In Kabalega’s Kingdom: Bunyoro in Uganda

Above: Royal tomb of King Kabalega near Hoima in Uganda. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Published: The East African Nation media 25 April 2020

By Rupi Mangat

Powerful and progressive, Kabalega defended his kingdom against colonial onset

It was the taxi driver who announced, “The royal tomb of Kabalega is here.”  He brought the car to a halting screech when he realized l was serious about seeing it.

At that point Kabalega was quite unknown to me. I was whiling away days in Masindi visiting friends. With time on my hands and no intention of doing Murchison Falls – for now dubbed as the most powerful waterfall in the world – which l had visited in 2017, l was following in my late grandmother’s steps to Hoima. She gave birth in each of the three East African countries with the last born in Hoima in the 1940s.

Hoima was only 60 kilometres further west of Masindi and another 20 to Lake Albert, one of the African great lakes in the rift.

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Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika

The end of the road   

Published  Saturday magazine Nation media 18 November 2017

Kigoma Railway Station- Copyright Rupi Mangat
Kigoma Railway Station- Copyright Rupi Mangat

Superlatives fill the lake as l dive into the dazzling blue warm waters Lake Tanganyika. It is Africa’s longest and deepest lake – a veritable African Great Lake in the Albertine Rift, the western arm of the Great Rift Valley. It is also the world’s longest freshwater lake stretching 675 kilometers and holds 18 per cent of the world’s fresh water.

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