The Banyankole are a Bantu group. They inhabit the present districts of Mbarara, Bushenyi, and Ntungamo in western Uganda. People from the present countries of Rujumbura and Rubabo in Rukungiri District share the same culture.

Originally, Ankole was known as Kaaro- Karungi and the word Nkore is said to have been adopted during the 17th century following the devastating invasion of Kaaro-Karungi by Chawaali, the then Omukama of Bunyoro-Kitara.

The word Ankole was introduced by British colonial administrators to describe the bigger kingdom which was formed by adding to the original Nkore, the former independent kingdoms of Igara, Sheema, Buhweju and parts of Mpororo.Click here for more information about Colonialism in Uganda

The Ankole region, also referred to as Nkole (Nyankore), is one of the four kingdoms in Uganda. It is located in the southwest of Uganda to the west of Lake Edward. They inhabit the districts of Mbarara, Bushenyi, and Ntungamo.

People from the Rujumbura and Rubando tribe in the Rukungiri district share the same cultural background. The Banyankole people was usually known as Kaaro-Karungi, and the expression Nkore is said to have been adopted during the 17th century following the devastating invasion of Kaaro-Karungi by Chawaali, the then Omukama (king) of Bunyoro-Kitara.

The word Ankole was introduced by the British colonial administration to describe the greater kingdom which was formed by adding to the Nkore realm the former independent kingdoms of Igara, Sheema, Buhweju, and parts of Mpororo.

It is ruled by a monarch (mugabe = king). The Banyankore people also belong to the Bantu groupe and are great cattle keepers. They breed long white-horned cows that give beef, milk and other products and are most prestigious for the farmers.

The breeders are so proud of their cattles, so that they own them in large numbers and these animals exert great influence on their daily life routine, especially in rituals, music and dances. Many songs are about cows.

Poetry comprises songs that tell of men who own large herds, tell about their individual abilities and their special tradition in authorities within the society; brave, wealthy, great warriors and owners of beautiful women.

For the Banyankole women and the female children over 6 years it is forbidden to eat eggs, chicken, and pork and to drink goat‘s milk. Fish was even a taboo for all members of this tribe.

The Banyankole Bahima have numerous taboos in regard to drinking milk. It is not allowed to drink milk and at the same time eat something, as milk must not come together with other food in a person's stomach.

According to legend, the creator Ruhanga came down to Earth and settled here.

Ruhanga came with his three sons Kairu, Kakama and Kahima down to Earth as he wanted to settle here. Before his return he wanted to find out who of his sons he should assign the leadership of his people.

His sons were ordered to keep milk filled in pots on their laps throughout the night. At the end, it was the youngest brother, Kahima, who won the challenge. Hence he returned to heaven and ordered his other sons to serve their younger brother, Kakima. He left Kahima as ruler on Earth to rule and reign the lands of the Banyankole .

In the legend, there is also made reference to their taboos and rituals. In this way the Bayiru were meant to accept their inferior position and rank in regard to the dominating cattle breeders, the Bahima. Ruhanga from then on lived in peace and quiet in heaven, just above the clouds.

The people believed that Ruhanga was their creator of all and everything on Earth. They also believed that the evil power in human beings is able to take advantage of black magic in order to – in accordance with Ruhanga – interfere with faith and bring about illness, health, drought, death or even bareness.

The legend of Ruhanga found its expression in the Emandwa cult, this is the worship and homage of various gods who assumed their special meaning and importance in families and clans. In their honour, there had to be celebrated certain rituals.

Whenever there was brewed beer, and whenever there was slaughtered a goat, a gourd of beer and small pieces of meat were offered to the Mandwa (the gods of the Emandwa cult) in their shrines. At the beginning of a disease or in case of misfortune, the members of the family had to perform certain rituals called okubandwa.

He was also their principal god and hence worshipped. He was asked for advice in case of problems, or the people used magic or even black magic to solve their problems. Each family also had their own gods they also worshipped and gave sacrifices to.

It was common practice to erect special family shrines. Death itself was not seen as a natural consequence but rather as a result of magic: people were bewitched and therefore died. According to their tradition, death was attributed to sorcery, misfortune and the bad influence exerted by the spirit of the neighbours.

