Ganda

ETHNONYMS: Buganda, Luganda, Kiganda

Orientation

Identification and Location. The Ganda, who refer to themselves as "Baganda" (sing. mugando), are a people of mixed origins whose ancestors migrated to their present location between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Historically, they were known as a warlike people who conquered many of their neighbors and, at the time of European contact, they were a dominant power in the region. Buganda was one of the lakeshore kingdoms, along with Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole, and Kiziba. Today Buganda is one of four provinces in the state of Uganda and is situated on the northern and western shores of Lake Victoria, from 2° N to 1° S latitude. The province extends 198 miles (320 kilometers) along the lakeshore and 81 miles (130 kilometers) inland, with a land area of approximately 17,370 square miles (45,000 square kilometers).

The northwestern shore of Lake Victoria is a region characterized by flat-topped hills separated from each other by swampland. The elevation averages about 3,900 feet (1,200 meters) above sea level. Temperatures throughout the year range from 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit (16 to 27 degrees Celsius), with an annual rainfall of 60 inches (152 centimeters).

Demography. According to the 1991 census, there were 3,015,980 Luganda-speaking people in Uganda, constituting 16 percent of that country's population. At about the time of European contact there were an estimated three million Ganda; however, civil wars, famine, and disease had reduced their number to about two million by 1911.

Linquistic Affiliation. The Ganda speak the Bantu language, which they call "Luganda." Linguistically, Luganda can be placed within the Interlacustrine group of the northern zone of Bantu languages or within the central branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

History and Cultural Relations

Oral histories of Buganda chronicle a succession of thirty-six kings, beginning with Kintu, who scholars estimate immigrated to Buganda in the fourteenth century. Some scholars argue that Kintu was the conqueror of an even older kingdom in the region. In any case, Buganda has had at least a six hundred-year history of kingship from the 1300s until the establishment of British overrule in 1900. Scholars surmise that the early kingdom was a federation of clans that shared the kingship on a rotating basis. As time went on, the kingship became more centralized and powerful and was an object of more intense clan conflict. After 1700 bloody succession wars were a recurring feature of Buganda history and further contributed to the process of political centralization.

Before 1600 Buganda was on the losing side in its wars with Bunyoro—the region's most powerful kingdom at the time—and its vassal states. Beginning in the seventeenth century, Buganda began to win back territory from Bunyoro. At the end of the eighteenth century King Mawanda waged campaigns that extended Buganda territory in all directions. By 1800 Buganda had replaced Bunyoro as the most powerful state in the North Interlacustrine region.

The earliest Arab contact occurred in 1844, and the first trade caravan arrived from Zanzibar in 1869. The first Europeans, the British Captains John Hanning Speke and James Grant, arrived in 1862 on their journey to discover the source of the Nile. Soon thereafter Protestant, Catholic, and Moslem missionaries arrived. Both kings, Mutesa I and his successor, Mwanga, were suspicious of religious converts who did not respect the king's absolute authority. Also, those kings were wary of the growing British, German, and Arab influence in East Africa. On different occasions the kings had Moslem and Christian believers executed. In 1885 King Mwanga executed three Christian leaders and the visiting Anglican bishop, James Hannington, because Hannington had entered the kingdom from the north, using "the back door," which revealed evil intentions. In 1888 Moslem and Christian forces deposed Mwanga and replaced him with a Moslem prince. However, arguments between the Christian and Moslem factions over the distribution of offices led to armed conflict. After an intense two-year religious war the Christian forces prevailed, backed by neighboring tribes and the Sudanese mercenaries of the Imperial British East African Company (IBEAC). The final Christian victory gave undisputed power to what would become the new bureaucratic elite of modern Uganda. In 1894 Buganda was formally proclaimed a British protectorate that later included Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole, Busogaes, and other kingdoms to the north of the Victoria Nile River. The Uganda Agreement of 1900 laid the basis for a new administrative order by granting the chiefs freehold estates, strengthening their position vis-à-vis the monarchy.

