IDNO

N.18935.ROS

Description

Distant view of three people from the Bunyoro region? on a dirt track. In the foreground, two people appear to be carrying salt wrapped in plantain fibre. In the background, there is a figure wearing a kanzu (white tunic).

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Bunyoro; Semliki Valley

Cultural Affliation

Banyoro

Named Person

Photographer

?Roscoe, John R.

Collector / Expedition

Roscoe, John R. [Mackie Ethnological Expedition, Uganda, 1919 - 1920]

Date

1919 - 1920

Collection Name

Roscoe Collection

Source

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in an envelope marked C29/96/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C29/ by the cataloguer.
Previously stored on Shelf 4, in group of 4 wooden boxes numbered 180.

Publication: Image published in Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 162, with the caption: "Bunyoro: Carrying Salt.). [ED 14/1/2008]

Context: "Hundreds of natives from all parts of the country visit these salt-works to purchase the salt. There is a covered market-place in which the purchasers sit while the vendors measure out quantities of salt in accordance with the value of the goods brought for barter. These barter goods are a strange medley, for the bring goats, sheep and fowls, food of various kinds -such as sweet potatoes, millet, and other grain - cooking pots and firewood, and also bark cloth and skins for girdles. The king’s clerk is always present to levy a toll upon all the salt going out, for this is one of the chief sources of the royal revenue. The tax is levied in kind, and the man uses a special measure to deduct the king’s due from the salt measured out for each purchaser. There is a special hut in which the salt intended for the use of the King and his household is purified. There the salt undergoes two or three washings and evaporations, and comes out quite white.
When the purchasers have secured their quota of salt they make it up into packages weighing from thirty to one hundred pounds, and tied up with plantain fibre. This method of wrapping things up deserves a little notice. Plantain trees, so called, are not woody growths, but consist of a general pith or core about an inch thick, round which grow layers of a fleshy material full of cells of water. The stem of a good tree is from ten to twelve inches in diameter, and as it grows the outer layers of this fleshy material dry and are pulled off by the gardeners. Some of them are from eight to nine feet long and eight inches wide at the base, and when quite dry are as strong as thick brown paper. There are no plantains in the neighbourhood of the salt district, so that intending purchasers have to bring with them their material for packing the salt. It is really wonderful to see the expert way in which the natives will wrap up the salt, laying these fibres together and making up long bundles, usually some four feet long by eight inches in diameter. So skillful do they become that, if fibre is not available, they will even at times make use of blades of coarse grass as wrapping for salt or other things.
The people who work the salt are of the lower class, and live entirely upon the proceeds of their trading and upon fish which they catch in the lake. Some of the men hunt hippopotami along the shore, and the meat of these animals is regarded as a delicacy.” (Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 163.). [ED 14/1/2008]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 14/1/2008]