Mwanga became Kabaka of Buganda in 1894, the same year Buganda was declared a British Protectorate. Suspicious of Europeans, particularly missionaries, he sought to restrict his subjects’ interactions with them. Baganda Christians who disobeyed his orders were executed as traitors, while later Christian memory treated them as martyrs.

Mwanga combined violent resistance with diplomatic maneuvering. He viewed British agents as attempting to take over Buganda under the appearance of missionary activity, yet he was also adept at managing the competing religious communities within his kingdom. At different moments he balanced Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims against one another, allying with whichever group seemed most useful or least threatening to his authority.

In 1888, Mwanga attempted to use a traditional naval gathering on Lake Victoria as a trap for foreigners and their Baganda followers. The plan was exposed, and the foreigners instead staged a coup, deposed him, and placed his brother on the throne. Mwanga regained his position in 1889, but his political struggle continued until he was exiled to Kisimayu in 1899.

After withdrawing from Buganda’s political arena, Mwanga joined Kabarega in Lango. Their hide-out was stormed and both kings were captured. Mwanga died at Kisimayu in 1903, remembered in the extract as a ruler whose diplomacy and resistance were intertwined with the religious and colonial conflicts reshaping Uganda.