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Inside Her Roses · Lineage

The soil the roses
grew from.

Before the poems, before the stage, before the code: there were the clans. I carry four royal houses in one body: a grasshopper from Buganda, and three crowns from the south. This is where the roses are rooted.

🦗Okw’eyanjula · The naming of a line

I am Nandawula Nkata Kabali-Kagwa.

Muwala of Timothy Nkata Kabali-Kagwa, of Johannesburg.

Grandchild of Frobisher Kabali-Kagwa, of Makindye Ssabaggabo, Wakiso.

Great-grandchild of Temuteo Mwebe Kaggwa, resting in Kira, Namugongo.

Of Mafumu, of Muwemba, of Lubinga, of Sekalongo, of Kanyala.

My line (Olunyiriri) is of Kabombola, from Kyakasuku, Lwamagwa, Kooki.

My stem (Omutuba) is of Segoma, in Kayenje, Butambala.

My sub-lineage (Ssiga) is of Kajubi, in Bujubi.

My totem is Nsenene. My segment (Akabbiro) is Nabangogoma.

Our clan leader is Kalibbala, who reigns from Nsiisi in Busujju.

My totem is Nsenene. I carry my great-grandmother’s name.

Nanda and her mother at graduation · lineage, one generation lifting the next.
The line, still living

Nine generations I can name, and here, one lifting the next. My mother, and me.

Nanda beneath an indigenous forest canopy · where she comes from.
Where we come from

The soil is not a metaphor. It is a forest that remembers our name.

Olubugo, Kiganda barkcloth beaten from the mutuba tree

Olubugo, Kiganda barkcloth beaten from the mutuba tree
Rtr PK, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Uganda · Nine Generations

Nseenene Clan · Buganda Kingdom

My father is Timothy Nkata Kabali-Kagwa. His father was Frobisher. Before him: Temuteo Mwebe Kaggwa, Mafumu, Muwemba, Lubinga, Sekalongo, Kanyala. Nine generations I can name. We are of the Nseenene Clan, the grasshopper, one of 52 clans of the Buganda Kingdom. Our role in the palace was to milk the Kabaka’s cows. My great-grandmother was Nandawula. A doctor of great means. I carry her name.

Totem
Nseenene (Grasshopper)
Clan head
Omutaka Kalibbala
Ancestral seat
Nsiisi, Busujju County
Omubala (motto)
“Ggwe Mpagi, ggwe Luwaga; Nakimera muka Ssuuna.”
Umbhaco, Xhosa ochre cloth with black braid and buttons

Umbhaco, Xhosa ochre cloth with black braid and buttons
Rhodapenmarck, CC0, Wikimedia Commons

Eastern Cape · Oldest Royal House in South Africa

AmaTshawe · Xhosa Nation

On my mother’s side flows AmaTshawe, the founding dynasty of the Xhosa nation, established before 1600 CE. Tshawe defeated his brother Cirha to unify the Xhosa clans. Every Xhosa king descends from him. His kingdom stretched from the Mbhashe River to the Gamtoos River. The royal bloodline: Tshawe → Ngcwangu → Sikhomo → Togu → Ngconde → Tshiwo → Phalo → to Hintsa, murdered by British colonial forces in 1835.

Nation
amaXhosa
Isiduko
AmaTshawe
Territory
Eastern Cape
Isishweshwe, the printed cotton of the southern highlands

Isishweshwe, the printed cotton of the southern highlands
HelenOnline, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Traced to Kenya · 900–1300 CE

AmaHlubi · The Ancient Nation

I am also amaHlubi, one of the oldest Bantu nations on the continent, traced to the Samburu people of present-day Kenya. Settled in the Drakensberg mountains, they were so formidable that Shaka’s amaZulu kept peace treaties with them. The Mfecane shattered the nation like glass. The fragments landed in the Eastern Cape. My people were among them, absorbed into Xhosa language and custom, but never fully erased. The amaHlubi do not disappear. They migrate. They endure. They rebuild.

Language
IsiHlubi (Tekela, endangered)
Dynasty founded
~1300 CE (King Chibi)
Lineage note
Moshoeshoe I had a Hlubi great-grandfather
Isishweshwe in indigo, the original colour of the cloth

Isishweshwe in indigo, the original colour of the cloth
HelenOnline, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

AmaHlubi Royal Branch · Drakensberg

Msimanga · oThabizolo

And I am Msimanga. oThabizolo. The praise name means: the ones who were happy the day before. My ancestor Msimanga, son of King Busobengwe of the amaHlubi, celebrated the night before the throne was to be named, certain of being chosen. His father named Mthimkhulu I instead. Msimanga built AmaShwabada from that moment. He became the Establisher. The name Msimanga itself means: to confirm, to strengthen, to make firm. I understand this story. I build before the world confirms it is possible. I celebrate what I am building. And then I build it anyway.

Izibongo · Praise

Msimanga · Thabizolo · Nonkosi · Mlotshwa · Ngelengele · Wena owehla ngesilulu abafokazane behla ngezinyawo

“You descended by ladder while the commoners descended on foot”

Four crowns, one voice. This is the lineage the roses grew from.

Read the poetry this lineage produced