Empire of Kitara (13th- 19th century)
The Empire of Kitara (Empire of Light), also known as Bunyoro-Kitara, refers specifically to the Kingdom of the Bakitara at the time of its greatest expansion, which had rulership that stretched throughout the Nile valley and beyond. The Chwezi Empire had fragmented into various autonomous states towards the 1300s. The Kitara Empire included what corresponds to modern Uganda, northern Tanzania, eastern Congo (DRC), Rwanda,Burundi, Zambia and Malawi.
Buganda (14th century)
Before the arrival of Europeans in the region, Buganda was an expanding, "embryonic empire". It built fleets of war canoes from the 1840s to take control of Lake Victoria and the surrounding regions, and subjugated several weaker peoples. These subject peoples were then exploited for cheap labor.