Mutesa II | |||||
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Kabaka of Buganda | |||||
Reign | 22 November 1939 – 21 November 1969 | ||||
Coronation | 19 November 1942 Budo, Uganda Protectorate | ||||
Predecessor | Daudi Cwa II of Buganda | ||||
Successor | Muwenda Mutebi II of Buganda | ||||
1st President of Uganda | |||||
In office | 9 October 1963 – 24 February 1966 (de jure) 9 October 1963 – 25 May 1966 (de facto) | ||||
Overthrow | 25 May 1966 | ||||
Predecessor | Elizabeth II (as Queen of Uganda) Sir Walter Coutts (as Governor-General of Uganda) | ||||
Successor | Milton Obote | ||||
Born | Makindye, Uganda | 19 November 1924||||
Died | 21 November 1969 Rotherhithe, London, England | (aged 45)||||
Burial | |||||
Consort | 1. Naabakyaala Damali Catherine Nnakawombe, the Naabagereka 2. Lady Edith Kasozi 3. Omubiitokati Beatrice Kabasweka 4. Lady Kate Ndagire 5. Naabakyaala Sarah Nalule 6. Muzaana Nalwooga 7. Lady Nesta M. Rugumayo 8. Lady Kaakako Rwanchwende 9. Lady Winifred Keihangwe 10. Lady Zibiah Wangari Ngatho 11. Lady Catherine Karungu 12. Lady Naome Nanyonga 13. Lady Margaret Nakato | ||||
Issue | 12 sons and 9 daughters | ||||
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House | Abalasangeye dynasty | ||||
Father | Daudi Cwa II of Buganda | ||||
Mother | Namasole Irene Drusilla Namaganda |
Sir Edward Frederick William David Walugembe Mutebi Luwangula Mutesa II KBE (19 November 1924 – 21 November 1969) was Kabaka, or king, of the Kingdom of Buganda in Uganda from 22 November 1939 until his death. He was the 35th Kabaka of Buganda[1] and the first president of Uganda[2] from 1962 to 1966, when he was overthrown by Milton Obote. The foreign press often referred to him as King Freddie, a name rarely used in Uganda.[3][4] An ardent defender of Buganda's interests, especially its traditional autonomy, he often threatened to make the kingdom independent both before and after Uganda's independence to preserve it. These firm convictions also later led to conflicts with his erstwhile political ally Milton Obote, who would eventually overthrow him.
Mutesa was crowned Kabaka on his 18th birthday in 1942, three years after the death of his father Daudi Cwa II of Buganda during British colonial rule in Uganda. In 1953, he attempted to have Buganda secede to retain the kingdom's independence from a proposed British colonial federation in East Africa. He was deposed and exiled by British colonial governor Andrew Cohen, but was allowed to return to the country two years later in the wake of a popular backlash known as the Kabaka Crisis under the terms of the 1955 Buganda Agreement.
In the years preceding Uganda's independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, Mutesa became part of the monarchist Kabaka Yekka party which then formed a coalition with Milton Obote's Uganda People's Congress. The year after Uganda's independence, Mutesa was named the first President of Uganda (then a non-executive position) in 1963 with Obote as Prime Minister. Mutesa's alliance with Obote collapsed in 1964 over the Ugandan lost counties referendum. It worsened in 1966, resulting in Obote overthrowing him and forcing him into exile in the United Kingdom, where he died three years later.