His Princely Heritage

[image from www.revphil2011.wordpress.com]

I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while now, ever since I changed my online moniker to princelySid. This post is mostly for my French fan and friend, Sgyreju, because she asked.

I had gone for dinner with my church group; it was somewhere we could all socialise that was a little free and we could all dress up for the evening. I sat at a table with 5 other people: 4 were friends of mine but one I didn’t know so I felt it would be good to get to know a little about her, you can never know too many people or have enough friends.

We talked about ourselves a bit, where we went to school and stuff and then she mentioned that she was Ugandan. She then told me that she has several names that one of them actually means “daughter of princess”. She said technically she was a member of the Ugandan royal family.

I immediately took the conversation in that direction by telling her that I’m part Ugandan (quarter) from my mum’s side. I then launched in to a story about how I was given another name when I went to stay there with my mum while I was a child. The name was my great-grandfather’s, Mukasa Kalanzi Yusuf. I went on to tell her how he was a chief and related to the royal family, the Kabakas, and how I was like six thousandth in line to the throne or something.

Side note: I’ve always been extremely proud of my Ugandan family for this reason.

When she heard the name she interrupted me and said she thinks from the name that he was actually a prince! In fact he was probably one of the Kabaka’s brothers. I was stunned. I mean, I knew he was a big deal, my mother had been telling me stories of him, his palace and what it was like living there for years but I didn’t know he was a prince!

I immediately called over my mum, who had organised the dinner, and asked her if she knew that her grandfather was a prince and she said “I don’t know Sidney, probably, he was related to the Kabaka after all. I’ve forgetten those things… Yeah I think my mum was a princess” Nkt!! Trust her to just ‘forget’ something that interesting.

I continued to talk to my new friend about her culture, one that I had read but never really experienced. She told me that all members of the royal family were taken at a certain age to a sort of camp where for two months or so they learnt about their history and heritage, how they were expected to behave and their duties as members of the royal family. I thought that was one of the coolest things I ever heard and told her so. I also said I’d have loved to attend something like that (always loved history), she said that she had found it mostly a drag but I think she was also quite amused and happy to have met someone so interested in her and her culture.

We didn’t get to talk too much because her attention was being pulled by other people and I was also helping my mum by hosting the event.

On the way home the fact that I was related to a prince kept ringing in my head. I’ve never really liked the name I was using, cdooh, because it had one too many ‘o’s; I wasn’t very satisfied with it. I thought since I was related to princes, princesses and by extension kings my new moniker should show this. I felt princeSid was just too arrogant and not true but princelySid hinted at any one who thought about it more than 4 seconds about my heritage.

The ever kooky Patrick  [image from www.hdwallpaperfresh.com]

Sgyreju was right when she said it was a lot to live up to. It’s either that or I go Patrick’s 

(Spongebob’s best friend) way “Because I have a relative that has accomplished so much I never feel the pressure to accomplish anything too extraordinary because they already did” :D

My mum’s side has another interesting connection; her father is the descendant of the tribe’s rain makers. I should find out more about that too. My dad’s side has no remarkable heritage or history, at least none I’ve heard of anyway. I should ask him about it.

So that was how I got to princelySid. I like it a lot. I don’t think I’ll be changing it any time soon, unless I found out something like I was descended from some ancient pagan god. Can you say godlySid? Peace!!