They even had a saying, „Tihariho mufu atarogyirwe“, meaning “There is nobody that dies without being bewitched”. They found it hard to believe that a man could die without his death being the result of witchcraft and malevolence of other persons. Accordingly, after every death, the family would consult a witchdoctor to detect whoever was responsible for this person’s death.

The deceased stayed in the house until all the important relatives had gathered. Among the Bayiru, the deceased would be buried in the compound or in the plantation. The Bahima would be buried in the cattle kraal (cattle bawn). Burial was usually done in the afternoon, and the bodies were buried facing towards the east.

A woman was to lie on the left side of her husband. For women was accorded three days of mourning, and for a men four days. During the days of mourning, all the neighbours and relatives of the deceased would camp and sleep in the home of the deceased.

During this period, the whole neighborhood would not dig or work; it was believed that if anyone dug, or did manual work, it would be his fault that the whole village be ravaged by hail storms. Such a person could also be regarded as a sorcerer. However, the abstinence of neighbours from digging and manual work was meant to console the relatives.

If the deceased was the leader of the family community, also his favourite bull was killed and eaten, but only at the end of the celebration of mourning.

Further ritual ceremonies would be performed if the deceased was a very old man and already had grandchildren. If a person died with a grudge against someone in the family, he was buried with some objects to keep the spirit occupied so that it would fail to have time to haunt those with whom the deceased had had a grudge.

There were special burials for Banyankole spinsters and those who committed suicide.

- It was considered taboo for one to commit suicide. The body would be cut from a tree by a woman who had attained menopause (encurazaara). Such a woman was heavily fortified with charms. Indeed, it was believed that whoever performed the task of cutting the rope used for the suicide would soon also die.

The corpses of Banyankole suicides should not be touched. A grave was dug directly under the corpse so that when cutting the rope, the corpse would fall into the grave. The grave was then covered. There would be neither mourning nor funeral rites.

The tree on which the victim had hung would be uprooted and burnt. The relatives of the suicide would not use any piece of that tree for firewood.

- There were also particular formalities for the burial of a spinster. If such a girl died, it was feared that her spirits would come back to haunt the living simply because the girl had died unsatisfied.

In order to placate the spirit and avert its evil retributions, there had to be performed certain rituals before the burial: One of her brothers would have to pretend to make love with the corpse. This act was known as okugyeza empango ahamutwe.

Then the body was brought out through the rear door and buried. It is said that if a man died unmarried, he would be buried with a banana stem to occupy the position of the supposed wife. This was believed to propitiate the dead man’s spirit and its evil retributions living on. The body was also taken through the rear door.

Banyankole Girls were not allowed to choose their bridegrooms themselves. The parents rather found a good family for them, a family who respected their social status, their prestige and their cows. The family gives a part of their property as dowry to their daughter when she gets married. The practice of divorce was legal.

A girl could normally not be offered for marriage when her elder sister was still unmarried. If marriage was offered to her younger sister, the parents would sometimes manipulate at the giving-away ceremony.

They would send the elder sister. When the groom came to know of it, he could go ahead or he could pay more bride wealth to get married to the younger sister. It was the responsibility of the groom’s father to pay the bride wealth and all costs for his son’s marriage. During the wedding ceremony, the girl would be accompanied by other members of her family, e.g. her aunt.

Some Banyankole traditions assert that the groom would have first sex with the bride’s aunt. The aunt was to prove the groom’s potency just by watching or listening to the sexual intercourse between the groom and her nice.

She had to adapt and train the girl to the situation of her new home. Banyankole girls were supposed to be virgins until marriage. In the most situations the aunt would be an elderly woman of the same age as the mother of the groom.

Okuteera oruhoko describes the practice that takes place when a girls refuses to marry, or whom a particular girl had rejected. The boy could force the girl to marry him, abruptly without her consent and without a wedding celebration.

This practice was common in the characteristic of the traditional Banyankole society. The offender boy had to be fined to paying a huge bride wealth. There were various ways in which this practice was carried out:

- One way was by using a cock. A boy who had desired and wished to marry a girl, who had rejected him, would get hold of a cock and go to the girl’s homestead. He would throw the cock into the compound and afterwards ran away.

