The people of the Rwenzururu Kingdom of Uganda have fianlly crowned their King, weeks after it was recognized by the government.
AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo
On Monday, Charles Wesley Mumbere, age 56, was coronated as the Omusinga of the Rwenzururu, located in western Uganda. The ceremony was attended by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, as well as thousands of people, who were beating drums and wearing their King’s image on their clothes.
“It is a great moment to know that finally the central government has understood the demands of the Bakonzo people who have been seeking very hard for recognition of their identity,” Mumbere told The Associated Press.
The crowning of Mumbere has attracted worldwide attention, as it was recently revealed that he worked as a nurse’s aide in the United States for nearly 25 years. He mentioned that during an interview with The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, upon his July return to his homeland.
Mumbere’s father, Isaya Mukirania Kibanzanga, fought in a secessionist group that was fighting another ethnic group which dominated the Bakongo people, the ones who live in Rwenzururu. Mumbere was taught to be a fighter at age nine, and grew up in the bush, which he described to the AP as “very difficult.”
AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo
When his father died, Mumbere led his people to hand in their weapons. In 1984, he went to business school in the United States on an Ugandan government scholarship. But when that scholarship was dropped after Uganda’s government changed, Mumbere got political asylum and became a nurse’s aide. He said he went into that field because it “was more reliable. Other jobs you can be laid off easily.”
All that changed when Uganda started to restore its traditional kingdoms in the 1980s. Mumbere then lobbied to the King of Rwenzururu, and now he is has been crowned.
But not everyone is pleased. Mumbere was not the only one claiming to the rightful King, even though he said he inherited the Kingdom from his father when Mumbere was 13.
“It is injustice,” one of the men, Swaleh Tibamwenda, said yesterday. “It [the ceremony] is a government project, not a cultural one. The government can’t take over the culture of the people.”
“There is not much I can do,” he said. “You cannot fight it, and I don’t know what really is going on.”
AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo
Some Ugandans have wondered if President Museveni’s move to recognize the Rwenzururu Kingdom was a political one to help him win reelection. His rival, Kizza Besigye, surprised everyone when he unexpectedly showed up at the coronation.
He did not speak during the ceremony, but the President did, giving the Osuminga a warning.
“Don’t mix culture and politics; that will be the end of your kingdom [if you do so],” Museveni said to Mumbere.
Recent Comments