Uganda by Pen and Camera/Chapter 3

by Charles W. Hattersley

Chapter III

The Old Religion and Morals

It is a common thing with most travellers in African countries to tell us that most black races have no idea of a God or a Supreme Being. This is quite a mistake; indeed, most races will be found to have a belief in a Supreme God. Certainly the Baganda have, and the word they use—‘Katonda’—for the Creator of the world is the same word which is now used for God; for they believe that Katonda sent down from heaven the inhabitants of the world.

Their story runs thus: In the beginning Katonda told his son, Kintu, and his wife, Namba, to come down into the world and to bear children, who should be the inhabitants therein. He told them, ‘When you go down to the world to-morrow, get up early in the morning, and slip away before your brother Lumbe (that is, Death) knows you are going, for if he knows he will go with you, and will kill your children.’

They set off in the morning, but, having travelled part of the distance, the wife said to her husband, ‘I have brought this fowl with me, but I have left the Indian corn for its food hanging up in the porch of the house. I am going back to fetch it.’ Kintu, the husband, remonstrated with her, but in vain. She went back, and just as she came out of the house, after taking down the bundle of corn hanging in the porch, she encountered Death (Lumbe), who asked her where she was going. On hearing that her destination was the world, Lumbe said, ‘Well, I will accompany you.’ He came into the world with the first couple, and as children were born to them, Lumbe put an end to most of them. Hence the world is so sparsely populated.

We must notice here a very remarkable similarity between this story and our own account of the Creation. Death is represented as coming into the world through the disobedience of the woman.

The body, they say, can die; but the spirit cannot die. They have no idea, however, that the spirit returns to the God who gave it. What they believe is, that the spirit remains somewhere near the body, and must be attended to, just as when alive. Much in the same way as the Chinese believe in ancestral worship, so the Baganda take the greatest care of the graves of their ancestors, and pay attention to the wants of the spirits.

This is especially so with kings. As their first king came down from heaven, they say they must be divine, and so their spirits must be worshipped, or if not actually worshipped, special attention must be paid to them. As a result of this, when a king dies, his body is always buried in the floor of the house in which he has been living. The old serfs and servants who waited on him during his lifetime remain in the house. Fresh grass is spread on the floor, and they keep the place clean, as they used to for the living king, and the serfs and servants bring presents of food, or money, or beer, or firewood to the spirit—firewood because a fire must always be kept burning, night and day, in honour of the spirit. The head wife of Mtesa and the queen-sister are both still living on the same hill on which Mtesa is buried; but, both being Christians, they do not take the same interest in keeping up the old rites as they used to. So much is this the case, that the fence around the enclosure is always more or less in a state of disrepair. The interiors of the tombs are usually decorated, with spears and shields made of beaten brass, copper, or iron, and decorated with coloured

The home of King Kamanya, grandfather of Mtesa.

cloths. A number of cloths and tusks of ivory have usually been buried with the body of a king.

Although near the capital these superstitions are to some extent dying out, it is not so in the country—for Uganda is by no means Christianised throughout. An instance of this is seen in our picture, which represents the tomb of King Kamanya, the grandfather of Mtesa. This is some eight miles from Mengo, and it will be seen that the house is quite a modern one. It has only lately been erected, since the old structure was destroyed by fire. It is a house such as a chief of high rank lives in, and has panelled shutters and doors. The interior of the tomb has been decorated with coloured printed cloths and white calico, and the entrance is guarded by a door with bells attached. The three old women sitting beside the door live inside the tomb, and keep the fire burning there, as has always been done, and the pile of logs in the courtyard had been brought by the old servants of the king as an offering to the spirit.

It must not be supposed that this is altogether the work of the heathen. The house was built with the sanction of the Prime Minister, who is a most earnest Christian, and the decorations of the interior were carried out under the supervision of Mbogo, the chief Mohammedan prince, only in the year 1902. It is an instance of how very hard superstition dies, and how very much popular feeling is against any change in the old habits of the people—though probably their superstition does not mean very much more to some people than the nailing of a horseshoe on the door of a barn.

One offering of especial value in the eyes of the spirit used to be human blood, and Mtesa offered 3,000 human beings in one day as a sacrifice to the spirit of Suna, his father. It is impossible to walk anywhere for half a mile around the tree where this sacrifice was offered without passing over human bones, and it is only four miles from Mengo. It is one of a great number of similar trees in the country.

