In Western Uganda, there’s a Bantu kingdom known as Bunyoro, or Bunyoro-Kitara. From the 13th until the 19th centuries, it was one of the strongest kingdoms in Central and East Africa.
Other names for the Bunyoro people include Nyoro or Banyoro. (Munyoro, in singular) Nyoro, often referred to as Runyoro, is the language used. Big game hunting, which included capturing lions, crocodiles, elephants, and leopards, was the main source of income in the past. The Banyoro people are now farmers, raising rice, cotton, tobacco, cassava, bananas, millet, and yams. The majority of the population is Christian. Following the fall of the Empire of Kitara, Rukidi-Mpuga founded the kingdom of Bunyoro at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The Bachwezi were followed by a group known as the Babiito, who founded Bunyoro-Kitara. The fall of the Kitaran Empire led to the formation of the kingdom. Subsequently, several other kingdoms emerged around the Great Lakes, including Bunyoro itself, Nkore, Mpororo, Buganda, Tooro, Busoga, Bagisu (in modern-day Kenya and Uganda), Rwanda, Gisera, Gisaka, and Burundi. As the kingdom grew in strength, it came to rule over the most important shrines in the area as well as the profitable Kibiro saltworks located near Lake Mwitanzige.
It was one of the strongest economic and military powers in the Great Lakes region due to having the best metallurgy in the area. The most significant institution in the kingdom is the kingship of Bunyoro. Because the king is patrilineal, it is inherited through males. This custom originates from a narrative that the Nyoro people tell. There there were three sons under the same name of Mukama. The Mukama prayed to God for assistance in naming them. Before being named, the lads had to complete a set of challenges. They had to sit with a pot of milk for the entire night, the three of them. A holy beverage served at significant occasions is milk. King or queen would be the one whose milk was still in the pot in the morning.
After dropping the milk, the youngest kid requested his big brothers to give him some of theirs, and they complied. The oldest son stopped a little more when daylight arrived. The eldest son was named after the peasants who are unfit for livestock herding since he has no more milk when God and the Mukama arrived to inspect the pots. The youngest boy, Oukama, was then dubbed Mukama, or king, for possessing the most amount, while the middle son was named after cow herders. This narrative illustrates how the Nyoro combines royalty and religion.
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