They probably would have been tending herds

of a breed like these Ankole cattle.

The extraordinary volume of livestock made Bunyoro unusual.

There was a reason why Bunyoro could maintain vast herds of cattle.

Bunyoro had a mineral that was vital for the welfare of people

and cattle alike. Bunyoro had salt.

Lake Albert sits on the Western edge of modern Uganda.

According to legend, the Chwezi people disappeared into it

but not before they discovered the wealth that surrounded it.

Bunyoro may have claimed its legitimacy from ancient Kitara

but its economic power wasn't mythical, it was very real.

The hot springs that flow into this lake

provided Bunyoro's valuable mineral, salt.

Essential to all animal life,

it enabled the kingdom to grow in strength.

Healthy herds in turn provided more food

and helped the kingdom to prosper.

Good morning.

How does this work?

So you're just scraping the top layer of soil?

Yes.

OK, like this.

So in this is the salt? The salt is actually in here.

It smells a little bit sulphur-y

but obviously this is very valuable material, this earth,

and this for hundreds of years has served these women,

and these communities, incredibly well.

The production of ash salt here at Kibiro on Lake Albert's shores

is thought to date back some 900 years.

This occupation is hereditary and is carried out exclusively by women.

I hope I'm helping rather than hindering your work.

Oh, yeah, I'm obviously hindering it.

LAUGHTER

There's real skill in this, I just don't happen to have it.

And the thing to understand is, it's very warm

and doing this sort of work, day after day,

under these kinds of conditions, it must be pretty tough work.

The salty soil is gathered and dried in the sun for about a week

before being mixed with water and left to percolate.

The resulting liquid is boiled to produce ash salt.

The same earth is leeched over and over again,

making this an unusually sustainable technique

that produces salt of the very highest quality.

This has probably gone on unchanged

for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, on this very spot.

This is a valuable product, coming right up

out of the very ground itself

and this salt is just so important

to the success of the Bunyoro kingdom.

The kingdom's control of salt fields,

both at Kibiro and further south at Katwe

allowed them to build both a stable economy

and in turn, a strong political base.

Without salt, Bunyoro almost certainly

would never have become the great kingdom that it did.

Bunyoro produced volumes of salt far greater than

the local population would have needed.

The surplus helped to establish

a vital important network of trade in the region

which was controlled by the state.

Today, the merchandise is prepared in exactly the same way

as it's always been.

This is the final stage of salt production

when these beautiful conicals of salt are produced,

ready to go off to market.

Salt was a much sought after commodity.

When Bunyoro was at its height in the 1600s,

salt was as valuable as any precious metal.

Compared to the rest of Africa

this region was cut off from the outside world until relatively late

but historians believe Bunyoro's salt still travelled long distances.

The kingdom supplied the great lakes area with salt

and via the regional trade network Bunyoro's salt may have

eventually reached the foreign merchants on Africa's East coast.

An economy was emerging. Bunyoro was wheeling and dealing.

Bunyoro was a kingdom with much to celebrate.

THEY SING

As trading evolved and markets grew, the people of the Bunyoro kingdom

turned to their traditional crafts for more commodities to sell.

Bunyoro's metal craft was renowned.

Its blacksmiths made the king's symbolic hammer and hoe

and there was a demand for Bunyoro's iron products throughout the region.

The blacksmith's expertise is acknowledged at festivals,

such as this one, which celebrates the lunar cycle.

The new moon rises at midnight tonight and it's a time of renewal.

It is meant to be a period when the women menstruate

but it's also a time when the blacksmiths have special power.

Not only did the blacksmiths conjure iron from the earth

they created the weapons required to defend the kingdom of Bunyoro.

And by its height in the 17th century,

Bunyoro's assets were the envy of its neighbours.

Thanks to the power of the king and the strong clan chiefs,

Bunyoro's influence stretched over a vast territory.

The resources that provided the basis for its power

also connected the people to their environment

and the claim of Kitara and Chwezi ancestry

legitimised Bunyoro's authority

and gave the kingdom a strong sense of identity.

But on the other side of the country,

on the banks of Lake Victoria,

another kingdom had begun to flourish,

thanks to a crop that would not just change the future of this region,

but of the whole African continent.

The kingdom of Buganda began as small groups of clans

who cultivated land by Lake Victoria.

Their metamorphosis from a handful of communities

to a powerful kingdom was thanks in part to a humble food crop,

the banana.

The high rainfall and fertile land of Lake Victoria's northern shores

encouraged the clans of Buganda to settle here

in the first place, around the 15th century.

By the 1600s, a cohesive state had emerged,

the result of organised cultivation of its most important crop.

