IDNO

N.19267.ROS

Description

Distant view of a Basabei? man from Sabei in the Mount Elgon region carrying a large bundle of cowskins on top of his head and holding a walking stick in the other hand. There is another Basabei? man to the right.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Elgon; Mount Elgon; Sabei

Cultural Affliation

?Basabei

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 C30/222/ 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 images published in Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 274, with the captions: "Sabei: Men and Women carrying Food” and "Sabei: Porter carrying Cowskins”.
Similar image also published in Roscoe, J., 1924. The Bagesu and other tribes of the Uganda Protectorate: The Third Part of the Report of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition to Central Africa. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.), p. 58, with the caption: "Men and women of Sabei carrying loads”. [ED 10/10/2007]

Clothing: "In spite of the fact that many of these people lived at great heights on the mountains, where the cold was often extreme, they wore practically nothing in the way of clothing; and though they took shelter in the warmth of their huts when the sun went down, they never allowed cold to interfere with their ordinary out-of-door tasks. Boys when small might go naked, or they might wear a skin slung from one shoulder and long enough to reach the hips, which was also the only dress of a full grown man. The skin was that of a goat or a calf; two corners were fastened together and the robe put over the head and under the left arm so that the fastened corners were on the right shoulder and the robe was open down the right side. A girl before she was of an age of marriage wore only a small apron four inches by six. This was often merely a fringe of grass twisted into strings, but sometimes seeds on the ends of bottle gourds were pierced and threaded on the strings. After a girl had reached marriageable age and had be initiated, she wore a robe over her shoulders and one round her waist hanging to her knees. The shoulder robe was usually a cow-skin; two corners were fastened together and it was slipped over her head, hanging over her shoulders to her waist with the opening in front, so that she could have her arms free or wrap the robe around her waist as she wished. The other robe was generally made of two or three goat-skins sewed together and hung from the waist to the knees.” (Roscoe, J., 1924. The Bagesu and other tribes of the Uganda Protectorate: The Third Part of the Report of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition to Central Africa. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.), pp. 55 - 56). [ED 10/10/2007]

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