For visitors entering the quiet, grass-thatched compound at Mparo Royal Tombs, the history of Bunyoro-Kitara and Tooro is told in one place – the final resting place of Omukama Kabalega II.
At Mparo, which was once one of Kabalega’s palaces, lies the man the Banyoro remember as a reformer, a conqueror and a resistance hero. And it is here that the story of how Tooro and Bunyoro became two kingdoms is still explained.
Fred Bogo Rujumba, a retired civil servant now appointed by the Bunyoro Kingdom as a tour guide at Mparo Royal Tombs, says every visitor must first understand the size of the old kingdom.
From Kitara Empire to Five Kingdoms
“What you hear today as the Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom was once known as the Kitara Empire,” Rujumba explains. “It was an empire because it was a really huge chunk of a kingdom, which extended its borders as far as Tanzania. It would border Kenya, Rwanda, Congo, and the Sudan region. Can be bigger than the current Uganda map.”
He says early explorers and colonial agents also documented that Bunyoro was the biggest and strongest kingdom in East and Central Africa.
To prove its age, Rujumba points to the three dynasties that have ruled the kingdom.
“It was first ruled by the people known as Abatembuzi. Then Abatembuzi were succeeded by Abachwezi. And then Abachwezi were replaced by the current ruling clan of Ababiito,” he says. “Ababiito started ruling from that period up to today.”
It is from this old Kitara that Uganda’s other kingdoms emerged, he notes.
“It was the mother, in other words, the origin of all five kingdoms which Uganda has. Buganda originated from this old kingdom, and also Tooro, Ankole, Busoga, and Kooki, and this is an undeniable fact,” Rujumba says.
The Relationship Between Tooro and Bunyoro
Despite the political split, the people remain one, according to Rujumba.
“We share a lot in common with those people. We have the same culture. We are the same tribe. We have different dialects, a variation of dialects, but we are initially almost one tribe,” he explains.
Historically, Tooro was part of Bunyoro. It was during Kabalega’s reign that the kingdom reconquered territories it had lost under weak kings before him.
“Within no time, Kabalega reconquered the Tooro, Butuku, Buswangora, Mboga, and Bukonjo. Now, having regained the lost territories, he had widened his sphere of influence for his kingdom,” Rujumba says.
Tooro’s final separation as an independent kingdom is traced to the late 19th century internal rifts within the Babiito royal family, which were later exploited by British colonial interests – a common colonial pattern of dividing large African empires.
Who Was Kabalega?
Kabalega was born on 18th June 1853. His father was Omukama Kamurasi Kyebambe II and his mother was Kanyange Nyamutahingurwa Aboori of the Banyoza clan of Mwenge.
His mother’s name tells a story of her beauty, Rujumba says.
“We, the Bantu group, do have a common name for these white birds in English, which are called cattle egrets. Because this lady was extremely brown, that’s why she was called Kanyange,” he says. “Nyamutahingurwa literally meant an impossible beauty. A woman you could not easily pass by if you happened to meet her.”
The name Kabalega itself came from his place of birth – Burega in present-day Democratic Republic of Congo.
His father Kamurasi was facing constant attempts to depose him by fellow Babiito princes and was forced to flee into exile in Burega. When he returned, his son was still a small boy.
“It was during that time that his parents started teasing this small boy by saying, ‘You, the child of Burega.’ So, in short, Kabarega. That’s how his name came about,” Rujumba says.
Kabalega ascended the throne at 16 years and ruled for 30 years. His reign is remembered for three things: political transformation, economic reform, and military rejuvenation.
Politically, he reunited the lost counties. Economically, he intensified trade in ivory and salt, establishing trade hubs in Zanzibar and Khartoum.
Militarily, he modernised his famed Abarusura army. From relying on spears and arrows, his army acquired guns from Arab traders in exchange for ivory. Banyoro blacksmiths then duplicated the guns, producing homemade guns.
“Now Kabalega’s army became equipped with two types of guns: the first type acquired from Arab traders through the ivory trade, and the local homemade guns,” Rujumba explains.
The War Against the British and Exile
When he was 38 years old in 1891, Captain Frederick Lugard led the British colonial army into Bunyoro with the intention of colonising it.
Rujumba says Kabalega did not want immediate war. He requested three peace talks, all rejected.He says the British had been influenced by earlier colonial agents, Sir Samuel Baker and Gaetano Casati – who had clashed with Kabalega and wrote negatively about him in books like _Ismailia_, calling him a monster opposed to development.
“All these made the British colonial army believe that Kabalega was indeed a very difficult man. So they came with one purpose: capturing him,” Rujumba says.
Left with no alternative, Kabalega chose resistance.
Having assessed the superior strength of the British force – which included British officers, Indian troops, Sudanese Nubians, Swahili soldiers from the coast, and about 1,200 Baganda collaborators, armed with long-range Maxim guns – Kabalega avoided open battle.
“He could never risk his soldiers by fighting a frontal attack. He now resorted to fighting guerrilla warfare, the hit-and-run,” Rujumba says.
For eight years he fought, later joining forces with Buganda’s Kabaka Mwanga II.
Tired of the prolonged war, the British used two men – Semei Kakungulu and Lwandaga – who infiltrated Kabalega’s army, bribed some soldiers and revealed his hideout.
On 9th April 1899 at Kangai in present-day Dokolo, Lango district, the two kings were captured. Rujumba says during the heavy exchange, Kabalega’s right arm was broken by a bullet and the thumb on his left hand was shot off. He dropped his gun and was surrounded.
He was 46 years old at capture, while Mwanga was 31. By then, Kabalega had fathered 139 children, 79 boys and 60 girls.
The two kings were exiled to Seychelles Island in the Indian Ocean, then to a British prison for stubborn African kings. Mwanga died there after four years on 8th May 1903 at age 35. His body was later returned to Buganda.
Kabalega survived 24 years in exile. He was released at age 70 and was being repatriated by ship from Seychelles to Mombasa and then to Jinja. Shortly after leaving Jinja, he fell ill.
“As he breathed his last, the word which he uttered when he breathed his last was ‘Mpumwire ‘, which literally meant I have rested ‘. It eventually resulted in that spot where he died being known as Mpumwire,” Rujumba narrates. He died on 6th April 1923.
Legacy at Mparo
Rujumba says Bunyoro regards Kabalega with great respect and pride because he challenged colonialism and defended his kingdom.
“You hear of this current oil resource, which the government is soon going to enjoy. By now, it would have belonged to Egypt,” he says, referring to historical claims that Kabalega resisted foreign attempts to take Bunyoro’s resources.
At Mparo, only two kings are buried – Kabalega and his son Tito Winyi II Gafabusa. Historically, Buyaga and Bugangayizi counties were reserved for coronations and burials of kings.
Today, Mparo receives fewer visitors after the government halted school tours due to road accidents, Rujumba says, but it remains a living classroom for Uganda’s history.
Inside the tombs, guides also recall the early sports of Bunyoro, wrestling and mock spear fighting to prepare for war and how Kabalega himself loved playing Omweso while relaxing in his palace.
For both Bunyoro and Tooro, Mparo is more than a burial ground. It is a reminder that the two kingdoms share one origin, one language, and one hero whose resistance shaped the history of western Uganda.
