IDNO

N.19222.ROS

Description

An unidentifiable object (basket covered by the fronds of a palm tree?) positioned on a wooden table in the interior of a building in the Royal enclosure?. This basket possibly was possibly used for the King’s ‘sacred meal of beef’ or it was a ‘special basket’ for a Banyoro? mother to put the paraphernalia associated with the first stages of her child’s life.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; western Uganda; Western District; Bunyoro; Hoima

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 C30/172/ 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.

Context: "As the cook left his house to go to the king, he was accompanied by an assistant who carried a large basket, called Kasingo, containing meat and vegetable food covered with plantain-leaves. On the top of this stool a vessel covered with a bark-cloth in which was the boiled meat for the king. The cook walked in front slowly and solemnly, bearing the two-pronged fork with which he fed the king. They were not permitted to enter the royal enclosure by the main gate, but had to go round to the gate by which the sacred cows entered and proceed through the queen’s reception room to the throne-room. The cook entered without any greeting and knelt before the throne, while his assistant took the pot from the basket of food and, putting it down beside him, retired out of sight. The cook struck his fork down into the meat and, having secured a piece, put it into the king’s mouth, for the king might not touch meat with his hands. Four times the cook repeated this, and if he should inadvertently touch the teeth of the king with the fork, his punishment was immediate death. When the king had eaten the four pieces, the cook covered the vessel and removed it.
The large basket was uncovered before the king who merely looked at it; the plantain-leaves with which the food had been covered were spread on the ground to form a cloth and the food was turned out on them. Either the king’s pages or some young wives who had not yet been admitted to the king’s bed were summoned by his orders, sat round this cloth and ate a meal before the throne-room in the sight of the king. The cook then returned as he came” (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. 102.). [ED 29/1/2008]

Context: "When the first teeth were shed, they were given to the mother who placed them in a special basket and treasured them with other relics, such as the stump of the umbilical cord and, later, the teeth which were extracted at puberty. She also had to look after the hair and nail-cuttings of the child which, among the pastoral people, had to be thrown on a special place on the dung-heap, and among the agricultural people under a plantain-tree. Among the pastoral people it was the duty of a wife, mother, or sister to cut the hair and nails of a man or boy, but the serfs had no such rules.” 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. 258.). [ED 29/1/2008]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 29/1/2008]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 29/1/2008]