Advertisement
Published: April 29th 2012
Edit Blog Post
On the side of the road
Changed and ready to go... Throughout this blog I have lazily used ‘Ugandan’ to refer to everything and everyone. I do it because it is easier but it ignores the rich diversity of cultures and customs across the country.
Of the many tribes in Uganda (I have never got the same answer as to how many) I could only really claim to know the culture and customs of one of these moderately well. I started my stay in Buganda with a Baganda family and was quickly rechristened David Katumba Cousins of the Nkima (monkey) clan. There are around 75 clans amongst the Baganda, mostly named after things in nature and a sexual interclan relationship would be viewed in much the same way incest would be in England. The clans can be traced back to the beginnings of the Baganda kingdom and the story of Gyintu, Nyibmi and Walumbe.
Despite having been here for over a year, I got my first taste of a traditional Baganda ceremony a couple of months ago when I attended my friend Eddy’s introduction. An introduction in Baganda is the cultural ceremony that existed in traditional society and precedes the religious or legal ceremony. The purpose is for the girl
Kabaka in Kenya
Eddy and his sister Juliet presenting their signed photo of the Kabaka to ‘introduce’ her husband-to-be to her family and for him and his family to give the appropriate compensation to her family.
For more ‘modern’ families, like Eddy’s, compensation can be harder these days, “where am I going to get 15 cows from we don’t even have any land?” Fortunately for Eddy he managed to negotiate the bride price down and found that cows were a lot cheaper in Kenya, where his future wife Linda was from and the introduction was to be held.
I got picked up at 5 in the morning (everyone else had left at 3 from Kampala) in a pick-up. They had hired a bus to take everyone else in the entourage. We got changed by the side of the road. The advantage being in Kenya was that no one was that perturbed by the sight of a Muzungu in a Kanzo (traditional Bagandan dress) as they stared at all the men wearing dresses. We eventually arrived at about 2pm.
Not being a ‘pure’ Bagandan ceremony there was a bit of friction at the start as there was some compromise of which cultural traditions they were to follow. Cultural compromise does not come easy
The Cockerel
Eddy and his best man preparing for the final stage of the ceremony to most Baganda but the result of the negotiations was food, which seemed to satisfy everybody.
For the ceremony itself, the two families sat in marquees facing one another, as if ready to do battle. Eddy, Juliet (his sister) and I presented a signed photo of the Kabaka to Linda. The Kabaka is the king of Baganda and their level of devotion to him cannot be put into words. This was the crowning gift, they had been to the palace to get the signature, the fact that Linda’s father did not know who he was was unimportant.
Other traditional gifts were given to the family a Kanzo to the brother, a Gomez (a shiny dress with huge shoulder pads and a belt, a trailblazer for 80s fashion) to the mother and finally a cockerel. This was presented to Linda in the final ceremony. She walked across the family divide with her brother and knelt as she accepted the cockerel (I’ll use the full name to avoid confusion). There was one final bit of cultural tension as her brother tried to help her to her feet but Eddy pushed him to one side as this was something for the new husband to do. The ceremony was complete and Linda and her brother joined ‘our family’ for the final speeches.
We didn’t stay over as, for one of the only times I can remember since I have been here, people were rushing to get back. Often the male will stay over but has to be in a separate house from his wife and the female members of her family. There is a Buganda song which tells the story of an American man who was being introduced to his Bagandan fiancées family. As he met them he shook the father’s hand and then went to embrace the mother at which point she fainted and had to be taken to hospital. Next time he tried to sleep in the same house as her and so on.
We seeped back across the border in darkness, back in Jinja by midnight. In under 24 hours, I had had my introduction to introductions.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0591s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb