The Legend of Isaza and the Zebra Skin
Omukama Isaza(Last King of the Tembuzi dynasty) ascended to the throne when he was still very young and he faced many difficulties including the first locust disasters during his reign.
The locusts are known to have destroyed forests and all plants. The King and his people could not defeat these locusts because were so many.
Scientists of the era sat down and tried to look for a solution and it was revealed Lakes Mwitanzige’s(Albert) water was poisonous and could kill millions of locusts.
Isaza Rugambanabato ordered his men from southern Rwanda to northern Uganda to work hard to face these locusts. Their work was to line up one by one from Southern Rwanda to Northern Uganda and dig a long dam in which they would plant trees that locusts liked to eat.
During that hard work old men were not able to work as King Isaza wanted. He ordered that all old men be killed to give space to young ones who were able to face the challenge. The young monarch was therefore nicknamed “Rugambanabato” (he who talks only with young people).
Trees that were most liked by locusts were planted and the locusts left Lake Nzige(current Mugesera in Rwanda) and started eating them up to Lake Mwitanzinge(current Lake Albert in Uganda) were they all died.
How the old men were allowed back in the palace
Rugambanabato enjoyed hunting. One day after killing a young gazelle, which had a nice skin, he expressed a wish to put on the skin of the young gazelle. His friends made the skin into the form of a cloth and gave it to him. The king was extremely delighted, but unfortunately, the skin dried on him and became too tight pressing against him to the point of squeezing him to death.
The King went to see aunt called Kogere and his sister Nyangoma to tell of his dilemma. The two had hidden an old man and the old man felt sorry when he was told the tragic story. The old man went with his grandson to save Rugambanabato. When he arrived at the scene, he ordered Rugambanabato’s friends to take him to a river and let him sleep entirely in the water. When he emerged from the water, the animal skin has softened and with the aid of a knife the old man was able to cut the skin. He opened it and took Rugambanabato out of the skin.
King Rugambanabato was so delighted and ordered that if there is any other older man hidden somewhere, they should show up and come to live at his palace and made them his court advisors and ordered them not to depart from his presence. From then, Rugambanabato preferred the old men to the young men and agreed to be advised by the elders because young people were not able to save him. He respected the old people from that time onwards.
This Nyoro “cautionary tale” points the familiar moral that a person in authority neglects at his peril the advice of those older and wiser than he, and that old men are likely to be better informed than callow youth. But it also stresses another important feature of Nyoro ideas about authority – namely, that it is not inappropriate for young person’s to have power. in fact, succession by the youngest or a younger son is a characteristic feature of Nyoro inheritance. The role of the Older brother is to act as a guardian until the heir is old enough to assume full authority. Nyoro say that a first son should not inherit; Age is a qualification for advisory, not executive authority; it is right that the aged should be spared the arduousness of decision making, but right that they should guide and advise those in power.