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696 SOGA
that are most feared in day-to-day life. They receive most of the attention during
such events as childbirth, sickness and death. Ghosts can damage or help, and
people frequently make sacrifices of fowl or other animals to satisfy them.
As with other Interlacustrine Bantu of Uganda, the traditional political system
of the Soga was of the centralized type. Nevertheless, unlike their neighbors the
Ganda and the Buyoro, the Soga did not form one single kingdom but were
divided into numerous states. According to the local traditions, there were as
many as 47 Soga states, the oldest established in the mid-seventeenth century.
The founders of most of these states were immigrants associated with the Lwospeaking
people of southern Sudan and northern Uganda. Some Soga traditions
trace the origin of their royal dynasties to the ruling Babito clan of Bunyoro. In
the late nineteenth century, the Soga were divided into 15 petty kingdoms, each
forming a distinct political unit. Each state was headed by a paramount ruler,
who held his position within a royal patrilineal descent group and had absolute
authority over the inhabitants of his state. He was hereditary king, and as in
other Bantu kingdoms, the ruler had ritual functions but was not considered a
god. Subordinate to him were the chiefs, who administered territorial subdivisions
in his name. Foremost among them was the prime minister, who was in
charge of the palace and controlled access to the ruler. The royal group in Busoga
was part of an endogamous aristocratic caste, and no commoner could marry
into this group. Unlike the Ganda or the Nyankole of Uganda, the Soga believed
in fundamental inequality between the hereditary royal group and other commoners
(see Ganda; Nyankole).
These small states because of their splits and constant rivalries could not stand
against their powerful neighbors, Bunyoro and Buganda, which in the nineteenth
century dominated them and forced them to pay tribute. With the establishment
of the British protectorate in Uganda in 1894, Busoga was unified politically
and integrated into Uganda as one of the administrative districts, and the former
rulers of the states became chiefs of counties. In 1900, under the terms of the
agreement between Buganda and the British government, the King of Buganda
relinquished all authority over Busoga. Yet Ganda influence in Busoga continued.
The protectorate government engaged Buganda chiefs as administrators of various
districts in the protectorate, and they remodeled the political system of these
territories along Buganda lines. In Busoga, the administrative system was carried
out by the Ganda Semei Kakungulu, who from 1906 to 1914 acted as paramount
chief of the district. Gradually the Busoga traditional rulers were salaried by the
British and integrated into the civil service. By 1952, all the hereditary rulers,
except the constitutional head of Busoga, had been dismissed or retired and their
places taken by persons appointed on the basis of personal qualifications. The
official title of the constitutional head of Busoga district was isebantu kyabazinga,
which means "the father who invites all people," and he was elected by the
local council. After Uganda's independence in 1967, President A. M. Obote
abolished the Kyabazingaship along with the other kingdoms.
The influence of the Ganda on Busoga is reflected not only in politics and