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Frederick Lugard was the British officer who brought Buganda under British influence in the early 1890s. Sent by the Imperial British East Africa Company, he reached the court of Kabaka Mwanga II in December 1890, secured a treaty, took sides in the 1892 Battle of Mengo between Protestant and Catholic factions, and built a fort on Old Kampala hill. His work paved the way for the Uganda Protectorate, declared in 1894.
Why Lugard came to Buganda
By the 1880s, Buganda’s court was divided between Protestant, Catholic and Muslim factions, each linked to foreign missionaries or traders, and Kabaka Mwanga II had been overthrown and restored during religious wars. Britain and Germany had agreed in 1890 that Buganda fell in the British sphere. The Imperial British East Africa Company, a chartered trading company, sent Captain Lugard to secure a treaty and open a trade route from the coast.
The treaty and the Battle of Mengo
Lugard arrived with a small force armed with a Maxim machine gun, and Mwanga reluctantly signed a treaty placing Buganda under the company’s protection. Tension between the Protestant faction, known as Ingleza, and the Catholic Fransa grew into open fighting in January 1892. Lugard backed the Protestants, and his Maxim gun helped decide the Battle of Mengo, forcing Mwanga and the Catholics to flee before a settlement divided chiefdoms between the factions.
Lugard also marched west in 1891, recruiting Sudanese soldiers left behind from Emin Pasha’s former garrison and setting up forts in Toro, where he restored Kasagama as king, as a buffer against Bunyoro.
From company rule to protectorate
The company could not afford to stay, and Lugard returned to Britain in 1892 to campaign for the government to take over. Sir Gerald Portal, after whom Fort Portal is named, was sent in 1893, and Britain declared a protectorate over Buganda in 1894. The 1900 Uganda Agreement later fixed Buganda’s relationship with Britain and its land system. See our guide to the 1900 Uganda Agreement.
Lugard’s legacy
Lugard went on to govern Nigeria and Hong Kong, and his book The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (1922) set out the idea of indirect rule through local rulers, a system already partly practised in Uganda through Buganda’s chiefs. In Uganda he is remembered both as a founder of colonial rule and as a symbol of foreign intervention in Buganda’s politics. Old Kampala hill, site of his fort, is close to the Kampala city tours most visitors take. Read about Uganda’s independence, how Uganda got its name and colonial history and conservation.
Frequently asked questions
A British officer who secured Buganda for the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1890 to 1892.
A January 1892 battle between Protestant and Catholic factions in Buganda, decided with Lugard’s support for the Protestants.
Britain declared a protectorate over Buganda in 1894.
No, it is named after Sir Gerald Portal.
