Conclusion
As the lyrics of “We Love the Supreme Man Exceedingly” demonstrate, the song venerates royalty through musical celebration that highlights the king’s glory. The performer chooses to reveal this glory by drawing attention to the sacrifices the king made and the obstacles he faced, a process that lends itself to the song’s serious and sorrowful tones. As the composition’s lyrics evoke images of exile and return, or dedication and loss, we come to see a delicate balance between triumph and tragedy. Although the king worked to serve his people, he had to traverse significant adversity. As suggested earlier, this song ideates between the positive and negative emotions of ruling. It functions as a testimony to royal competence through its lyrics’ focus on the king’s fulfillment of his governing responsibilities rather than merely celebrating his status. Therefore, the composition creates a performance-based framework for evaluating monarchical effectiveness, suggesting that the king’s right to rule stems from demonstrable actions rather than divine right alone.
“We Love the Supreme Man Exceedingly” expresses the past in its lyrics, constituting a history that reinvigorates this past and activates it in the present rather than freezing or monumentalizing it. This process is evident in the interpretations of commentators, whose analyses of the song connect its lyrics to twenty-first-century contexts. For example, as we have seen, King Muteesa II’s musicians concluded that he was a good ruler. In contrast, many Ugandans see elected politicians, despite their democratic rise, as leaders who allegedly use various methods of manipulation and coercion to maintain their place in power. This viewpoint, which is a recurring theme in various interpretations of “We Love the Supreme Man Exceedingly,” leads us to reevaluate our assumptions about monarchy and democracy by flipping the positions that the two forms of government occupy. Whereas the Baganda’s love and respect for the king is the basis for the mutuality and cooperation that holds the Kingdom of Buganda together, many might not say the same of their relationship with the current national regime.