Byakweyamba, Yafeti

[TORO, Clan: Mubito]

Yafeti Byakweyamba was the Uncle of Daudi Kasagama and related to Kabarega. As a child he had been taken from Toro by the Baganda armies and brought up as a mugalagala in Lubiri. Here he was made responsible for some of the kabaka’s women and was rewarded with the chieftaincy of Kitanda in Buddu. Here he was taught Christianity by Petero Nsubuga.[1] By 1891 he had already been baptized when Zakariya Kizito Kisingiri, a more senior chief in Buddu, introduced him to Lugard with Kasagama. Lugard decided that it would fit in well with his plans to reinstate Kasagama in Toro. There Byakweyamba became jealous of the power of Kasagama and first challenged him by building a more elaborate enclosure. He was then sent to Mwenge as saza chief and made his headquarters near Fort Lorne.[2] He was there attacked by Kabarega’s armies and with his Baganda followers was driven into the forests.[3] In 1894 he and Kasagama sent to Mengo for teachers, and Petero Nsubuga and three others answered the call. Nsubuga seems to have stayed at Butiti and taught Byakweyamba’s Baganda followers.[4] His jealousy of Kasagama increased and tried to set himself up as an independent Mukama of Mwenge and Kyaka. He had a violent quarrel with Kasagama and was reproved by Ashburnham.[5] In 1895 he was sent to Kampala in connection with the trouble between Kasagama and the administration, returning in 1896.[6] In 1897 he went back to Senda in Buddu where he had lands, and being disappointed in his ambitions, and increasingly troubled by a lame leg, he committed suicide there.[7]

Louise Pirouet**

Notes(short form; see List of Sources for complete citations):

1. Ashe, 1890, p. 215; Johnson, 1908, pp. 56-7; Luck, 1963, p. 62; Balya, 1966.

2. Balya, 1966.

3. Bacwa, 1966.

4. See Chapter II, note 22.

5. Balya, 1966.

6. Tucker, 1899, p. 17.

7. Balya, 1966; Tucker, 1899, pp. 29-30.

This biography, written by Louise Pirouet, was included in “Appendix A: Biographical Notes,” on pages 381-2 of “The Expansion of the Church of Uganda (N.A.C.) from Buganda into Northern and Western Uganda between 1891 and 1914, with Special Reference to the work of African Teachers and Evangelists” (PhD Thesis: University of East Africa, 1968). Pirouet published this thesis as Black Evangelists (London: Rex Collings, 1978). However, Black Evangelists does not reproduce the detailed biographies, complete with references to sources, found in Appendix A of the thesis. Print copies are available at Africana Section, Makerere University Library (U 02 P57); The Centre for Christianity Worldwide, Cambridge; and a microfilm copy at the School of Oriental Studies, London. [information from Angus Crichton]