The Rwenzori Ethnic Puzzle

The article analyses the historical process which led to the creation of different ethnic identities in the area of the Rwenzori mountain, on the frontier between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo. It focuses specifically on the "ethnogenesis" of the Bakonzo and of the Banande, two groups of mountain agriculturalists sharing the same origin, who separated as a consequence of the expansion of the Bunyoro and Toro kingdoms. While the Banande colonized the forest of Northern Kivu in Congo, creating some petty chiefdoms, the Bakonzo lived for centuries in small a-cefalous communities cultivating the Eastern slopes of the Rwenzori. But after Independence a new, striking process of political centralization involved the Bakonzo society through the emergence of a strong protest movement (Rwenzururu) asking for the creation of an independent Bakonzo kingdom, that finally has been recognized by the Ugandan Government.