Thread by @JonathonLEarle

This is very insightful @Isacmpanga — thank you! It seems similar to, "Gutufudde: gwafa Ssuuna n'Abaziba." As Mukasa recounts, Ssuuna had sent Nakamali as the kingdom's diplomat. When Nakamali arrived, he was overwhelmed by the beauty of the place,

https://twitter.com/Isacmpanga/status/1440158728674680834

including the beauty of the royal women. When Nakamali was granted an audience before King Kaitaba, he stated: "My Lord, I wish you to give me a very beautiful woman to accompany me back to Buganda as I have seen that the women of your

country are by far more beautiful than our women in Buganda." The king said that he would honour the request. But instead of offering him royal bed-chamber women (Enkologo), Nakamali is offered a woman, "not being beautiful like the others." Nakamali insisted on a royal woman,

which infuriated Kaitaba. Nakamali then returned to Buganda and worked tirelessly to turn Ssuuna against the Bazongola, informing Sssuuna: "Your Highness who rules all races and who has no peer in any respect whatsoever, there is a matter

which gives me much sorrow and causes me to wish to shed tears; it is to see that Kabaka Kaitaba claims to a similar greatness to your own in all respects. When he heard you were building your house Batanda bezalu, "Kings beget Kings," he also built a similar one. Secondly,

when he heard that you have an elephant's tusk as a footstool, he did likewise more so. Further, he placed his tusk in his main gateway, the gateway Wankaki and also in the house wherein he sleeps. Thirdly, in his house, the roof rings are of coppers. Fourthly, the eaves of

his house are decorated with beads. Fifthly, the drinking cup from which he drinks is a snipe's egg. He asked for your eldest daughter as his wife saying, "Am I not of course also a Kabaka such as he and all things which are now done here are done as with him,"

thus comparing himself with you. Now, Your Highness, what do you think of one who behaves thus, remembering that all kings are under you and there is no one else who acts in this manner. As for me this matter make me weep tears, Father of twins you are the great Kabaka,

who can compare with you? Your Highness, I do not wish this man to be a Kabaka like you, the holder of this Drum (okulya eng'oma) which rules all neighbouring kings; he should be driven from his kingdom and you should instal another in his place.

Now the Kabaka, when he heard all this, was angry and call his Katikkiro and took counsel with him and all his great chiefs. [...] Now when they reached Buzongola they found with Kaitaba and drove him out and he fled to an island but they attacked him there and he fled away into

another country." Mukasa ends the story by sharing that while Ssuuna won the war, it cost him his life (he died from smallpox). For Mukasa, I think it's a story about the importance of good diplomacy and the urgency of appointing strong negotiators. I think the blame in

the story is directed toward Nakamali, who was willing to compromise the integrity of Buganda after Kaitaba attempted to legislate his libido (having made an outlandish request to copulate with a royal woman). For Mukasa, political progress (kukulaakulana) was predicated upon

virtue and restraint, not unmitigated power. I am interested to know how clan politics shaded Mukasa's particular telling. I do know that there were emerging debates about Kabaka Chwa's heir, & I'm not sure if Mukasa used the story to accentuate his grievances w/ leaders

in the Buffalo clan? I'm going to start working through Chwa's Will and Estate to gain a sense of how clan politics were at work in the late 1930s. Any additional thoughts on the story?