University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository History Faculty Publications History 2018 Scandal and Mass Politics: Buganda's 1941 Nnamasole Crisis Carol Summers University of Richmond,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.richmond.edu/history-faculty-publications Part of the History Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Summers, Carol. "Scandal and Mass Politics: Buganda's 1941 Nnamasole Crisis." International Journal of African Historical Studies 51, no. 1 (2018): 63-83. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. International Journal of African Historical Studies Vol. 51, No. 1 (2018) 63 Scandal and Mass Politics: Buganda’s 1941 Nnamasole Crisis By Carol Summers University of Richmond (
[email protected]) In February of 1941, Irene Namaganda, Buganda’s queen mother, informed Buganda’s prime minister, Uganda’s Bishop, and eventually British administrators of the Uganda Protectorate, that she was six months pregnant, and intended to marry her lover. That lover was only slightly older than Mutesa II, her teenage son who had been selected as kabaka (king) in 1939. Despite reservations, the kingdom’s prime minister and his allies among Buganda’s protestant oligarchy worked with Uganda’s British officials to facilitate the marriage. Namaganda’s Christian marriage, though, was powerfully scandalous, profoundly violating expectations associated with marriage and royal office. The scandal produced a political crisis that toppled Buganda’s prime minister, pushed his senior allies from power, deposed the queen mother, exiled her husband, and changed Buganda’s political landscape.