Royal Recalcitrant

Edward Frederick William David Mukabya Mutesa II, Kabaka (King) of Buganda, is just about the most troublesome of all Britain's wards in East Africa, and last week he was making the most of his reputation.

For years the British dreamed of an East African federation combining Uganda, of which Buganda is officially a province, with Kenya and Tanganyika. But Cambridge-educated King Freddie, as he was known in Mayfair society, dreamed of independence. In 1953 the British rashly hustled him off into exile in London, had to back down when the Baganda threatened to become completely unmanageable. In 1955, as drums rolled and tom-toms boomed, King Freddie came home in triumph.

Since a condition of his return was Freddie's acceptance of the status of a constitutional monarch, Britain hoped that he might actually be a help in establishing a democratic government. But 33-year-old King Freddie is a proud man who represents a dynasty that goes back to the 15th century. No sooner was he safely back in his palace in Kampala than he began to show signs of wanting to be every inch the king his ancestors were.

Into the Clink. Though he could not act openly, he managed to work effectively through Buganda's tribal chiefs, who know that should democracy come, the traditional tribal hierarchy must go. The tribalists still dominate the Lukiko (Buganda's Parliament). On one pretext or another, Freddie's supporters went after the leaders of those newfangled political parties with their talk of popular elections. They ousted two party presidents from the Lukiko, even had National Congress Party Chairman Joseph Kiwanuka tossed into jail on the charge that he was plotting to assassinate the King. Last month the Lukiko rejected a plan to hold direct elections for Buganda's five delegates to the British-sponsored Legislative Council of Uganda, followed up with a resolution withdrawing official recognition from all political parties.

These days King Freddie is being even more nettlesome than usual. This time his adversary is the Church of England, which has made half a million converts in Uganda, has long been tied to the forward-looking elements in the country. King Freddie, who was raised as an Anglican and crowned by the Bishop of Uganda himself, wants to divorce his attractive Queen Damali and marry her more vivacious older sister Sarah. He is annoyed that Anglican ecclesiastical law forbids it, has been hinting he might become a Moslem.

Into the Background. The affair between King Freddie and his sister-in-law has been an open secret in both London and Kampala. While the queen has drifted farther and farther into the background, unmarried sister Sarah has been getting a larger and larger share of the royal attention, now lives in the palace along with her two sons. King Freddie says frankly that they are his. He is less outspoken about Queen Damali's son, who was born in Kampala just nine months after the queen visited him in his London exile. The attending doctor declared that the baby was definitely premature, and King Freddie has stubbornly refused to have him baptized. When an airline steward congratulated him on the birth of his son three years ago. King Freddie snapped: "Don't congratulate me!"

Last week the Bishop of Uganda was in London going over the whole distressing affair with the Archbishop of Canterbury. But Freddie's clash with the church was likely only to increase his popularity among all the best Baganda families, who are traditionally delighted if the Kabaka seduces one of their daughters--in fact, that is how most of them became the best families. If Freddie throws off the hampering moral ties of Anglicanism, as he has been trying to throw off the political hold of Britain, the tribalists may in gratitude try to get rid of the progressives once and for all by restoring the Kabaka to his former status as absolute monarch. Said a colonial official sadly: "King Freddie is not the sort of monarch Britain wants him to be."

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