IDNO

N.19603.ROS

Description

Full-length frontal view of an old Basoga woman, wearing white cloth tied around the body. In the background, there is a section of a native-style hut with a thatched roof.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Busoga

Cultural Affliation

Basoga

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 C31/214/ 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., 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. 188, Plate XIX, with the caption: "Musoga, showing dent in forehead from a stone thrown in battle.” [ED 7/1/2008]

Warfare: "Warfare on even a moderate scale was scarcely known, but some fighting took place, generally as a result of some man’s encroaching on land of another clan. If he refused to retire, the drums were beaten for war, but the chiefs would attempt to settle the affair without recourse to arms and a boundary might be arranged. If arbitration failed, the fighting might last from one day to two months. Warriors carried two or three spears and a shield and slings for stones were also used. When one clan felt that it would it was getting the worse of the fight, three or four men would be sent to meet representatives of the stronger side and make settlement. A boundary would then be fixed, and the warriors returned to their homes.
The dead were never mutilated, and a man who had killed an enemy was not separated from his fellows or regarded as in need of purification, but the members of his clan and his friends came to see him, bringing presents of sheep and fowls, and tied cowry-shells on his wrists.
A wounded warrior was nursed by some male relative. Some members of the tribe had attained to great surgical skill and treated wounds and broken bones with success. Wounds in the head from stones were common and the medicine-men were expert at removing the splinters of bone, after which the wound was dressed with pounded herbs.” (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.). [ED 7/1/2008]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 7/1/2008]