DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0065
Worship of the Dead in Uganda
43
wife to make daily offerings and prayers to the clan fetish for her absent husband. Any
mishap to him, even to knocking his foot against a stone, is attributed to laxity on the part
of the wife in her duties, while worse mishaps point to immoral conduct causing the god
to withdraw his favor. All such omissions meet with punishment in due time; the husband
on his return accuses his wife before a body of witnesses, and unless she can prove her
innocence she is punished by flogging.
Among the Basoga, who live to the north of Lake Victoria, there are many features
in common with the practices described above; there are, however, a few differences which
it is well to mention. The dead man is buried in the house in which he lived. Part of an
animal which has been speared to death near the hut in which the body lies is cooked.
Some of this meat is cut into small pieces and put in a wooden bowl in the grave, while
the rest is eaten by the mourners. The bowl with the meat in it is put into the grave at
the feet of the body and is covered with a bark cloth. A second empty wooden bowl is
placed under the head of the dead man, the body being so raised with bark cloths that the
head hangs over the bowl. Before any earth is thrown into the grave, after the offering
of bark cloths has been arranged, the chief widow steps into the grave and, as the first
spade of earth is thrown in, she catches a little with her right hand and a little from the
second spade with her left hand. This earth she rolls into a ball and carries to the nearest
tree, over which she throws it saying, “If they have caught you, fly free.” There is always
a possibility that death has been brought about by magic and that the ghost is still held
captive, and this ball of earth sets it free and enables it to roam at pleasure among its fellow
ghosts. The first night after the funeral the mourners sleep round the grave, but after-
wards they build small huts round that in which the dead is buried. They remain in them
during the period of mourning, leaving the hut with the grave to the widows. Some
twelve months after the burial of a chief the ghost is said to appear to one of the relatives
and announce his desire to be removed; the new chief, who is the heir, is informed, and
orders the grave to be opened and the bowl, into which the skull has by this time fallen, to
be brought out. The skull is cleansed, stitched in a piece of cow skin, a second wrapper
being of sheep skin and a third of gazelle skin. These skins are damped before they are
stitched on, and they become very tight and hard as they dry. The skull is placed in a
temple where a medium is appointed to hold communication with the ghost on behalf of
any suppliant. The temple is now the residence of the ghost and the burial place ceases
to be cared for or regarded with reverence. When the next chief dies and his skull is in
due time brought to the temple, the former skull is removed to another place of less im-
portance, where all the skulls of former chiefs are kept, and protected by an appointed
guardian, but where there is little worship. The principal time for a general gathering of
people to worship is that when the skull is removed to its last resting place. At this
43
wife to make daily offerings and prayers to the clan fetish for her absent husband. Any
mishap to him, even to knocking his foot against a stone, is attributed to laxity on the part
of the wife in her duties, while worse mishaps point to immoral conduct causing the god
to withdraw his favor. All such omissions meet with punishment in due time; the husband
on his return accuses his wife before a body of witnesses, and unless she can prove her
innocence she is punished by flogging.
Among the Basoga, who live to the north of Lake Victoria, there are many features
in common with the practices described above; there are, however, a few differences which
it is well to mention. The dead man is buried in the house in which he lived. Part of an
animal which has been speared to death near the hut in which the body lies is cooked.
Some of this meat is cut into small pieces and put in a wooden bowl in the grave, while
the rest is eaten by the mourners. The bowl with the meat in it is put into the grave at
the feet of the body and is covered with a bark cloth. A second empty wooden bowl is
placed under the head of the dead man, the body being so raised with bark cloths that the
head hangs over the bowl. Before any earth is thrown into the grave, after the offering
of bark cloths has been arranged, the chief widow steps into the grave and, as the first
spade of earth is thrown in, she catches a little with her right hand and a little from the
second spade with her left hand. This earth she rolls into a ball and carries to the nearest
tree, over which she throws it saying, “If they have caught you, fly free.” There is always
a possibility that death has been brought about by magic and that the ghost is still held
captive, and this ball of earth sets it free and enables it to roam at pleasure among its fellow
ghosts. The first night after the funeral the mourners sleep round the grave, but after-
wards they build small huts round that in which the dead is buried. They remain in them
during the period of mourning, leaving the hut with the grave to the widows. Some
twelve months after the burial of a chief the ghost is said to appear to one of the relatives
and announce his desire to be removed; the new chief, who is the heir, is informed, and
orders the grave to be opened and the bowl, into which the skull has by this time fallen, to
be brought out. The skull is cleansed, stitched in a piece of cow skin, a second wrapper
being of sheep skin and a third of gazelle skin. These skins are damped before they are
stitched on, and they become very tight and hard as they dry. The skull is placed in a
temple where a medium is appointed to hold communication with the ghost on behalf of
any suppliant. The temple is now the residence of the ghost and the burial place ceases
to be cared for or regarded with reverence. When the next chief dies and his skull is in
due time brought to the temple, the former skull is removed to another place of less im-
portance, where all the skulls of former chiefs are kept, and protected by an appointed
guardian, but where there is little worship. The principal time for a general gathering of
people to worship is that when the skull is removed to its last resting place. At this