The entire ancestral base (Butaka) of one of Buganda’s big clans Nvubu (hippo) clan is encircled in the one square mile of land gifted under freehold by Uganda to Senegalese-American singer Akon.
Akon wants to build a futuristic city using only cryptocurrency on the square mile. The city is motivated by the fictional Wakanda movie of an East African kingdom.
The Akon city land covers the villages of Bulebi, Lulagwe, Sango and Mbazzi, in Mpunge Sub County in Mukono district. But besides the square mile (640 acres) having two thousand families, it also covers 50 acres of the priceless heritage, the Obutaka of the Nvubu clan.
Besides the base of the Nvubu clan head, Omutaka Kayita, his 19 clan elders (Ab’amasiga also have a special space each where they meet with the children of the clan.
The Nvubu clan’s special role in Buganda is medicine/healing and treating Kabaka’s people injured in battles. So the land has a special rock called Nampewo, which is shaped like a pot in which herbal medicines are mixed (Ekyogero) by Kayita.
Other centuries-old rituals still performed frequently in the Obutaka which are now on Mr Akon’s title deed include the sharing of alcohol in the forest called Nabamiivu with major spirits (Lubaale) which is poured down a bottomless tunnel that is believed to connect to Lake Nalubaale (Victoria). This has been going on since 1887 when the ‘home’ of Lubaale Kiwanuka was shifted from the kingdom seat of Mengo in 1887 after the colonialists established control over Buganda and ended its state of independence as a state.
Ugandaupdatenews.com has learnt that Nvubu leaders are urgently devising means of reaching out to the Uganda (central Government to request that the 50 acres Obutaka be carved out of the land already allocated to the Senegalese-American superstar and explore ways of compensating him elsewhere because for them and Buganda the Obutaka of a major clan cannot be replaced or transferred.
And in Akon’s plans of a futuristic city, there is certainly no plan of accommodating an ancient site whose occupants regard the place as holy.
