Feb 23rd - Part 3: Musu

We hopped in the van and rushed off toward the place where the cane rat (musu) clan was getting down. Here, Omutaka Nakirembeka had said that there were a group of youth who were visiting the obutaka – precisely the folks I wanted to chat with.

We bounced through a region that seemed to have an inordinate number of drum-makers, from whose stalls the signature round, furry Ugandan drums hung in every shade of mottled white, brown, black and auburn.

A long dusty ride through the country brought us to a large clearing, where the sound of drums rang through the air – the gathering of the musu. Right after getting out of the van, we were led to a special tent where Lady Sylvia Nagginda Luswata herself, the Queen of Buganda, was seated with her coterie. Sweaty and dusty, I was led to greet her highness – one of the security guards extended his arm to keep me from getting too close, as the Omutaka told me to greet her but not touch her or extend my hand. I slightly bowed, honored to be there.

Then, it was time for more food - including another delicious luwombo. After food, Arne and I moved closer to the music and I got dragged into a dance (the video attached here). After that, the head of the Musu clan told us the wonderful origin story, that involved a ghost imitated by (of course) a cute little muskrat-like musu.

We went to the graves of the old chiefs, and briefly saw the origin place, where young people in light blue smocks were receiving traditional blessings.

After that, we went to a set of buildings that looked exactly like the descriptions I read of traditional shrines (essabo). There, all of us (including the omutaka) fed the fireplaces and asked for blessings. Here are some pictures of the different homes of the spirits - of reeds, brick, banana leaves.

Feb 23rd - Part 2: Ndiga

Shortly after Arne and I left to get pens for people to fill out the surveys, Anatoli called to say the Omutaka had arrived and was ready to go. BTW, I want to be sure to state here that Arne took basically all the pictures today (just a few of which I've clipped and put here).

We loaded into the Omutaka's van, painted with a seal identifying it as an official vehicle of the kingdom – and were off to stop #1 – the installation of the heir to the last chief of the ndiga (sheep) clan. When we rolled up, we were escorted to seats right behind the chiefs who sat in the front row of the VIP canopy on big padded chairs.

Several other canopies surrounded an open meadow, with a table set in the center, where a priest was saying Mass. Beyond the canopies were large round tent-like structures covered with tarpaulins and bark-cloth where the family of the deceased traditionally sleep before this last memorial. Today, one year after the death, is the last time they can cry about the dead – an official end to mourning and new start. Next to that were people preparing food in huge cauldrons.

Seated on bark-cloth in the meadow were the sisters and wife of the deceased. And standing at the altar, with bark-cloth togas were his heir and (I think) his cousin, who is his symbolic ‘wife’ for this occasion.

One of the strangest things about this affair was the mix of African tradition with Catholic mass. There was a full service, along with communion. – By the way, there were little plastic bags lying around that said ‘host’ and had a picture of a chalice on them that I thought were once filled with communion wafers, I stuffed one in my pocket thinking my mom would love the ketch factor – I later found out they were bags of vodka ---- Yes VODKA. I scanned it for your enjoyment – healthful, with no hangover!  

Anyhow, the priest officially recognized new heir and then said prayers over the gravesite, where people did the traditional ritual of cleaning it off. Then, people went into the obutaka, where they did several older traditions. The first was drinking from pots of water with a gourd: this is supposed to bring blessings. Much as I need the blessings, I don’t know if I had enough faith to trust (as Anatoli said) that it was ‘traditionally pure’.

Next was offering prayers by setting money at gourds filled with traditionally brewed beer and cleaning the gravesite of older chiefs. Shoes needed to be removed before entering this sacred space, and a man who didn’t was taken by spirits – which left him convulsing and wailing in the bush beyond.

George Mugera had told me the story of the origin of the Ndiga clan, and one of the main roles is played by a tree, where the body of a hero is caught and eventually falls to a barkcloth below – unfortunately, I was around the corner from this very tree, but failed to get its picture. We’ll have to wait for next time!

Now it was time for a HUGE meal from those big cauldrons. The most surprising and wonderful treat was a chicken steamed in a banana leaf (luwombo). Of course there were lots of starches, and Vianney would’ve definitely said it was “real” food.

Feb 23rd - Part 1: Guest of the Omutaka

Well, today started bright and early. Arne and I were supposed to be at the palace by 8:30, to meet Omutaka Nakirembeka. As per his request, I'd copied off a series of surveys to distribute to young Baganda folks to see what they knew about their clans. 

We arrived right on time. As we flipped through magazines aimed at Ugandans in the UK, a few folks joined us, including Anatoli (who was acting as Luganda translator for the day) and the heads of two other clans, the dog (mbwa) and the 'rainwater that falls off the roof' (ky'ababoobi). Now, that last clan leads me to an important point with regards to my original thoughts when coming here. 

You see, at first I was thinking about helping to design a program that relates youth to conservation and the environment by focusing on animals and plants that act as traditional clan totems. Now, that's all well and good for things like leopards (ngo), wild potato vines (kkobe) and termite-mound mushrooms (butiko). But the clans also include a fair number of things that AREN'T animals or plants - ranging from lungs  (maugwe)  to cooking pots (ntamu). The picture here shows a section of a wall at Bulange palace depicting various clan totems - here we have a grasshopper (Nsenene), Monitor Lizard (Nswaswa), Snout Fish (Nsuma?) and ... excrement - yep, poop. 

So, by focusing on an organism-human connection among Baganda clans, it's narrowed by not only the tribe - but by particular clans within the tribe. This fact makes me think that a better idea might be the idea of connecting people with sacred space, regardless of their clan.

Now.. this day was sooo busy that I'm going to divide it into 3 parts: the heir installation among the Ndiga, the celebration of the Musu, and crowd madness at UB40 (you'll see when you get there - which is ironically probably before you get here).