In 1941, Irene Drusilla Namaganda, the reigning queen mother of British-occupied Buganda, shocked the kingdom when she revealed she was six months pregnant-only fifteen months after the king's death. The father of her child, a schoolteacher nearly two decades her junior, quickly became the focal point for a scandal that engulfed the monarchy. The ensuing political crisis led to Namaganda's removal from the office of queen mother (Nnamasole) and her companion's exile, spurring her own departure. Drawing from extensive archival research and in-depth oral interviews, this long-awaited biography analyzes Namaganda's roles as wife, mother, widow, and prominent yet controversial cultural-political icon. Scholar Nakanyike Musisi moves beyond the scandal to explore how the monarch's character and personal choices defied expectations of royal women and redefined motherhood, power, and tradition. She challenges dominant narratives in African political history and gender studies to show how African women navigated competing systems of authority and in doing so reshaped both the institution of monarchy and broader cultural and historical landscapes.
Nakanyike Musisi is an associate professor of history at the University of Toronto. Her scholarship has appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Journal of African History, History in Africa, Gender and History, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, and Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies, among others. She is a coeditor of Women in African Colonial Histories and Decolonising State and Society in Uganda.
List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments Chronology A Note on Spellings and Place-Names Introduction Part I: Nnamasole (Queen Mother) Chapter 1: From Initiation into Queen Mothership to the Disclosure of the "Abominable Disease" Part II. Omusango gwe'kive (The Abominable Crime) Chapter 2: The Lukiiko: Debating Namaganda's Impeachment and Kigozi's Trial Chapter 3: Namaganda's Husband on Trial Chapter 4: Cultural and Judicial Irregularities Part III: Mukembuga, Nyina Kabaka (Royal Wife and Kabaka's Mother) Chapter 5: Royal Wedding and Investiture Chapter 6: Wifehood and Widowhood as Nnaabagereka, Nnamasole, and Mrs. Kigozi Chapter 7: Motherhood Chapter 8: Rumors and Gossip Part IV: Tukutendereza (Praise God) Chapter 9: Illness, Death, Funeral, and Memorialization Chapter 10: Voices from a Will: The Multifaceted Legacy of Irene Drusilla Namaganda Conclusion Appendix Glossary Notes Bibliography Index
"In her masterful retelling of this scandal, Musisi overturns assumptions about the waning power and influence of women in colonial Africa. Simultaneously biography and a history of political turmoil in Uganda, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the African past." - Rhiannon Stephens, author of A History of African Motherhood: The Case of Uganda, 700-1900
