The Oral Tradition of the Baganda of Uganda: A Study and Anthology of Legends, Myths, Epigrams and Folktales

217 Pages·2010·1.5 MB·English

by  Immaculate N. Kizza

The Oral Tradition of the
Baganda of Uganda
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The Oral Tradition of the
Baganda of Uganda
A Study and Anthology of Legends,
Myths, Epigrams and Folktales
IMMACULATE N. KIZZA
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Kizza, Immaculate N.
The oral tradition of the Baganda of Uganda : a study and
anthology of legends, myths, epigrams and folktales /
Immaculate N. Kizza.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-4015-3
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Folk literature, Ganda—History and criticism.
2. Ganda (African people)—Folklore. 3. Ganda (African
people)—Intellectual life. 4. Oral tradition—Uganda.
I. Title.
GR356.52.G36K59 2010
398.2089'963957—dc22 2010002128
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2010 Immaculate N. Kizza. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover images ©2009 Shutterstock
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To my husband, Joseph Kizza,
and my daughters, Josephine and Florence,
a trio that brings out the best in humanity.
Acknowledgments
I am very grateful to the colleagues in the Department of English at
the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who received my idea and
materials for this book enthusiastically and have cheered me all the way.
My appreciation also goes to Anatole Kiriggwajjo at the Institute of Lan-
guages, Makerere University, Uganda, for his participation in collecting
and translating some of the materials in this book. Josephine and Florence,
I thank you for always being in my corner.
My greatest gratitude goes to my husband, Dr. Joseph Kizza, who
proposed this book idea to me, sponsored my trips to Uganda to collect
the materials, accompanied me to all the places visited, recording, taking
pictures and guiding the narrators, helped me to translate, organize, draft,
type, illustrate, proofread and edit the manuscript, and provided ideas,
encouragement and moral support all the way!
To all the people of Kyangwe and Kalubaya, and all those who in one
way or another contributed towards this project but whose names do not
appear, I thank you.
vi
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. The African and Baganda Oral Traditions:
An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. The Baganda of Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3. Epigrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4. Prose Narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Glossary of Luganda Words and Phrases . . . . . . . . . . 193
Appendix: Sample Luganda Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
vii
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Preface
After overcoming a series of hurdles in global literary circles, includ-
ing the denial of its very existence, African literature has matured as a full-
fledged discipline among global literatures. As African literature scholarship
surges, literary scholars are increasingly pointing out that no serious
scholar, student or even one casually interested in this discipline can afford
to ignore the African oral tradition which is the genesis of the modern writ-
ten African literature. Consequently, we are seeing increased interest and
more refined scholarship being done on the African oral tradition; but pri-
mary materials for this scholarship have to be collected urgently because
of two basic reasons: the death of the keepers of the African oral tradi-
tion—the elders—and the disappearance of African languages and cul-
tures that anchor that tradition, due basically to technological trends,
globalization and urbanization.
There are a significant number of collections of African oral tradi-
tion materials, mostly of folktales and proverbs, but very few comprehen-
sive multi-subgenre collections like Wolf Leslau’s Garage Folklore: Ethiopian
Folktales, Proverbs, Beliefs, and Riddles and Emmanuel Matateyou’s An
Anthology of Myths, Legends, and Folklore from Cameroon: Story Telling in
Africa. It is also important to point out that very few of those collections
originate from East Africa in general and Uganda in particular. Okot
p’Bitek’s Hare and Hornbill is probably the most notable collection, and
of folktales only, by a Ugandan who speaks the language of his people, the
Acholi. Since there are significant differences among African peoples and
their cultural traditions, histories and experiences as conveyed in their var-
ious oral narratives, a serious African scholar needs a variety of these col-
lections from various regions, countries, and ethnic groups to participate
fully in the ongoing, vibrant literary discourse on the African oral tradi-
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