Talent and fun at coronation fete mellow Mengo subjects

By 8am yesterday, queues had formed at the gate of Lubiri Mengo, the seat of Buganda Kingdom, three kilometres west of Kampala City centre.

A couple of hours later, those lines had stretched outside the royal grounds, snaking onto Lubiri Ring Road promenade.

A cacophony of random honking by motorists and noise from surrounding activities pierced the innocence of a rising day.

It was an animated crowd that police and soldiers processed through metal detectors and alternately frisked.

Safety was key on the minds of organisers, and the state, as thousands of mainly kingdom subjects trooped for fete of the 30th anniversary of the coronation of Kabaka Ronald Frederick Muwenda Mutebi II.

The mid-morning sun shone strongly to add to sensual pleasure of merrymakers fascinated by cultural drummers, traditional troupes and student entertainers. Mengo mellowed to mass loyalty and delight.

It was the start of the 68-year-old king’s 30th year on the throne which he assumed when President Museveni’s government restored cultural and traditional institutions in 1993.

This was 27 years after Milton Obote’s first government abolished them in a fall-out with Mengo.

So, the Kabaka keeping in the seat uninterrupted for three decades, despite his expressed misgivings yesterday that he was a returned king with trimmed powers, showed Buganda Kingdom was out of the woods and with a prospect to last.

And the presence of his children at the event was testament to inter-generational continuity.

The organisers were elaborate in their planning; providing for a second sentry on the edge of the venue were card-holding guests were directed to sit under marquees while the rest huddled on the opposite side.

Every time an announcement on the arrival on notables echoed on the gigantic speakers, the crowd surged forward in desperate attempts to catch a glimpse. And they were not in short supply.

From clan leaders to clergy, from royals to opposition politicians, and from government officials to academics, the acclaim was widespread.

The echoes grew wilder when Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, led in a group of his members.

It was not the same rapturous welcome for former Vice President Edward Ssekandi and ministers Minsa Kabanda (Kampala), her junior Kyafatogabye Kabuye and his Higher Education counterpart Chrysostom Muyingo.

Neither delivered an official speech on behalf of the government, suggesting each was present in individual capacity as a subject of the kingdom. 

This did not dampen the celebratory mood. The men straddled in, sporting jackets over tunics (kanzu) with others wearing a bark-cloth sash, while the women ambled in gomesi.

The subjects appeared settled and mollified by the entertainers until Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga was chauffeured in at 11:40am. As the prime minister, Mr Mayiga administers the kingdom for and on behalf of the Kabaka, meaning he wields substantial power and admiration.

The crowd ululated as he disembarked to acknowledge the yodeling by waving back. The pushing and shoving intensified. Within a blink, everything turned tumultuous. It took several minutes before things quietened to the rhythm of the continuous performances.

Close to the venue entrance and near the VVIP tents were lined different drums, each symbolising something different from the other.

It was another wait for two-and-half-hours, exactly at 1:11pm, when the crowd erupted in deafening adulation. The Kabaka had arrived, accompanied by Nnaabagereka Sylvia Nagginda Luswata and their children and members of the royal household.

His subjects surged forward, threatening to breach the cordon, and security pushed them back.

Their resort was to observe real-time proceedings on three large screens strategically mounted at the venue.

Some of the men prostrated as the king got out of his vehicle. The Katikkiro and Buganda Kingdom ministers stepped forward to receive his Majesty whom they led to sound the biggest of the drums in symbolism of his dominion over the kingdom and his subjects.

The capitulation to his authority was manifest. More than half-a-dozen brawny men from the Mbogo (Buffalo) Clan raced to kneel besides him and one stooped.

The Kabaka stepped forward and was piggybacked. The other men propped the king from the sides to prevent accidental fall off the carrier’s shoulders. This age-old tradition in monarchies reflect the burden of a kingdom that a reigning monarch shoulders.

At the Lubiri yesterday, the carriers marched from side to side of the venue to the command of the king who, from the vantage point, was visible to subjects whose cheers he acknowledged with wide grins and energetic waving.

It was an absorbing fusion of culture and power, traditionalism and modernity. The Kabaka was afterwards taken to his royal seat to signal the start of the formal segment of the celebrations.

After singing the Buganda and national anthems, the royal drummers sounded the drums in unison 30 times, an equivalent of gun salute honours at state functions, to symbolise the pearl celebration.

And Kampala Catholic Archbishop Paul Ssemogerere prayed for the life and health of the Kabaka, lauded for leading anti-HIV and sickle cell campaigns, and a reading taken from the Biblical Book of Psalms 72:1-20, written “Of Solomon”, invoked wisdom and prowess for the Kabaka to provision for the underprivileged and safeguard all subjects.

As the Katikkiro ascended the rostrum, the clouds were gathering with menace, with whirlwinds whipping dust to the skies from the long scorched ground. Soon, the heavens opened and the rains buffeted the kingdom in what subjects interpreted as a blessing.

Nonetheless, the Ghetto Kids, who topped their international acclaim by competing in the Britain’s Got Talent global showpiece, wowed the crowds with amazing dance-floor moves marked by gyrations, clinical foot works and stunning body twists.

With his address done, performances by famed artistes Mesach Semakula, Hilderman (Hillary Kiyaga) and Palasso (real name Pius Mayanja) captivated the merrymakers, adding the final layers of pomp to the 30th anniversary of the coronation of Kabaka Mutebi II.