IS THE “NAMASOLE” ALWAYS THE KABAKA’S BIOLOGICAL MOTHER?

I am seeing vials of wrath being emptied on Sarah Namasole Natolo.  Some have dismissed her as “Butabika”, others like Mr Kyijomanyi have advised the pressmen that reported the intra-Mengo wrangles over land to go to Namirembe where Irene Druscilla Namaganda, Kabaka Mutesa II’s mother was burried.

The problem here seems to be mixing up the biological mother of the Kabaka with the office of the Namasole.  In fact, Irene Druscilla Namaganda was not the Namasole.  Was she?

1/4 In other words, you have corrected the wrong impression created by some forumists that “Namasole = Kabaka’s biological mother”. That fallacy is being thrown up by those that want to silence Sarah Namasole Natolo regarding her recent complaints on land.

2/4 For Irene Druscilla Namaganda, we need to remind ourselves of the events that followed 1939, the year when Kabaka Chua died.  The queen sought to remarry and that caused a serious storm in Mengo (equalled only by claims that Kabaka Chua had fathered a certain gentleman called Idi Amin, resulting in the breakdown of the marriage between Amin’s parents).

3/4 Irene Druscilla Namaganda as queen was not supposed to remarry because the Kabaka could not call another man (especially a mukopi) his father.  It was also deemed to be a taboo for the kabaka to have brothers who were not of the royal lineage which would tend to confuse future successions..you know the saying that “Kabaka taddwaako mukopi” – (Kabaka cannot have a commoner for a sibling).

4/4 Mutesa II was the first king to compromise on that custom.  He allowed his mother to remarry, and still there was considerable uproar in the kingdom. To quell this uproar, the official duties of the Namasole were transferred from Lady Namaganda to her older sister, Perepetwa Nnaabaweesi.  In other words, Lady Namaganda eventually lost the Namasoleship, and not because she died, but because she remarried.

Lance Corporal (Rtd) Otto Patrick