Sakwa Mwanga

A pre-colonial image of Africans as found in Nabongo Mumia Archives, Mumias

Yesterday we shared about Sakwa as a corrupted Luo name to associate him with Mwanga. That he was but Luo man who worked for King Mwanga III. Today we also find the name in the genealogy of Mwanga. From there the genealogy agrees that Sakwa begot Mater /Matara/ who begot Nyabinya who begot Munara. By a wife called nyaMwanga in the Luo tale. By an unrecorded wife in the Mwanga tale that assigns Sakwa 8th position, last of his sons.

The Wanga were first a  Buganda princes who left during the reign of Kabaka Mawanda and established a kingdom in present day Kenya. A history about the lineage is at Matungu, 2KM from Mumias town where there is burial grounds, museum and information centre.


Writings tell that the ancestors of the Wanga were part of the Bantu migration out of western-central Africa around 1000BC. From Kush, North Africa did they arise, a kingdom called Misri. At this time, circa 4th Century, they had already coined Nabongo for them. Which would be renamed Wanga (Mwanga) by British influence in writing and documenting indigenous history.

Leaving Misri was after a conflict they had with the Pharaoh who plotted to kill king Makata after receiving information that he (Makata) possessed special powers that made the land where the Wanga lived more fertile, while the rest of the empire was often dry and ravaged by famine. The Wanga then fled to Cameroon. While in Cameroon, they were led by a king called Nsimbi. After one generation, they went to Ethiopia, where they lived for two generations.

Unfortunately, in Ethiopia, a king called Kamanyi was killed by an antelope. The elders advised to leave Ethiopia. To date, it is taboo for a Wanga person to eat antelope meat. From Ethiopia, they travelled to Sudan, decided to follow the Nile (a possible mixing with the Nilotes) and entered Uganda through Bunyoro and settled in Buganda. People were led by a king called Nangwela at this timr. For at least 150 years they were in Buganda. When Nangwela died, he was succeeded by Kabaka Mwanga, Mbwoli, Mwanga II and Muteesa I. Unclear of the point Wanga occupied, it is regarded as Kampala, thirteen kings in lineage buried there.

Wanga elders still say they are directly linked to the royal clan of Buganda; Abalangira and Abambejja, the royal clan of Buganda. They are directly linked to Buganda kingdom, to Muteesa, Mwanga, to the current Kabaka of Buganda. For that reason, it is taboo for any Wanga man or woman, especially from the Abashitsetse (As Wanga clan is identified) royal clan, to marry a Muganda from the royal clan because they are related.

Leaving Buganda was that a king's brother or cousin from the paternal line is eligible for succession to the throne and, thus, poses a threat to the reigning monarch. Spirits are random. This is why succession to the throne was always a bloody affair. Brother killed brother and cousin against uncle. There are two versions of the story of the Wangas' move, but all of them point to a Muganda prince.

The first version says a Muganda prince called Kaminyi, a son of Kabaka Mawanda of Buganda, fled to the Tiriki area (Kaimosi) in the current after his father was killed by a group of Baganda princes led by his cousin Mwanga I of Buganda. There, Kaminyi became a ruler. When he died, he was succeeded by his son Wanga, who took the title Nabongo and established Nabongo kingdom in the 18th Century in the tale below.

From Tiriki, Kaminyi, later Mwaga by name, left alone and went westwards to a place called Imanga (now between Musanda and Mumias town) where he found an already established kingdom by one Chief Mwima who gave him work as a herdsman (as many other runaways who joined new hierarchies). Mwanga was always using one hand for tasks, the other covered. The wife of Mwima observed and planned to discover which by embarrassment it was found out that Mwanga had a royal bracelet, mukasa. Chief Mwima was unhappy because a royal family was not required to enslave another. He was disturbed that after time his kingdom was absorbed by Mwanga who would rise large.

Mwanga had two sons in a second version. One of them was called Wamoyi. There was a quarrel between him and other princes that forced him to leave Buganda kingdom with his supporters. He travelled eastwards, crossed River Nile and finally settled at a place called Ibanda in Samia Bugwe, present day Uganda. That is where he died and was buried. In the Wanga history, Wamoyi, Mbwoli and Kamanyi, are some of their kings who died and were buried in Uganda.

In another tale, Mwanga III had eight sons; The first Kabiakala the father of Wamoi, Khobole and Khulubi. Wamoi of Kabiakala the founder of Batsots. The second son Murono, the third Mutende, father of Kisii. The fourth Wanga from where Nabongoship descended. The fifth Wamoi, the father of Tachoni. The sisth Wekhoba, the father of avaRokova found in Tiriki, the seventh Musoya, father of Abamagoya, now identified as Luo, living in Ugenya. And the seventh Sakwa. Of the seven, royal organization is found in Wamoi, Wanga and Misoya. Of recent Sakwa has been added Rails lineage from him (Sakwa) to express sort of royalty. Sakwa are found mainly in Bondo.

Going ahead and building upon an agreeable ancestry of Mwanga, upon the death of Wamoyi (the father in this tale), his son Mwanga III left Ibanda and went to Maseno, near Kisumu at a place called Lela. (An early Tiriki migrant relates to Maseno origin. As Maragori. By that time it should also be considered that Luo had also advanced as far as Maseno and Chavavo in present Maragori area.) He died and was buried there. His son Wanga left and came to a place called Tiriki and finally Matungu. On their way to Matungu, they rested at a place called Ejinja, which they named after Jinja in Uganda. On arrival at Matungu, Wanga went on to reign over a kingdom that expanded and stretched from Jinja in Uganda to Naivasha. Later on, he instructed his subjects to bury him at Matungu and also decreed that Matungu would become the burial place for all other kings. Since then, they have had 13 kings who were buried reburied at Matungu (for first a king dies in power. He is buried while sitted. His head in a pot to express continuing leadership. After years, a clan called vaChero is responsible in digging up the bones while observing complex rituals till the bones are brought at the mouselium at Matangu). A new one is also by custom enthroned. They are: Wabala, Wanga Muswi, Kibwire, Musindaalo, Kitekyi, Netia (killed by Masaai warriors), Osundwa, Wamukoya, Shiundu, Mumia the Great, and Shitawa, father to the present Nabongo, Peter Mumia II.

The formation of the Wanga kingdom led to rapid territorial and political expansion, especially in the latter years of the 18th Century. There are two versions regarding the extent of the Wanga kingdom domain during its heydays. The first version is that the Wanga kingdom extended as far west as Buganda, as far south as Samia, as far north as Mount Elgon and as far east as Naivasha. The second version is that the Wanga kingdom coincided in size with North Kavirondo, later called North Nyanza, the present day Western Province in Kenya. Mutesa I, the grandfather of Mutebi, worked with Nabongo Mumia. And he (Mutesa I) was aware of the linkage that the Wanga have with Buganda.

With 66 wives, 102 sons and 60 daughters with 450 grandsons, Mumia the Great died in 1880. A time when a man was never sure of his children. In fact to inherit kingship you had to be 'possed by the leadership spirit' to spear a bull in the heart. By being a legitimate son at first or else you will fail. And with many trying to relate with Mwanga either paternally or maternally (the royal blood) many may have lost their initial identities as there were no records. But little desire to memorise hierarchies among the 'minorities.'

-/With Thanks
saniaga.org
saniaga.blogspot.com
facebook.com/saniaga
info.saniaga@gmail.com