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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Images of an African Ruler: Kabaka Mutesa of Buganda, ca. 1857-1884
Author:Reid, RichardISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:History in Africa
Volume:26
Pages:269-298
Language:English
Geographic term:Uganda
Subjects:Buganda polity
traditional rulers
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
About person:Mutesa I, king of Buganda (ca. 1838-1884)ISNI
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172144
Abstract:Buganda (in present-day Uganda) was the most powerful and centralized State in the 19th-century East African lake region, and Mutesa, 'kabaka' or king between 1856/57 and his death in 1884, was the last truly independent ruler of his kingdom. The early part of his life remains largely hidden from view, but the exposure of his realm to a growing number of European travellers and missionaries from the early 1860s on meant that there developed an unusually substantial body of contemporary evidence. The present author outlines the images of Mutesa that can be derived from the available evidence. He shows that Mutesa was often seen as the embodiment of his own people: warlike, proud, arrogant. As his reign neared its end, this was sometimes modified to include the characteristics of progressiveness, intelligence, and openness to new ideas, all of which contributed to the colonial notion that the Ganda were truly equal to the task of ruling their neighbours on Britain's behalf. Notes, ref.
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