The Story of Queen Masamba and the Royal Band of Flutes
Omubiitokati(princess) Masamba Ga Winyi is remembered to be the only woman to have ever ruled the great Bunyoro-Kitara Empire.
She become Omukama of Bunyoro after Omukama Chwa I, Ente Nkole Rumoma Mahanga her brother who was a great warrior, and who used to go out regularly for territorial expansions, was killed in battle during an expedition.
The Story goes that on one occasion he was returning from an expedition from Ankole, where he had been victorious, having cut up the royal drums and taken much spoil, when he was told that there was a herd of cattle hidden away in a forest through which they were passing. With a few of his warriors he wandered into the depths of the forest, and by some accident became separated from his men and was lost (perhaps killed, but in Bunyoro customs, A King disappears – does not die). They searched until darkness came and again the next day but could not find him, so they returned to the capital and informed his sister (Masamba), the queen, of what had happened.
Chwa I, though he was married to a wife called Arapenyi, had no child, and the chiefs could find no one they considered suitable to govern the country. At last they agreed that the queen, the sister to the late king, should reign, and for a time things went fairly well.
Meanwhile the queen became enamored (fell in love) to a man of the cow people (bahuma) and asked the chiefs to agree to his taking his place as her consort to assist and advise her, she pointed out that, being a woman, she could not lead her armies and that a consort(her new lover) could go in for her. The chiefs were not favorable to the idea, for the man was not a prince, and they asked for time to consider the matter.
While they were still in perplexity, news arrived concerning the woman Arapenyi, who had been found in Ankole by two men who had gone there to sell salt. They recognized her and asked her how she came to be there. In reply she told them that she had been captured when her husband, King Chwa, and was lost, and that she had a child who was with her.
The men saw the child, whose likeness to the late king was striking, and brought their story back to Bamuroga(chief mnister), who at once sent two chiefs, a Muhuma and a Munyoro, to visit the woman secretly and, if the story was correct, to bring her and her child back. The chiefs recognized Arapenyi and saw that the likeness of the child to King Chwa was unquestionable, so they helped the woman and child to escape by night and brought them to Bamuroga.
For a time the matter was kept a secret and the woman and her child lived in hiding, but at last the queen demanded an answer to her proposal and Bamuroga said they would bring the answer the next day. The chiefs then took the boy prince with them to visit the queen, who recognized him as the son of her brother, greeted him with affection, and listened to the story of how his mother had been captured and then brought back from slavery. The boy had to sit on her lap and she showed him every mark of affection.
Later, the queen asked Bamuroga if the child might not come to stay with her, for she was so pleased to see him. He, however, was suspicious of her intentions and said it was impossible.
The queen then held a council in secret with her immediate attendants, and decided that the boy would have to be killed. Among her attendants, however, was the fluteplayer, Musegu, who went to Bamuroga and told him the whole plot: how the queen was going to ask for another interview with the little prince, and had arranged to have him killed/speared while in her presence. It was arranged that Musegu, who would be present at the interview, should warn the followers of Bamuroga when the deed was to be done by blowing his flute.
In a short time the queen asked Bamuroga to allow the child to come and see her again. Bamuroga consented, and the queen made her preparations by placing her men with concealed weapons in suitable positions ready to attack. Bamuroga, however, also took with him an armed party with their weapons concealed. The prince sat on a rug in front of the queen who talked in a friendly manner with him, but, as she gave her signal for him to be speared, Musegu set up a strange, shrill piping sound and the young boy prince, who had been told to rush back to his protectors when he heard the sound of the flute, sprang back among Bamuroga’s men, some of whom surrounded him, while others rushed in and slew the would-be assassins, among them the queen’s paramour(lover), and made the queen prisoner.
The prince, who was then called Ruguruki (but come to be called Kyebambe I because he had usurped the throne of his aunt) was at once declared king and he proclaimed that Musegu should become a member of his own clan, the Babito, and appointed him and his sons to be the royal flute-players who had to be in the king’s presence on all ceremonial occasions. Their persons were to be sacrosanct (sacred), and they had free access to the king at all times.