Court House and Entrance to King’s Palace, Bukindo

“Court House and Entrance to King’s Palace, Bukindo”

A lithograph depicting the entrance to the royal residence of King Lukongeh, in his capital of Bukindo, on the island of Ukerewe, the largest island of Lake Victoria, in northwestern Tanzania.

From “Sketches of African scenery, from Zanzibar to the Victoria Nyanza, being a series of coloured lithographic pictures, from original sketches by the late Mr. Thomas O’Neill, of the Victoria Nyanza Mission of the Church Missionary Society”, published in 1878.

Lieut. Smith, one of Mr. O’Neill’s companions wrote: “The king’s enclosure is a circle of about 150 yards diameter, the fence of timber averaging 10 feet high. Within are about 30 huts for his wives, two rather larger for himself, one surmounted with ostrich eggs. He is the only male dwelling in this community of perhaps 100 females. The hut is supported by rudely carved posts, cut hexagonally.”

King Lukongeh had also met with the famous Henry Morton Stanley in 1875, who described him as amiable and hospitable, and meeting him “seated in state, surrounded by hundreds of bowmen and spearmen”.

Note

“The current structure was designed by the Italians and constructed during the rule of Chief Gabriel Ruhumbika. “The Chief’s Palace, Bukindo, erected from 1922 to 1923, the island’s former king’s modest European-style palace””