DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0059
Worship of the Dead in Uganda
37
high the length and width of the grave and beaten hard to a pointed ridge. The thatched
grave, used especially for royalty, princes and princesses, is a heap of grass laid in order
the length and width of the grave and some eighteen inches deep, being highest at the head
and sloping to the feet. Cords of fiber are passed over the thatch and secured to pegs
driven into the earth along the sides, and thus the grass thatch is kept from blowing away.
In either case the object is to keep the grave dry because it is considered to be the home of
the ghost. At the head of the grave a small shrine is erected in which offerings of bark
cloth, wine, fowls, and goats are placed. All living offerings are kept alive and guarded
by the widow in charge of the grave. Should anyone kill one of these, it is said that the
ghost will resent it by sending sickness to some member of the clan; should one of the
animals die, it is replaced. These animals and fowls are called the property of the ghost.
We must here leave the subject of offerings and further worship in order to deal with
the important subject of the kings who are deified after death. (The peasants are sup-
posed to be reborn after a number of years and to pass again through the phases of this
earthly life.)
Kings of Uganda are never said to die, they remove to another place and phase of life:
the term used at death is “the fire is extinct ”. The funeral ceremonies are of an elaborate
character and are quite distinct from those used in the case of common people. When the
king dies the fact is kept secret for several days until the preparations for his successor are
made. The latter is chosen from the princes and is a son, if possible, or a brother, ora
cousin. The death of the king is announced by beating a particular drum with a rhythm
well known to the people as the war alarm. The announcement causes the greatest
consternation among all classes, the country being thrown into a state of anarchy since
peace, order, and law are bound up with the monarch and end with his life. The less
powerful classes hurry to hide such wealth as they possess, and the more powerful resort
to deeds of lawlessness. The national mourning, a girdle of withered plantain fiber, is
quickly adopted, and every one shaves his head and must not thereafter cut either hair or
nails during the period of mourning, and for the same period no cultivation is done. The
queen takes charge of her husband’s body which lies in state in the house in which he died
until the new king is elected. The king-elect with his queen, who must be a princess —- when
possible a sister of the new king and daughter of the deceased — is escorted to the house in
which the body of his predecessor lies. On his arrival he covers the body with a royal bark
cloth. From the death chamber they proceed to a special hill where the king stands upon
a fetish which is supposed to make him powerful and impart to him wisdom; there he is pro-
claimed king and thence he proceeds to an appointed place for the purpose of mourning the
deceased king. It is no barrier to the custom of mourning should the new king have been
the immediate cause of his predecessor’s death; he may have been his actual murderer,
37
high the length and width of the grave and beaten hard to a pointed ridge. The thatched
grave, used especially for royalty, princes and princesses, is a heap of grass laid in order
the length and width of the grave and some eighteen inches deep, being highest at the head
and sloping to the feet. Cords of fiber are passed over the thatch and secured to pegs
driven into the earth along the sides, and thus the grass thatch is kept from blowing away.
In either case the object is to keep the grave dry because it is considered to be the home of
the ghost. At the head of the grave a small shrine is erected in which offerings of bark
cloth, wine, fowls, and goats are placed. All living offerings are kept alive and guarded
by the widow in charge of the grave. Should anyone kill one of these, it is said that the
ghost will resent it by sending sickness to some member of the clan; should one of the
animals die, it is replaced. These animals and fowls are called the property of the ghost.
We must here leave the subject of offerings and further worship in order to deal with
the important subject of the kings who are deified after death. (The peasants are sup-
posed to be reborn after a number of years and to pass again through the phases of this
earthly life.)
Kings of Uganda are never said to die, they remove to another place and phase of life:
the term used at death is “the fire is extinct ”. The funeral ceremonies are of an elaborate
character and are quite distinct from those used in the case of common people. When the
king dies the fact is kept secret for several days until the preparations for his successor are
made. The latter is chosen from the princes and is a son, if possible, or a brother, ora
cousin. The death of the king is announced by beating a particular drum with a rhythm
well known to the people as the war alarm. The announcement causes the greatest
consternation among all classes, the country being thrown into a state of anarchy since
peace, order, and law are bound up with the monarch and end with his life. The less
powerful classes hurry to hide such wealth as they possess, and the more powerful resort
to deeds of lawlessness. The national mourning, a girdle of withered plantain fiber, is
quickly adopted, and every one shaves his head and must not thereafter cut either hair or
nails during the period of mourning, and for the same period no cultivation is done. The
queen takes charge of her husband’s body which lies in state in the house in which he died
until the new king is elected. The king-elect with his queen, who must be a princess —- when
possible a sister of the new king and daughter of the deceased — is escorted to the house in
which the body of his predecessor lies. On his arrival he covers the body with a royal bark
cloth. From the death chamber they proceed to a special hill where the king stands upon
a fetish which is supposed to make him powerful and impart to him wisdom; there he is pro-
claimed king and thence he proceeds to an appointed place for the purpose of mourning the
deceased king. It is no barrier to the custom of mourning should the new king have been
the immediate cause of his predecessor’s death; he may have been his actual murderer,