Baganda (redirected from Muganda)

Baganda (bägän`də), also called Ganda, the largest ethnic group in Uganda. Bagandas comprise about 17% of the population and have the country's highest standard of living and literacy rate. Their traditional homeland is Buganda, an area of central and southern Uganda. Their first king or kabaka, the powerful Kintu, was crowned c.1380. The earliest European explorers to visit Buganda, John Speke and James Grant, dealt with Mutesa, the powerful Bagandan kabaka of the Victorian era. Ugandan president Milton Obote outlawed the Bagandan and other traditional Ugandan kingships in 1966 and the then-king, Sir Edward Frederick Mutesa II, went into exile in England. In 1993 kingship was restored by President Yoweri Museveni and "King Freddy's" son, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, was installed as kabaka.

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Ganda

 or Baganda

People of southern Uganda. They speak Luganda, a Bantu language of the Benue-Congo group. Numbering 3.7 million, the Ganda are Uganda's largest ethnic group. Traditionally hoe cultivators, they also grow cotton and coffee for export and keep livestock. In the 19th century the Ganda developed the centralized state known as Buganda.

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Baganda 

Ganda, a people inhabiting southern Uganda. They numbered (together with related peoples, the Basese and the Basingo) about 1.5 million according to a 1967 estimate. The language spoken by the Baganda is Luganda. A significant number of the Baganda are Protestants and Catholics; there are some Muslims, and some still adhere to local traditional beliefs. The Baganda practice agriculture (cotton, manioc, sweet potatoes, bananas). The Baganda constitute the ethnic base of the state of Buganda, which has existed since the 15th century.

REFERENCE

Roscoe, J. The Baganda. London, 1911.