IDNO

LS.140332.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: Uganda. 50 Uganda 85. 49.55.
Jawbones decorated, and umbilical cord of a King.

A man displaying two balongo (sacred relics relating to kings), placed on a leopard skin pelt, to a photographer.
The omulongo (sacred relic relating to a King) on the left contains the umbilical cord of a deceased king. Cylindrical in shape, and made of tightly rolled barkcloth, it is covered with red, blue, pink and white glass beads in zigzag shapes, with a seven pointed star on the top and the base. It's long loop handle, is also covered with glass beads in a zigzag pattern.
The shadow of the photographer, an unidentified man wearing a trilby hat, is in the foreground. [JD 08/02/2024]

Place

E Africa; Uganda

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

?Roscoe, John R.

Collector / Expedition

?Roscoe, John R.; ?Church Mission Society

Date

pre 1911

Collection Name

Teaching Slide Collection

Source

Roscoe, John R.

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Similar image published in Roscoe, John, 1911. 'The Baganda; an account of their native customs and beliefs (London Macmillan), and captioned: "Fig. 21. Sacred objects from a King's Temple.
To the right, a conical object containing the jawbone; to the left, an object with a loop containing the umbilical cord."
Text on pp. xi - xii notes, "I am indebted to Baron A. von Hügel for kindly permitting me to photograph objects of interest which are now in the Museum of Ethnology, Cambridge...
"For the photographs I am chiefly indebted to S. C. Tomkins, Esq., C.M.G., Chief Secretary to the Uganda Protectorate, and to the Revs. R. H. Leakey and E. Millar and C. Hattersley, Esq., of the Church Missionary Society." [JD 01/07/2024]