A portrait for the Mukama: Monarchy and empire in Colonial Bunyoro,Uganda

In September 1934 the ruler of Bunyoro, in the Uganda Protectorate, was presented with a signed portrait of King George V. It was a ceremony which immediately suggests the role of the imperial monarchy as a focus for the public performances which sustained the authority of colonial states, and evokes an image of an ‘ornamentalising’ British imperial vision of authority. Yet a detailed examination of the context of this gift suggests the ambivalence of British attitudes towards the idea of African ‘kingship’, and indicates the importance of African attempts to exploit the idea of kingship in pursuit of local agendas.