IDNO

N.19147.ROS

Description

A group of Bahera? iron smelters sitting on the ground preparing a furnace.

Physical Condition: Film is a yellow colour.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Bunyoro; ?Kitara

Cultural Affliation

?Bahera

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 C30/96/ 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: Similar 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. 209, Plate XXVI, with the caption: "Iron smelters preparing furnaces for smelting”.
Similar image also published in Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 164, with the caption "Bunyoro: Iron smelters in camp”. [ED 3/10/2007]

Context: "The artisans of Kitara all belonged to what we have called the agricultural tribes or serfs (Bahera). The most important industries were iron-working and pottery, and in both of these the people of Kitara attained to a considerable degree of skill and produced better work than can be found in the surrounding countries.
(1) Iron workers: The country Kitara was rich in iron and for many generations its iron-workers were noted for their skill. There were three stages in the work before the finished article was turned out, and each stage had its own workers, who did only that part and seldom had anything to do with the others except in buying and selling the products of their labours. The first handling of the iron, that is, the quarrying and the smelting, was done by the smelters (Bajugusi), and the rough molten iron was purchased from them by the pig-iron workers (Omusami), who worked it up into pieces of various sizes, roughly shaped for different purposes. The smiths (Mwesi) bought this iron and made knives, spears, hoes and other necessary articles.
The Smelters (Bajugusi): The smelters were drawn from any clan of the serf class, and their work required a certain amount of skill and experience, for they had to be able to distinguish between good and bad stone. There were two kinds of stone in use and in common parlance they were referred to as male and female. The male was regarded as better in quality, but it had the disadvantage of being hard to break and prepare for smelting. It was black in colour and was found in the hill Nyaituma, usually on the surface of the ground. The female, or soft, iron was found in Galimuzika Busanga; it was red and lay in layers running into the hill-side.
Before going out to the quarry the iron-stone, the smelters had to prepare the charcoal for their furnace, which was done by each man as near his own home as possible. At each stage in the work from the beginning of the preparation of the charcoal until the iron was smelted, taboos were observed and the worker watched carefully for unfavorable omens. When he went out to cut his tree for the charcoal, to quarry his stone, or to do any other part of the work, he had to observe all the taboos usual at the beginning of any work and, in addition, if the man himself or a member of his family sneezed, he would not go work that day, for the sneeze was the means taken by some ghost to warn him of danger, and if he disregarded the warning, he must not be surprised if he met with an accident.
The trees most commonly used by the smelters for using charcoal were mikola, mireme and mirongo. ...
When sufficient wood had been burned and the charcoal had been broken up ready for use in the furnace, the men went out in a body of from ten to twenty to the hill where the iron had to be quarried and gathered, and there they lived together while the work was going on, building grass huts to sleep in. The first thing to be done was to propitiate the hill spirit by offerings, that the earth might yield the stone without burying them, and that they might get good iron. ... When mining the stone, they did not dig downwards but generally horizontally into the hill-side, following a seam of stone from the point where it was exposed, and when the mine extended some distance into the hill several men might be engaged in the tunnel. One dug while others gathered the stone into baskets and passed it along from hand to hand until it reach the mouth of the mine, where the good material was sorted out and broken into pieces about the size of walnuts ready for smelting. This was packed in bundles to be taken to their headquarters. The task for digging the stone was dangerous, for no props were used to support the roof of the tunnel and it sometimes happened that the earth gave way and some of the men were buried. Those outside would do what they could to get help and reach the buried men, but invariably some of them would be suffocated before they could be rescued. The charcoal and iron-stone would be carried to the smelting furnace, which was a round pit eighteen inches to two feet deep and eighteen inches wide, lined inside and covered over with clay which baked hard and did not crumble. A hole in the clay cover or lid served as a chimney and through it the furnace was fed when alight. Four tunnels were cut in the ground round the furnace so that they entered it at an angle a little more than half way down, and blast-pipes were put in them. Before the smelting was started a slow fire of grass and reeds was lighted in the pit to hasten the drying of the clay and warm the furnace. The bellows were clay pots about ten inches in diameter with nozzle on one side communicating with a blast pipe. The open top of the pot was covered by a goat-skin, tied on but not stretched taut, so that it could be moved up and down by a stick some eighteen inches long attached to its centre. This was raised to draw in air and on being pushed down forced it through the nozzle, which was connected with a blast pipe, into the furnace. The nozzles of two pots were attached to each blast-pipe, and one man, sitting between two pots and raising the sticks alternately, was able to keep up a constant blast. When a man was making these bellows, he had to observe contingency or they would constantly fill with water and refuse to act.
When the furnace was made and all was ready, the men retired to rest early, for they had to rise about three o’clock to start the fire in the furnace. This was allowed to burn until the pit was hot, when it was filled up with layers of charcoal and iron-stone and kept full until the smelting was complete, charcoal and stone being added, when necessary, from heaps which were placed near in readiness” (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. 217 - 221). [ED 4/10/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 3/10/2007]