Kawanga Forest is linked to the modern history of the Buganda kingdom
The Roman Catholic mission was first located in Kawanga Forest probably to take advantage of readily available water sources and access to the lake. In the early 1900s, a block of 1 ½ square miles or 900 hectares was allotted under the 1900 Buganda Agreement to Ham Mukasa, the Kyaggwe county Chief “Sekiboobo”. In establishing the survey boundaries, Ham Mukasa and the Catholic mission exchanged allocations, the mission ascended to Bumangi Hill and Ham Mukasa and his heirs took over the steep terrain of what was then mostly grassland.
There is evidence of scattered human settlements inside the forest but these were mostly vacated at the onset of the sleeping sickness epidemic that ravaged the islands in thr 1920s-1930s prompting enmasse evacuation of the island. The population of the islands never recovered. By 1989, the population of the entire Ssese Islands was just 16,000 inhabitants dotted in settlements along the main road. Kawanga Forest sprung from the River Kawanga watershed and is dominated by Namagulu, a king of mahogany and Musizi along with two invasive species Settaala that forms the canopy and a variant of wild oranges.
