{UAH} HOW DID THE BAKONZO COME UP WITH OBUSINGA?!

The current Busongora [Kasese District] was once part of a larger pre- colonial Busongora state which had one of its main capital cities as Bunyampaka located in what later became Queen Elizabeth National Park. Other capital sites of the ancient Busongora state included the city of Kyoga located at the present Bwera township, and also the city of Bwengo... near the present day Kayanja landing site on Lake George [formerly known as lake Matsyoro in Rusongora, the language of the Basongora].

The pre-colonial state of Busongora consisted of several provinces including Kisaka-Makara, Kitagwenda, Kazinga, Buyondo, Bunyaruguru, Kiyanja and Bugaya. In the 1890s and early 1900s Busongora state was partitioned and divided between the Congo Free State and the Uganda Protectorate, and the portions that fell within Uganda were further sub- divided into several districts and counties all of which were annexed to the kingdoms of Bunyoro, Toro and Nkore, as well as Bukonjo which was formed in the later part of the 20th century.

The Busongora province of Kitagwenda became part of Toro and Bunyoro; Bunyaruguru became part of Nkore; Buyondo – the area between Kazinga channel and Kyambura escarpment – also went to Nkore. Kisaka consisting of the present day Busongora County and part of Bukonjo initially was made part of Toro, but has since become Kasese district.

The portions of Busongora that were given to the Congo consisted of the provinces of Kiyanja, Bugaya, and Makara. The three provinces in the Congo included the area between the Semliki and the Muramba hills, as well as all of what became Virunga National Park.

For most of its history, ancient Busongora was a unified state led by a parliament and a constitutional monarchy consisting of a triumvirate made up of the Dowager Queen [Omugabe-kati], a female co-ruler [Omugo] and a male co-ruler [Omukama]. Although the Basongora had many kings, several women ruled as heads of state in their own right, or were politically powerful. Among these women are the queens Kogyere I Rusija-Miryango,
Kogyere II Nyakahuma, Kogyere III Ikamiro, and Kantunguru. Other notable Basongora women include Queen Kibooga of Nkore who was the mother of king Ntare V, and Queen Gwenyonga who was the wife of Ntare V and daughter of the Bulemu II.

In the 1890s, under pressure caused by the invasions of the European colonialists, the Kilongalonga slave raiders, and the attacks by Toro and Bunyoro, as well as cattle and human epidermics, Busongora succumbed to civil war between the major clans and ruling houses. However, most of Busongora was briefly reunited and ruled by the aging king Kaihura between and his son king Kasigano between 1894 and 1906.

The removal of king Kasigano was followed by an interregnum that saw the expulsion in 1931 of the Basongora communities from their homeland, and in 1950s the conversion into national parks of the community’s heartland and last remaining grazing lands – which were turned into Virunga and Queen Elizabeth parks. The massive reduction in the size of the cattle stock did much to disorient and impoverish the Basongora at the end of the 1800s
and the beginning of the 20th Century.

The Basongora are one of the oldest indigenous communities in the western arm of the Great Rift Valley and the foot-hills of mount Rwenzori [in Rusongora it was traditionally known Rwenjura]. In fact Kasese district is named after a king Kasheshe of the Basongora. Other notable place names include Kaihura, the area near Kyenjojo in what is now Toro named after king Kaihura. The bridge at Katunguru is actually named after queen Kantunguru. Kogyere I Rusija-Miryango had her palace at Rukoki near where the current district administration headquarters are located in Kasese.

Studies of East Africa by scholars, administrators and missionaries – including John Roscoe in the 1880s, Harry Johnston in the early 1900s, Ephraim Kamuhangire, Jan Kuhanen, and by many others over the course of century have provided a steady record of the history and culture of the Basongora. In their research on the vegetation of QENP in the 1960s Henry Osmaston and Lock of Cambridge showed that the open savannah and short shrubs were the product of centuries-long fire-management system by Basongora to curtail overgrowth, and also noted the presence of so many euphorbia trees [enkukuru] as having been deliberately planted by Basongora to protect their cattle against raids. Some of the planted euphorbia trees were estimated to be at least 500 years old.

The Basongora also have a collective memory of their ancestry in the region going back hundreds of years. The list of past Basongora kings and queens number over 30, and the earliest rulers and clans go back at least to the 1100s and the early 1200s. As far as the historical record is concerned, the Basongora are the indigenous people of Kasese district, contrary to claims that they are immigrants. The archaeological record alone shows that cattle-herding in the region dates back at least to the beginning of the Holocene era 10,000 years ago, and artefacts used by our ancestors and unearthed in both Virunga and Queen Elizabeth, as well as other places in area, are thousands of years old.

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