Happy Anniversary Sylvia & King Ronald of Buganda
August 27, 2009Today is the 10th Anniversary of the wedding of the Kabaka (‘King’) of Buganda, Ronald Mutebi II and his ‘American’ wife, NYU graduate Sylvia.
Buganda is one of 4 Kingdoms in the country of Uganda, which most westerners know only through the dictatorship of Idi Amin. It was the most powerful kingdom – ‘Uganda’ is it’s Swahili name – but it’s social and political structure, including the 600-year-old monarchy, was dismantled by the British (the monarchy was restored in 1993).
The first royal wedding in Uganda in 50 years took place in Kampala (where is that?), and was marked by a lavish ceremony and great celebration throughout the country – not just for the wedding, but because the King gave everyone permission to break a tribal tradition – that no one but the royal couple should have sex on his wedding night! (Tradition has it that any man who fails to resist temptation on the Kabaka’s wedding day will be attacked by a sheep and become impotent).
The King controversially did follow another tradition – he symbolically married a 13 year-old virgin girl before the main wedding ceremony. The virgin bride usually remains a virgin for life, with some ceremonial functions, such as announcing the king’s death and calling an end to the communal mourning period. However Bugandan officials say teenager Sarah Nsobya’s life will be unchanged.
Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II was 45 on his wedding day, and many citizens had despaired that he would not leave an heir. His choice of a bride was controversial – Sylvia Nagginda Luswata, an 38-year old aristocratic Ugandan who graduated from New York University, comes from a clan called ‘Edible Rat’, whose traditional role has been caring for washrooms; worse yet, she was considered ‘American’. Born in Britain, she had spent the last 18 years in the United States, mostly in New York. She had worked as a research consultant at the United Nations and at the World Bank in Washington.
Joy and cultural pride carried the day, however, and the country went cuckoo for the royal wedding. The royal couple’s faces were printed on beer cans, sponsors fell all over themselves trying to get involved, and men with leopard skins and spears danced outside the Anglican church. Two people were suffocated to death in the large crowds trying to get close to the ceremony, but they weren’t particularly lamented in the general jubilation.
Bugandans have since taken Sylvia to their heart, and Ronald has used his status to encourage his people to participate in immunization and AIDS programs, and has been outspoken in encouraging public and private education. Superstars in their troubled homeland (Ronald’s position is more ceremonial than political), people prostrate themselves on the roadside when they pass, and follow their every word and action closely in the Ugandan tabloids.
They now have four children, one son and three daughters.
Happy anniversary, Ronald and Sylvia.