When you think about Tooro, think about love

The Batooro are famous for their humble lyrical speech. They will break the ice by asking for your pet name, never mind even if you don’t have one. True Batooro don’t understand that there are people without pet names. 

And if you don’t have one, you will be given usually some of the unisex ones; Amooti, Akiiki, Adyeeri, or Abwoli. After you have the name other pleasantries can follow in rapid succession. 

At one time, all eyes were cast on this kingdom which boasted of having the youngest king in the world, Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who ascended to the throne in 1995 aged just 4 years, following the death of his father. 

That is when the media was graced with photographs of him playing with toys behind the pavilion at a national function where foreign dignitaries including Presidents were. As king, he was one of the dignitaries at the function.

Now one of the county’s most eligible bachelors, Omukama Oyo is endowed with good looks. His subjects are all eyes for who is going to be his bride. Careless whispers are heard wondering how his ancestors proposed and how he is going to do it. 

Likewise, Oyo’s sister Princess Komuntale hit the headlines for wedding Christopher Thomas first in 2013. They fell apart and she recently walked a Jamaican Dee Jay rebranded Amooti Phil Anthony recently. 

Long before them, their elegant aunt Elizabeth Bagaya graced the cover of Vogue Magazine in 1968. Two years later she was a foreign minister. In 1974 she addressed the UN General Assembly on behalf of the African Union. She flew onboard the presidential Gulfstream and it is popular talk in Toro that Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada went on bended knees to propose marriage. 

Bagaya declined to join Amin’s harem of wives. She was imprisoned and the Late Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta had to call and caution his Uganda counterpart not to harm her or risk severing diplomatic relations. She fled the country in the 1970s. She modelled and starred in Shena in 1984, which made many ask where the actress was from. 

When I journeyed to Tooro, my interest was not romance or love stories. This is when it dawned on me that nothing goes on in Tooro without a pinch of “matters of the heart” being intricately woven. 

Mabere ga Nyinamwiru. 

According to geography students, located 8km off Bundibugyo Road is a volcanic eruption formation dripping sodium in the caves. They date back thousands of years. 

Visually the white rocky pieces dangling from the roof of the cave do not look like breasts but they release a whitish liquid believed to have fed Ndahura. (Photo by Titus Kakembo)

However oral literature has it that the breast-like formations are Nyinamwiru’s breasts. And that this was home to the first Bunyoro king. Also in the rocks are embedded footprints of the legendary Bachwezi king Ndahura. The dynasty is believed to have vanished mysteriously. 

Typical of Tooro tales, love is intricately woven in the narrative by the guide Sheila Kankwasa beginning with how Nyinamwiru came to be in the 14th Century. 

“This evidence that intrigue, love, friendship, and betrayal are not new,” begins Kankwasa. “The water here has a healing effect after submerging in it. There is a belief that the powers of the Bachwezi can: boost one's fortunes, enable the siring of twins and getting a loving spouse.” 

“Making noise is prohibited because it interrupts nature’s rhythm,” explains Kankwasa. “Appreciate the birds as they flap their wings. Listen to the chirp of the insects. There are monkeys all over the wood. Kin eyes spot hedgehogs, rats, mongooses, and snakes. The aim of silence is to leave the ecology as natural as we can.” 

After burrowing through thickets, we were finally at the caves with the “dripping breasts” of pretty Nyinamwiru. They are covered with moss and ooze some whitish liquid. At this point, everyone with a camera struggles to get the best angle, others strip to have a shower and shoot selfies. 

Lush green bathed by pure water from the Mountains of the Moon. (Photo by Titus Kakembo)

“Nyinamwiru’s father King Bukuku had rejected several men proposing to marry her,” Kankwansa continued where she stopped. “That is what caused him to isolate her here in the caves after chopping off her breast to reduce her appeal to men.” 

And it was in this confinement where the king of the Batembuzi Isaza found her and got her pregnant. 

“Without breasts, the baby called Ndahura survived on the liquid dripping from the cave roof who later found the mysterious Bachwezi dynasty based 150km in Mubende.” Summing up that “In the evening of his life Ndahura chose to return to his roots and left his footprints somewhere in the caves.” 

Besides the Mabere, Uganda Tourism Board CEO Lilly Ajarova says Tooro is the tourism city of Uganda endowed with a variety of attractions. 

"One can opt for nature and switch to culture," says Ajarova. "A single day in Tooro is not enough to exhaust the oral and written literature. You just need to embed yourself in Tooro to feel the pulse."