IDNO

N.19114.ROS

Description

"The King advancing along the Sacred Pathway” preceded by "the Royal Spear-bearers” - who walk backwards in front of the King. The King and other members of the Sacred Guild are wearing traditional dress (including bark? cloth and a crown with beard of colobus monkey skin) in the background. The other members of his court and the crowd appear to be wearing kanzus (white tunics), some with European-style jackets.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Bunyoro; ?Hoima

Cultural Affliation

Banyoro (Bakitara)

Named Person

Andereya Bisereko Duhaga II (b. 1882 - d. 1924)

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 C30/63/ 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.

Image reproduced and used in a permanent display in the Lower Gallery of the main Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. The display is titled ‘Rank and Status in the kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara’ and comprises of material from the PRM Roscoe Collection of artifacts relating to the King of Bunyoro and his court. It was curated by Jeremy Coote. The photograph will be on display from January 2000. H.Cornwall-Jones, 09/1999.

Publication: Image published in Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.) p. 211 with the caption "Bunyoro: New Moon Ceremonies. The King advancing along the Sacred Pathway. Preceded by Spear-bearers.”
See also: Roscoe, 1923, p. 129: Plate XVII, p. 144: Plate XVIII, p.145: Plate XIX, p.160: Plate XX, p.161: Plate XXI, p. 176: Plate XXII and P. 177: Plate XXIII. [ED 18/9/2007]

Ceremony: The New Moon Ceremony was a seven-day festival to celebrate the arrival of the New Moon. In Roscoe’s words: "for seven days the bands played, and dancing and rejoicing went on in the Royal enclosure; then everyone adjourned to the enclosure of the King’s mother for a day, and then to the chief medicine man for another day, making nine days in all” (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, pp. 107 - 108). See Roscoe, 1923, pp. 107 - 110 for a full-description of the New Moon Ceremony. [ED 18/9/2007]

Context: "On one of the seven days there was usually a solemn procession to the courtyard of the seventh sacred hut, the courtyard where the King herded the cows. On this occasion the King gave his decision on any important matter, or pronounced judgment on any chief who had offended. The pronouncing of sentence on any member of the Sacred Guild was a most impressive act, surpassing in gravity any of the other ceremonies. Crowds gathered outside the throne room to see the king pass on his way to the place of judgment, and the royal-standard bearers awaited his appearance. The Royal standards were rather curious. Three of them were spears with long leaf shaped blades, and the fourth was an instrument rather like a two-pronged rake, on the prongs of which were hung a bag of seeds and a bundle of tinder for torch-making. These standards were held aloft until the King emerged from the throne-room, when the spear-bearers walked backwards before him to the door of the first hut, where they lined up to allow him to pass. A chief of the Guild preceded the King, also walking backwards” (Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.)), p. 210.).
Three men carried the Royal spears, called Mahere, Kaizireijo, and Mutasimbulwa (Roscoe, 1924, p.109). There was also a fourth man, named Olukandula, who carried a kind of ‘two-toothed rake’ (Roscoe 1923: 109). According to Roscoe, these emblems were especially significant to the Banyoro because ‘they were to show that the people were once in bondage in Bukedi on the east of the Nile and had to cultivate the earth’ (Roscoe 1923: 109). [ED 18/9/2007]

Clothing of the Sacred Guild: "Both he and the king wore their official robes and the crown with the long-beard of monkey skin which marked the member of the Sacred Guild. The robe consisted of a large sheet of bark cloth wrapped around the body, and a person dressed in this robe and crown presented a most peculiar appearance.” (Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), pp. 210, 211.). [ED 3/10/2007]

Context: "As the King preceded, mats were spread for him to walk upon, the first stretching from the door of the throne-room to that of the queen’s reception-room. These mats were made of grass stems tied together and rolled up, so that the keeper had only to lay a mat down and give it a push for it to unroll and lay flat. There were several of these mats which were used when the king moved about the royal enclosure on his ceremonial duties, and each was rolled up again directly he had passed over it.” (Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 207.). [ED 11/1/2008]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 11/1/2008]