This picture of a man carrying a baby would hardly be newsworthy if it wasn’t for their identity, lineage, history and the intrigues that they elicit.
The man in none other than Kabaka Ronald Mutebi of Buganda, the largest of Uganda’s traditional kingdoms. The baby is his six month old son. Interesting? Absolutely! This is because the child is six months old and was being presented to the public only now. The queen of Buganda, the Nabagereka, has never been noted to be heavy with child since she had her daughter several years ago. If she had been pregnant recently the media would have been in a feeding frenzy.
The mother of the child is only noted to be from the nsenene (grasshopper) clan and that means the world for the kingdom of Buganda. This is simply because when a man becomes the kabaka of Buganda he is claimed by his mother’s clan and thus every clan can claim to have produced a king. All other blue bloods belong to the balangira (royal) clan.
Until this child was acknowledged in public the was a quiet dilemma that no one talked about, but everyone knew it was the elephant in the room. The kabaka’s first born son, prince Jjunju, has a mother of Rwandese origin and this almost certainly makes it impossible for him to become the next Kabaka because he would not have a clan to belong to.
The prince is never acknowledged in public and neither are two princesses (Joan and Victoria) who were mentioned for the first time. However, princess Sarah Ssangalyambogo the daughter that the kabaka fathered with the current queen, is better known.
Is prince Richard Ssemakokiro the next kabaka……probably. I can hear Buganda collectively sigh in relief.
