The Bamasaba, Babukusu and Shana of Bunyoro who occupy Bugisu Region

By Steven Masiga

Masaabaland which is currently made up of several districts of Bududa, Sironko, Bulambuli, Mbale City, Mbale DLG, and Namisindwa, have three tribes that populate this area; the Shana, are a little-known tribe, among bamasaba people, but constitutionally recognized. The Shana occupy Bulegeni Town Council and are less than 1000 in number.

The origin and arrival of the Shana into the Elgon is not well documented; their arrival is shrouded in mystery, how a supposedly finishing community ended up, in a mountainous area is something, that has up to now,  baffled historians, their dialect linguistic classification is closely tied to the Bakeni people of Buruli and the Banyoro of western Uganda. 

Historical accounts appear to state that the Shana came to Masabaland through the efforts of General Semei Kakungulu in the early 1900s as either foot soldiers or casual labourers and they are presently occupying Bulugeni Town council a few meters to Sabinys of Kapchorwa, while other accounts claim they were fishermen after exhausting the fish from lakes they turned to agriculture hence moving up to the mountains.

Whereas the Shana may occupy a certainly known territory at a level of a town council, their counterparts  The Babukusu as a tribe have no recorded place of abode, since current inhabitants who would otherwise be categorized as Babukusu, refuse any tagging of them on the word Babukusu, as they know themselves as Bamasaba/ Bagisu, which is a valid assertion as they speak the same language with bamasaba and share similar origins including names, imbalu among other fraternal aspects.

In Bududa one of the culturalists, who sought to establish legitimacy as a cultural leader did not receive recognition from the District local Government in question as the Bududa DLG leadership flatly rejected the claim of being categorized as  Babukusu and Namisindwa equally distanced itself from the label.

The Babukusu are thus a floating tribe with no known territory much as they have existed since 1994 when the matter was tabled in the constituent assembly and were eventually recognized as a tribe, without a territory to control is akin to a stateless citizen.  

While the Bamasaba as the biggest tribe occupy the districts above, the current cultural leader reigns in all those areas and the Shanas also pay allegiance as well since they are within his territory. Since the territory occupied is contested and claimed by bamasaba and Sabinys it may take time before the Shana can claim for a cultural leader, as they have no District within their jurisdiction that can endorse their quest for a cultural leader.

Masabaland is made up of several tribes, many moved from one part of Bugisu to another but highly connected, Bungokho and Sironko including Bulambuli record the highest level of migrants or Bafurukyi in  Lunyakitara or Bawuuyi in Lugisu. Bungokho has been occupied now for about 200 years by people from Bududa and partly Sironko. The prominent politicians in Bungokho are either Baduda by origin or Badadiri of sironko, sironko and Balambuli has a mixture of Bagwere, Sabinys, Itesots and the Bukusu etc

Migrations can’t be discounted, among the Badama of Toro there are bamasaba who got stuck there during the epoch of migrations.

Uganda has about 65 tribes in total and all of them arrived in a place we now call Uganda through migrations, other tribes like Baganda and Bagisu, Banyankole have stayed here for about 500 years while others like Burundi, Shana are relatively new.

The writer; Steven Masiga is the spokesperson of Inzu Ya Masaaba, a cultural institution of the Bagisu