Buddu is divided from the rest of the kingdom of Buganda by the wide and swampy Katonga River, but has similar soil and climate.

[6] In July 1897 the British learned that there plans for a revolt, but Mwanga decided against the risk and fled from the capital to Buddu.

A minor was crowned in his place, while Mwanga attracted a large number of supporters who were hostile to the colonial regime.

[6] Soon after the civil war ended in 1892 the White Fathers Catholic missionary Henri Streicher established the Villa Maria mission in Buddu.

[4] At the end of May 1892 Antonin Guillermain and two other White Fathers founded the mission of Notre-Dame de l'Equateur at Buddu, opposite the large island of Sissé in the north of Lake Victoria.

[4] The chiefs who had converted to Catholicism moved to Buddu, and treated him as both civil and religious leader, equivalent to a king.