mwami

Mwami is the title used for the king or sovereign in the traditional kingdoms of the Great Lakes region, most notably the Kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi. The word mwami comes from the Bantu languages spoken there (Kinyarwanda and Kirundi) and is commonly translated as “lord” or “king.”

In the pre-colonial period the mwami held broad political, military, and religious authority. The office was seen as the embodiment of the community’s unity and its connection to the ancestors, with the king exercising lawgiving, diplomacy, and wartime leadership. Royal power was supported by a hierarchical aristocracy of lineages, chiefs, and priestly offices, and the legitimacy of rule depended on ritual legitimation and the consent of important clans.

Succession was generally hereditary within established royal lineages, with installation often requiring the assent of elders, priests, and leading nobles. Coronation rites and ceremonies reinforced the legitimacy of the new mwami and the cohesion of the kingdom, though the exact processes varied over time and place.

With the advent of colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the mwami system was reorganized under indirect rule and European legal frameworks. After independence, the monarchies were abolished in the early 1960s, and Kigeli V Ndahindurwa of Rwanda and Ntare V of Burundi were the last holders of the title. The modern states are republics, and no reigning mwami exists today.

Today the term mwami remains a central symbol in historical and cultural memory, cited in literature and museums, and used by communities in exile and in scholarship to describe the traditional governance structures of the region.