Editing Buganda (section)

===Communication===
As a rule, Ganda roads were remarkably straight, cutting over the crests of hills and through valleys, forests, swamps and rivers. Early visitors to Buganda describe the well-planned and carefully maintained system of roads, which radiated from the capital to all corners of the kingdom. The importance of these rapid means of communication in what the anthropologist  [[Audrey Richards]] has called a "pedestrian state", especially one whose terrain is covered with dense vegetation and contains innumerable papyrus swamps and streams, is evident. They enabled the king and his officials at the capital to maintain close political contact even with outlying parts of the kingdom, all of which could easily be reached by a runner within a day or two. Buganda's excellent means of communication enabled the Kabaka "to maintain active control over a territory one quarter the size of England without written communication and with no means of travel on land beyond the human foot" <ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/nyorostate0000beat/mode/2up|title= The Nyoro State|date= 1971|page=252 and 254|isbn= 978-0-19-823171-4|last1= Beattie|first1= John|publisher= Clarendon Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s0irmwEACAAJ|title=Political power in pre-colonial Buganda : economy, society & warfare in the nineteenth century|date=2002 |page=108|publisher=James Currey |isbn=978-0-8214-1477-4 }}</ref>

When [[John Hanning Speke]] visited Buganda in 1862, he described the kingdom's roads as being "as long as our coach-roads, cut through the long grasses, straight over the hills and down through the woods in the dells—a strange contrast to the wretched tracks in all the adjacent countries."<ref name="The Nyoro State">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/nyorostate0000beat/mode/2up|title= The Nyoro State|date= 1971|page=252|isbn= 978-0-19-823171-4|last1= Beattie|first1= John|publisher= Clarendon Press}}</ref>

Water transport was very important for Buganda and greatly helped in the kingdom's expansion via its fleet of war canoes. Water transport also provided a means of political communication between the capital, which was usually sited fairly close to the lake, and outlying areas of the Kingdom along the lake shore, as well as the islands. The island chiefs had to maintain a great fleet of canoes ready for state service.<ref name="The Nyoro State"/> The Mamba clan specialized in water transport and provided the kingdom's overall "chief of canoes."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0kPPEAAAQBAJ|title=A Military History of Africa: From Ancient Egypt to the Zulu Kingdom|date= 2013 |page=135|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-313-39570-3 }}</ref>

Messages were sent by "runners of athletic renown". These messengers were called bakayungirizi and were trained from an early age in prolonged, rapid marches, moving night and day with only short breaks; king Mutesa had many in his service.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s0irmwEACAAJ|title=Political power in pre-colonial Buganda : economy, society & warfare in the nineteenth century|date=2002 |page=212|publisher=James Currey |isbn=978-0-8214-1477-4 }}</ref>

The use of talking drums to spread messages was widespread in Buganda. This drum language had hundreds of distinctive beats or rhythms representing as many specific meanings, makes possible almost instantaneous communication throughout the kingdom.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mushengyezi |first1=Aaron |title=Rethinking Indigenous Media: Rituals, 'Talking' Drums and Orality as Forms of Public Communication in Uganda |journal=Journal of African Cultural Studies |date=2003 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=107–117 |doi=10.1080/1369681032000169302 |jstor=3181389 |s2cid=145085458 }}</ref>