Uganda by Pen and Camera/Chapter 2
Chapter II
The King and His Poeple
Before going further we will introduce you to the King of the country, Daudi Cwa (pronounced Chwa; Daudi means David).
He is a son of Mwanga, and the grandson of Mtesa. I must not pass over Mwanga, the King's father. It will be remembered that he ran away from his capital in 1897, and, after spending a little time with the Germans south of Uganda, escaped from them. He finally joined King Kaberega, his old Munyoro enemy, and they together joined hands with the remnant of the Soudanese mutineers. In the end they were captured by the troops of the Government, and Mwanga, with Kaberega, was till 1903 a prisoner in the Seychelles Islands, where he received an allowance of some one hundred rupees per month from the British Government. He wrote letters at various times entreating his chiefs to pity him and get him restored to his throne, but could find no sympathy. The country on the whole was only too glad to be rid of him, though we know perfectly well there are many who would have been very glad to see him restored, and, with him, the old state of things. Their hopes have, however, been destroyed, as Mwanga died in the Seychelles in May, 1903. He was born in 1866, and was only eighteen when Mtesa died. Mtesa appointed him as his successor. The eldest son was not necessarily heir to the throne. Each king was, as a rule, appointed by his predecessor. Mwanga and Kiwewa were the only two sons of Mtesa allowed out of prison. All the others were kept in captivity, so that when the new king came to the throne, he could easily put his brothers to death. Mtesa always said that Mwanga was a most gentle and obedient son. Apparently in those days he was not the vicious character he turned out to be later on, for he did not kill his brothers when he ascended the throne. Kalema, another brother, did, however, murder his kinsmen. He had them all conveyed to an island, or, rather, a raised piece of land in Budo, some eight miles from Mengo, around which he dug an enormous trench. Across the trench was thrown a pole, which served as a bridge to convey a very small amount of food. When the poor wretches were half starved he threw fire across, burning the grass huts in which they were living, and as the inmates crawled out he shot at them and killed them, some half-dozen in all. Mwanga's later disposition was undoubtedly the result of the practice of polygamy and other sins.
Daudi Cwa was born on August 8, 1896, and commenced to reign on August 14, 1897. King Daudi is a very nice little boy, and is growing up, we trust, a good Christian. He feels his position, and the natives respect him very highly indeed, and consider it a great honour to work for the king. On anniversaries of his birthday, and coronation day, a guard of honour of Indian troops is usually sent up to his enclosure, and the king is taken round by the European official in charge of the district to inspect the troops. He usually makes on such occasions a feast for European residents, for whom he prepares tables, knives and forks, and as many civilised dishes as he can muster.
The government is at present in the hands of three regents appointed by the British Administration, Apolo, the Katikiro (Prime Minister who visited England), being the head; Zakaria Kizito, or Kisingiri, being the second, and the third, Stanilas Mugwania, a Romanist. These men have charge of the king until he attains his majority at the age of eighteen years. There is a native council of representatives who constitute a sort of parliament, in which all native laws are drawn up and then submitted for the approval of the commissioner, and this council discusses affairs once a week with an officer of the Administration. The king presides over the council at times, and always on state occasions sits on his chair attired in his regal robes. Chiefs of high rank may sit on a chair or a bench in the council, but the majority sit on the ground, which is always covered with a plentiful supply of fresh grass.
In Mwanga's days, certainly up to 1888, no one but Europeans dare sit on a chair in his presence, and no native dare let it be known that he had a chair in his possession. One or two daring spirits tried this, but their heads were cut off. When the king visited any chief he was invariably shown into an empty room, which each chief always kept for his visitors, so that they might not cast covetous eyes on his belongings. One chief possessed a stool, and one of his serfs happened to sit on it. He was promptly beheaded by his chief, who said that any one sufficiently assuming to sit on his stool would not be long before he was usurping his position altogether, and was much better out of the way.
Some idea of the state of society in the king’s palace may be gathered from the fact that the king’s mother (the Namasole) had to be removed entirely from the palace, and made to live in a separate house some two miles away. Her character was of such a nature, and she drank so immoderately, that her influence was too bad for her young son. He was in charge of an old nurse, but lately all women servants have been expelled from the enclosure, only men and boys being allowed to serve the king. His education is being attended to spiritually by Ham Mukasa, who recently accompanied the Katikiro to England, and his education in general by two of the teachers trained in the Boys’ School, Mengo. He is learning English, reading, writing, and arithmetic.
That the king appreciates the European missionaries, and their friendly feeling towards him, has been evinced by a curious native custom which he has followed several times. On one of these occasions he sent his teacher with a garment to me with the following message: ‘The king has sent me to salute you. He is sorry he cannot come to see you himself, but, as he cannot, he has sent you his shirt to wear for a few days, and you are to think of his love for you when wearing it’; and when going home on furlough he gave me a pair of sandals, which he took from his feet for that purpose. These are the greatest marks of affection that can be shown in Uganda. King Daudi is a very lovable, quiet little fellow, and there is every hope that he will grow up a Christian man.
