How do we explain mass violence without using culturalist explanations and without denying the agency of the warring societies? In Uganda's Rwenzori area, each of the Bamba, Basongora and Banyabindi ethnic groups seeks to secede from the Bakonzo and establish its own kingdom or district in a contestation that often escalates into bloodshed. Researchers tend to explain this conflict as a consequence of cultural differences between the warring parties. Those who attempt to give a political explanation reduce politics to the divisive actions of the head of state whom they blame for instigating tribalism for personal gain. I go beyond the head of state and examine the historical production of the agency of the warring societies and how this explosive agency is reproduced through state institutions. Far from focusing on the president, I problematize the post-colonial state and explore ways of reforming it as opposed to simply changing the president.