Bulange

Royal seat of the Buganda Kingdom

0°18′34″N 32°33′31″E / 0.3095°N 32.5585°E / 0.3095; 32.5585Construction started1955Completed1958

The Bulange (boo-lah-ngeh) is a building in Uganda. It houses the Lukiiko (Parliament) of the Kingdom of Buganda. The Kabaka of Buganda and the Katikkiro (Prime Minister) of Buganda also maintain offices in the building. The building serves as the administrative headquarters of the Buganda Kingdom.^[1]

Location

Bulange is on Namirembe Hill close to Namirembe Hospital, about 1 mile (1.6 km) northwest of the main gate of Mengo Palace in Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city. This is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the city center of Kampala. The coordinates of Bulange are 0°18'35.0"N, 32°33'30.0"E (Latitude:0.309722; Longitude:32.558333).^[2] A straight road, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) long, called Kabaka Anjagala Road (The-King-Loves-Me Road) leads from the main entrance of the Mengo Palace to the entrance of Bulange.^[3]^[4]

History

In the beginning, the Buganda Parliament convened inside one of the Kabaka's palaces and conducted business under the shade of one or more trees. Later, grass-thatched buildings served as the parliament buildings. Around the beginning of the 20th century, Prime Minister of Buganda, Apollo Kaggwa, contracted an Indian, Alidina Visram, to build a parliament building using bricks. As the kingdom's government grew in size, the need for a large-enough meeting hall forced the construction of the Bulange outside the King's Palace for the first time.

While in exile in Scotland in 1953, Ssekabaka Muteesa II saw and admired the construction drawings of a building. He brought those drawings with him on his return from exile in 1955. He directed that the new Bulange be constructed according to those drawings. Construction began in 1955 and was completed in 1958 at a cost of £5 million, fully funded by the Government of Buganda.^[5]

References

^ Vision, Reporter (10 October 2012). "1 dead, 3 injured In Bulange Mengo fire". New Vision. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
^ Google (2 August 2015). "Location of Bulange At Google Maps" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
^ JJUUKO, DENIS (2018-04-11). "Kabaka BD run calls for redevelopment of Lubiri". The Observer - Uganda. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
^ MUGAGGA, ROBERT (2014-08-27). "15 years ago, this wedding shattered Ugandan records". The Observer - Uganda. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
^ Buganda Kingdom. "Buganda's Heritage: Bulange Building". Buganda.or.ug. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2014.