IDNO

N.19111.ROS

Description

Sacred Pool at the salt-works in Kibero.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Bunyoro; Kibero; Lake Albert

Cultural Affliation

Banyoro? (Bakitara)

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 C30/60/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C30/ by the cataloguer.
Previously stored on Shelf 4, in group of 4 wooden boxes numbered 180.

Publication: Image published in Roscoe, J., 1923. The Bakitara (or Banyoro): The First Part of the Report of The Mackie Ethnological Expedition to Central Africa. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 256, Plate XXXII, with the caption: Lake Albert. Sacred pool for human sacrifices at Kibero”.

Context: "At the salt-works there are two sacred pools in which the spirits who control the production of salt are supposed to dwell. The king used to send to the chief spirit an annual offering of several cows and a slave-woman. The cows were not sacrificed, but were kept by the chief priest for his own use. The woman was given to one of the priest’s servants on the understanding that the first-born child should belong to the spirit. If there was no child there was no offering, but, if a child was born, it was given as a sacrifice to persuade the spirit to grant greater quantities of salt. In the evening a sheep was thrown alive into this pool and left swimming about. The people were told that, if the spirit accepted the offering, the sheep would be taken by an underground channel from a pool to a lake, and the dead body would be found next morning to cast up on the lake shore. The priest told me that some of his servants went after dark to the pool, drew out the sheep, and took it by canoe some distance out on the lake, where they cast it into the water and watched it drown. The body was then drawn up on to the shore, and left there for the people to find on the following morning.
To reach the second pool it is necessary to climb some distance up the rocky cliff. Into this pool a goat was cast annually by a chief of the place and the priest of the pool. The animal was left to swim about all night, but there were ledges on which it could support itself, and it was generally found alive in the morning. It was then taken out, killed, and eaten at the side of the pool by the priest, his assistants, and the chief. These two annual ceremonies were observed with great solemnity and, in the eyes of the people, were of the utmost importance, for they were confidently regarded as sure and certain means of increasing the output of salt, and the result of neglecting them would as certainly be a failure of the salt supply.” (Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 161 - 162.). [ED 10/1/2008]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 10/1/2008]