It is scarcely necessary to add that it is earnestly hoped that Christians in England will continually remember him in their prayers, the influence of the king being so very great in such a country. I would ask the same for his cousin, who goes by the title of the Queen-sister, who is shown here being carried on a man’s shoulders, the usual mode of locomotion on great occasions, not only for her, but for the king as well. She was brought up in the C.M.S. mission school as a Christian, but a recent disagreement with the head chief on the question of her fiance has resulted in her going over to the French R.C. Mission. Her name is Yunia. She does not live in the king’s palace, though she is a constant visitor there.
The Baganda are a very clever people, intelligent, though with rather crude ideas .jpg)
Yunia, Daudi’s cousin, the queen-sister.
(Always carried shoulder-high on State Occasions.)
on some points. On one occasion some boys requested that a big tree close to the house might be hewn down, because it made the wind blow. They thought the rustling of the leaves made the wind blow, instead of vice versa. Another boy, seeing a number of heads in an illustrated paper, asked why they had all been beheaded. In his own village, not long before, his chief had cut off the heads of four or five men, and stuck their heads on poles. The children used to be taught that no other people existed excepting the Baganda, the Basoga, the Bakede, the Banyoro, the Batoro, and other immediately surrounding nations. They thought the horizon was supported by props, just as they support their reed fences, and that it was the outside edge of the world.
The language is a very interesting one to study. It is one of the Bantu group, and, though very complete and very elastic in the formation of words, it is difficult to introduce new ideas into it.
For a long time our missionaries have used a word, ‘enenya,’ meaning ‘to repent,’ but one day, recently, in the class, an intelligent evangelist said to the teacher: ‘The word you have just been explaining to us does not at all mean what you think it does. Let me explain to you the real meaning of it. Supposing a man is going along the road armed with a spear, and he meets two men unarmed carrying bundles of food. He spears one, and robs him of his load. A few minutes afterwards he thinks to himself, “How foolish I was to let the other man escape! I might have had his load as well.” He immediately follows him, catches him up, spears him, and takes his load too. Now, the regret that he felt at not having killed the second man is explained by the word “enenya,” which can hardly be said to mean “to repent.”’ It will thus be seen that it is very easy indeed to make mistakes when learning a new language.
Very stupid mistakes have often been made by new residents. One lady showed her servant some withered flowers, and said to him, ‘Bring me some flowers like these from the garden.’ In a few minutes the boy returned with all the withered flowers he could find, and said, ‘These are all I can find. All the others are in bloom.’ What the lady should have said was, ‘Bring me some flowers of this nature.’
Let us now turn to our mission station in the capital, which is built on a hill called Namirembe. Namirembe is one of many names applied to parts of the capital. Mengo is the name of the king's hill, and from this the capital takes its name. Namirembe is in the capital, and is merely the name of the hill on which our mission station is built. Kampala is the next hill, and is the name of the hill on which the government station is erected. Nakasero is the hill beyond, on which are the military-quarters; but the whole are in the capital.
Namirembe is 4,442 feet above sea level, and on it is the cathedral of the C.M.S. mission. Here reside Bishop Tucker, the director of the C.M.S. in Uganda, Archdeacon Walker, secretary of the mission, and several missionaries, including wives, who train evangelists and teachers, conduct the boys’ and girls’ school and various Bible classes.
When it is remembered that the average daily attendance at the classes is between 800 and 900 in Mengo, not to speak of the 300 daily patients at the dispensary, it will be seen that a large staff is required. Two leading native teachers are also stationed here, who conduct classes for the work of training and examining candidates for baptism and confirmation. The attendance on Saturdays is smaller, as that is the day on which intending worshippers at church on Sundays must wash their clothes, not many people possessing more than one suit.
On Saturday mornings are held the meetings of the Church Council, which conducts the business of the Church of Uganda.
On Monday, classes are not held. It is the day on which all chiefs must visit the king, and attend the native parliament meeting. It is also the general time for visiting. Some missionaries are able to itinerate and conduct services on that day. Others are busy seeing teachers in from the country.
Or, if time allows, they make articles of household furniture, school apparatus, and meet other requirements, for in Uganda the amount of labour available for such purposes is extremely limited. A missionary, as a rule, has to be his own boot-mender, carpenter, hair-dresser, and fulfil a great many duties of which he never dreamed when he left England. Monday also affords time for translational and other language work which must be done.
The conditions of life are now becoming much improved, and better houses are being erected. The easiest plan, and the one most usually followed, is to make a framework of palm poles, which often have to be carried eight to ten miles on men's heads from the forests. Across these twigs and sticks are tied on with the bark of a tree, the space being filled in with mud. When plastered this makes a very respectable wall, which is whitewashed or yellow-washed with a kind of chalky clay.
