Those Who Came Before Us
Canoes, Cloth, and Conflict: The Wary King Romwa (Hannington Part 4) artwork

Canoes, Cloth, and Conflict: The Wary King Romwa (Hannington Part 4)

Those Who Came Before Us
11:26
Play episode

Show notes

Send us Fan Mail After a brutal trek across the interior, James Hannington and two fellow missionaries finally reach the lands of Romwa of Buzinza, exhausted, sick, and desperate for canoes to cross Lake Victoria. But with empty hands and no tribute to offer, they quickly learn that Romwa is no simple chief. He is a wary monarch guarding his sovereignty in a world where strangers mean danger… and nothing comes for free. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/twcbuchannc Youtube Episode link: https://youtu.be/oII9e6b000c Sources Ashe, Robert Pickering. Chronicles of Uganda. London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1894 Bennett, Norman Robert. Mirambo of Tanzania, 1840?-1884. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1971.Berry, Grinton . “Bishop Hannington and the Story of the Uganda Mission.” New York, Revell, 1908“Church Missionary Gleaner (afterwards C.M.S. Gleaner).” [London: Church Missionary Society, year varies]. https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Church_missionary_gleaner_afterw_C_M_S_g/5xkFAAAAQAAJ.Dawson, Edwin Collas. Lion-hearted: The Story of Bishop Hannington's Life, Told for Boys and Girls. United Kingdom: Seeley, 1890.Europeans in East Africa: Biographical Database. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://www.europeansineastafrica.co.uk/_site/custom/database/default.asp?a=viewIndividual&pid=2&person=4252.Hannington, James. Peril and Adventure in Central Africa. Being Illustrated Letters to the Youngsters at Home, by the Late Bishop H. With Illustrations from Original Sketches by the Bishop, and a Biographical Memoir. N.p.: London, 1886.Hartwig, Gerald W. “The Victoria Nyanza as a Trade Route in the Nineteenth Century.” The Journal of African History 11, no. 4 (1970): 535–52.Holmes, C. F. “Zanzibari Influence at the Southern End of Lake Victoria: The Lake Route.” African Historical Studies 4, no. 3 (1971): 477–503.Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography. Vol. 1, no. 2 (February 1879): 135–38. Report of the Evening Meetings, Session 1878–79.Michael, Charles D. James Hannington, Bishop and Martyr. London: SW Patridge & C. Ltd. 1910 Rockel, Stephen. Caravan Porters of the Nyika: Labour, Culture, and Society in Nineteenth Century East Africa. University of Toronto, 1997.Stock, Sarah Geraldina. The Story of Uganda and the Victoria Nyanza Mission. United Kingdom: Religious Tract Society, 1894.

More from this show

More
  1. African Spiritual Warfare: How Horns Protected and Attacked in the Great Lakes

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we explore the role of horns in spiritual practice across kingdoms like Buganda, Bunyoro, and Busoga. Often filled, sealed, and carried, these hor…

    18:55
  2. The Envoys Who Saw the World: The Story I Didn’t Say

    Send us Fan Mail This is the story I didn’t say. In the main episode, I focused on what the envoys meant to Buganda. Here, I slow things down and follow their journey step by step…

    28:14
  3. Kabaka Muteesa I’s 1879 Mission to London: Survival Diplomacy in Buganda

    Send us Fan Mail By 1879, the kingdom of Buganda found itself caught in the expanding shadow of empire. To the north, Egyptian forces were pushing deeper into the Upper Nile, threa…

    47:39
  4. Master of the Waves: Mukasa, God of Lake Victoria

    Send us Fan Mail Lake Victoria has always been more than geography. For the people who lived along its shores in Buganda and across the Great Lakes region, it was a living domain c…

    21:11
  5. A Spirit World Pretending to Be a Lake: The Serpent Spirits of Lake Victoria in African Mythology

    Send us Fan Mail The world’s second-largest freshwater lake is more than a body of water. It is a boundary. For those who lived along its shores in East Africa, Lake Victoria was s…

    08:10
  6. At the Edge of Buganda: Why James Hannington Turned Back (Part 5)

    Send us Fan Mail At Kagei the crucial port on the southern shore of Lake Victoria and the main gateway to Buganda by canoe, James Hannington finally steps free after his detention…

    14:27
Now Playing