Uganda's more recent history has also been troubled by violence and instability. After World War II Buganda pressed the protectorate government for independent status. Eventually all of Uganda was granted independence in 1962, and Milton Obote, the leader of the Lango people from northern Uganda, became the prime minister with the support of his own United People's Congress and the conservative Baganda party, Kabaka Yekka. Obote appointed the Buganda king, Mutesa II, as president. Growing rivalry between parties and among ethnic groups led to Mutesa II's forceful ouster by Obote's military chief, Idi Amin. Obote took over as president and proclaimed a new constitution in 1966. Idi Amin was able to exploit the bad feelings between the Baganda and Obote and in 1971 staged a successful military coup. However, his rule was disastrous and brutal, and he was ousted with help from Tanzanian forces in 1978. Obote was reelected president in 1980 and again was deposed by a military coup in 1985. The next year a southern resistance movement (the National Resistance Army) ousted the new military rulers. The movement's leader, Yoweri Museveni, became president in 1986 and ruled Uganda with an indirectly elected governing council until 1995, when a new constitution was established. A presidential election was held in May 1996, which Museveni won. Museveni established a one-party system called the Movement. Although people have the right to vote, parties cannot run candidates, open branch offices, recruit members, or hold conferences. According to Museveni, political parties divide the country along ethnic and religious lines.

Settlements

Villages are built on the slopes of the innumerable low flattopped hills that dot the Buganda countryside. Villages consist of thirty to eighty dispersed homesteads, each surrounded by its banana garden and interspersed with fallow land and patches of cotton, covering an average of five or six acres. Originally, dwellings consisted of a round framework of posts and canes covered with thatched grass that extended upward to form a beehive-shaped roof. In the twentieth century the typical dwelling was rectangular, also of post and cane framework but with mud walls and a corrugated iron roof replacing the thatched grass.

Economy

Subsistence. The Ganda are primarily an agricultural society whose staple crops are bananas and yams. They also grow sweet potatoes, taro, manioc, maize, millet, peanuts, beans, squashes, gourds, sesame, tomatoes, and sugarcane. Cotton was introduced as a market crop in 1904, and later coffee was grown. The Ganda keep some goats, chickens, sheep, and cattle, which are regarded as a sign of wealth. The banana is the most important crop, and each household has a banana grove that supplies its major food needs. A grove can produce for as long as seventy years and requires little weeding and mulching, which is work done by women. The banana has supported a relatively dense and settled population. There are two growing seasons a year.

Commerical Activities. Commerce was little developed in Buganda until markets were introduced and encouraged by Europeans. Under the British, the rich Interlacustrine soils of Buganda were developed for cash crops such as coffee, tea, and cotton. In the postwar years coffee accounted for 90 percent of the value of Uganda's exports. Most Baganda farmers grow at least one cash crop along with their subsistence crops.

Industrial Arts. Traditionally, Bagandans made a variety of utilitarian and ornamental objects for domestic and royal use. They sawed ivory bracelets from elephant tusks, wove rope from plantain fibers and mats from papyrus or palm leaves, pounded bark to make bark cloth for clothing, and made pottery using the coil method. They cut planks from trees and stitched the pieces together to make canoes and shields. They also smelted iron to make spear points and hoe blades.

Trade. In the precontact days the Baganda exchanged bananas and bark cloth for iron from the Lake Albert region and salt, clay pots, and fish from the islands in Lake Victoria. With neighboring pastoral people they traded dried bananas for cattle, sheep, and goats. In general, Baganda raiding and warfare precluded much of the need for trade. War booty was distributed according to military rank, with the largest share given to the king. Beginning in the eighteenth century, the king carried out trade with Zanzibar, exchanging primarily ivory for cotton cloth and later trading slaves for firearms. The Arabs introduced cowry shells, although barter continued to be the dominant form of exchange. In the postwar period Uganda became an exporter of cotton, coffee, tea, and tobacco.

Division of Labor. Children sweep the yards, fetch water from the well, and cook meals. Women garden, cook and do other domestic chores, and make baskets. Men tend the coffee or cotton crop and make bark cloth in a special shed near the main house. Men build houses, hunt, and fish. Traditionally, most of a man's time was occupied attending to the needs of his chief, including public works and war. In the 1960s rural occupations might include clerical work for a chief, carpentry, bicycle repair, butchering, and fishing. In the cities there are other occupations, including those of teacher, shopkeeper, craftsman, and driver.

Land Tenure. In the past patrilineal clans, each of which was protected by a major totem and a minor totem, controlled the land. The heads of the clans, who were confirmed by the kabaka, or king, administered clan estates. Newly conquered lands were owned by the kabaka, who appointed local chiefs to administer them. Appointed chiefs, military chiefs, and traditional clan chiefs all had estates that supported their households. Villagers had the right to use land through their support of a particular chief. In the Uganda Agreement of 1900 all chiefs were given freehold tenure (mailo).