Bunyoro had its salt,

but the bananas of Buganda would create a kingdom

that would challenge Bunyoro's dominance once and for all.

So these are the banana trees?

Oh, bananas at last!

I was beginning to worry that we'd missed the season

because obviously most of them have been harvested already.

The clans of Buganda grew bananas in the fields

and caught fish in the lake.

It's a nutritious diet and one which helped their population to grow.

There are over 50 varieties of banana grown in Uganda

but this one, the plantain or the matoke, is the most important.

For the people who live here the banana is both meat and drink.

How wonderful!

So the whole tree has to come down to harvest the banana.

You get a sense of how important these are,

that they're not just crops to be eaten.

For the Buganda people of the 17th and 18th century

the banana was revolutionary.

It not only fed them but its leaves thatched their houses.

Its fibrous stalks were used to make cord

and its stems were used to build their defences.

The banana and its related products quickly became commodities

which the clans of Buganda traded in the regional economy

just as Bunyoro had done with salt,

and it's still part of the staple diet of the region today.

I've had plantain before

but this is matoke, cooked the traditional Bugandan way.

I can't wait!

Oh, what a glorious smell. Oh, that looks lovely.

Mmm, it's very delicious.

Absolutely wonderful. Thank you.

As Buganda's economy grew, structures of government developed.

The early clan chiefs held much power

with the king merely the most senior among them.

But gradually power centralised with the monarch

and he became much more than the first among equals.

The loyalty of the clans was assured however,

as the king took wives from different clans,

meaning his successor could come from any clan in the kingdom.

And the clans remained vitally important to Buganda.

Today more than 50 clans exist in Buganda.

Each takes an emblem from the natural world.

These men are from the mushroom clan.

The role of Buganda's clans now

is to safeguard the kingdom's cultural heritage.

Drums are particularly treasured

as they are believed to hold the spirit of the nation.

None of us has lived as long as these drums

so what they tell, is something of such a long time ago

that you wouldn't want to let go of in your lifetime.

Mr Gombe is the custodian of his clan's drums.

They aren't only used as a method of communication.

Each clan is identified by a unique rhythm.

For you to have an identity, you have to have a drum

because it is on that drum that you sound who you are.

HE DRUMS AND CHANTS

And so on and so forth.

And how important are drums for Buganda?

They mean a lot to us

but most important they remind us of our ancestry.

The clan structure was hereditary

but the increasingly powerful kings also appointed chiefs.

That endangered a competitive spirit

among Buganda's ambitious young men, as well as their loyalty.

18th century Buganda had a stable economic base

and a growing centralised government.

It was self-confident and ambitious,

keen to make the most of its resources

and perhaps also to reinforce a sense of nationhood.

It chose a special cloth, which was associated with Buganda royalty.

I've come down here to Nsangwa

and there's a family down here who've been making bark cloth

for Buganda kings for generations and I'm going to see how they do it.

Bark cloth is made from various types of fig tree.

There's long been a symbol of the kingdom of Buganda.

Omutaka Kabogoza is the official maker of royal bark cloth.

Bark cloth provided kings and clan chiefs

with a visible symbol of the Buganda nation.

So you take off the outer bark and then it's the inner bark

that you actually want, which actually creates...

This is the one you want. That is the cloth itself.

Wow, it's very thick and rubbery.

But this isn't the finished cloth, this is just the...

This is just the beginning of the harvesting.

The value of bark cloth was more than symbolic.

During the second half of the 18th century,

Buganda's people were encouraged to wear it,

not just the chiefs and royalty.

A nationwide industry took off

and the material was renowned among Buganda's neighbours.

It's lovely work to do because the results are just so immediate.

You can see the fibres already beginning to separate and widen

and it's beginning to feel a little bit more like cloth.

But the desire to increase bark cloth's production

had a profound effect.

Buganda expanded its territory to acquire new lands

on which to plant fig trees and its aggressive approach to commerce

meant its influence in the region grew.

It's actually products like bark cloth

that allow Buganda to forge a cultural identity,

but it also allows them to participate

in new, emerging economies.

The state capitalised on the productivity of the people.

Taxation paid for a network of roads

that pushed Buganda's commerce further afield,

and the kingdom took advantage of its geography in other ways.

Buganda's position on the northern shore of Lake Victoria

gave it access to the burgeoning trade routes

to the East coast of Africa.

The fiercely competitive kingdom of Buganda,

was now ready to take any advantage to aid its growth.

Control of trade over the lake was critical

if Buganda was to increase its power and influence in the region.

The kingdom built up a vast royal navy of canoes, just like this one,

each one could carry between 60 and 100 men.

The enormous vessels that the craftsmen built

were put to good use.

