IDNO

N.19301.ROS

Description

A full-length frontal portrait of a Banyoro? rain-maker standing in front of a shrine in a sacred glade. According to Roscoe: "The rain-maker and his assistant each wore two black bark-cloths”, however, in this image the rain-maker appears to be wearing cloth tied in the toga-style. To the right, there are three? Banyoro? men seated on the ground. In front of them appear to be pottery shards. In front of the rain-maker, "on the ground was a bag containing all kinds of things necessary for invoking the rain-god, and some of its contents were spread round the pit -small horns of goats and sheep (many of them decorated with strips of skin from goats, leopards, wild cats or monkeys), bits of pots, roots, shells, and various kinds of herbs” (Roscoe, 1923, p. 28).

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Bunyoro

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 C30/254/ 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. 97, Plate XIII, with the caption: "Side chapel in which water-pots are placed full of water or empty according to the need.” [ED 1/2/2008]

Clothing: "The rain-maker and his assistant each wore two black bark-cloths, those of the rain-maker being secured by a band round his waist to keep them from hampering his movements while at work. He wore a special head-dress decorated with cowry shells and beads and consisting of a band of leather round his head with a flap at the back a foot long by some eight inches wide.” (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. 28). [ED 5/10/2007]

Context: "I was allowed to visit one of these sacred places, which lay in the forest some distance from any path where people passed. A glade, some ten yards wide and four hundred yards long, lay between tall trees whose branches met above, making a sombre shade over the quiet place. No grass grew, but lemon grass was spread in the glade and a path led through it to the end where there were two pits, dug, so the people affirmed, not by the hand of man but by Ruhanga (God) himself. One was about four feet in diameter and four to five feet deep, and the other two feet in diameter and eighteen inches deep; both were lined with lemon grass, and when specially solemn and important offerings and prayers were to be made, shrines were built over them.
All the preparations were made by the priest and his attendants on their arrival. At the back of the larger pit an altar was erected consisting of three spears and a long cow’s horn, which were stuck in the ground in a row. The horn was filled with herbs and decorated with cowry-shells, and the thick end, which was uppermost, was closed by an immense stopper or bung; by its side stood a short iron spear. In front of these, on a leopard-skin spread on the ground, was placed on a stool covered with a second leopard-skin and on this lay the special rain fetish, a large buffalo-horn. Near the fetish were placed a bow and arrows which always accompanied it. On the other side of the skin which lay on the ground was a bag containing all kinds of things necessary for invoking the rain-god, and some of its contents were spread round the pit -small horns of goats and sheep (many of them decorated with strips of skin from goats, leopards, wild cats or monkeys), bits of pots, roots, shells, and various kinds of herbs. Mingled with these were things of European origin, such as bits of tin and glass, which were calculated to add to the awe of any who approached. A few feet away, among the bushes, stood some twenty water-pots, most of them old, and round about them lay the fragments of many more which had been broken in use or by exposure to the weather. These pots were made use of during the ceremony to work the sympathetic magic which formed an important element in the rite.” (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. 29). [ED 11/10/2007]
This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 5/10/2007]