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. The Baganda practice patrilineal descent, in which the birth father is recognized as the true father and is the person to whose clan one belongs. There are approximately fifty clans (kika ) in Buganda. Traditionally, the head of each clan lived on the original estate settled by the first ancestor; however, clans in general were not localized. Clan members observed the obligation of mutual aid and collective responsibility. Clans were divided into siga, those descended from the sons of the original founder, and mutuba, those descended from the grandsons or greatgrandsons of the original founders. The head of a siga would arbitrate various disputes regarding inheritance, clan status, debts, and injuries. Members of the same mutuba were expected to attend funeral ceremonies and support relatives in legal disputes, blood feuds, and the payment of fines.

Kinship Terminology. The Baganda use a classificatory system of kinship terminology in which all the father's brothers are called "father," all the mother's sisters are called "mother," and all the children are called "brother and sister."

Marriage and Family

Marriage. In the past, marriage was an economic necessity as women were the cultivators and cooks. The word "to marry" in Luganda means "to peel plantains" (okuwata) and "to cook for" (okufumbira). One could not marry within one's father's or mother's clan. The suitor obtained the consent of his prospective bride before asking for her hand in marriage. If she agreed, he then sent letters, some with money, to various relatives designated by the prospective bride. This was followed by gifts of food to the bride's parents and a formal introduction that included a request by the bride's brother for a bride-price. The bride-price was in essence a contract that was supposed to be returned if the marriage failed. Other gifts were also exchanged at this time. The wedding ceremony involved the exchange of the bride at a crossroads, followed by singing, drinking, and dancing in the bridegroom's village. Secondary marriages were less formal.

Traditionally, the Baganda practiced polygyny, but that practice began to change under the influence of Christianity, to which most Baganda now adhere. In the 1960s, only one in twenty marriages was polygamous. Christian marriages are conducted in a church, and Western wedding attire is worn.

Domestic Unit. The domestic unit is the homestead (maka), which consists of a house and kitchen with additional sleeping huts and a latrine. A yard surrounds the house and itself is surrounded on three sides by gardens where permanent crops of coffee and bananas grow. The normal residential group is the nuclear family. Married sons and daughters live in separate homesteads. The average size of a homestead is three people.

Inheritance. Traditionally, land was not inherited because estates were attached to offices granted by the kabaka and clan leaders. Movable property, such as livestock, bark cloth, and cowry shells, was distributed to relatives at the time of the funeral, with clan elders arbitrating disputes. Senior clansmen also took a share, and a "gift" was sent to the chief. The direct descendants had a claim to the deceased's household implements and tools. Widows received nothing because they were not members of the patrician. With regard to the later freehold (mailo) estates, usually the eldest son is the principal heir, receiving under half of the estate, with the rest divided among the other children, including the daughters.

Socialization. Ganda children are encouraged to behave socially from an early age. They are brought up to be polite, well behaved, and respectful of elders. They learn to cultivate a code of etiquette (mpisa) that will serve them in negotiating Ganda's hierarchical, fluid society. In many cases children are sent away after weaning to be brought up by relatives, who are less intimate and more strict than their own parents. Corporal punishment is the norm. Children begin school at age six. The Ganda do not practice bodily mutilation or scarification. There are no puberty rituals for boys, and only a family ceremony marks a girl's first menstruation.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Communities were not necessarily bound together by ties of kinship but were formed by those who elected to follow a particular chief and estate holder. Once settled and established, a client may attract his own kinsmen and friends, who will form the core of another village.

Political Organization. For most of its history up to 1900 Buganda was a centralized monarchy. Tribute in the form of goods and services flowed from the clans to the chiefs and the kabaka. The chief of each clan and clan segment held a hereditary estate. A council of elders decided who from a small chiefly lineage was to inherit the office of chief, subject to approval by the kabaka. A chief was responsible to the chief of the clan segment immediately above him. All chiefs were responsible for maintaining peace and security in their region, carrying out public works and leading their men into battle. Each clan was responsible for performing a certain duty for the king, such as supplying bark cloth, herding the royal cattle, or guarding the royal children. All the clans supplied personnel to become court pages, who someday might gain royal favor and be appointed chiefs.

