IDNO

N.19487.ROS

Description

A Banyoro? man seated outside one of the seven sacred huts in the Royal enclosure. The hut appears to be thatched with a kind of grass called senke. According to Roscoe: "Beyond the Queen’s reception room stretched in a line the six other huts of the Sacred Guild each with its two openings, one in front and one behind, and its courtyard separating it from the next hut. Each hut belonged to a chief of the Sacred Guild who bore its name and had to be present in it when the King passed to perform the daily ceremony of herding the sacred cows.”

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Bunyoro

Cultural Affliation

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 C31/111/ 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.

Context: "Beyond the Queen’s reception room stretched in a line the six other huts of the Sacred Guild each with its two openings, one in front and one behind, and its courtyard separating it from the next hut. Each hut belonged to a chief of the Sacred Guild who bore its name and had to be present in it when the King passed to perform the daily ceremony of herding the sacred cows. Fires were kept burning at night in all the huts, the floors were carpeted with lemon grass. In the courtyard of the second, third and fourth of these huts the king might perform the ceremony of herding the sacred cows, if he did not wish to go all the way to the seventh hut, the courtyard of which was the special place of the sacred cows. The Nkorogi herd which supplied the milk for the king and his household entered the royal enclosure, when they came to be milked, through a gate in the courtyard of the first hut, and passed through the queen’s reception room to the court in front of the throne-room.
No child of the reigning king might enter any of these huts, the princes and princesses who went there being half-brothers and half-sisters of the king, and no woman might enter any of them beyond the queen’s reception room, into which princesses of the king’s generation might go. A woman venturing to enter any of the others would be killed at once.
The second hut, Kyamunuma, was the hut of the princes, that is, the king’s half-brothers, for his own brothers were excluded from the capital and his sons might not enter any of these huts. The reason for the exclusion of the king’s full brothers from the capital is said to have been the jealousy of one king, for there was a time when the king’s brothers visited him, wearing a bracelet which he coveted and asked for. She refused to give it to him, saying he could get one made for himself, and a few days later his brother visited him wearing the very bracelet. The king, seeing it, was jealous, declaring that it was evident his mother had a preference for his brother and there would soon be a revolt among the princes. He therefore sent a solider to kill the brother, and from that time full brothers of the king went away into the country as soon as he came to the throne, and any message they wished to send to him was conveyed by a third party.
Princes might only enter their hut Kyamunuma when they had business to transact, and no prince might be there when the king passed through, so that it was empty except for the chief in charge.
In the courtyard of this hut was a stand for a royal spear, Kaitantahi, which remained here during the day and stood in the throne-room at night. The stand was only for emergencies, for the spear had to be held in an upright position while it was in this court; and if the man who held it had for any reason to leave the court, he was expected to summon someone to relieve him.
The third house was Kyakato and the fourth Kitogo, and into the courtyards of these no prince might go when the king was there. The fifth house was Kamulweya and the sixth Kachumagosi. This was known as the house which caused the brave to fear and tremble. Here it was that offending chiefs were brought before the king to be tried, and from it they were led to him the seventh courtyard to have their sentence pronounced. No chief, however brave he had been up to that time, could find himself in Kachumagosi without trembling.
The seventh hut was Lwemigo, and the courtyard outside was Olugo, which was even more sacred than the others. To it the King came on all special occasions, such as the new moon ceremonies and the coronation procession , and usually for the daily herding of the cows. Only the greatest of the land came here, and should any man have lost father or mother and be mourning, he might not enter. Attached to the fence of the courtyard was a canopy, Omukairaiguru, under which the king stood on rugs, and whenever he came here for any purpose the three cows which he daily herded had to be present.
There were a great number of houses in the royal enclosure for the king’s wives, for most of them had their separate houses with huts for their attendants in the compounds, As the king had many wives, this meant a great number of houses.” (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), 80 - 81.). [ED 5/2/2008]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 5/2/2008]