The roofs are thatched with grass, a work at which the people are very skilful, but at which they have some peculiar customs. A thatcher will often be seen smoking a pipe while putting on the grass, and if a foreman or European comes upon him
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House-building by missionaries and natives
1. Building.2. Carpentering.3. Thatching.
Many missionaries have to do the greater part of the carpentering for their homes, and our illustration shows one of them so employed. It is possible, sometimes, but not always, to get native help. It must not be supposed that house building must needs be a work carried on without any chance of preaching the Gospel, provided that the missionary has learnt something of the language. As a matter of fact, no work is more trying to the temper, or gives more splendid opportunities of proving, by a Christian demeanour under all circumstances, what a life influenced by the Gospel is. Indeed, many workmen, finding the missionary a kind master, so very different to their own native overseers, are willing to listen to the introduction of the Gospel.
I know one case of a man who had been in touch with our missionaries ever since there was a mission in Uganda. He had always resisted every effort to get him to read. But when helping to build a house he was again invited to learn. He at last yielded, received his first lessons during mealtimes, and is now reading for baptism, much to the astonishment of his fellow natives, who cannot understand his willingness to begin after refusing for so many years. Let no one think that manual labour is without its opportunities of preaching the Gospel We cannot remember too much or too often that it is our lives, far more than our teaching in a class, that the natives look at and try to understand. We do, indeed, need to be ‘epistles known and read of all men.’ Angry words about some mistake by an incapable workman often do serious harm, and deter people from coming under the influence of the Gospel.
The first thing the natives ask about a missionary is, ‘Is he a kind man?’ or, as they put it, ‘Alina ekisa?’ (‘Has he kindness?’) If they are told that ‘he has kindness,’ then they desire to come and see him, and are willing to listen to his teaching. But if he is announced to be a man of ‘busungu’ (anger), people are immediately afraid of him, and take care to stay away.
More substantial houses of sunburnt bricks are now being built, and before long we may hope to see corrugated iron roofs, which, though safer from fire, will not be nearly so cool, grass roofs being very good nonconductors of heat. It is almost impossible to say what the heat is in the sun, but in the shade of the verandah it rarely registers more than 80° to 85°, and inside the house it is usually in the daytime 70° to 72°, and at night in the house about an average of 68°. It is rarely necessary to have a fire, and few houses can boast of a fireplace. Of course, no glass is used for windows. It is difficult to wash the floors, as they are only beaten earth, and the usual plan is to smear them over with cow dung once in every two or three weeks. This is a necessity, not only to protect the floors and to harden the surface, but also to keep down the number of fleas and jiggers, which are very plentiful in the country. The smearing with cow dung appears to fasten them to the floor.
The native word for jiggers is ‘mvunza,’ probably taken from the Kiswahili word ‘mvunda’ (a maggot), or it may have been derived from the Luganda ‘kuvunda,’ to rot, the causative of which makes ‘kuvunza,’ to make to rot. These jiggers are very tiny white fleas, so small as to be almost invisible to the naked eye, though the natives can see them on their black skins. They burrow under the toe nail, or in the hard part of the heel, and live there, until ejected with the point of a needle; and as the ejection is an operation of considerable pain, the sufferer often prefers to leave in the jiggers for a time, in spite of the irritation caused. The jigger lays a number of eggs in its home in the foot, which, when ready for hatching, fall out on to the ground, and are hatched in the dust; but the mother stays in the foot, and causes serious ulcers, unless ejected.
Jiggers were first brought from the West Indies to West Africa, crossed Uganda en route to the east coast, but were not known in Uganda until 1892. They caused quite a panic when they first arrived. Fifty people at one chief s place died from the effects of their invasions, and twenty at another chief’s place. The latter was Mika Sematimba, who visited England some years ago with Archdeacon Walker, and whose figures can be taken as reliable. Many people have lost toes through not attending to the jiggers early enough. The blood of the natives is such that the flesh readily festers, and serious ulcers ensue. It is almost impossible for Europeans to quite escape the attacks of these pests, as they get on to the bedding when hung out in the sun, and burrow into the feet of the victim while he is sleeping.
The house-work of Europeans is usually performed by boys, who make very good servants. They wash clothes and cook very well, though at times they make curious mistakes through ignorance. One cook, whose master was teaching in school, greatly surprised him when he sat down to lunch. He found that the cook, as he had not quite sufficient greengages to fill up the pie dish, had supplied the deficiency with onions, and on being questioned, merely remarked, ‘Well, sir, don't we use onions for almost everything nowadays?’ It is only lately that onions have been procurable in any quantity.
One needs to be extremely careful in watching the culinary operations. Happily it is possible, nowadays, to get a fair variety of food, for most Europeans cannot wisely attempt to live in native fashion, as the health suffers, and the constitution is quickly undermined. Fresh meat, chiefly goats’ flesh, is obtainable in markets in most of the large centres daily. Beef sometimes; but it is not always advisable to buy beef. The natives rarely sell their cattle for killing, unless they fear they are going to die of some disease, or unless a tough old bull is quite useless for anything else but to be killed and sold. It is possible to obtain potatoes, and to grow or buy some English vegetables, such as cabbages, cauliflowers, carrots, and turnips, and food of all kinds can be readily imported now.