Those Who Came Before Us
The Kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara: The Bachwezi Identity artwork

The Kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara: The Bachwezi Identity

Those Who Came Before Us
S1 E437:00
Play episode

Show notes

Send us Fan Mail The Bachwezi attract a lot of attention because of their grandiose claim of an empire. Many theories abound of their supposed identity. Were they Banyoro? Were they Portuguese? Egyptian? Greeks? Or simply a figment of a society’s imagination. The answer is of course much closer to home. Join me in this episode as I talk about the real history behind the Bachwezi. Kitara map link https://drive.google.com/file/d/19odGsKU1EsxbXoXE9q37M_zRKoGavLot/view?usp=sharing Bachwezi Lineage Tree Link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wfkxR3Trcl0knlwhXKUWfqs3phU5fK4b/view?usp=sharing Night Runners (Night Dancers) Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wCfTAa-w4Y&t=118s Roc(Middle Eastern Mythical Bird) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roc_(mythology) Sources Yolamu Ndoleriire Nsamba, "Mystique In Sovereigns’ Headgear "(Wandsbeck: Reach Publishers, 2016), p 52, 80-83,131, 146-147, 155, 163-167, 175 Christopher Wrigley, “Some Thoughts on the Bacwezi” The Uganda Journal, The Journal of the Uganda Society Vol 22 No. 1”( London: Headley Brothers Ltd, 1958) p 14 E.C. Lanning, “The Identity of the Bachwezi” The Uganda Journal, The Journal of Uganda Society Vol 22 No.2” ( London: Headley Brothers Ltd, 1958) p 188 Ruth Fischer, Twilight Tales of the Black Baganda( London: Marshall Brothers, 1938), p97, 103 Edith Sanders, “The Hamitic Hypothesis; It’s Origin and Functions in the Time Perspective” The Journal of African History, Vol. 10, No. 4 ( London: Cambridge University Press,1969), p 521 B.A Ogot, “The Great Lakes Region” General History of Africa volume 4: Africa from the 12th to the 16th Century (Berkley : University of California Press, 1984) p500,502 Shane Doyle, “From Kitara to the Lost Counties: Genealogy, Land and Legitimacy in the Kingdom of Bunyoro,Western Uganda” Social Identities Vol. 12, No. 4 (London: Routledge Taylor & Francis, 2006) p 459 Music Transition Sources Gregorian Chant Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Infados Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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