Those Who Came Before Us
Most of us are aware of how badly represented Africa is. The continent is too often reduced to a number of degrading stereotypes. But Africa has a rich and diverse history. A history that is usually ignored or poorly understood not just by the world but by (sometimes) its own people. A certain British historian once referred to its past as darkness.
Well, I hope to be among those who hold a lantern to this so-called darkness of a history. Take my hand, as I guide you down the pathways of Africa’s supposed night covered past. Allow me to show you her numerous and diverse people, their perspectives, religion, and their stories.
Hosted by David Ibanda( a devoted student of African history with a penchant for Corny jokes)
Follow podcast instagram page at @twcbupod.
Those Who Came Before Us
African History: The AbaiseWakooli of Bukooli, Busoga
Today, I cover the pre-colonial history of the Bukooli state of the AbaiseWakooli clan up to 1900.
Bukooli was one of the many states that came to make up the modern traditional kingdom of Busoga in Uganda, East Africa.
I start with the origin of their founder Okali who travelled with and was brothers with Kakaire of the Abaisemenha clan from Episode 3.
Bukooli grew into a state that attempted to dominate their neighbours.
Their connection to the much larger kingdom of Buganda enhanced their military and economic opportunities granting them access to guns and goods from the Zanzibar coast.
This is their pre-colonial history.
Correction at 21:06 Banda state in southeast Bukooli was ruled by the AbaiseKibiga not the AbaiseKiruyi. I got it wrong.. Twice. 🤦🏿(pg 467, Enkaana) I will forever hang my head in shame.
Few things to note.
Wakooli - Ttile for King of Bukooli Kingdom
Kabaka - Title for King of Buganda Kingdom
Ngobi. - Title for King of Buzimba-Kigulu Kingdom
Please see sources below for further reading.
Ashe, Robert, “ Chronicles of Uganda” (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1894)
David William Cohen, “The Historical Tradition of Busoga; Mukama and Kintu” ( London: Clarendon Press, 1972)
David William Cohen, “Emergence and Crisis: The States of Northern Busoga in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries” , in D. DENOON, ed., History of Uganda, vol. II (Nairobi: East African Publishing House).
Early Treaties in Uganda, https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00080855/00061/520
Federick Peter Batala-Nayenga, “An Economic History of the Lacustrine States of Busoga, Uganda: 1750-1939” ( University of Michigan, 1976)
Minah Nabirye and Gilles-Maurice De Schryver, “Enkaana” , Fieldwork Texts Compiled by David William Cohen on the history of the Basoga people, (Kampala, Menha Publishers, 2022)
Ogenga Otunnu, “Crisis of legitimacy and Political Violence”, (Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
William FitzSimons, “Warfare, Competition, and the Durability of Political Smallness in Nineteenth Century” Journal of African History ( Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Y.K. Lubogo ESQ, “History of Busoga”(Kisubi,Uganda: Marianum Press Ltd, 2020)(Translated and reprint from original written in Luganda)