[8] Archaeological excavations of Bigo bya Mugenyi has shown that the centre of the site was "radically reconstructed so as to include a large, hemispherical mound reminiscent of those made at Shilluk capitals and elsewhere."

Oral traditions says that in the long run a capital in the grasslands proved unsuitable for a Luo dynasty, which soon moved its headquarters to the region round and north of Mubende, where agriculture could be practised on a larger scale.

Recent historical studies by Jean-Pierre Chrétien, Henri Médard and Christopher Wrigley have concluded that Bunyoro during the first one or two centuries of Bito rule was the greatest power in the region.

Thus by the mid-nineteenth century Bunyoro (also known as Unyoro at the time) was a far smaller state, though it was still wealthy due to the income generated from controlling the lucrative trade routes over Lake Victoria and linking to the coast of the Indian Ocean.

[11][12] In July 1890 an agreement was settled whereby the entire Buganda region north of Lake Victoria was given to Great Britain.

In alliance with Buganda, King Omukama Kabalega of Bunyoro resisted the efforts of Great Britain, aiming to take control of the kingdom.

[12][14] During the first regime of Milton Obote, the Kingdom of Bunyoro initially benefited from regaining the two "lost counties" of Buyaga and Bugangaizi following a 1964 referendum.

Due to British colonialism, the Nile river, and not any traditional division in language, culture, or political allegiance, became the formal northern boundary of the attenuated Nyoro state.

[20] People north of the Nile, such as the Alur and Acholi, recognized the Mukama (king of Bunyoro) as overlord and sent tribute to him.

According to the cultural anthropologist Aidan Southall, the Alur recognized their "ritual subordination to Bunyoro by going there for confirmation of their title after accession to kingship".

[24] The first Bito King Rukidi and his brothers took the totem (Muziro) of the clan of their Luo mother, Nyatworo, which was the bushbuck (Ngabi) because their Chwezi father, Kyomya, abandoned them when they were infants.

Today the aristocratic lineages of the Acholi people to the north still have the bushbuck as their totem like the Babito clan of Bunyoro.

[29] European visitors in the late nineteenth century consistently observed that Bunyoro was one of the most densely populated parts of East Africa."

[33][34] There is a Luo speaking community in the Kibanda county of the Kiryandongo District of northern Bunyoro called the Paluo (or Palwo) or Chope/Chopi.

The name "Bahuma" comes from the verb "okuhuma", which means the "cacophony of sound made by a herd of cattle on the move, lowing, thudding of hooves, and cries of herdsmen".

He said that the Banyoro "make good earthenware, they sew with needles of their own make, the eye of the needles being simply a fine end overlapped; their smiths are clever and use hammers instead of stones as in neighbouring countries and they draw fine brass and copper wire for ornamenting belts, knife handles".

[41] European travelers in the Great Lakes region of Africa during the 19th century reported cases of surgery in Bunyoro.

[43] Caesarean sections and other abdominal and thoracic operations were performed on a regular basis with the avoidance of hemorrhage and sepsis using antiseptics, anesthetics and cautery iron.

[45] Bunyoro surgeons treated lung inflammations, Pneumonia and pleurisy by punching holes in the chest until the air passed freely.

Over 200 plants are used medicinally in eastern Bunyoro alone, and recent tests have shown that traditional cures for eczema and post-measles bloody diarrhea were more effective than western medications.

A Munyoro healer reported in 1902 that when an outbreak of what he termed sleeping sickness occurred in Bunyoro around 1886–87, causing many deaths, Kabaleega ordered him "to make experiments in the interest of science", which were "eventually successful in procuring a cure".

[48] Bunyoro's markets fostered complex interactions between the Banyoro and regional groups such as the Alur, Acholi, Langi, Kumam Iteso, Basoga, Banyankore, Congolese, and Haya populations, and, further, witnessed brisk trade not only in iron implements, salt, and ivory, but also in items like cattle, foodstuffs, beer, tobacco, and coffee.

The ties also ensured that "Bunyoro's ironsmiths had a guaranteed market among the Iteso and Langi [to the northeast], peoples who did not smelt".

[53] King Kabalega forcibly relocated various ethnic groups into Bunyoro to ease the demographic crisis the kingdom was experiencing.

War captives could also be integrated into the military, such as in the case of Ireeta, who was freed and eventually became one of Bunyoro's leading generals.

[54] Kabalega defeated the rebellious Paluo in northern Bunyoro and put them back under Nyoro authority and the Acholi and Alur tribes across the Nile were forced to pay tribute.

[57] Bunyoro's army achieved a significant victory against the Baganda (who outnumbered them) at the Battle of Rwangabi (or Rwengabi) in February 1886.

Henry Colvile effectively utilized these routes to swiftly transport his army, taking advantage of the carefully constructed bridges that spanned the streams.

Goody has written that African peoples generally did not make significant use of flowers in worship, gift-giving or decoration.

This description of African life does not fit well with what we know of precolonial Bunyoro, a large, relatively ancient, and extremely hierarchical kingdom, and the analysis of the role of flowers was quite inaccurate.