Kahinju, Vikitoliya

[TORO]

Vikitoliya Kahinju was the nyina omukama (queen mother) of Mukama Daudi Kasagama. When Toro was invaded by Bunyoro in 1876[1] she fled with three of her children to Ankole. She was sheltered on route by the Bakonjo at Nyagwaki. In Ankole she was given refuge at the court of Ntare V, but Kabarega sent to have her children killed, and two of them were put to death. She escaped to Buganda with the third child and he was brought up with Byakweyamba.[2] She returned to Toro when Lugard reestablished the kingdom of Toro under Kasagama. She became one of the first to embrace Christianity and was baptized on May 8, 1896.[3] She then asked that Christian teachers should be sent to Nyagwaki to show her gratitude to the Bakonjo there who had sheltered her on her flight to Ankole. Her enclosure was at Ngoma, about a mile and a half from Fort Portal, and this quickly became a church center. She encouraged all the members of her household to become Christians, and punished those who did not go to church.[5] Several of her retinue became teachers.[6]

Louise Pirouet

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

1. Bunyoro Church Magazine, Anon., p. 68

2. Balya, 1966.

3. Kabarole Baptism Register.

4. Luck, 1963, p. 67.

5. Fisher, 1905, p. 71; Johnson, 1906, p. 88.

6. Toro Women Teachers Record; The Batebe, 1965.

This biography, written by Louise Pirouet, was included in “Appendix A: Biographical Notes,” on page 397 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]