ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the people, places, and heritage located to the west of Lake Victoria in an area today known as Kagera Region-running from the Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi borders to the southwestern shore of the lake. Archaeologists working in Africa have done much to remedy the marginalization of history in both cultural anthropology and archaeology by gathering, analyzing, and integrating oral traditions, myths, and oral histories into their interpretations of the past. Research into the histories linked to Kaiija tree were conducted over a 15-year period beginning in 1969. Included in this long-term study was Kya Rugomora shrine, another ancient shrine located about 2 kilometers to the southeast of Kaiija in Nkimbo village. Directly connected in oral traditions to Kaiija as the location of one of the legs of the iron tower, the Kya Rugomora site is also associated with the earliest iron working group, the Bayango, and tied to Cwezi spirit mediumship through its Wamara shrine.
