Semei Kakungulu

Semei Kakungulu was a warrior and statesman of the kingdom of Buganda, converted to Christianity in the 1880s by a Protestant missionary who taught him to read the Bible in Swahili; his command of warriors and his court connections made him an ally the British sought, and he brought Bukedi and Busoga, between the source of the Nile and Mount Elgon, under their influence, expecting to be made king there. The British preferred to govern through paid officials, and from about 1900 the two sides drifted apart; in 1913 he joined the Malakite movement, which mixed Jewish and Christian elements.

In 1917, pressed by the British to reduce his holdings, he moved to Gangama on the western foothills of Mount Elgon and founded there the community he called Kibiina Kya Bayudaya Absesiga Katonda, the community of Jews who trust in the almighty God: he studied the Hebrew Bible, took on the commandments of Moses including circumcision, and asked the same of his followers. From him descend the Abayudaya of Uganda, who have since converted formally, most by way of the Reform and Conservative movements and some through Orthodox courts, and who claim no ancient Israelite descent — only the choice their founder made.