Bunyoro

Bunyoro, former kingdom, east of Lake Albert, in present Uganda. It was founded in the 15th century by Nilotic invaders from the north, cattle breeders who established their dominance over the indigenous Bantu farming population. Bunyoro was ruled by a divine monarch (the omukama) who had the right to appoint local chiefs; he had no fixed abode, but traveled regularly from one part of the kingdom to another. It was the leading state in the region in the 17th and 18th centuries; after 1800 it was eclipsed by the kingdom of Buganda to the south. Reduced in size, Bunyoro was annexed by the British in the 1890s. From 1962 until it was abolished in 1967, it was part of the federation of Uganda.