The girl had to be whisked to the boy’s home immediately. It was believed the cock should crow when the girl was still at home. She had no chance to refuse; she had to follow the boy, without making unnecessary celebrations.

If she did not, she herself or somebody else in the family would instantly die.- Another Banyankole practice was to smear millet flour on the girl’s face. If the boy chanced to find the girl grinding millet he would pick some flour from the winnowing tray used to collect the flour as it comes off the grinding stone and smear it on the girl’s face.

The boy would run away, and swift arrangements would be made to send him the girl as any delays and excuses would cause consequences similar to those methods described above.

The Banyankole Bahima have three other ways in which the okuteera oruhuko will be done:

- The boy has to put a tethering rope around the girl´s neck and then pronounce in public to the community that the girl had done it herself.

- The second one was to put a plant known as orwihura onto the girl’s head.- The third one was that the boy has to sprinkle milk on the girl’s face while the girl is milking.

It should be pointed out that this practice was only possible if the girl and the boy were from different clans.

The Banyankole did not have any peculiar birth customs. Usually, when a woman was to give birth for the first time, she would go to her mother´s home. Women would give birth themselves, without any help. However, if things went wrong and troubles started, an old wife would usually help giving birth and accompany the process.

The child could be named immediately after birth. The practice was performed after the mother had finished the days of confinement referred to as ekiriri. The woman would confine herself for four days if the child was a boy and three days if the child was a girl.

After three or four days, as the case may be, the couple would resume their sexual relationship in a practice known as okucwa eizaire. The name would be given by the father, the grandfather, and the mother of the child.

However, the father’s choice usually took precedence. The names given were verbs or nouns that would appear in normal speech. Often the names also portrayed the state of mind of the persons who gave them.

The name given to the child depended on the personal experience of the father and the mother, the time when the child was born, the days of the week, the place of birth, or the name of an ancestor. It was normal for a woman to have sex with her in-laws and even have children by them. Such children were not regarded any differently from the other children in the family.

Displaying numbers with the help of fingers, this is counting, is also something special and unique for this tribe. They also knew blood brotherhood between different tribes, in this way garuanteeing mutual respect and help, such as within the family or a clan.

They were also renown for their home-brewed beer called Entereko which was brewed with bananas, juice, water and corn. The people who brewed beer had to save some of it for their neighbours after a ceremony or wedding.

They must not refuse to offer some of it to them. On the occasion of such ceremonies, there were presented a lot of toasts to the king, one's home, the wedding, the family's health and the good relations with the neighbours.

The people were subsistence farmers who grew bananas, corn, millet, potatoes and cassava. A person who could not make enough for a living and who had to work for his neighbours brought shame on his family.

Millet and meat were only eaten on very special occasions. The shepherds drank blood mixed with milk on their tours. It was also common practice to carry such milk jugs. There is a dance in which women stack such milk jugs on their head; the one who could still dance with the most jugs on her head won.

Banyankole know their own tradition and their historical background very well, they keep all taboos alive and arrange good customs (business) among all others. Their complex kingdoms are believed to be the product of an culturation between different ethnics, the Bahima and the Banyankole Bayiru.

The Banyankole Bahima are said to be the descendants of pastoralists who migrated into the region from the northeast. The Bayiru are said to be descendants of agricultural populations that preceded the Bahima as cultivators in the region.

The kingdom expanded by annexing territory to the south and east. In many cases, conquered herders were incorporated into the dominant Bahima stratum of society, and the agricultural populations were adopted as Bayiru or slaves and treated as legal inferiors.

Banyankole - Ankole society evolved into a system of ranked statuses, among which the cattle-owners were the elite. Men gave cattle to the king in order to demonstrate their loyalty, and they further arranged cattle raiding games.

This loyalty was often tested by the king's demands for cattle or for military service. In return for homage and military service, a man received protection from the king, both from external enemies and from functional disputes with other cattle owners.

The king authorized his most powerful chiefs to recruit and lead armies on his behalf, and these warrior bands were charged with protecting territory borders. Only Bahima could serve in the army. A number of social pressures worked to destroy the Bahima domination.

