IDNO

N.19752.ROS

Description

Full-length frontal view of a Batwa man wearing traditional dress, a metal necklace? and a metal bracelet. He stands in front of a white screen and metal frame positioned in an open landscape.

Physical Condition: Glass plate negative in good condition. [ED 15/1/2008]

Place

E Africa; Uganda; eastern Uganda; Eastern District; near Mount Elgon; Sabei

Cultural Affliation

Batwa

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

Glass Negative Halfplate

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in glass negative box marked C32/6/ by the cataloguer. The glass negative box was kept in box marked C32/ by the cataloguer.
Previously stored on Shelf 4, in group of 4 wooden boxes numbered 180.

Context: "THE BATWA: A report that there were a number of people called Batwa living on the higher peaks of Elgon aroused much interest, as the name is that given to the pygmies who live in the Congo districts to the west of Lakes Albert and Edward. One or two diminutive Bagesu were even pointed out as being of the type of these Batwa of Elgon. It was difficult to find any members of the clan on the lower mountain slopes, but after some trouble a few were found in forests and on the higher peaks, and were persuaded to come and be interviewed.
The meeting, however, was disappointing, for they were found to be tall men who claimed to be members of the Sabei tribe, who had separated from them and given up all agriculture to follow hunting and trapping, especially of rats and a species of mole. There were few in number and lived scattered over the higher parts of the mountain. They kept a few cows, sheep and goats, which they herded on the mountain, but they lived mainly on wild animals, which they trapped, and upon young and tender shoots of bamboo, wild honey, and milk. They seldom hunted any game larger than hares, but they trapped rats and moles, which they roasted in their skins, merely removing the entrails. These animals were regarded as a great delicacy. What meat they could spare from their catch they dried and bartered with the other clans for grain, pots, and sheep- and goat-skins for their girdles and shoulder robes.
They visited recognised spots which were known to the agricultural people as market-places for the sale of their products.
They ate the young shoots of the bamboo as vegetables, using the only the tender tips; but they dried some ten inches more, which they brought down to the lower parts of the mountain and exchanged for grain. The people who purchased these dry bamboo shoots cut them up and used them, boiled, as a relish with other food.
They brewed a kind of beer from honey, which they extracted from the comb and strained through grass to remove wax. This extracted honey was put in pots and hung on trees for about ten days to ferment, after which it was again filtered through grass to remove any remaining comb; and formed a drink more intoxicating than the millet-beer used by other tribes.
All the customs of initiation and the clan ceremonies of the Basabei were observed as before their severance from the main body. They may therefore be regarded as an offshoot of the tribe. (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. 85 - 86). [ED 2/11/2007]

Clothing: "In spite of the fact that many of these people lived at great heights on the mountains, where the cold was often extreme, they wore practically nothing in the way of clothing; and though they took shelter in the warmth of their huts when the sun went down, they never allowed cold to interfere with their ordinary out-of-door tasks. Boys when small might go naked, or they might wear a skin slung from one shoulder and long enough to reach the hips, which was also the only dress of a full-grown man. The skin was that of a goat or a calf; two corners were fastened together and the robe put over the head and under the left arm so that the fastened corners were on the right shoulder and the robe was open down the right side.” (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. 56). [ED 2/11/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 2/11/2007]