Baganda

Baganda (bägän'də), also called Ganda, the largest ethnic group in Uganda. Bagandas comprise about 17% of the population and have the country's highest standard of living and literacy rate. Their traditional homeland is Buganda, an area of central and southern Uganda. Their first king or kabaka, the powerful Kintu, was crowned c.1380. The earliest European explorers to visit Buganda, John Speke and James Grant, dealt with Mutesa, the powerful Bagandan kabaka of the Victorian era. Ugandan president Milton Obote outlawed the Bagandan and other traditional Ugandan kingships in 1966 and the then-king, Sir Edward Frederick Mutesa II, went into exile in England. In 1993 kingship was restored by President Yoweri Museveni and "King Freddy's" son, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, was installed as kabaka.