Culture: Kasubi Tombs

The Kasubi Tombs in Kampala, Uganda, is the site of the burial grounds for four Kabakas (kings of Buganda), and a UNESCO World Heritage site.                                                                                 

     

The royal enclosure at Kasubi Hill, also known as the Ssekabaka's Tombs, was first built in 1881. The circular site contained many structures, including the royal tombs of four Kabakas of Buganda. The tombs were held in straw thatched buildings. The site remains an important spiritual and political site for the Baganda people. In 2001, the Kasubi Tombs were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

The Kabakas buried at the site were:

·         Muteesa I (1835–1884)

·         Mwanga II (1867–1903)

·         Daudi Chwa II (1896–1939)

·         Sir Edward Muteesa II (1924–1969).

About Buganda Kingdom

The Baganda belong to the Bantu speaking people and date their political civilization back to the 13th century AD. According to oral traditions, the first Kabaka of Buganda was Kintu. He is said to have come with his wife Nambi, whose hand he won by performing heroic deeds at the command of her
father Ggulu, the god of the sky. Kabaka Kintu is said not to have died but to have disappeared into a forest at Magonga. At Kasubi and in all other royal tombs, there is an area behind a bark cloth (lubugo) curtain known as Kibira or forest where certain secret ceremonies are performed. At the Kasubi Tombs the Kibira is the area where the real tombs of the Kabakas are, while in front of the curtain there are raised platforms corresponding to the position of each Kabaka’s tomb behind the curtain.

The first Kabaka to be buried at Kasubi was Muteesa I, who was the 35th King. The dates of the reigns of the Kabakas are only precisely known from Kabaka Suuna II, who ruled from 1836 to 1856.

Historically, Baganda Kabakas have always built their palaces on strategic hills to control the major roads to the palace, and find easy ways to escape in case of an invasion or a rebellion. When they died, the traditional practice was to bury each Kabaka at a separate site and to establish a royal shrine to house his jawbone which was believed to contain his spirit at another site. These shrines were started by descendants of the Kabaka’s leading chiefs, his wives, his ritual half-sister, and by a spirit medium through which the dead Kabaka communicated with his successors. Many of these shrines are still maintained today.