Although there was a royal family, there was no royal clan; instead, the children of the kabaka were affiliated with their mothers' clans. Sons, grandsons, and brothers were all eligible to inherit the kingship. Because it was the practice for all the clans to marry their women to the king, each clan had a legitimate claim to the kingship, making successions highly contested. As the kingdom expanded, the king was able to wrest some power away from the clan chiefs (bataka) by granting estates (batongole) in the newly conquered territories to his most loyal officers and rewarding loyal chiefs with war booty.

In the Uganda Agreement of 1900 Buganda was designated a province of Uganda and ruled as a protected state. The position of the kabaka was confirmed, and the native system of administration was preserved. The central government of Buganda Province consists of the kabaka, three ministers, and a legislative assembly (lukiiko). For administrative purposes, the province is divided into counties, districts, and parishes, which replaced villages as the smallest territorial unit. In 1962 the status of Uganda changed from that of a British protectorate to an independent nation and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Social Control. Traditionally, the chiefs and their councils adjudicated all disputes. Charges were brought before the offender's chief, who then summoned the accused. Both parties pleaded their cases and provided witnesses. The chief and his council then questioned both parties. The council would then discuss the case, and the chief would make a decision. Under the British protectorate chiefs continued to judge cases that involved customary laws, inheritance, and succession and relied on subordinate chiefs rather than a council to discuss the case. Protectorate government courts adjudicated more serious crimes, such as homicide.

Conflict. Violent conflict among the Baganda occurred in the wars of territorial expansion and royal succession. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Buganda was a predatory state, constantly warring with its neighbors. This took a toll on its population. Royal succession was a time of bloody inter-clan fighting, with commoners often caught in the middle. At times the king felt that he had to demonstrate his power through arbitrary killings of his subjects.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. The traditional religion of the Ganda was based on belief in a hierarchy of god-heroes (lubale), ancestral spirits (mizimu), and nature spirits. The most important god was Mukasa, the god of Lake Victoria, health, and fertility. Another important god was Kibuka, the god of war. Besides such "national" gods, each clan worshiped its own lubale. Priests maintained temples, shrines, and cults centered on the spirits of former clan leaders and kings. Prophets, or mediums, were able to consult with these spirits, which influenced the affairs of the living. Although today most Ganda are either Christian or Moslem (a small minority), traditional religious practices are still performed, such as sorcery, folk medicine, spirit possession, and ancestor worship.

Religious Practitioners. Traditionally, a group of priests and a prophet, or medium, was associated with each temple. The priests performed the rites and sacrifices, and the prophet communicated with the spirit. Prophets were initiated into a cult after first being possessed by that cult's spirit. Prophets also practiced magic and performed curing ceremonies.

Ceremonies. There were few public ceremonies in traditional Bagandan religion. Priests away from public view conducted most ceremonies. Others involved only clan elders or members of the royal court. Individuals who requested an interview with a god initiated public ceremonies. A day was set, and gifts were brought. The prophet invoked the lubale, and the audience sang songs appropriate to the particular god. The god descended and possessed the prophet, and the sponsor of the event made his requests. The ceremony ended with further singing, dancing, and drinking. The kabaka would also make requests of the national gods in a similar but more elaborate ceremony.

Arts. In the past the Ganda decorated objects with simple designs: They glazed pottery and painted bark cloth and boats. Musical instruments included a one-string violin, a six-holed fife, a nine-string harp, a wooden zither (madinda), a gourd horn, and various kinds of rattles and drums. There were musical bands that played at funerals and in the court. Songs were sung in a minor key. Drums were an emblem of office and were used for dancing, feasting, and marching and to announce major social and political events, including births, deaths, and war. A rich folklore chronicles the history of the clans and the royal succession.

Medicine. According to the Ganda, sickness is caused by gods, ghosts, sorcerers, and the breaking of taboos. Cures traditionally involved propitiating the god or ghost and righting the violated taboo with a sacrifice. For other ailments, medicine men administered such remedies as bleeding for headaches, herbal vapor baths for fever, and branding to relieve bodily pain. Bubonic plague was not uncommon, and at any sign of the plague people abandoned their settlements.

