OWEYEGHA AFUNADUULA: What is the truth about Kyabazingaship of Busoga?

It is true. I used to be greatly disturbed at Makerere University in the 1990s whenever a friend of mine, Prof. Epelu-Opio, formally of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Makerere University,, used to tell me that the Houses of Nadiope and Zibondo, which have historically feuded over Kyabazingaship of Busoga since the white people started it in 1935 to replace the Presidency of Busoga, had no connections with Bunyoro, but had every connection with Teso.

I call upon Busoga to rethink Kyabazingaship and the heredity of those who have traditionally qualified to be Kyabazinga since 1935. The issue will remain conflictual until the truth wins. Busoga’s History may need to be rewritten.

There is nothing as bad as distorted or perverted history of a people.

Conflicts over Kyabazingaship have in the past wasted a lot of time of the Basoga and diverted a lot of energy away from productivity. It could even be one reason why the area has sank into debilitating poverty.

There has not been any serious intellectual debate over Kyabazangaship; the reason why it has remained more or less an imposition from the Centre right from the colonial times. Schemers with a lot of greed for power and leadership have manipulated the Basoga and benefited from Kyabazingaship while the Basoga have not.

Indeed the current Kyabazingaship is sustained more by the Centre – financially and politically – than by the Basoga. Although in the past Busoga could sustain itself because it could produce adequately, it has no capacity to sustain Kyabazingaship without the Centre.

As usual I welcome contradictory view on this critical subject.

For God and My Country