Tens of thousands of Ugandans flocked to the hilltop palace of Africa’s youngest tribal ruler Saturday for two days of noisy parties marking a decade in power for the 13-year-old boy king.
Dancing, singing and blowing trumpets, they strained for a glimpse of Oyo Nyimba, who sat before a throng of guests on a throne covered in lion skin, under an arch of elephant tusks, witnesses said.
Since his coronation as a 3-year-old, when he was pictured crying for a fizzy drink, the youthful Omukama (King) Oyo has had to grow into his role as leader of western Uganda’s one million-strong Batoro tribe.
When he is not in class at an international school in the capital Kampala, the heir to the country’s centuries-old Toro Kingdom plays football and video games and goes to the cinema like any other well-off Ugandan teen-ager.
But at weekends and during the holidays, he is courted by ambassadors and presidents making the four-hour drive to his imposing Karuzika—“palace” in the local Lutoro language—above sleepy Fort Portal town.
The three-story home, which looks out over lush green tea plantations and banana groves, was renovated by one wealthy visitor: his “good friend” Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.
Chief guest this weekend at Oyo’s Empango (moon) accession parties is expected to be Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who was re-elected last week for another five years in power.
Queen Mother watching
Founded on the lucrative pre-colonial trade in ivory and salt, Toro was abolished in 1966 along with the country’s three other ancient kingdoms by then-leader Milton Obote.
They were not restored until 1993, seven years after Museveni seized power in a coup. Today, they are restricted to a largely cultural and tribal role, without the executive powers, including courts, they had before Obote.
Oyo—full name Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV became the world’s youngest monarch when he succeeded to the Toro throne in 1995 after the death of his father, Patrick.
Until he is 18, kingdom affairs are handled by regents.
Meanwhile, he says art, music, maths and swimming are his favorite classes at school, that he doesn’t like science, and that he wants to study for a tourism degree in London.
He denies having a girlfriend, or a best friend.
Although he no longer needs the toy cars he used to play with to relieve the tedium of lengthy tribal ceremonies, Oyo still finds some of his official duties dull.
“I get bored, especially during functions,” he said this week in a rare interview with a Ugandan newspaper.
“You are just sitting with grown-up people. I don’t know what is going on in the kingdom. It is quite confusing to me.”
Keeping close watch as he learns Toro’s turbulent politics is the formidable Queen Mother, Best Kemigisa. She says the royal family’s biggest challenge so far has been warding off power-hungry courtiers trying to exploit her son’s youth.
“We can’t take that,” she told the interviewer. “He is young. I will be blamed if things go wrong. I can be stubborn.”
