Banyoro People and their Culture Part 2

Traditional Marriage Among the Banyoro People of Uganda

Traditional Marriage in Banyoro, Banyoro intermarriages, Banyoro people marriage.

The Banyoro were polygamous whenever they could afford it.

Bride wealth was not so much of a prerequisite as it was in most societies of Uganda.

In most instances, bride wealth could be paid later. Marriages were very unstable, divorce was frequent and there were many informal unions.

In almost all cases, the survival of a marriage was not guaranteed. Payment of Bride wealth was usually done after some level of stability in the marriage had been achieved. Often this would be after several years of marriage.

Traditionally, looking for a suitable partner was a matter involving the family of the boy and that of the prospective bride. The girl’s contribution to the whole processes amounted to nothing more than giving her consent.

The first step was like it is today; a mutual attraction between the girl and the boy with a sexual relationship readily entered into. This was followed by establishment of a domestic arrangement.

Formalization of payment, if any, would normally follow but would not precede these arrangements. There was a tendency for boys to find girls from the same locality. In fact few would look for wives from beyond their villages.

What was the view of Death among the banyoro

The Banyoro fear death very much Death was usually attributed to sorcerers, ghosts and other malevolent non-human agents.

In some contexts, death was thought to be caused by the actions of bad neighbors.

People were believed to be affected or harmed by gossip and slander.

The Banyoro provide a vast range of magical and semi –magical means of injuring and even killing others.

Indeed, many deaths were attributed to the act of sorcery by ill-wishers.

The Banyoro viewed death as a real being, like a person. Whenever a person died, old women of the household would close his eyes, shave his hair and beard, trim the fingernails and clean and wash the whole corpse.

The body was left to remain in the house for a day or two with its face uncovered. The women and children were allowed to weep loudly but the men were not supposed to do so.

Whenever the head of a household died, some grains of millet mixed with simsim were placed in his right hand. This mixture was known as ensigosigo.

Each of the dead man’s children was required to take in his lips a small quantity of the mixture from the dead man’s hand and eat it.

The body was wrapped in bark cloth, the number of backcloths depending on the wealth of the dead man.

The following rites were performed by one of his nephews.

The sister’s son had to wrench out the central pole of the house and throw it into the middle of the compound. He would also take out the dead man’s eating basket (endiiro) and his bow.

The fire in the center of the house was extinguished. There would be no fire for cooking in the house for the first three days of mourning.

A banana plant from the household’s plantation with fruit on it was also brought and added to the heap of the dead man’s utensils in the compound.

Then the dead man’s nephew or son would go to the well and bring some water in one household‘s water pot by throwing it down among the heap of the dead man’s utensils.

He had also to catch and kill the dead man’s cock to prevent it from crowing.

The chief bull’s testicles were also ligatured at once to prevent it from engaging in any mating activity during the time of mourning.

This bull would be slaughtered after four days and eaten. This act of killing male animals was known as mugabuzi.

The ceremony of killing and eating the main bull after four days concluded the period of mourning. The dead man’s house would not be lived in again.

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