IDNO

N.19572.ROS

Description

Half-length profile view of a Bahera man wearing traditional dress, seated on a wooden box with a metal clasp, in front of a white screen.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Bunyoro; ?Kitara

Cultural Affliation

Bahera

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 C31/188/ 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: 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. 336 with the caption: "Agricultural class. Smith.” [ED 16/10/2007]

Context: "The people of Kitara belong to two distinct races, but by intermarriage an intermediate group was formed and the lines of demarcation between the three groups have become more and more vague and rapidly disappearing. This was a result of a policy, adopted, it is said, by a king who ruled not many generations ago, by which certain restrictions on intermarriage were removed, and some of the more progressive men of the agricultural class or serfs were raised to the rank of free-men and permitted to marry women of the pastoral clans.
The two classes of which the nation was originally composed were (a) the Bahuma, or pastoral cow-men, who invaded the country and conquered (c) the Bahera, agricultural people and artisans, who were regarded as serfs. The third group, which came into being later, was composed of (b) the Banyoro, or free-men, the wealthy and important members of class (c) who had been raised from serfdom and might marry women from (a), the pastoral people, (c), the serfs, or (b) their own class, so long as they did not marry women of their own totemic clans. The poorer members of the pastoral class, the herdsmen, allowed their daughters to marry these free-men, though they avoided intermarriage with members of class (c), the serfs. Thus members of pastoral clans (a) might marry women of their own class, observing the rules of clan exogamy, or women from class (b), the free-men. Men of class (c), the serfs, had to marry women from their own class, but again of different clans, unless they had been raised to class (b), the free-men, by the king, when they might marry from classes (a), (b), or (c), as they wished.
The pastoral people forming class (a) were not Negroes but of Negro-Hamitic stock, while class (c) was Negro, and the result of the introduction of Negro blood into (a) is evident, not only in its physical effect, but in the modifications introduced into their customs, which previously arose from and were solely concerned with the cows, while their food consisted of milk. The physical result has been to introduce a shorter and coarser type, possibly not less robust, but certainly less refined and, I imagine, less intelligent.” (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. 13). [ED 16/10/2007]

Context: "The Smiths (Mwesi). The smith bought his iron from the pig-iron workers and took it to his own home where he worked under a shed. He kept a supply of charcoal for his own use which he made from misiso, mikindu, mukanaga, and misasa trees. He had to observe the usual taboos when cutting the trees and making the charcoal. He made his own bellows and observed the taboo of continency while thus engaged lest they should fill with water and refuse to work. While making the pots for his bellows, he might not go on a long journey until they were perfectly dry and ready for use, for if he did so they would crack. When they were quite ready he had sexual intercourse with his wife, to make them sound and ensure their working well. Some iron-workers made the bowls and tube of their bellows of wood instead of clay, but these were exceptional cases. He built the hut (Isasa) which served him as a smithy, observing while doing so the usual building taboos mentioned in the previous chapter, and scraped a hole in the floor of it for his furnace.
The most important thing was his anvil and he went out to look for a suitable piece of rock. Having found one, he applied to the chief of the district for leave to remove it, paying for the permission two hundred and fifty or three hundred cowry-shells. Taking men with him he went to fetch the stone. If it had to be split from the surrounding rock he took a pot of butter and painted the line round the stone where he wanted it to split. Then, when the butter had soaked into the stone, he heaped fire-wood on and round about it and burned it until the piece he wanted cracked off along the buttered line. If he could not get butter, he used the whites of eggs.
The stone was then secured to one or two poles and carried until it was near the man’s house where it was set down, and the smith went on to inform his wife of its approach. The stone was called a bride and the man and his wife, each dressed in two bark-cloths, came out to meet it. The smith took a bark-cloth to cover it as a bride is veiled and his wife carried a basket containing millet, and a bunch of purificatory herbs. The stone was brought in with singing and dancing as in a marriage procession, and placed in the house, whereupon the husband told his wife that he had brought a second wife home to be with her and help in the house and with the family. He took the flat basket with the grain and threw some over the stone and sprinkled it with water from the bunch of herbs, that it might bear many children. The men who had carried the stone were then regaled with a plentiful meal of meat, vegetables and beer.
For two days the stone remained in seclusion in the house, and when these were ended it was brought out and placed in position in the smithy and the smith set to work and made a knife as his first piece of work on it. This knife might not be sold in the market, but had to be exchanged for millet; this he gave to his wife who ground it to flour and made porridge which the two ate together as a sacred meal, thus preparing the anvil for ordinary use.
To make this hammer, the smith bought two nuggets of iron from the pig-iron worker, and until it was made he might not wash himself or approach his wife. He might not make his hammer himself but called in two smiths to help him, and he had also to invite his parents to be present. The smiths arrived the night before the work was to begin and in the early morning, about three o’clock, they started work by lighting a fire and heating the iron. The pieces were heated, smeared with clay from an ant-hill, and heated again until white hot, when they were welded together. The larger end was four inches long, with two flat faces two inches wide and slightly curved sides measuring about one and a half inches. At one end of this a piece six inches long formed the handle of the hammer. When shaped it was handed to the smith’s father who dipped it in a pot of water to harden it, for the smith himself might not touch it until it was finished.
When the work was done a feast was made and the smiths who had made the hammer were given four hundred cowry-shells. That night the smith had sexual relations with his wife and the hammer was treated like a bride and secluded in the house for two days. Then the smith took it out and made a knife as his first piece of work with it. With the knife he bought butter, tobacco, or coffee-berries which he gave to his parents and the next day the summer might be used for ordinary work.
When making such things as knives, hoes, or spears, the smith used as tongs a stick, into which he drove the prong of the implement he was making, so that he could hold it firmly. When working larger pieces of metal he used the split branch of a tree, wedging the iron firmly in it. His work chiefly consisted of the manufacture of hoes, knives, spears, and needles though he was at times requested to make iron bracelets or necklaces, and on rarer occasions might be asked to work copper or brass wire into wrist, neck and leg ornaments.” (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), pp. 223 - 225.). [ED 16/10/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 16/10/2007]