Chapter VII · East & Central Africa
Great
Lakes
Buganda · Rwanda · Kikuyu
East & Central Africa
Buganda · Rwanda · Kikuyu
Chapter VII
Around the great lakes — Victoria, Tanganyika, Malawi — interlocking kingdoms built some of Africa's most sophisticated administrative states. Buganda's kabaka ruled with a parliament older than Westminster's. Rwanda developed a complex feudal system. The Kikuyu, without kings, governed themselves through councils of elders and became leaders of Africa's most consequential anticolonial uprising.
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Key dates
1300s
Buganda kingdom established around Lake Victoria
1400s
Rwanda kingdom develops under Mwami rule
1884–85
Berlin Conference partitions the region between Britain, Germany, Belgium
1952–60
Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya — led largely by Kikuyu
1962
Uganda gains independence
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From the archive
Empires and heroes drawn from the Africanpedia catalogue for this region.
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Chapter VII · East & Central Africa
Great Lakes
Africanpedia