King Atoroba with royal family in the palace in Yambio, Western Equatoria State - courtesy

The great-grandson of King Gbudue, Atoroba Peni Rikito Gbudue was installed as the Azande King in Yambio, Western Eqautoria State on Gbudue day – February  9, 2022.

The Azande Kingdom was restored 117 years after the British killed King Gbudue in 1905.

During his rule, Gbudue faced incursions from ivory and slave traders, Egyptian Government officials, officials in the Mahdia, British and Belgium forces—as well as participating in internal Zande wars.

He was killed during a British patrol led by Major Boulnois in February 1905.

However, there are different versions of Gbudue’s death.

The anthropologist Evans-Pritchard, an Englishman, put together various accounts, based on Zande oral histories collected during doctoral research between 1926 and 1930.

These suggest that Gbudue was shot in the arm when the patrol entered his homestead.

He then shot three members of the patrol and injured a donkey that had been brought to transport him to the military post at Birekiwe, the original name of the current Yambio County.

In doing so, the British soldiers were forced to carry Gbudue on a stretcher to a hut where he was put under guard and succumbed to his injuries. Some accounts suggest he died alone, others that one of his wives, a daughter of Tangili, was with him

After his death, the Anglo-Egyptian military administration received intelligence that some of Gbudue’s sons were planning an armed revolt and in January 1914, Mange, Basongoda, Mopoi and Gangura were sent as prisoners to Wau and on to Khartoum.

With the exception of Basongodo, who died in Wau, they were eventually released and returned home.

Ever since his demise, the Azande has never had a successor for more than a century.

In an exclusive interview with Eye Radio’s journalist, Obaj Okuj, King Atoroba Peni Rikito Gbudue disclosed the reason why it took Azande 117 years to restore Azande Kingdom…