IDNO

N.19226.ROS

Description

Thirteen milk pots "hung in string slings...ready to be handed to the king should he desire to drink” (Roscoe, 1923, p. 78). The string slings are hung in a line attached to a log inside the dairy (Musiki).

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 C30/176/ 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. 64, Plate VIII with the caption: "Milk-pots hanging in the dairy full of milk”. [ED 12/10/2007]

Context: "The dairy, Musiki, into which these openings led, was the central division of the three which lay behind the throne-room, and it had no doorway to the outside. In this room there stood on one side the official bed in which the king had to spend part of each night. The room also contained a platform on which were a number of fetishes and the royal milk pots. When full, these pots were hung in string slings above this platform and kept there ready to be handed to the king should he desire to drink. When empty, the pots were washed and fumigated and placed on the platform until the next milking-time. In the middle of the room was a stool (kaizirokera) on which the king sat to drink. This stool was covered with nine cow-skins, and the attendant who had to prepare it for the king was called Kasuli” (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. 78.). [ED 12/10/2007]

Context: "The milk-pots were handed over to the dairy-maid, another wife of the king, bearing the official title of Omuwesengisa or Munyuwisa, who was purified and smeared with white clay in the same manner as the milk-maids, and had always to be a virgin. She had to be in constant attendance in the dairy to give the king milk whenever he desired to drink.
The holder of this office had complete charge of the milk-pots of the king, and no one but she might handle them. She had to wash and dry them before the morning milking; and after the morning milk had been drunk she had to wash them, dry them in the sun, and later fumigate them, a process which was called Kuwitira and was performed over a pottery furnace in which a particular kind of grass was burned. The fire was brought from the king’s fire and the fetching and carrying of fire and water might be done by servants, but only the dairy-maid might touch the pots” (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. 78.). [ED 12/10/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 12/10/2007]