SUMMARY

The Bamba people (also known as Ba’amba or Amba) are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group that resides around the Rwenzori mountains in western Uganda and eastern DR Congo. Estimates put the Bamba population in Uganda at around 42,559, which is less than 0,2% of the country’s total population.

The Bamba people have lived together with the Vanoma, the Babwisi and the Bakonzo people on the slopes of Rwenzori Mountains and in Semuliki valley for centuries. Today, the Bamba mainly inhabit Bundibugyo district in Uganda. On the Congolese side, they are concentrated in Butalinga district in South Kivu. The Bamba people are agriculturalists that cultivate matoke, sweet potatoes, rice, coffee, cotton and raise goats and sheep. They mainly practice Christianity and traditional religions.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Bamba became subjects of the newly established Tooro kingdom. After experiencing decades of oppression and marginalization under the Tooro rule, the Bamba joined their larger neighboring tribe the Bakonzo, in their quest to seek independence from the kingdom. In 1962, the two tribes launched a rebellion known as the Rwenzururu Movement (Rwenzururu being a local name for the Rwenzori massif). The Rwenzururu struggle continued for decades and in 2008, the government of Uganda officially recognized the Rwenzururu kingdom as a cultural institution, shared between the majority Bakonzo and the minority Bamba.

Over the following years, the Bamba started opposing the cultural domination of the Bakonzo and claimed that the kingdom failed to represent all minority tribes. As a result, the Bamba demanded a kingdom of their own and in 2014, the Bamba kingdom (Obudhingiya bwa Bwamba) was established by Uganda’s President Museveni. The tribal tensions did however not ease and in 2016, the declaration of local council election results in Bundibugyo district resulted in [violent clashes between the Bakonzo and the Bamba (see Bakonzo - Bamba).