UNYORO, properly, and now officially, BUNYORO, a country of east central Africa lying north-west of Uganda, with which the British protectorate, dating from 1896, is now merged.
It has an area of 5,619 sq.m. Most is plateau land, 3,200 to 3,80o ft. above sea level, intersected by swamps, deep valleys and hills rising to 4,800 ft. During the 19th century the states of Bun yoro and Buganda appear to have been rival overlords of the region between the Bahr-el-Jebel (Mountain Nile) and the great lakes. The Bunyoro number about ioo,000. They had a certain civilization and were skilled in iron-work, pottery and wood-work.
The first Europeans to enter the country were J. H. Speke and J. H. Grant. In 1864, Sir Samuel and Lady Baker discovered the Albert Nyanza. Ivory and slave traders penetrated as far south as Unyoro, and (187o-74) Baker, as governor-general of the Equatorial Provinceg, placed a garrison at Foweira on the Victoria Nile. He annexed Unyoro to Egypt in 1872. General Gordon, who succeeded Baker, established posts at Masindi and Mruli. With King Kabarega, a son of Kamurasi, the Egyptians had many encounters. Egyptian authority ceased in 1888, but Kabarega in 1891 found himself in conflict with Captain (afterwards Lord) Lugard, who entered Unyoro from the south (see UGANDA : His tory). In 1889 he was deported. In 1923 he was allowed to re
turn, but died before regaining Unyoro.
Another chief had to be deposed for incompetence. The next mukama, Andereya Dukaga, was a man of progressive ideas. He was about the 4oth of Kabarega's 25o or so children. The mukama presides over a Lickiko (council or parliament) which has the legal authority. This indirect government worked well and during the World War the Bunyoro gave the British substantial help.
Unyoro has played rather an important role in the past history of Equatorial Africa as being the region from which the ancient Gala (Hamitic) aristocracy, coming from Nileland, penetrated the forests of Bantu Africa, bringing with them the Neolithic civilization. In the west and south-west of the country are the primaeval forests of Budonga 016o sq.m.) and Bugoma (8o sq.m.), containing large chimpanzees and a peculiar sub-species of straight-tusked elephants (only found in Unyoro).
See the works of Speke, Grant and Baker ; also Colonel Gordon in Central Africa (4th ed., 1885) ; F. D. Lugard, The Rise of Our East African Empire (1893) ; H. H. Johnstone, Uganda Protectorate (1902) ; H. R. Wallis, Handbook of Uganda (1920).