The grasslands west of Buganda, from the Katonga and Ntusi to Bunyoro, Toro and Nkore, are the land of Rutara-speaking Bantu agro-pastoralists (ancestors of the Nyoro, Tooro, Nkore and Haya).
On 1 January 1200 the great settlement of Ntusi (about 1000-1400) is at its height: a chiefly centre with cattle, grain, iron and imported glass beads and cowries. Schoenbrun traces the growth of cattle wealth and of chiefship in these centuries. The famous earthworks of Bigo and Munsa (about 1300-1500), the Chwezi 'empire' of tradition, the salt works of Kibiro on Lake Albert (deposits from about 1200-1300) and the Bito kingdom of Bunyoro are later or just beginning.
The Rwenzori and the Semliki hold mountain farmers.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not named
- Title
- Chiefs of Ntusi and other centres
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
What it holds
- Ntusi and the Katonga grasslands
- Bunyoro and the Lake Albert escarpment
- Toro and the Rwenzori foothills
- Nkore's grasslands
How things stand that morning
Chiefdoms, not yet a state.
Customs
Chiefs and their cattle clients (later evidence); spirit mediumship (the later Chwezi cults).
Places of note
- Ntusi: The great settlement of about 1000-1400 (town record Ntusi)
- Kibiro: Salt springs on Lake Albert; occupation beginning about 1200-1300
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Excavation at Ntusi (Sutton, Reid) and historical linguistics (Schoenbrun); the political shape is inferred.
On the map: Rough outline from Lake Albert and the Rwenzori to the edge of the north-shore country.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia, 'Ntusi' (after Sutton 1998 and Reid)
- D. L. Schoenbrun, A Green Place, A Good Place: Agrarian Change, Gender, and Social Identity in the Great Lakes Region to the 15th Century (1998)
- P. Robertshaw, 'The ancient earthworks of western Uganda: capital sites of a Cwezi empire?', Uganda Journal 48 (2002), and Wikipedia 'Bigo bya Mugenyi'
- Wikipedia, 'Kibiro' (after G. Connah, Kibiro: the salt of Bunyoro, 1996)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.