There was a universal belief in the Lubare, or spirit ; but this Lubare was not one spirit, but many. The chief spirit was that of the lake, whose headquarters were probably the island of Bukasa; but there was also the Lubare of thunder, of rain, of war, of sickness, and, in fact, of almost everything. They appear to believe that all these Lubare owe their allegiance to the Divine Creator. Of course there was no idea of love in their minds; in fact, no word meaning love exists in their language. The word which we use for love in our missionary teaching originally meant ‘to be fond of,’ in the sense of animal love, and the same word is used for ‘to desire.’

The whole idea of the people connected with the Lubare was, as is common with most African races, that the Lubare acted in the capacity of a private detective, always trying to find out their crimes and punish them for them. To propitiate the Lubare, offerings were made at various shrines, where lived the intermediaries between the spirit and the natural worlds. These intermediaries are called ‘mandwas’; but that the people prayed to the spirit, or probably to the Creator, is a fact. A common expression after any good fortune has befallen a man, and he has been shaken by the hand by his friends and received their congratulations, is to say, ‘Webale kusaba,’ which is, ‘Thank you for praying (for me).’ The origin of the expression had nothing whatever to do with Christianity; it is merely a relic of their own Lubare worship, and was used to thank people for praying to the Lubare. They prayed, and went to the ‘mandwa’ for advice in all their undertakings, such as going to war, starting on a journey, and even if they had no children. When a chief built a house, that house was always dedicated by the child of the ‘sabadu’ being sacrificed when the house was first entered after completion. The ‘sabadu’ was the head of the household servants.

All the implements shown in the illustration were used in connexion with spirit worship. The long brushes like mops were the property of an old witch called Tajuba, who died very recently. These are made of wood and cow-hide, and ornamented with beads and cowrie shells, the tops being feathers. They are really magic wands. The head-dress to the left is of basket-work and beads, and was donned by a medicine man when visiting a sick patient. Sickness was always attributed to some misdemeanour on the part of the sufferer, the sickness being the punishment inflicted by the Lubare. The drum and shield were beaten or shaken to drive away the spirit. The horns and charms in the front of the picture had great magical value, and the shells and beads to the right of the picture were used by astrologers and fortune-tellers. The pack of cards, called ‘ngato,’ nine in number, were used very much in each ‘kigwa’ (house of the ‘mandwa’). Each card is made of leather, and is engraved with different patterns, and these were shuffled and thrown down on the ground, much as dice are thrown, and the ‘mandwa‘ was supposed to be able to tell by the way they fell what would be the future of the inquirer. Of course, for all these affairs the ‘mandwa’ demanded extortionate fees. The clay jar with the two branches, in the middle of the picture, was used in all human sacrifices, a liquid being put in, which all victims were made to drink of prior to being offered up.

A native came to me very recently and begged for a present of cowrie shells, because a ‘mandwa’ had threatened to bewitch him

Labare instruments: magic wands, shield, drums, horns, and cards.

if he did not produce a sum of money by a certain time, and he was intensely afraid of him. Natives often paid, and still pay, enormous sums of money, as much as 20,000 or 30,000 cowrie shells, for a charm to hang on their necks to protect them against spirits and disease. In some parts of the country the idea is prevalent that European missionaries have the power of bewitching people, and I was told by a chief, only in 1902, that whenever a missionary or a teacher came into the village, the cry went round, ‘Lay in a stock of water. The European is coming to put medicine into the well to change our hearts and to make us read his religion.’ For a long time people thought that the missionary drank their children's blood and ate the heart out of their dead chiefs. In one instance a missionary consented to have a building erected over the tomb of a big chief, close to the church, to prove to the people that he had not eaten the heart of the chief, and so incensed the spirit, which they thought for a long time was the case.

Several Europeans are buried in the churchyard at Namirembe, and, as many of these were Government officials, one member of the Government sent up a sum of money to keep these graves in repair. A teacher was appointed to the task of superintending the work, for which he was paid. Many natives who had recently joined the Church saw the teacher walking about over the graves and digging up the weeds. He wanted assistance, but could get no one to help him, as the bystanders said he would be sure to incur the wrath of the spirit by walking about on dead men’s graves, and that he would be sure to be very ill before long. It was a curious coincidence that about a week after the teacher was taken ill with fever. It was not by any means for the first time, as fever is extremely common amongst natives; but a great many people asserted that his sickness was due to the fact that he had interfered with the Europeans' graves, and he found afterwards that it was quite impossible to get any labourer to help him to look after the burial-place. In the country districts, and especially in Bunyoro and Busoga, a little hut is the commonest form of spirit worship, and this is why most travellers say this is the only form of belief. This hut, or shrine, is made of grass and twigs, and in it is hung a snail shell, or a broken piece of pot is placed on the ground. Into these receptacles is put every day an offering of food or money, and unless this is constantly kept up, it is believed that the wrath of the spirit is sure to be incurred, and drought or failure of the crops is sure to be the result.

