IDNO

N.19456.ROS

Description

Two Bagesu boys wearing thighbells, and five other men? involved in the Bagesu initiation dances. Only the legs and chest of the boys and men are visible. In Roscoe’s description, he writes: "Whenever they could get them they wore thigh bells, which were three or four iron bells like cow-bells, strung round the right thigh so that they rattled as the wearer stamped to the rhythm” (Roscoe 1924, pp. 29-30). The three men in the foreground wear white cloth? in the toga fashion and one man wears European-style shorts? under the cloth.

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 C31/82/ 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. 28, Plate V, with the caption: "Bagesu initiation dance. Thigh bells.” See also p. 28, Plate V with the caption: "Bagesu initiation dance,” p. 29, Plate VI, with the captions: "Giving the youths roots to chew to strengthen them”, "Instructing the youths upon taking the oaths” and p. 30, Plate VII, with the captions: "Taking the oath”, "Performing the operation” and p. 32, Plate VIII, with the captions: "Performing the operation,” and "After the operation”. See also Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 254 with the captions: "Bagesu Initiation ceremony. The dance before the ceremony.” and "Bagesu Initiation ceremony. The dance after healing” and p. 258 with the caption: "Bagesu Initiation ceremony: Taking the oath.” [ED 17/9/2007]

Context: "Boys had to go through an elaborate ceremony of initiation and a form of circumcision before they were considered fit for marriage or to take part in the councils of the men of the clan. No force was employed to induce the boys to undergo this ceremony, but until they had been operated upon, they were regarded as children and might not wear clothing or join the men either in councils or in beer-drinking.”
These ceremonies took place as a rule every second or third year in each district, and the people chose a year when the harvest was plentiful so that they might brew large quantities of beer and make great preparations. If the harvest yield was a poor one, the ceremony was postponed until another year. The boys who decided to undergo the ceremony met daily for some two to four months before the day appointed for the event, and they went through village to village dancing and receiving presents from the people. These presents always consisted of animals and fowls and they were collected together at the village in which the ceremony was to take place, because hundreds of people gathered there for the event and all had to be fed and entertained. The boys were led by a man who knew the songs they were expected to sing and undertook to train them. He took them from place to place to dance, and as he sang he instructed them in various clan matters which were of a public character and not of great importance, for the more careful teaching of the clan secrets was undertaken in private by old men appointed by the clan. There was no tune in the songs; words were simply drawled out in a sort of rhythm to which the boys stamped their feet as they moved round in a circle. Whenever they could get them they wore thigh bells, which were three or four iron bells like cow-bells, strung round the right thigh so that they rattled as the wearer stamped to the rhythm. The boys’ faces and bodies were painted with red ochre and well-oiled, and they carried reeds or thin bamboos which they held aloft as they stamped about and sang” (Roscoe, 1924, pp. 29 - 30). [ED 17/9/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 17/9/2007]