Death and Afterlife. A death was immediately followed by wailing of close relatives who had gathered in the home of the dying person. The widow washed and shaved the corpse and after two days wrapped it in bark cloth. Traditionally, the direct descendants rubbed butter on the face of the deceased. The corpse was buried at night under the supervision of a senior clansman. Relatives helped dig the grave in the homestead's banana grove. Beer was brewed and drunk. The installation of an heir concluded the mourning period. Traditionally, a chief was buried in a grave inside his home, which was then abandoned. The funeral of a kabaka followed the same basic procedure but was more elaborate. The kabaka was buried in the royal cemetery, and a shrine was constructed to house his jawbone and, in some cases, his umbilical cord. A staff of slaves and priests and a prophet would be responsible for maintaining the shrine and the associated cult.

The Ganda believe that the spirit of the deceased remains in or near the grave but can travel on occasion. It stays in close contact with its descendants and must be placated with offerings if the descendants are to avoid misfortune and prosper. The ancestral spirit can express its anger by possessing its descendants and making him them speak. Cults grew around the more famous, especially former kings.

For the original article on the Ganda, see Volume 9, Africa and the Middle East.

Bibliography

Apter, David E. (1967). The Political Kingdom of Uganda: A Study in Bureaucratic Nationalism, 2d ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Fallers, Margaret Chave (1960). The Eastern Lacustrine Bantu (Ganda and Soga). London: International African Institute.

Grimes, Barbara F. (1988). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Kilbride, Philip L., and Janet E. Kilbride (1974). "Sociocultural Factors and the Early Manifestation of Sociability Behavior among Baganda Infants." Ethos 2: 296-314.

Mair, Lucy Philip (1934). An African People in the Twentieth Century. London: G. Routledge & Sons.

—— (1940). Native Marriage in Buganda. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures.

Martin, M. Marlene (1977). "Ganda." In Sixty Cultures: A Guide to the HRAF Probability Files, edited by Robert O. Lagacé. New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files, Inc.

Ray, Benjamin C. (1991). Myth, Ritual, and Kingship in Buganda. New York: Oxford University Press.

Richards, Audrey Isabel (1960). 'The Ganda." In East African Chiefs: A Study of Political Development in Some Uganda and Tanganyika Tribes, edited by Audrey I. Richards. 41-77. London: Faber & Faber for the East African Institute of Social Research.

—— (1966). The Changing Structure of a Garda Village: Kisozi 1892-1952. Nairobi: East African Publishing House.

——, ed. (1954). Economic Development and Tribal Change: A Study of Immigrant Labour in Buganda. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons for the East African Institute of Social Research.

Roscoe, John (1911). The Baganda: An Account of Their Native Customs and Beliefs. London: Macmillan.

Southwold, Margin (1965). "The Ganda of Uganda." In Peoples of Africa, edited by James L. Gibbs, Jr. 81-118. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

IAN SKOGGARD

Ganda

ETHNONYMS: Buganda, Luganda

The Ganda are a group of people who live in the province of Buganda in Uganda. The Ganda refer to themselves as "Baganda" (sing. Muganda), and they refer to their language as "Luganda." Luganda is a Bantu language. Linguistically, Luganda can be placed within the Interlacustrine Group of the Northern Zone of Bantu languages or within the Central Branch of the Niger-Congo Language Family.

Buganda is one of four provinces within the country of Uganda. It is located on the northern and western shores of Lake Victoria, from 2° N to 1o S. It stretches for about 320 kilometers along the shore and extends inland about 130 kilometers. The land area of Buganda is about 45,000 square kilometers, and the elevation averages about 1,200 meters above sea level. The Ganda occupy the northwestern shore of Lake Victoria, a region characterized by flat-topped hills separated from each other by swampland.

Although the number of Africans living in Buganda, according to the 1950 census, was 1,834,128, only 1,006,101 of these people were ethnically Ganda. The overall density was 42 persons per square kilometer. At about the time of European contact (c. 1862), there were 3,000,000 Ganda. Civil wars, famine, and disease had reduced their number to about 2,000,000 by 1911. In 1986 their population was estimated at 2,352,000 (Grimes 1988).

Along with Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole, and Kiziba, Buganda is one of the Lacustrian kingdoms. The Ganda are people of mixed origins, whose ancestors migrated to their present location over the past 600 years. Historically, they were known as a warlike people who conquered many of their neighbors. At the time of White contact, the Ganda kingdom was at the height of its power.

