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Revision as of 08:21, 13 September 2004
Bunyoro is a region of Uganda, and from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century one of the most powerful kingdoms of East Africa.
Bunyoro-Kitara
The ancient kingdom is often referred to as Bunyoro-Kitara. At its height it controlled almost the entire region between Lake Victoria, Lake Edward, and Lake Albert. One of many small states in the Great Lakes region the earliest stories of the kingdom having great power come from the Rwanda area where there are tales of the Bunyoro raiding the region under a prince named Cwa around 1520. The power of Bunyoro then faded until the mid seventeenth century when a long period of expansion began, with the empire dominating the region by the early eighteenth century.
Bunyoro rose to power by controlling a number of the holiest shrines in the region, the lucrative Kibiro saltworks of Lake Albert, and having the highest quality of metallurgy in the region. This made it the strongest military and economic power in the Great Lakes area.
Bunyoro began to fade in the late eighteenth century due to internal divisions. Buganda seized Koki and Buddu regions from Bunyoro at the end of the century. In around 1830 the large province of Toro separated, taking with many of the lucrative salt works. To the south Rwanda and Nkore were both growing rapidly, taking over some of the smaller kingdoms that had been Bunyoro's vassals.
Thus by the mid-nineteenth century Bunyoro was a far smaller state, overshadowed by the now potent Buganda. However the state still put up the greatest resistance to European colonialism, but was eventually annexed to the British Empire in 1896 and portion of the kingdoms territory was given to the British allied Buganda.
Today Bunyoro remains one of the four constituent kingdoms of Uganda.
List of Bunyoro Omukamas
- Rukidi - late fifteenth century
- Ocaki - late fifteenth/early sixteenth century
- Oyo Nyiba - early sixteenth century
- Winyi I - early sixteenth century
- Olimi I- mid sixteenth century
- Nyabongo - mid sixteenth century
- Winyi II - late sixteenth century/early seventeenth century
- Olimi II - mid seventeenth century
- Nyarwa - mid seventeenth century
- Cwamali - mid seventeenth century
- Masamba - late seventeenth century
- Kyebambe I - late seventeenth century
- Winyi III - early eighteenth century
- Nyaika - early eighteenth century
- Kyebambe II - early eighteenth century
- Olimi III - c. 1710-1731
- Duhaga - 1731- c. 1782
- Olimi IV - c. 1782-1786
- Kyebambe III - 1786-1835
- Nyabongo II - 1835-1848
- Olimi V - 1848-1852
- Kyebambe IV - 1852-1869
- Kaberga - 1869-1898
- Kitahimbwa - 1898-1902
- Duhaga II - 1902-1924
- Winyi IV - 1925-1967
- From 1967 until 1994 the monarchy was discontinued by the Ugandan government
- Iguru - 1994-present