Pre-19th Century–19th Century: (The Great Lakes Kingdoms — Buganda, Bunyoro, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Political Culture of Strong Centralized Kingship, Tutsi…

Pre-19th Century–19th Century: (The Great Lakes Kingdoms — Buganda, Bunyoro, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Political Culture of Strong Centralized Kingship, Tutsi and Hutu as Socioeconomic Identities Not Yet Solidified into Tribal Ones, and Buganda’s Rise to Regional Hegemony Through Mercantilist Foreign Policy and Advanced Military Culture): The area of the Great Lakes — particularly the northern interlacustrine zone around Lakes Tanganyika, Victoria, Edward, and Albert — was home to some of sub-Saharan Africa’s most complex civilizations. The kingdoms of Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole, Rwanda, and Burundi all had their origins before the nineteenth century and shared certain basic characteristics — they were the products of good rainfall and rich soil, facilitating denser and more permanent populations than elsewhere south of the Sahara. They shared the principle of strong centralized kingship with important symbolic and ritual dimensions, with kings ruling through provincial chiefs appointed by royal authority, appointments often made according to merit. A key feature was the absence of an obvious heir, meaning succession was frequently violent. Women generally enjoyed higher economic and cultural status across eastern Africa than in the southern or western zones. Immigrant pastoralists had developed patron-client systems in Rwanda and Burundi, where they became known as Tutsi and their agriculturalist clients as Hutu, and in Ankole where the pastoralist Hima were patrons to the Iru farmers — though in reality there was great cultural and economic interaction, and only in the early twentieth century would these socioeconomic identities become solidified into tribal ones. The dominant kingdoms were Buganda and Bunyoro — Bunyoro, evolved from the earlier Kitara state, had been the leading power until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when it steadily lost ground to expansionist Buganda, which enjoyed high moisture, agricultural fertility, and a dense population. Buganda was characterized by a mercantilist foreign policy seeking control of the region’s economic resources, driven by an advanced military culture.