IDNO

N.18967.ROS

Description

Full-length frontal view of six Bagesu women, all with shaved heads, standing in front of an elephant grass? fence. The woman to the left wears a circular metal necklace and a white dress; a ribbon? is tied around her waist. Next to her, there is a woman wearing? "a sort of apron measuring some six inches by three, sometimes made of coarsely woven fibre and sometimes consisting merely of strings to which were tied the stem end of bottle gourds” (Roscoe, 1924, p. 5). This suggests that she is unmarried. Scarifications on her stomach are visible and she also wears a necklace of beads? around her neck and a band around her head. The two women in the centre wear cloth dresses, one plain and one printed fabric: both with a piece of material tied around their waist. The woman wearing the printed dress also wears a circular metal? necklace. The two young Bagesu girls to the right have scarifications on their stomach and breasts. One has a metal bracelet on one wrist and she wears a girdle around her waist, which suggests that she may be married. The other girl, to the far right, wears a ragged piece of cloth tied around the waist and she appears to wear no jewelry.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Elgon; Mount Elgon

Cultural Affliation

Bagesu

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 C29/138/ 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: Similar image published in Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 244 with the caption: "Bagesu Women, showing scarifications”.
Similar images published in Roscoe, J., 1924. The Bagesu and other tribes of the Uganda Protectorate: The Third Part of the Report of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition to Central Africa. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.), p. 5, Plate IV, with the caption: "Girl of the Bagesu tribe, showing keloids”. [ED 19/9/2007]

Context: "Until marriage girls also went naked or wore a sort of apron measuring some six inches by three, sometimes made of coarsely woven fibre and sometimes consisting merely of strings to which were tied the stem end of bottle gourds. After marriage a woman wore a girdle from which, at the back, hung a fringe of banana fibre twisted into strings like cord. The ends of these strings were tied together and bound with fibre for about an inch of their length, a piece of work which only the owner of the belt might do. This end was brought between the legs from the back to the front, passed under the belt in front and allowed to hang down. When a woman became a widow, she burned this girdle and went naked unless she married again, when she made herself another. This is still the dress worn by married women except in the vicinity of European settlements.
Both men and women shaved all hair off their heads, faces, bodies at frequent intervals, often monthly.
The ornaments of unmarried girls were as a rule only bracelets, but married women wore anklets as well. The workmanship of these were crude, in fact they were of the most primitive and unfinished type to be found in this part of Africa, for there were no able artisans among the people. The bracelets and anklets were merely iron or, if possible, brass rods, about as thick as a slate pencil; these were bent round the limb and no attempt was made to join the ends or to decorate them. Though younger member of the tribe are now refusing to pierce lips or ears, many people still wear lip ornaments, usually of wood, which is the undress ornament, while a few wear the full-dress ornament, a bit of white stone, some two inches long, half an inch thick at the end inserted in the lip, and tapering towards the end which protrudes. When the ornament is not in place, a button of wood is inserted to keep the hole from closing and to prevent the saliva from trickling out onto the chin. As a rule men did not wear this ornament, though there were a few exceptions, but both men and women pierced both the lobes and the helix of their ears, though they seldom enlarged the holes more than enough to hold straws. The most common ear ornaments were small, iron, brass, or copper wire wings, which had a few glass beads threaded on them and were passed through these holes. (Roscoe, 1924, pp. 6 - 7).
"These people have no idea of years and keep no account of age, but few seem ever to attain to old age- at any rate, they seldom reach a time when they are too feeble to work or get about. Girls are not more than ten when they begin to prepare for marriage. This preparation consists of a lengthy and painful process of scarifying the chest and forehead. The instrument used is a kind of large needle or piece of iron tapering to a point at one end; a ring at the other end fits on a little finger, and the needle is curved to lie closely round the back of the hand with the point resting against the thumb. The girl always carries this with her and makes scarifications by pinching up a piece of skin and running the pointed needle through, pushing it so far that the holes made are big enough to pass a pencil through. Sometimes she will rub wood ashes into the holes, and when the wounds heal they leave thick hard lumps on the flesh, some of those on the forehead standing out as big as peas and being quite hard and black. At times terrible festering sores are the result of these scarifications, and the girl has to wait weeks before she can proceed with her markings; but nothing will discourage her, and when the wound has healed she will persevere with the treatment, arranging the markings in the special line and shape belonging to her clan. These markings the girls consider essential, and look upon them, when completed with admiration. Men, too, consider them marks of beauty in a wife, and the girls themselves prize them as highly as any fair maid of our own land values her beautiful hair or eyes. No man would think of marrying a girl who could not show these markings, and she is not admitted into the society of her elders until they are completed” (Roscoe, J., 1922. pp. 253 - 254). [ED 19/9/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 19/12/2007]