The first contact with Westerners occurred in 1862, and missionaries arrived in Buganda soon thereafter. In the Buganda Agreement of 1900, Buganda was designated a province of Uganda. In 1962 the status of Uganda changed from that of a British protectorate to an independent nation and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. In the Uganda Agreement, the position of the king (kabaka ) was confirmed, and the native system of administration was preserved. The central government of Buganda Province consists of the kabaka, three ministers, and a legislative assembly (luki iko ). For administrative purposes, the province is divided into counties, subcounties, and parishes.

The Ganda are primarily an agricultural society; their staple crops are bananas and yams. Cotton was introduced as a market crop early in the twentieth century. In addition, sweet potatoes, taro, manioc, maize, millet, peanuts, beans, squashes, gourds, sesame, tomatoes, and sugarcane are grown. Ownership of cattle is a sign of wealth, and goats, chickens, and a few sheep are also kept. The banana has been of great importance in Ganda life. Typically, each household had a banana grove, which supplied the major food needs of the family. A grove could produce for as long as seventy years and required only a little weeding and mulching, work that was commonly done by women. According to the Ganda, one woman working in a banana grove provided food for ten men. Because of the banana, the Ganda have not needed to follow a pattern of shifting agriculture, and the land has been able to support a fairly dense population.

Traditionally, villages consisted of a number of households, each one surrounded by its banana gardens, spread out over the top of a hill. Villages were made up of between 60 and 100 adult males, together with their families, in a hierarchical system. All land was considered to be owned by the kabaka, who appointed local chiefs to administer specific territories. The chiefs, in turn, had subchiefs under them. At the bottom of this hierarchy was the village headman.

Land was controlled by patrilineal clans, each of which was protected by a major and a minor totem. Clan estates were administered by the heads of the clans, who were confirmed by the kabaka. Tribute—in the form of goods and services—flowed from the clans, to the chiefs, to the kabaka. For the kabaka, clan affiliation was different. There was a royal family, rather than a royal clan, and the children of the kabaka were affiliated with their mothers' clans. The succession to the kingship was in the male line: sons, grandsons, and brothers were eligible to inherit the title. In addition to his role as monarch, the kabaka was the head of all the clans in the kingdom. Through this latter role, the position of the king was reinforced, insofar as he was directly related to every family in the kingdom. Because of the kabaka's dual function, the Ganda consider it inconceivable for their society to exist without a king. Nevertheless, the chieftainship has declined in importance, and villages have become more dispersed and now lack the central focus of a chief's house. The residents of a village no longer get together except for marriage feasts and funerals.

The traditional religion of the Ganda was based on beliefs in the spirits of the dead. Prophets and mediums were able to consult with these spirits, which had influence over the affairs of the living. Although all of the Ganda are now considered to be Christian or Muslim (a small minority), vestiges of the traditional religion can still be observed. For example, sorcery, traditional medicine, spirit possession, and ancestor worship are some of the elements of the traditional religion that are sometimes practiced today.

Bibliography

Apte, David E. (1967). The Political Kingdom of Uganda: A Study in Bureaucratic Nationalism. 2d ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Fallers, Margaret Chave (1960). The Eastern Lacustrine Bantu (Ganda and Soga ). London: International African Institute.

Grimes, Barbara F. (1988). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Mair, Lucy Philip (1934). An African People in the Twentieth Century. London: G. Routledge & Sons.

Mair, Lucy Philip (1940). Native Marriage in Buganda. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures.

Ray, Benjamin C. (1991). Myth, Ritual, and Kingship in Buganda. New York: Oxford University Press.

Richards, Audrey Isabel (1960). "The Ganda." In East African Chiefs: A Study of Political Development in Some Uganda and Tan ganyika Tribes, edited by Audrey I. Richards, 41-77. London: Faber & Faber for the East African Institute of Social Research.

Richards, Audrey Isabel (1966). The Changing Structure of a Ganda Village: Kisozi 1892-1952. Nairobi: East African Publishing House.

Richards, Audrey Isabel, ed. (1954). Economic Development and Tribal Change: A Study of Immigrant Labour in Buganda. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons for the East African Institute of Social Research.

Roscoe, John (1911). The Baganda: An Account of Their Native Customs and Beliefs. London: Macmillan.

Southwold, Margin (1965). "The Ganda of Uganda." In Peoples of Africa, edited by James L. Gibbs, Jr., 81-118. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.