Blacksmith
Name: BWAMBALE AUGUST
Guide: Issac Kulue (translater)
Place: Ibanda
He makes the local spears, traps, & knives.
He has been doing this for 20 years and he is 38 years. He comes from Kinyuku Village.
The Batoro blade to the spear is flat but the Bakonjo has a ridge down the centre of it because it stays in the animal's flesh better. He also does farming to make a living and makes drums as well. The skins he has hanging up in the rafters are also used for his bellows when they need replacing to fuel the fire with flames to generate enough heat to beat the metal.
His father was a witch doctor and his hut was
next to where he was working but it was in disuse now as the witch doctor
drowned. He was drunk on his way home
going over a bridge across a river and fell in.
The Storyteller (ex-witch doctor)
Name: KULOE JOSEPH SYABUIERE (80 years old)
Place: Nayakabugha
Same interpreter.
His house is made of bamboo and earth with wooden
frames. They use Fanta caps as washers
to nail the ceiling up. There seems to
be a central passage for the animals to pass through.
Storytellers are not used to writing but can
be cultural leaders. There seems to be
some confusion or overlap with defining what a storyteller, a cultural leader
and a witch doctor is. This storyteller has also been a witch doctor, so is not
so specifically a storyteller.
He first tells us about the spirits: Kitsamba is the head of all the spirits in
the Ruwenzoris and lives on Mount Stanley. His first born is Lhusinge and the
second is Ngunuly and the third Mbulhu then Sisira and Bunzule. Nyabebuie is
the mother to them. This is the family. Kitsambe gives the people sunshine and rain and
a good harvest. However during a poor
harvest the people have to give the god more offerings, so they take all sorts
of things like two eggs, sheep fat, maize, beans, millet, etc, to the
Ruwenzoris. They have to go into the
forest and make two small houses or shrines either side of the path/road and
both have some food in them eg. eggs in one and matoke in the other. One represents the male and the other
female. Then the ridge leaders do the
sacrifice to the god by giving a sample from each house and then all the food is
considered to be blessed. This is then distributed to the community, with just
a sample planted in the field to help the new seasons crops grow well and more
prolifically.
The people then come with a plant called
Afromuum taken from the mountain when they bring the samples of food back. Then
the traditional healers and ridge leaders put these plants into the mouth of
the rivers, where the two rivers meet, and the ‘octopus’ (the river spirit) is
supposed to give them a good harvest.
The ‘octopus’ can beat (send electricity) something from a distance.
Death ritual: if it was an old
person they could bury him within the house and they could cut the roof off the
house. Changed it to outside the house
and take a piece of the roof off to put on the grave, which represented still
being within the house.
If a woman dies the family shift the wall of
the house to the other side and make a visible dent in the wall, which is a
sign that a woman has died. Then would
bury her outside. So then they would demolish
the house (straw houses). After two weeks, they shave their heads and then build
a new house called resurrection house.
Death is considered bad and that is why they migrate and burn the
houses. Nobody allowed to have sex
before shaving of the heads after 1-2 weeks.
After 1-2 weeks did beating the ‘sticks’. For a male who had been circumcised (Omukumo)
these ‘sticks’ would be wooden and for females they beat the ‘reeds’. These dances are gender specific in this way. The men go to cut the sticks and must not be
seen by the females on the way, otherwise the sticks won’t play properly. The drum is struck three times to warn people
about the death – people have to hide, as this indicates that this group is on
its way to gather the sticks.
They used sticks and hoes to dig the holes and
use bark cloth to cover the body in a crutching position. Then after the 2 week period they plant the
muramura plant in a circle around the grave (but no particular number of
them). If an old person they also put a
branch from a fig tree on it so that it takes root, which indicates ownership
of the land. The uncle and nephew have
the responsibility to cut the roof and the other family members shave their
heads after this two week period. They
must also refrain from sex during this time.
Paid here 10,000/- Bakonjo booklet, 30,000
Visit to the blacksmith and storyteller.
David said seven days before a funeral people
gather and they are fed by the family but they also bring food with them, eg.
goats, cassava flour, matoke to make local beer and cut three bananas from each
neighbouring shamba without asking permission to take it.
Re circumcision: young men went at the time of
planting and come back at the time of harvesting (approx. 3 months) to a hill
in the river in a valley (Lyumye) in a place called ‘Bwamba, Semiliki’. If a young man doesn’t come back, and dies
there he is buried there and plants from the hill placed at this mother’s door
to indicate his death.
According to Winnie a Bakonjo basket was used
by a witch doctor to send a man out to find the thief – often a policeman would
go with this person to locate the thief in this way. Only a selected person by the basket can do
this and the person has become possessed in order to find the person. Then the basket kills the guilty man, or
brings him to justice.
Went up the smaller hill behind the house
today – steep and a bit of a slog. Saw
quite a big bat, almost the size of a fruit bat with grey on its wings and
light eyes – spooky! Didn’t see any
snakes as it was too damp, misty and chilly for them. Saw an insect nest which looked like a bunch
of vertical twigs and one that looked like
a ball of clay stuck to a twig.
We saw the Ruwenzoris shrouded in mist, which cleared a bit. We looked through the binoculars at the house
where the man was murdered last night (5 am approx.) with a panga! He was struck on the head and back and then
when he held one of the men they used a panga on his arms – horrendous! David, Emmanuel and Winnie went to see the
body, which apparently is customary if you know the person as a friend or even
as an acquaintance but also in this case as a – the mattress was soaked in blood as he was
attacked whilst asleep. He leant money
to people and was considered a kind man.
They robbed him and still killed him.
Emmanuel said that if you didn’t go and see him then you couldn’t expect
anyone to turn up to your funeral and David thought they had to look at the
body to get used to the idea of dying. He also quoted a maxim they say that
‘there is nothing spare in life’ – in other words life is for living.
We finished the rubber mould of the first yam
today ready to go to wax tomorrow. Eria
did a life cast with Emmanuel and Winnie and had a hard time getting the
plaster out of his hair, as l had expected.
He looks like he has mange now with patches of hair missing and was
quite funny about them having to hammer the lump of plaster off the back of his
head!!! Kept us all amused for some
time.
Rocca is ready for the talk on the 5th.November. George has not replied.
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