Bakonzo
The people of the Mountains of the Moon — farmers of the Rwenzori's steep slopes whose god lives on the snow peaks, who fought a sixty-year campaign for their own kingdom, and whose glaciers are disappearing within a generation.
Identity
Population: Around a million across Uganda and the DRC, where they are known as Banande or Bayira
Location: The Rwenzori mountains — Kasese district in Uganda and North Kivu in the DRC
Language: Lhukonzo (Uganda) and Kinande (DRC), closely related
Language family: Niger-Congo → Bantu (J40)
Traditional governance: The Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu kingdom, recognised by Uganda in 2009 after a long struggle; the relationship with the central state has been violent as recently as 2016.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (3)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups — clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes — each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Ugandan Bakonzo
Kasese district on the eastern slopes, within the Rwenzururu kingdom.
Banande of North Kivu
The larger Congolese population, dominant in Butembo and Beni, with a formidable trading network.
High-altitude farming communities
Households cultivating steep slopes up to the forest line.
Culture
Clothing: Barkcloth historically; cotton today; the kingdom's regalia and the distinctive Rwenzururu flag, which was itself a rebel emblem for decades.
Food: Bananas, beans, sweet potato and the cool-climate crops the altitude allows; coffee as the cash crop; goat.
Ceremonies: Enthronement of the Omusinga; harvest and mountain rites; funerals; the appeasement of Kithasamba, the god of the snows, before climbing.
Marriage customs: Bridewealth in goats and cash; patrilineal descent; clans (obuko) with totemic animals governing exogamy.
Initiation rites: Circumcision historically; instruction in mountain routes and the prohibitions attaching to particular peaks and lakes.
Stories & Oral Literature
RwenzururuPolitical history
The Bakonzo were placed under the Toro kingdom by the colonial administration, and resented it. The Rwenzururu movement declared its own kingdom in 1962, fought a guerrilla campaign in the mountains for decades, and was finally recognised by Uganda in 2009 with the installation of the Omusinga. In 2016 the Ugandan army stormed the palace at Kasese, killing well over a hundred people, and the king was imprisoned for years.
The God on the GlacierBelief and environment
Kithasamba, the supreme god, is understood to dwell on the Rwenzori's snows. The glaciers that have crowned these equatorial mountains for millennia have lost the overwhelming majority of their area since 1906 and are projected to disappear within decades. What is a climate statistic elsewhere is, here, the dissolution of a god's dwelling place.
Proverbs
“The mountain gives food to the one who climbs.”
Steep-slope farming as unremitting labour.
“Do not point at the snow.”
A prohibition regarding the peaks where Kithasamba dwells.
“A kingdom refused is a kingdom remembered.”
Sixty years of the Rwenzururu claim.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Kithasamba as supreme god dwelling on the snow peaks; Nyabibuya and other powers of the mountain; clan totems governing conduct.
Beliefs: Mountain religion centred on Kithasamba with prohibitions on the high peaks; clan totemism; ancestor veneration; Christianity widespread and generally held alongside.
Ancestors: Ancestral graves on the family's slope ground land claims; the Rwenzururu kingdom's founders are commemorated as national figures.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Kithasamba
The supreme god, dwelling on the Rwenzori snows
Nyabibuya
A power of the mountain addressed in the highland rites
Clan totems
Animals whose prohibitions bind each obuko clan
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Homesteads on terraced slopes, of wattle and daub with thatch or sheet, connected by footpaths; bridges of poles and vine over torrents.
Building techniques: Wattle and daub with grass thatch; slope terracing and contour drainage; suspension bridges of vine and pole over mountain rivers.
Village layout: Dispersed homesteads following the contour with banana groves around each and forest above the cultivation line.
Artifacts
Rwenzori Mountains National Park
Heritage site
UNESCO World Heritage site holding Africa's third-highest peak and its vanishing glaciers.
Rwenzururu regalia and flag
Regalia
Emblems of a kingdom that spent decades as a rebel movement.
Vine-and-pole bridges
Engineering
Mountain crossings built from forest materials.
Barkcloth
Textile
Beaten fig bark, the region's historic cloth.
Historical Timeline
Pre-1900
Bakonzo settle the Rwenzori slopes on both sides of the range.
1900s
Colonial administration places the Bakonzo under the Toro kingdom; the border divides them from the Banande.
1962
The Rwenzururu movement declares its own kingdom and begins a mountain guerrilla campaign.
2009
Uganda recognises the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu; the Omusinga is installed.
2016
Ugandan forces storm the Kasese palace; over a hundred are killed and the king is imprisoned.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- UNESCO: Rwenzori Mountains National ParkUNESCO
- Human Rights Watch: Uganda — KaseseHuman Rights Watch
Premium & scholarly sources