BANTU NEGEOES 601 



after the fashion related in the legends, must have retraced the path of 

 their race to Unyoro. 



At the same time, no doubt, subsequent to the original invasion, other 

 bands of Gala people had quitted the Acholi and Lango countries to 

 establish themsel\-es in Unyoro. The original source from which these 

 Gala herdsmen came mu>t have become exhausted, while the multiplication 

 and increased vigour in arms of the Nile negroes of the Masai-Turkana 

 stock and of certain sections of stranded Bantu negroes to the east of the 

 Victoria Nile probably barred the way to any further intercourse between 

 the lands of the Gala and the Somali on the east and the Victoria 

 Nyanza on the west. So it came about in time that Unyoro was added 

 to the kingdoms or states which were governed by kings of Gala descent, 

 or at any rate by an aristocracy or ruling caste of Gala blood— blood, of 

 course, with which inevitably that of the indigenous Negro was mingled 

 in varying degree. Leading men of this Babima stock must have founded 

 dynasties in Unyoro, Uganda, Karagwe, and other countries between the 

 Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika. At one time, no doubt, there was a 

 " kitwara," or emperor, of Hima blood who grouped together under his rule 

 the countries of Uganda, Unyoro, Toro, Ankole, and Karagwe. This was 

 probably the heyday of Hamitic civilisation, which subsequently declined 

 through internecine wars and the gradual " negrification '' of these countries 

 — that is to say, the decline in proportionate numbers of the people of 

 pure Hamitic stock and the disproportionate increase of the Bantu Negro. 



There seems early to have sprung up a separate dynasty in the 

 countries which are now grouped together as the Kingdom of Uganda, 

 and some cause at the same time brought about a distinct separation in 

 language between those whom we may .all the Eaganda (the people of 

 Buddu, Sese, the home districts of Uganda, Kiagwe, and Butoga), and 

 both Negroes and Hamites in the domain of Unyoro. The speech of 

 Unyoro extends at the present day with very little \ariation from the 

 Victoria Nile and the Albert Nyanza on the north through Toro, Ankole, 

 Karagwe, Euanda, and Businja to the south-west shore of the Victoria 

 Nyanza, and to within a short distance of the north end of Tanganyika. 

 This language also reappears on the Bukerebe Archipelago in the southern 

 part of the Victoria Nyanza. It may safely be assumed that wherever the 

 Unyoro dialects are found at the present day there the allied dynasties of 

 Bahima origin have ruled— are, in fact, ruling now. But in Uganda (as 

 will be seen in the following chapter) the dynasty, though it sometimes 

 claims descent from an Hamitic stock and to have had the same founders 

 as started the royal houses of Unyoro and Ankole, nevertheless has 

 remained much more negro in features (judging by its recent kings) than 

 is the case in Ankole and Karagwe. It is quite possible that the kings 



