KAMPALA, Uganda: A journalist was on Tuesday set to be crowned as the king of a traditional monarchy that lost its onetime “boy king” last month, triggering widespread grief and a succession dispute in Uganda’s Tooro Kingdom.
The journalist is a prince who had long been employed as a broadcaster and editor with Uganda Broadcasting Corp. He picked the regnal name of Edward Rukidi Nyabongo. He performed rituals overnight, was ushered into the palace and will be formally unveiled to his followers later on Tuesday.
Traditional kingdoms were banned in the 1960s, after Uganda’s independence from British colonial rule, by a republican president who said that he wanted to unify the country. They were restored in 1993.
Traditional leaders don’t wield any formal authority in this East African country and are legally barred from engaging in partisan politics. But they wield immense authority among their people as guardians of traditional culture.
The coronation ceremony in Fort Portal, a remote town in western Uganda and not far from the Congo border, will be watched by thousands in person and on televised broadcasts.
Nyabongo wasn’t particularly high in the line of succession, but elders within the kingdom’s ruling clan, known as the Babiito, selected him from a pool of eligible princes after King Oyo Nyimba’s death from cancer at age 34 in August without a publicly known heir.
The queen mother, Best Kemigisa, disputed that decision and charged that the written will of King Oyo hadn’t been followed in the selection of Nyabongo.
Kemigisa said that Oyo left behind a young son whose identity would be unveiled at the right time, casting doubt on the legitimacy of Nyabongo and the decision of the Babiito to choose him. Local media cited disagreeable scenes – including a brief disagreement over custody of the king’s remains – at Oyo’s Sept. 12 funeral.
Although Oyo’s alleged son is yet to be revealed, purported photos of a “Baby Oyo” have flooded social media, giving hope to devotees of the deceased monarch. But critics say that the child, if he exists, should have been introduced to the kingdom’s elders while his father was still alive.
“They have demonstrated that these are the norms of the kingdom,” Nicholas Sengoba, a prominent political analyst in Uganda, said of the Babiito’s selection of Nyabongo. “Many of these positions may not be popular.”
Oyo was crowned in 1995, at the age of 3, after his father’s death. He was a curious child in colorful robes and an object of adoration for his hundreds of thousands of followers.
At his coronation, he went through a series of tribal rituals and was led into the royal cemetery to perform a coming-of-age ceremony: successfully tossing nine coffee beans into his father’s tomb.
Oyo once held the unofficial title of the world’s youngest king, a mesmerizing figure even for world leaders introduced to him at national events, including South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was one of those who befriended the Tooro royal family as if they were part of his extended family. Gadhafi made multiple trips to Uganda and supported Oyo and Kemigisa for years before Gadhafi’s death in October 2011.
Oyo was guided by regents appointed by the kingdom until he became an adult at 18.
