IDNO

N.18973.ROS

Description

Three young Bagesu women carrying large bundles of food on their backs. They appear to wear bands of beads? around their heads, metal necklaces and metal bracelets on their arms and wrists. Each woman also holds a long piece of wood as a walking stick.

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 C29/145/ 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. 258 with the caption: "Bagesu Women Carrying Food”. [ED 24/10/2007]

Context: "The most common food was plantain, but the people also grew and used large quantities of millet of two or three kinds, a kind of pea known as pokya, and beans and maize. Sweet potatoes were grown by a few and also marrow’s and small tomatoes, though these were not generally used.
Food was eaten straight from the pot, and a man with his wife and family sat round one pot, helping themselves with their hands. A visitor never ate with the family, but was given a share some distance away. A man was expected to supply food for his parents in their old age, and he generally built a house for him near their own so that he could easily attend to their needs.” (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. 6). [ED 24/10/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 24/10/2007]