{UAH} A COMEDOWN FOR A KING (Part I)
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A COMEDOWN FOR A KING (Part I)
London-exiled East African Monarch tells story of perilous flight from death-- By CHARLES L. SANDERS in the EBONY magazine of 1967.
The clothes were bad: the brownish tweed jacket too big in the shoulders, the trouser legs baggy at the knees. But the face-- it was one that had taken generations of royal blood to form: fine-boned, the skin tight, black and smooth, the forehead high, the eyes a bit squinted, like those of an Oriental.
This was, standing there in the sitting room of a rented, and, really, quite dowdy, apartment in London, a King: His Royal Highness Sir Edward William Frederick David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Muteesa II, the [35th] Kabaka of the East African Kingdom of Buganda.
King Freddie is in exile in London. He fled there last June after Uganda's Prime Minister Apollo Milton Obote sent eight infantry companies up Kampala's Mengo Hill and a 12-hour battle reduced the Royal Palace compound to one great heap of burning buildings, bullet-scarred Rolls-Royce and corpses of the 100-man Palace Guard. Every symbol of the seven-centuries-old monarchy was destroyed, it seems. His jewel-encrusted crown was last seen dangling from the end of a soldier's spear, and one of his thrones was dragged out to the compound's front gate and set up as a "rest bench" for troops walking guard.
The Kabaka's wife, Nnabagereka (Queen) Damali, was captured. So were his brother, Prince David [Ssimbwa], his sister, Princess Victoria, and most of the footmen, maids and other retainers who lived on the Palace grounds. When the fighting ended, bodies littered the slope of Mengo Hill. Estimates are that at least 1,000 people died-- soldiers, guards and Baganda tribesmen who had gathered to defend their King. The Kabaka escaped only because he managed to scramble up a 12-foot high wall and jump over the other side. "A taxi appeared," he says, "the driver was kind enough to give us a ride." With him were the adjutant of his guard, Capt. Jehoash Katende and an aide de camp, George Maalo. Disguised as peasants, the three lived for a month in the jungle and swamp, walked across the Congo, then hitched rides to Burundi where the Kabaka had friends. When he finally reached London, all that once-wealthy Kabaka of Buganda had was a little cardboard and a first-aid kit.
King Freddie sees few people these days. He's afraid of assassination. He thinks Obote might have him kidnapped and brought home to stand trial for "high treason," and, mainly, he just isn't eager to have his picture taken in a rented apartment and talk about what is, really, quite a comedown for a king. Only one British newspaper has been able to get a real interview with him. And unable to get near him are those brash young tabloid reporters who might raise questions about the royal love life: about those old newspaper stories of the ability of "that charming African chap... the King one, you know" to quick-switch from a London chorus girl to an African belle; about how a girl who said she danced "quite in the nude" in a Piccadilly Circus night-club, went all the way to Buganda, then staged a sit-down strike when officials tried to put her on the next north-bound plane; about how one of the Kabaka's brothers was reportedly caught in the royal bed-chamber wit Queen Damali, and how the Kabaka really preferred the Queen's sister, Sarah Kisosonkole, all the time.
--
-- London-exiled East African Monarch tells story of perilous flight from death-- By CHARLES L. SANDERS in the EBONY magazine of 1967.
The clothes were bad: the brownish tweed jacket too big in the shoulders, the trouser legs baggy at the knees. But the face-- it was one that had taken generations of royal blood to form: fine-boned, the skin tight, black and smooth, the forehead high, the eyes a bit squinted, like those of an Oriental.
This was, standing there in the sitting room of a rented, and, really, quite dowdy, apartment in London, a King: His Royal Highness Sir Edward William Frederick David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Muteesa II, the [35th] Kabaka of the East African Kingdom of Buganda.
King Freddie is in exile in London. He fled there last June after Uganda's Prime Minister Apollo Milton Obote sent eight infantry companies up Kampala's Mengo Hill and a 12-hour battle reduced the Royal Palace compound to one great heap of burning buildings, bullet-scarred Rolls-Royce and corpses of the 100-man Palace Guard. Every symbol of the seven-centuries-old monarchy was destroyed, it seems. His jewel-encrusted crown was last seen dangling from the end of a soldier's spear, and one of his thrones was dragged out to the compound's front gate and set up as a "rest bench" for troops walking guard.
The Kabaka's wife, Nnabagereka (Queen) Damali, was captured. So were his brother, Prince David [Ssimbwa], his sister, Princess Victoria, and most of the footmen, maids and other retainers who lived on the Palace grounds. When the fighting ended, bodies littered the slope of Mengo Hill. Estimates are that at least 1,000 people died-- soldiers, guards and Baganda tribesmen who had gathered to defend their King. The Kabaka escaped only because he managed to scramble up a 12-foot high wall and jump over the other side. "A taxi appeared," he says, "the driver was kind enough to give us a ride." With him were the adjutant of his guard, Capt. Jehoash Katende and an aide de camp, George Maalo. Disguised as peasants, the three lived for a month in the jungle and swamp, walked across the Congo, then hitched rides to Burundi where the Kabaka had friends. When he finally reached London, all that once-wealthy Kabaka of Buganda had was a little cardboard and a first-aid kit.
King Freddie sees few people these days. He's afraid of assassination. He thinks Obote might have him kidnapped and brought home to stand trial for "high treason," and, mainly, he just isn't eager to have his picture taken in a rented apartment and talk about what is, really, quite a comedown for a king. Only one British newspaper has been able to get a real interview with him. And unable to get near him are those brash young tabloid reporters who might raise questions about the royal love life: about those old newspaper stories of the ability of "that charming African chap... the King one, you know" to quick-switch from a London chorus girl to an African belle; about how a girl who said she danced "quite in the nude" in a Piccadilly Circus night-club, went all the way to Buganda, then staged a sit-down strike when officials tried to put her on the next north-bound plane; about how one of the Kabaka's brothers was reportedly caught in the royal bed-chamber wit Queen Damali, and how the Kabaka really preferred the Queen's sister, Sarah Kisosonkole, all the time.
--
Rehema
Patriot in Kampala,East Africa:UMBS is a registered organization devoted to matters of interest to Muslims in Uganda.Muslims from other countries are welcome to join us too. Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/UMBSFORUM. To donate to UMBS activities, click on: http://um-bs.com/donate/ or just deposit money on UMBS Bank A/C at Bank of Africa:07074320002 .
Patriot in Kampala,East Africa:UMBS is a registered organization devoted to matters of interest to Muslims in Uganda.Muslims from other countries are welcome to join us too. Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/UMBSFORUM. To donate to UMBS activities, click on: http://um-bs.com/donate/ or just deposit money on UMBS Bank A/C at Bank of Africa:07074320002 .
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