As specimens of the faces heathenism produces, these wives of Suna will suffice. Suna was the father of King Mtesa, and one can scarcely imagine more repulsive features than the features of these two women—features produced by the lives they have lived. The one at the right hand of the picture has for some time been trying to read and to become a Christian, but it is no light matter for such people to change their old habits. Surely it was to such people as these our Saviour was referring when He said, ‘Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, . . . and they shall become one flock, one shepherd.’ He was speaking of such as these when He said, ‘Feed My lambs, feed My sheep,’ and to us is committed the work of bringing these lost sheep into His fold and giving them the Bread of Life.

There is a popular misconception with regard to the state of things in Uganda when Stanley first visited the country. He

Two queens of King Suna and their attendants.

found King Mtesa a heathen, certainly; but he found also that some coast natives, Swahilis or Arabs, had been in the country for some time, and that Mtesa, seeing them praying as Mohammedans, had been inquiring about the God to whom they prayed, and about His laws, and had been introduced to the Koran. He had been impressed with the fact that this religion was a step in advance of his own, and he had almost decided to accept it. So much so, that he had ordered all his important chiefs to be taught by these men, and had even gone so far as to order them to erect little mosques in each of their courtyards, and had told them that they and their people must become Mohammedans. Some of them profess to remain so now. Mtesa was in the position of a man who was very thirsty. He longed for something better than he had, and was like thirsty souls in the desert, who arrive at water, and are not very particular whether the water is quite pure or not. If there is no better within reach, they will drink the muddy water, and be thankful for that. Hence Mtesa, until he heard of Christianity, partly embraced Mohammedanism; but Mohammedanism in Uganda is not what people imagine who read of it as practised by Arabs and Persians. We know many Mohammedans who never pray at all: we know many who are drunkards. They are only Mohammedans in name, and, were our staff of missionaries sufficiently great, it would not be long before there would be no more even so-called Mohammedans in Uganda, for they are not bigoted, as people suppose. They chiefly hold to that faith because it allows polygamy and a great deal of licence in other respects which Christianity forbids.

As is common with most African races, women are looked upon as slaves. They are made to provide food for the family, to

Woman carrying a huge load of firewood.

cultivate the garden, often to help clean the roads, to fetch all the firewood, to carry the water from the well, and, in fact, do all the drudgery of the house. The woman in our illustration, carrying firewood, had a load weighing over one hundredweight, which she had collected in the forests and carried some four miles to her home.

The increase in the population in Uganda is very small, not because the birth-rate is small, but because the death-rate is almost equal to it. It is difficult to say what is the proportion of infants’ deaths; probably some thing more than eighty per cent. of the children die before they reach the age of ten years. This is partly due to the climatic conditions, partly to malaria, partly the results of the evil lives of their ancestors, but a great deal is due to neglect on the part of the mothers, who seem not to know how to rear their children. The very first thing that happens to a child within an hour of its birth is to take it outside the house, put it on a plantain leaf, and wash it in cold water; it is then smeared over with butter. Most of the women grow and smoke their own tobacco, which is probably indigenous to the country. It grows very readily indeed, and is of good flavour.

A man desiring marriage has no thought of love in the matter. He simply makes a bargain with the chief or father of the object of his choice, and has to promise exactly what he will pay as a wedding portion, generally £2 to £3, the amount being much greater for chiefs, who can afford to pay.^[1] He has also to state what presents of clothing he will give his wife and her parents, and to specify the exact amount of food and beer he will provide for the marriage feast, before he can obtain his wife. After marriage, if he should offend his wife, it is a common thing for her to leave him, go back to her father or her old chief; and the husband has to appear to answer to the charges laid against him by her, and pay a fine in accordance with the enormity of the offence. As the fine goes to the father of the wife, of course she is not allowed to return until the fine is paid.

1. A recent effort has been made to limit the sum to Rs.10 (=13s. 4d.) for non-chiefs.