IDNO

N.19447.ROS

Description

A young Bagesu man holding bunches of reeds of elephant grass, used for building. He wears a goat-skin?, a flat hat? and he holds a long walking stick made from bamboo? or reed?. Roscoe describes the traditional way that the Bagesu wore skin: "Two of the legs were joined with string about a foot long. The skin was put under the right arm and the string passed over the head onto the right shoulder, so that the left side was completely exposed, though the skin covered the right side and reached completely down the thighs” (Roscoe, 1924, p. 5). In the background there are plantain? trees and other forms of undergrowth.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Elgon; Mount Elgon

Cultural Affliation

Bagesu

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 C31/73/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C31/ by the cataloguer.
Previously stored on Shelf 4, in group of 4 wooden boxes numbered 180.

Publication: Similar image 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.4, Plate III, with the caption: "Young man of Bagesu tribe with load of building material”. [ED 21/9/2007]

Context: "When a man made up his mind that he would leave his old home and build a new house, he first consulted various auguries to see if the ghosts approved of his intention, and if the move would be to his advantage.
The man then cut his trees and carried them to the appointed site. He had to prepare a number of stout stakes some five feet long for the outer walls, a central post and four others to support the roof, and grass for thatching.
When all the materials had been collected, he called together his friends to help him in leveling the ground, for the site was usually on the side of a hill. A circle was then marked out and a shallow trench dug, in which the stakes of the outer wall were planted a few inches deep, making a wall about four or five feet high. These were laced together with creeper rope in two places, about half way up and again near the top. The posts for carrying the roof were put in, a long one in the centre which decided the pitch of the roof, and four others around it. At times the owner would do the work up to this point himself, but in any case he now called in his friends to help in the finishing of the house, and he brewed a quantity of beer, which was the only payment given to those who assisted him in the work.
The saplings or bamboos were arranged radiating from the central post to the outer wall, upon which they rested, looking like the ribs of a great umbrella, and the spaces between them were filled with smaller bamboos, or with elephant grass, laced together with bark rope, and on this framework was laced a grass thatch. The ends of the roof poles were cut so that all projected to an even length over the wall. The grass used as thatch was a course kind which grew a foot and a half long. The roots ends were laid uppermost and each layer was placed a few inches higher than the one before, thus making a good thick layer of thatch, and on the pinnacle was a tuft so arranged as to make the point of the roof water-tight.” (Roscoe, J., 1924 p.19) See Roscoe, J., 1924, p.20 also. [ED 21/9/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 18/9/2007]