WHERE ANCIENT KINGS LIE



A side view of the main structure

 


In the same compound stands a similar side structure

  

The main site housing the Kings' graves

 Buganda legend has it that Kintu was the first man God created and sent down to earth via a rainbow. That he and his wife Nambi were the first King and Queen of Buganda; and that all subsequent Kings are direct descendants of Kintu.

At Kasubi, just outside Kampala lies the royal burial grounds of Buganda’s Kings – The Kasubi Tombs. Visit the site, enclosed in a reed fence and gate. This is the site of Kabaka (King) Muteesa I’s (1836 – 1884) palace. It was built by him in 1882 and was turned into a burial site after his death.

This place was called Nabulagala. But since Muteesa grew up at a place in Kyaggwe in another part of the Kingdom called Kasubi, he named this place the Kasubi-Nabulagala palace. Every Kabaka is supposed to build his own palace.

Inside the compound, next to the central site structure are several little round hut-like structures. These huts used to belong to Muteesa’s wives (he had eighty-four wives and several concubines), but his descendants now live in them.

A neat path leads to the site structure from the reed gate. Three of Muteesa I’s descendants are also buried here. His son Daniel Mwanga (1884 – 1910) renovated this site in 1896. He succeeded the throne at eighteen and was exiled after the killing of the Christian matyrs in the 1880s. He died in exile in the Seychelles Islands in 1903, but was buried here in 1910, when his body was returned.

Mwanga’s son, Daudi Chwa (1897 – 1939) succeeded the throne at the age of one. He renovated the site in 1938. He too was buried there. Daudi Chwa’s son, Edward Muteesa II (1924 – 1969), who was Uganda’s first President, was buried here in 1971 when his body was returned from England. He had died there two years earlier – in exile.

Inside the huge site, visitors are not allowed to see the actual graves sites. Displayed inside it are spears, portraits of the four late Kings, shields and other kinds of royal regalia.

Four ladies guard the site and make the mats that the visitors sit on. These ladies are symbolic wives of the Kings and are replaced every month. They tell the visitors all about the dead Kings. The Kingdom’s government maintains the tombs.

Every visitor entering the site structure is required to remove their shoes, kneel and offer money into a reed basket while inside. Visitors are not allowed to take photographs inside the structure.

A fire in the courtyard signifies a living King. The fire has to be kept going for so long as a Buganda King lives.

This burial site, which was once a palace, gives some insight into what ancient reed palaces might have looked like.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

•  TRAVELITE visited The Kasubi Tombs in the year 2000, so please double any shilling amounts that appear in the article until TRAVELITE posts any updates.
• The Kasubi Tombs were burnt down by yet unknown arsonists in September 2009. They had been gazetted by UNESCO as a world heritage site. The Kingdom of Buganda plans to restore the site. TRAVELITE will inform readers when the restored site becomes operational.
• One US Dollar is equivalent to Ug. Shs. 2,800.