Baganda Traditional Birth Rituals,Baganda Death Rituals, Baganda,social Norms
Learn about Baganda Traditional Birth Rituals,Baganda Death Rituals, Baganda social stratification.
Unlike the neighboring societies of Ankole, Bunyoro and Toro, the Baganda people seem to have been a coherent group. The society provides a striking example of being one with no fixed social divisions. The society was so fluid that any person of talent and ability could rise to a position of social importance. But this did not mean that the Baganda people and their society had no classes as such because at any time, the distinction between one class and another could be made.At the bottom of the social stratum, there was a class of people known as the Bakopi (serfs). Fallers described mukopi as “simply as a person who did not matter”. The Bakopi obtained their livelihood from the goodwill of the Baami (chiefs) and the Balangira (princes), the other two social groups in Buganda. They depended on land but they had no rights to it. Therefore, a mukopi was almost a serf to the mwami or the Kabaka. In ascending order, the next class in the baganda society were the chiefs or the Baami as they were called. The Baami wee not born Baami as a class but they could become such through distinguished services and ability or just by royal appointment. The Baami were a middle class in Buganda society. Infact the fluidity of the Kiganda system is evidenced by the class of the Baami. Initially, the status of the Baami was enjoyed by the Bataka (Clan heads). However, after 1750, the men of the Bakopi class began to be promoted to become Baami. The Baami could be distinguished into three patterns namely The Bakunga, The Bataka, The Batongole. The highest class in Buganda society was the Balangira. This was the aristocracy who based their right to rule on royal blood. At any one time, society would recognize; the Kabaka, the queen mother variously referred to as Namasole, Nabijano, or kanyabibambwa, then Nalinya popularly known as Lubuga (royal sister), then the Katikiiro and the Kimbugwe. The group formed a class of its own in Buganda.
Whenever a woman was pregnant, she would use herb called nalongo in order that her public regions should widen. If the woman had ever given birth, she would begin to use the herb at the seventh month of pregnancy. If she was conceiving for the first time, she would begin using it at the sixth month of pregnancy. After giving birth, the kigoma (afterbirth) was buried near the doorway. The essence of burying it was to remove it from the reach of those who might employ evil purposes such as killing the child or rendering the mother barren. The mother would spend three days in confinement after birth but the period tended to depend on when the umbilical cord got dry. After about two weeks, the husband would play sex with the wife for the first time after she had given birth. This was a ritual function connected with the health of the child, and on that day, the child would be named. Thereafter the woman would stay celibate for some time before resuming sexual intercourse with the husband. Giclee Print The Baganda people feared death very much. They did not believe in such paradigms as life after death. Whenever someone died, they would weep and wail round the corpse. Weeping was important because one who would not weep and wail could easily be suspected of causing the deceased’s death. The Baganda people did not believe that death was a natural consequence. All deaths were attributed to wizards, sorcerers and supernatural spirits. Therefore, after almost every death, a witch doctor would be consulted. Burial was usually after five days. The body had to wait for that long in belief that it might still contain the element of life and might perhaps come back to life. Some people especially the women would go as far as pinching the corpse to ascertain if it cooked feel the pain. Women were believed to rot faster than men and they were thus normally buried earlier than men. After burial, there would follow a month of mourning, ten days after mourning would be funeral rites known as okwabya olumbe. Okwabya olumbe among the baganda people was a great ceremonial feast whereby all the clan elders would be invited and many people would attend. It involves a lot of eating, drinking, dancing and unrestrained sexual intercourse among the members present. near the door dressed in ceremonial bark cloth and armed with a spear and a stick. The elders would then instruct him as appropriate and require him, among other things, to assist the beneficiaries. The children of the deceased would be covered with bark cloth and told to go crying to the plantation in order that the ghost of the deceased should come out of the home. They were also required to shave off their hair.
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