As
an aside, the Nyabingi Resistance was named after the Nyabingi cult which
is first recorded in 1891 named after the mythical Queen Nyavingi who was
so mysterious she had apparently never been seen by anyone, even her own
subjects only communicating through a screen of "bark cloth." Her legend
was so beguiling and of use to those who sought to control their fellow
men that supernatural powers were attributed to her, although these powers
didn't prevent her from being captured by the British in 1913.
However her legend continued (and indeed continues) that her
spirit periodically possesses the bodies of other woman from the
area. Also called Queen Muhmusa or Tahtahme,
it is also said that she later inspired the Nyabinghi underpinnings of Rastafarianism
having abandoned Uganda for good preferring Jamaica!This
legend is important in terms of the history of the area as a British
officer in Kigezi had concluded in a letter to the Chief Secretary for
Uganda on 6th September 1911 that the Nyabingi cult was "entirely
subversive to all authority, whether local or European". As such,
meaningful attempts to impose colonial rule proved fruitless. To provide
some semblance of authority the British decided to appoint agents from
the Buganda Kingdom to govern the area on their behalf and named their
first Kiga chief in Kigezi in 1922. To say this was an inept appointment
is perhaps an understatement given that the new chief's only
qualification was that he wasn't British but a black local with no
experience of running anything. In fact, his highest position to date
had been as an office boy in the District Commissioner's headquarters.
By
the 1930 missionaries were abundant in the area having first been
visited by the Catholic missionary, Yowana Kitagana in 1911, spreading
Christianity. However there were ongoing superstitions that some of
those who were converted to Christianity were later possessed by the
spirit of Nyabingi, fermenting a low level but none-the-less very real
simmering of discontent with the British. In 1932 Kabale became a
township with an administration invested in a township authority
overseen by the Protectorate Governor.
In 1958
the Town Authority became a town board and then a town council with ten
councillors in 1962, the year of Ugandan independence. Within two years,
the "Rutakirwa Engabo ya Kigezi" (the shield of Kigezi ~ left) was
elected as the constitutional head of the District however this position
was later vacated under President Obote's constitutional changes of 1966
due to Article 118(1) of the new law, which stated: “The institution of
King or Ruler of a Kingdom or Constitutional Head of a District, by
whatever name called, existing immediately before the commencement of
this Constitution under the law then in force, is hereby abolished.” In
1985 Kabale was granted the status of a municipal council and later
district in addition to its town status forming one District of the
Kigezi sub-region of Western Uganda a which also comprises Kanungu,
Kisoro and Rukungiri Districts.
Today the
town has a population of some 46,000 people and is seen as a gateway to
tourism in the area as well as a staging post to Rwanda, DRC and beyond. |