The fleet was used to conquer islands

and new territory along the shore.

The kingdom's navy also escorted traders from the east coast

directly to Buganda, ensuring the kingdom controlled

the lion's share of new commerce coming into the region.

In the mid 19th century the first foreign traders arrived,

Swahili and Arab merchants were interested in ivory and slaves.

It was a significant moment in Buganda's history

according to Professor Ndebesa.

The arrival of Swahili

and Arab traders from the East African coast had great impact.

One, they brought in guns that tilted the balance of power

in favour of Buganda because it controlled that trade

from the East African coast.

Two, they brought in goods that had not been in this region

and were sought after, so the Buganda kingdom controlled this new trade.

So this was a formidable culture both in terms of trading

but also in terms of military might.

It was actually an organised state that could organise law and order.

It had at one time a standing army

and it could defend the lives and property of its people

so it was a state, although not in the modern sense of the word,

but it was a state that could organise such a big force,

feed it, and manage to control it and command it.

The point, however, is that Buganda kingdom could amass such a force

in that period without any external assistance,

which demonstrates that Africans, before the coming in of foreigners,

were organised and could amass a standing army of such a big force

and deploy it at any one time.

This sophisticated kingdom had shown it would use its resources

to further its own interests.

A predatory politics was emerging.

Buganda had the power to take what it wanted

from its neighbours at will.

Valuable export commodities like ivory were collected.

Buganda was on the make.

For 200 years Buganda had lived in the shadow

of its more powerful neighbour, Bunyoro,

now Buganda was ready to seize any opportunity

to replace Bunyoro as the region's greatest kingdom.

While the kingdom of Buganda had developed and grown,

Bunyoro had also continued to trade and prosper.

But unlike its neighbour, Bunyoro had not centralised political power

and the clan chiefs still held a great deal of authority.

The structure of Bunyoro's royal succession

meant that the clan chiefs could contest the throne.

The kingdom became mired in a series of internal divisions

and wars of succession.

The once great kingdom was in decline.

Buganda exploited its rival's weakness.

It began occupying Bunyoro's more vulnerable territories.

With a combination of their strategic lakeside position

and their unrivalled military power, Buganda seemed unstoppable.

Buganda seized land that cut off Bunyoro from the lake

and from the lucrative trade that crossed it.

Then around 1830 a shattering blow.

Bunyoro lost crucial territory that would weaken

the kingdom as never before.

Bunyoro lost its salt.

The chiefs of the Toro province declared it an autonomous kingdom.

Its territory included Bunyoro's most valuable salt fields.

It was a devastating blow to the economy of the kingdom.

Whilst Bunyoro threatened to fall apart, Buganda was ever stronger.

The days of growing banana crops and expanding their plantations

had instilled a notion of communal effort in Buganda.

At the height of the kingdom's power

it was able to marshal its people and resources

to act in the national interest.

But its neighbour Bunyoro was not about to give up the fight.

These are the tombs of King Kabalega,

remembered as one of the greatest kings this country ever knew.

In 1869, Kabalega took the Bunyoro throne.

He rallied the kingdom's forces

and began pushing Buganda back to its original borders.

This place...

There's a real poignancy to this gravesite.

He's actually buried down in a chamber beneath here

but up at the top level you can see that

they've marked the spot with nine hoes.

I think that iron is so important to people here.

It's just wonderful. These were his personal effects.

There are things like spears.

There are shields that would have been used in battle.

This was a man who, he fought for this place himself.

Kabalega reinforced the trade routes that brought firearms into Bunyoro.

That strengthened the kingdom and challenged Buganda's trade position.

His actions gave him heroic status.

I think because he brought a renewed sense of confidence to Bunyoro.

It was a sort of last stand.

And obviously he's still loved, these things are still venerated

and in a way they tell the story of Bunyoro.

Under Kabalega, Bunyoro was once again a force to be reckoned with.

The kingdoms were toe to toe, and into this volatile situation

new players arrived, the European explorers.

John Hanning Speke's 1862 account of Buganda and the source of the Nile

had inspired other expeditions to the region.

In 1874, Henry Morton Stanley was making his own journey

across the continent, three years after he'd found David Livingstone.

His explorations left him convinced of Livingstone's argument

that Christianity would improve the people's lives.

Stanley wrote a plea to the Daily Telegraph.

"Oh, that a pious practical missionary would come here

"who can teach people how to become Christians, cure their diseases,

"construct dwellings and turn his hand to anything."

And Stanley's letter had the desired effect.

In 1877 the trade routes from the coast

brought a new kind of import across Lake Victoria, missionaries.

The arrival of missionaries in Buganda

had profound implications for the kingdom and its rival.

