Elizabeth Nyabongo

Princess Elizabeth of Tooro (Elizabeth Christobel Edith Bagaaya Akiiki; born 9 February 1936) was the Batebe (Princess Royal) of the Kingdom of Tooro until September 12, 1995 when she was succeeded by Omubiitokati Ruth Nsemere Komuntale. She is a Ugandan lawyer, politician, diplomat, and model. She was the first East African woman to be admitted to the English Bar. She is a paternal aunt of (Isenkati) the Omukama of Tooro, Rukidi IV. She briefly served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Idi Amin from February to November 1974. Early life and education The Princess was born in 1936 to Rukidi III of Tooro, the eleventh Omukama of Tooro who reigned between 1928 and 1965. Her mother was Queen Kezia, a daughter of Nikodemo Kakoro, a senior chief. Her title from birth was Omubiitokati or Princess. After finishing elementary school from the present Kyebambe Girls' Secondary School, she was sent to Gayaza High School, a girls' boarding school in Buganda, followed by Sherborne School for Girls in England, where she was the only black student. "I felt that I was on trial and that my failure to excel would reflect badly on the entire black race," she later wrote. After one year, she was accepted into Girton College, Cambridge, the third African woman to be admitted to the University of Cambridge in the institution's history. In 1962, she graduated from Cambridge with a law degree. Three years later, in 1965, the princess became a barrister-at-law as a member of Gray's Inn, becoming the first woman from East Africa to be called to the English Bar.