IDNO

P.39239.ROS

Description

Three-quarter length profile view of a man from the Mount Elgon region, wearing a kanzu (white tunic), standing in front of a white screen, attached to an elephant grass? fence. [ED 5/11/2007]

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

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 C130/94/ 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: “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]