The missionaries discovered a country full of willing converts.

Many chiefs believed the kingdom was in need of divine assistance.

It had suffered military defeats in skirmished with Bunyoro.

Epidemics had struck without warning.

King Mutesa was weak with disease.

Those offering salvation were welcome

whether European Protestants, Catholics or Muslims from the coast.

Religious conversion didn't result in peace and goodwill however,

instead it destabilised Buganda even further.

I'm on the outskirts of the capital city Kampala

to witness one of the country's biggest annual Christian holidays,

Martyrs' Day.

These pilgrims are commemorating the deaths of 22 Catholic martyrs,

who in 1886, paid with their lives for choosing God over their king.

Their executions were followed by those of 23 Protestants.

The killings had been ordered by King Mwanga.

He'd inherited a weakened monarchy after Mutesa's death.

His assertion of authority was an attempt to control

the religious factions that were now competing at Buganda's court.

But Christianity had a significant following among Buganda's chiefs.

They felt that Mwanga needed to be reigned in.

They turned to the British.

At the same time Protestant missionaries

implored the British government to intervene in Buganda

to prevent the loss of potential converts to Islam.

The British were keen to extend their influence in East Africa

and declared Buganda a protectorate in 1894.

The British benefited from Buganda's well-formed

social and political structures, as a means to rule,

but this wasn't just the British taking advantage of Africans.

Buganda realised that this was an extraordinary opportunity

to ensure that they, rather than Bunyoro,

were the most powerful kingdom in the region.

For the chiefs of Buganda the alliance with the British

was a marriage of convenience.

Their new partners established themselves in a fort

on Old Kampala Hill.

So there was actually a flag that sat over a building on this site?

Yes.

-A Union Jack?

-A union jack, yes.

Historian Deo Katono has analysed the relationship

between the British and Buganda when the protectorate was established.

I think the protectorate was a benefit for both parties

because for one part for Buganda it helped them to stabilise,

to create a new foundation for the kingdom in Buganda

and then for the British the creation of a protectorate over Buganda,

laid the foundations for the establishment

of the colony of Uganda.

So the benefit was on both sides.

For the British gained on their part

and the kingdom of Buganda gained also on their part.

In 1896, two years after signing the treaty with Buganda,

the British extended the protectorate

over the territory that would become Uganda.

It included the kingdom of Bunyoro.

But Bunyoro's King Kabelega had no intention of co-operating

so the Buganda-British alliance launched a pre-emptive strike

with the British calling the shots.

It involves the majority of the soldiers of Buganda

so they use Buganda as a stepping stone now, as a springboard.

They're using the personnel,

they use the military system of Buganda to invade Bunyoro.

Isn't this humiliating for Buganda as well? To be...

No.

..subservient to the British in this war?

No. No, it's not. No. It is an opportunity.

Buganda looks at it as an opportunity to expand.

But I imagine that the long-term strategic aim

of getting rid of the Bunyoro

is completely obscuring everything else?

-Yes.

-And they're losing sight of the fact that...

That they are being taken over.

Their country's being taken over by the British. They lose sight of that.

Buganda's chiefs were focused on ensuring their kingdom's supremacy

over their rival and they succeeded.

During the violence,

Bunyoro is thought to have lost three quarters of its population.

Tens of thousands were killed in action.

Many more succumbed to famine or fled the country.

The deaths of such a staggering number of people

decimated the kingdom, not just physically, but spiritually too,

and for a kingdom that believed in its permanence in this environment

it was a brutal blow.

Bunyoro was crushed.

Just when Buganda might have been expected to celebrate,

its king made an astonishing decision.

Mwanga realised he was little more than a puppet.

He rebelled in 1897, joined forces with his arch enemy Kabalega,

and waged war on the British.

Their joint effort resulted in the two men being captured

and exiled to the Seychelles in 1899.

But in the centuries-old conquest for supremacy,

Buganda had emerged the victor.

The British protectorate was named Uganda

and the British used administrators from Buganda

to enforce the law across all the kingdoms of the nation.

Many outside Buganda felt unfairly treated.

The old rivalries would never die.

In 1967, however, the kingdoms themselves did.

Under the dictatorships of Milton Obote and Idi Amin,

they ceased to exist for a generation.

But while the kingdoms may have seemed dead, they weren't buried.

They were reborn

when Uganda's government sanctioned their restoration in 1993.

In both Buganda and Bunyoro there was common cause for celebration.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC

The traditions such as Buganda's royal music were revived.

All of Uganda's kingdoms had suffered during the turbulent years

of the country's modern history.

But the fact that the culture

and the history returned with them quite so readily,

tells us how much these kingdoms continue to mean to the people.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd