He was born around
1866 to kabaka muteesa l of Buganda.he came to power at a tender age of 18 on
24 th October upon death of his father
Mwangas early
years in power were faced by many problems as shown below.
By the time
he ascended to power there were four religious groups in Buganda ie the catholics
Protestants, Muslims and the traditionalists
Unlike his
father who was a great diplomat,playing off one group against the other.mwanga
was young revengeful erratic and inexperienced and hence could not handle the
pressure from the four factions
Secondly he
faced a problem of bunyoros growing power .kabalega was determined to revive
the glory of bunyoro at the expense of his neighbors
He was also
worried of European increasing power in east Africa.the German were already
advancing from Tanganyika
Arabs warned
him of the problems he was likely to face because of his association with the whites. But he did not need to be
informed of this as he was already aware
The rate of
conversation to Christianity also worried him especially at his court this was
the European influence
In January
1885 he executed three CMS missionaries and in November the same year he ordered
the execution of bishop hannington in busoga this was the beginning of his campaign
against Christianity
On 3rd june 1886
he went ahead and executed thirty Christian converts at namugongo for refusing
to denounce their Christian faith
In 1888 he
made plans to capture all Christians and Muslims after which he would take them
to an island on lake Victoria where they would die of starvation
In October
1888 a combined force of Christians and Muslims overthrew mwana
He was replaced
by his brother kiwewa.the Muslims tried to convince kiwewa to accept circumcision and convert to Islam.but he refused saying
that hands tradition did allow the kabaka to shed blood
Because of
his refusal to embrace Islam kiwewa was overthrow after a few months and with
some Christians he fled to ankole
Power was
passed then on to his young brother kalema who had embraced Islam and given the name rashid this was a great
victory for Muslims and Arabs
Christians
were not pleased with these development and this forced them to ally with the
deposed mwanga and in October 1889 their combined force brought back mwamga to
power and kalema fled to bunyoro
On 30th April
1890 mwanga signed a treaty with Frederick Jackson placing Buganda under the
protection of the IBEACO
The same
year he embraced Christianity and was christened Daniel .he appointed Catholics
to positions in his government
However all
these development didn't end his problems as conflicts and quarrels persisted
between his Christian allies resulting into wars
The wars
broke out after a Protestant was murdered by a catholic on Kampala streets what
followed were a serious series of killing
Captain
lugard sided with the Protestants and armed them with 500guns ,the Catholics
and mwanga were defeated and took to refuge in buddu
He was
however recalled to sign a treaty with Gen Gerald portal.and portal tried to
correct most of the misunderstandings by that time
In 1897 with
support of disgruntled chiefs mwanga tried to resist the new British changes
but he was crushed and flee to Tanganyika
The same
year the British officially deposed him and proclaimed his one year old son Daudi
Chwa as the kabaka with three other
ministers to run the government
In 1898
after escaping from the German mwanga joined his ex-enemy,kabalega in lango to
continue with his resistance against British rule
Unfortunately
the two were captured by kakungulu with the help of a British force under col
evarts on 9 April 1899 at kangai near lake kyoga
This marked
the end of his rebellion to the British rule and they were both exiled in Seychelles
islands where mwanga died on 1903
Mwanga was
therefore one of the notable resistors of colonial rule in east Africa
No comments:
Post a Comment