THE BAGANDA TRIBE OF UGANDA
[Illustration: A BAGANDA HOUSE.]
Half a century ago the Baganda might have been regarded as one of the
most numerous tribes in Africa, but of late years losses through civil
war, famine, and sleeping sickness have reduced the numbers to about a
million. The Baganda are the most advanced in civilisation among all
Bantu peoples, and for many years their dress, habits, and extreme
politeness have been noted by travellers, who may now approach within
200 miles of Baganda territory by making a comfortable train journey
of 600 miles from Mombasa to Lake Victoria Nyanza.
The greater part of the surface of Uganda is hilly, fertile, and well
watered, and the slopes of the hills are cultivated by natives who grow
plantain trees, maize, sugar-cane, tobacco, and coffee. Here and there
dense forests are to be found, and in such regions the Baganda hunt the
elephant, buffalo, and hippopotamus.
When speaking of this tribe, the Rev. J. Roscoe says: “The Baganda are
the only Bantu tribe in Eastern Equatorial Africa who do not mutilate
their persons; they neither extract their teeth nor pierce their ear
lobes”; nor do they practise any of the deformations which have been
related in chapters concerning the Masai and Akikuyu.
There are to be found clans with Roman features, and others varying
from this type to the broad nose and thick lips of a Negro; so too, in
build there are tall athletic figures over six feet in height, while,
on the other hand, there are thick-set short-built men only about five
feet in height.
The colouring, too, varies from jet black to copper colour; and
stranger still, there are some pure negroes whose skin colour is
almost white. These people were at one time kept as curiosities in an
enclosure near to the hut of a native king or great chief. The hair of
the Baganda is invariably short, black, crisp and woolly; hair on the
face is either shaved or pulled out, and any sign of beard or moustache
is regarded as very ugly.
Naturally, in a country where big game abounds, hunting is not only a
pastime of chiefs and nobles, but a very important means of obtaining
a food supply. As a rule, elephant hunters were men who had been
trained from very early childhood, so that they became close observers
of these animals, followed every movement of the herd, and became
adepts in launching spears from a secure position in the tops of lofty
trees. The spear had a broad leaf-shaped blade six inches long, mounted
on a thick wooden shaft, and a strong arm was necessary in order to
deliver a powerful, accurate throw. The night before the hunt these
spears were sharpened, then placed by the altar of Dungu, the god of
hunting, to whom an offering of beer and a goat was made. At times the
Baganda huntsman was more open in his methods of attack, and several
natives, armed only with spears, would creep right up to the herd, and
after launching their weapons would depend on rapid flight for safety.
Elephant traps were very common, and an unwary animal caught his feet
in a cord which released a heavy spear from the branches above. All the
hunters took up the chase of this wounded creature, which was followed
until it fell exhausted. Foot traps, causing an animal to tumble on a
sharp spear, placed point uppermost in a pit, were commonly used, and
what seems most strange, the nerves from the tusks of a dead animal
were always carefully buried. The Baganda are very superstitious, and
it was thought that the ghost of an animal killed in the chase would
attach itself to the buried nerves, instead of haunting the men who
launched the spears or laid the traps.
Before hunting the lion or leopard, a chief would beat the war drum in
order to collect his people, who often went forth a thousand strong. A
few men followed the animal to its lair, then returned to their chief
to report the exact position. This having been done, a noisy party,
shouting and beating drums, surrounded the animal’s hiding-place. A
trapped animal will, of course, fight very fiercely, after rushing
first in one direction then in another trying to find a means of
escape, and, as a rule, some one was severely wounded before the
creature was killed with clubs and spears.
The hippopotamus was hunted, not for food, but because it proved such
a danger to canoe men, and at night did great damage by wandering over
cultivated plots of ground. A spear trap might be set in the path from
a river to pastures, or harpoons were launched by men in canoes, which
the animal frequently attacked and overturned.
[Illustration: LIZARD-SKIN DRUM, LANGO TRIBE, UGANDA PROTECTORATE.]
The Baganda live very largely on vegetable food, and, as is so often
the case among primitive people, the women do all the field work.
True, the husband clears the ground of all shrubs and tall grass, but
when this work is done his wife performs all the digging, sowing,
and collecting of the harvest. Ashes from burnt leaves, when washed
in by the heavy rains, fertilise the soil, and success is sought by
sacrificing a fowl and pouring out an offering of beer at the roots
of trees, while the husband says: “Give me this land, and let it be
fruitful, and let me build my house here, and have children.”
In addition to their hunting and agriculture, the Baganda are very
fond of trade and barter, and in many villages there is a market-place
where a salesman must pay fees in order to get permission to sell
his wares. The king of the Baganda receives these market dues, which
amount to one-tenth of the produce sold, and as the produce offered
for sale comprises animals, fish, eggs, salt, sweet potatoes, peas,
beans, pottery, tobacco, axes, hoes, and rope, the amount of money due
to royalty must be very great. At the end of a busy market day many
boys are ready to clean up the market-place, in reward for which they
get scraps of meat from the slaughter-house, a few coffee berries, or
a little salt. Money consists of cowrie shells, two hundred of which
are needed to buy a large earthenware pot; five to ten are given for a
tobacco pipe; and in striking such bargains as these the busy marketing
day soon draws to a close.