Location:
156 km on Kampala Fort Portal Highway.
Coordinates: 0.5856984, 31.3762665
The Nakayima tree, standing about 40 metres high on Mubende hill is one of the
oldest trees of the ancient times believed to be approximately 400 to 500 years old.
The tree is named after Nakayima who was a wife to Ndahura. Ndahura was a Muchwezi ruler with his capital on Mubende hill.
According to oral tradition, the Nakayima tree harbours the spirit of Ndahura which is both in Buganda and Bunyoro associated with small pox. The sacred status of Mubende Hill dates to pre-Bachwezi times when a magician called Kamwenge lived on the site and curved out a chiefdom.
Kamwenge was succeeded by his two sons who made Mubende their capital. Mubende is believed to have been later taken over by Ndahura who was succeeded by his son Wamala.
The tree is named after a hereditary line of sorceries, claiming direct descent from Ndahura’s wife Nakayima.
Nakyima is believed to have had super natural powers that prevented small pox and other fatal diseases. It is also claimed that she helped infertile women bear children. Nakayima received regular tributes from kings and presided over ritual ceremonies that involved the sacrifice of cows, sheep and teenage boys and girls.
The tree is said to have supernatural powers of fertility, luck and good health. People flock to the tree to offer sacrifices and money to the spirits. The tree has big buttress roots at its base that have formed huge hollow openings. These spaces are believed to bedrooms of some spirits.
When religious conflicts erupted in Buganda in the 1880s, the incumbent Nakayima called Nyanjara fled Mubende and returned a year later only to find one of her huts razed and graves of her predecessors defaced. Her sacred drums had also vanished.
Mubende Hill was later placed under the indirect colonial rule of a Muganda chief appointed by the British Administration.
Nyanjara retired to Busoga, where she died in 1907 and became the first Nakayima not to be interred in the traditional cemetery near the sacred tree though she was eventually buried around the area. Her confiscated regalia is on display at the Uganda Museum.