Old Scandals, New Memories: Mayanja’s Transformation in Buganda (18th-21st centuries)

Abstract

A stuffed leopard more than a century old named Mayanja was destroyed on the 16th of March 2010 during the fire that raked Kasubi (Kampala, Uganda)—the royal tombs of the Kings of Buganda—listed among Unesco World heritage sites. Mayanja was a leopard, a god, a river with execution sites running through the heart of the kingdom of Buganda, a spirit, a prince and a twin born from royal incest. In Mayanja history is layered, with successive myths overlaid to erase older ones that had become subversive. We argue that incest myths were developed in the 19th century to obliterate the sanctuary of Kagulu, the most hated and tyrannical king in Ganda memory, who ruled in the second quarter of the 18th century, and even more the succession of female rulers from the leopard clan who ruled shortly afterwards. Mayanja is not only a place of memory, it is a place to obliterate a past best forgotten.