IDNO

P.39234.ROS

Description

Full-length profile portrait of a Basabei? man wearing cloth? (instead of skin) in the traditional manner, as well as a metal necklace and metal bands around both wrists. He stands in front of a white screen and metal frame, in what appears to be an open landscape. [ED 2/11/2007]

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

?Basabei

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

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This print was found in an envelope marked C130/93/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C130/ by the cataloguer. Previously stored in Large Wooden Drawer VI in Photo Archive Room.

Photograph taken on Rev. John Roscoe’s Mackie Ethnological Expedition to Central Africa, June 1919 to November 1920. See Roscoe.J. 1921.

Glass negative for this print likely to have been originally housed in ‘Box 10 Elgon’ (C32/9/).

Context: “After a good deal of climbing we reached the next camp, where I meant to make my headquarters during my stay, and from there work up and down the mountain, visiting both the people and places of interest. This camp was a fairly level plateau in Sabei where the height registered by my aneroid was 8. 550 feet above sea level. In this part of the country I found greater difficulty in getting men who were willing and able to tell me about their customs. I questioned and talked to quite a number before I got hold of the right kind for my purpose. Fortunately, I soon found one man who was able to speak a language I knew and who was willing to be retained as an interpreter. Then, after two or three days’ general talk with the natives, I found three old men who by degrees became communicative and told me a good deal about their customs. By drawing comparisons between their stories and what I knew of other places I roused their interest, and they became quite anxious to prove how much more careful they were to adhere closely in all things to their tribal customs than were, for instance, the Bagesu.
The Basabei, as they call themselves, are an off-shoot of the Nandi and Turkana tribes, who do not follow milk customs entirely, though their ancestors were pastoral people.” (Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 268.). [ED 9/10/2007]

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.), pp. 55 - 56). [ED 10/10/2007]

Context: “On the north and north-eastern slopes of Mount Elgon there is to be found a semi-pastoral tribe, divided into two sections, the Basabei and the Bambei. Though not so fine either in feature or physique as the pastoral people of Ankole, they ressembled the Negro-hamitic tribes of the Lake Region in appearance, but differed entirely from them in their mode of life. ... Much of their general behavior, however, seemed to connect them with the pastoral groups of the north-east, the Masai, the Nandi, the Wahumba of the Usagara hills, and the Wakikuyu, rather than with those of the south-west. Both men and women of the Basabei had to undergo initiation ceremonies before they were recognised as full members of the clan; until these rights were performed they might not enter into the council of the adults, nor might they marry.” (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. 51). [ED 9/10/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 5/11/2007]