Abstract
Summers discusses Buganda's 1941 Nnamasole crisis following the Christian marriage of Irene Namaganda, Buganda's queen mother who was pregnant with her slightly older lover. Namaganda's Christian marriage was powerfully scandalous, profoundly violating expectations associated with marriage and royal office. The scandal produced a political crisis that toppled Buganda's prime minister, pushed his senior allies from power, deposed the queen mother, exiled her husband, and changed Buganda's political landscape. The scandal launched a new era of public mobilization and protest that took Buganda's politics beyond the realm of deals between the oligarchy and British elites, and into public gossip, newspapers and eventually the streets.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2018
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2018 African Studies Center. This article first appeared in International Journal of African Historical Studies 51:1 (2018), 63-83.
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Recommended Citation
Summers, Carol. "Scandal and Mass Politics: Buganda's 1941 Nnamasole Crisis." International Journal of African Historical Studies 51, no. 1 (2018): 63-83.