Miscegenation took place despite prohibitions on intermarriage. Children of these unions (abambari) often demanded their rights as cattle owners. From what is present-day Rwanda, farmers launched repeated attacks against the Bahima during the nineteenth century.

In order to counteract these pressures, several Bahima warlords recruited Bayiru men into their armies to protect the southern borders of Ankole. And, in some outlying areas people abandoned distinctions between Bahima and Bayiru after generations of maintaining legal distinctions that had begun to lose their importance. The struggle went on for several years and by nowaday.

The origins of Banyankole in Uganda

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Like other Bantu groups, the origins of the Banyankore could be traced to the Congo region.

Legends hold that the first occupant of Ankole was Ruhanga (the creator), who is believed to have come from heaven to rule the earth.

Ruhanga is believed to have come with his three sons Kairu, Kakama and Kahima.

There is a story about how Ruhanga gave a test to determine which of his sons would become the heir.

The test is said to have been that of keeping milk –filled pots on their laps through out the night. At the end of it all, the youngest son, Kakama, is said to have passed the test followed by Kahima and last came the eldest son, Kairu.

Judging from the performance in the test, Ruhanga is said to have decreed that Kairu and Kahima would serve their brother Kakama.

Thereafter he went back to heaven, leaving Kakama or Ruhanga, as he was also called, to rule the land. This legend portrays social stratification in Ankole society.

It was concocted so as to make the Bairu accept their sub servant position to the Bahima as being supernatural.

What to know about social stratification among banyankole

The Banyankole society stratified into Bahima (pastoralists) and the Bairu (agriculturalists).

A caste-like system of the Bahima over the Bairu existed.

The society was a dual pyramid with pastoral and agricultural legs. Within the two groups or castes ( I call them castes not classes because within the Bahima and Bairu, there were those who had some thing in common), the clans cut across both the Bairu and the Bahima.

The two groups recognized a common ancestry.

There was a general belief that what made a mwiru (singular Bairu) what he is was a hoe and what made a Muhima (singular Bahima) what he is was a cattle.

This kind of belief was not very accurate because merely acquiring cows would not immediately transform one from a Mwiru into a Muhima nor would the loss of cows transform a Muhima into a Mwiru.

A Muhima who owned few cattle would be called a Murasi.

A Mwiru who owned cattle was called a Mwambari.

The two groups lived together and they depended on each other.

The Bairu exchanged cattle products with Bahima and the Bahima equally received agricultural goods from the Bairu. This was because the Bairu needed milk, meat, hides and other cattle products form the Bahima, while the Bahima would also need agricultural products from the Bairu, equally local beer.

What you should know about the traditional marriage among banyankole

Traditionally, the normal pattern was for both the parents of the boy and the girl to arrange the marriage, sometimes without the knowledge of the girls concerned.

The initiative was normally taken by the boy’s parents and upon the payment of an appropriate bride wealth; arrangements would be made to fetch the bride.

Customarily, a girl could not be offered for marriage when her elder sister or sisters were still unmarried.

If a marriage offer was made for a young sister, it is said that the girl’s parents would manipulate issues in such a way that at the giving- away ceremony, they would conceal and send the elder sister. When the bridegroom would come to know it he was not supposed to raise questions.

He could go ahead and pay more bride wealth and then go ahead and marry the young sister if he could afford it. It was the responsibility of the father to pay in full the bride wealth and meet all the other costs of arranging his son’s marriage.

During the wedding ceremony, the girl would be accompanied by among others, her aunt.

Some traditions assert that the husband would first have sex with the aunt before proceeding to have it with the bride. Another piece of tradition says that the duty of the aunt was to prove the potency of the bridegroom by just watching or listening to the sexual intercourse between the bridegroom and her niece.

It is said that her duty was to advice the girl on how to begin a home more so, since Ankole, girls were supposed t be virgins until marriage.

The first tradition is false because in most cases the aunt would be an elderly lady almost the same age as the mother of the bridegroom but the other two traditions are true.

If the parents of the girl were aware that their daughter was not virgin, this information was formally communicated to the husband by giving the girl, among the other gifts, a perforated coin or another hollow object.

Banyankole Culture Part 2

Banyankole Culture Part 3

Banyankole Culture Part 4

Banyankole Culture Part 5

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