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Muriare muta? Hello my friends,

I am studying the traditional history of Uganda and am trying to read Katate's Abagabe b'Ankole. I know some Runyoro and Luganda from living and studying in K'la and Mubende... I have been able to understand some of Katate... but it is not enough. The book was written in 1955 - so it does not follow the orthography established in recent years and it seems the language use is old-fashioned (though very poetic). I am willing to pay someone to translate about 20 pages of the book for me - it is the chapters about Abagabe Ndahura, Murindwa, Wamara, and Ruhinda.  I can scan and email the pages to you. Once I receive the translation I will wire or send you $50 US for your time and list your name in my book as the translator. If you are interested, please email me at marks311girl@yahoo.com.

Mwebale,

Kharyssa (aka Nyakalisa)

 

Fantastic!  I hope somebody is able to answer to your quest.

Surely butterfly & others, u r not passing this up? 

Butterfly where are u?

Folks am here. Hahahahahahaha Kaks you could do with learning some lol.......okies DeeNash You want the the pages translated into Runyankole or English? Mail me and i'll do it justice.

How was ua weekend Folks??? 

Ooops i think i answered the wrong person lol.....Nyakalisa send them unto my mail thru ugpulse i'll see what i can do.......btw you want it in English?

Dont u worry..errors accepted...may learn so much from nyaks! do the necessary

Mucwezikaliisa, am glad to hear that you are studying the traditional history of Uganda and trying to read  Katate's Abagabe b'Ankole, and that pou say you know some Runyoro and Luganda language. Personally am not well versed in Runyankore but with the coming of the migrations form Ankole and Kigezi to Bunyoro especially to Kibaale district, I have had a chance to learn Runyankole Rukiga but as I say am not an expert. I cannot claim that I will do justice to the translations! But a point of interest is that at Makerere University Kampala they have introduce a program for the studying of African native languages and wheras it began with a  department of Luganda now it has been expanded to include other languages and RUNYAKITARA is one of the languages being taught. Runyakitara language is encompassing major languages in western Uganda namely RUNNYORO-RUTOORO-RUNYANKOLE-RUKIGA.

Unfotunately most of our traditional history has not been recorded or written down but there is a rich ORAL TRADITION out there in the local community which can be collected and eventually written. I know that this is quite some work.  Hey how about readinng the history of BANYAKITARA, I think there is a book by John Nyakatura about the  Great Kitara kingdom that used to spread as far south as Bukoba. I know you may be saying that this wont help you but I thought that with pipo like you reading our traditional history you could finally come out with more books on the history of the Banyakitara. Unfortunately the recent migrations from Ankole + Kigezi to Kyenjojo and Kibaale districts seem to have fuelled tribal tensions  in those districts, conflicts between Bataka-indegenous(banyoro-batooro), and Bafuruki-migrants(banyankole-bakiga-bafumbira). these conflicts seem to always arise whenever there is the warm air and/or hot atmospheric pressure of politcs and elections of political leaders at local and district and national level. Its a shame  really!!  Its a shame that in Uganda of today some families and tribes are still thinking in terms of tribal existence and not able to see beyond to a higher level of a United and New Uganda. Am just curious as to what insights your studies will shed on the current problem of Bataka-Bafuruki since both groups seem to be of one language and culture RUNYAKITARA, BANYAKITARA. Success in your study of the traditional history of Uganda. Mya be yuo get a translator!!  

TIICa, is the Makerere program online?

Faculty of Arts at Makerere has a fully fledged department of communication studies and languages and yes like TIICA says Runyakitara is one of them so Deenash if ua interested i can always get you the info or any ones else interested and yeah they r online. 

Please do the needful butterfly...am interested. I owe u this gal!

Thank you all for your interest and emails. I have found a translator among you... however, I will keep everyone's names and such in case I need future help.

I would like very much to have the whole book translated and published in English. It is the only academic source on Ankole traditional history and I think is a very important piece of heritage. However, I wouldn't be able to pay for that... I would instead do all the work to find a publisher and get it published in the US. The translator would listed as an author with myself as an editor... I'd probably write a introduction and will ask the Omugabe himself to contirbute a forwarding chapter. If anyone is interested in signing on to that project, let me know. I could even divide the text among two or three translators.

Mwebale!

-kalisa

Hi TIICA!

 I wanted to respond to your post with a little more information about my project for which I needed the translation.

I am a PhD student in Archaeology at the University of Florida -- I am currently writing my dissertation on Uganda traditional history. My concern was, and still is, that many of the archaeologists working in Uganda do not take oral history (and these narratives) seriously. In fact, they basically call it MYTH and dismiss it as evidence. Obviously, that is not right as it divorces Ugandas from their own history.These archaeologists have also been preoccupied for 70 years with the Bacwezi - especially the question of "were they real at all?" and "where were their capitals?". At first, even I was going to excavate at Mubende Hill to see if there really had been Ndahura's royal compound there.

After I spent some time at Mubende Hill with Nyakahima, I realized that the research question was irrelevant because people believe that the Bacwezi existed. And dare I say that I witnessed unexplainable events at Mubende Hill and at the other shrines I visited (Tanda, for example) that made me reconsider the spiritual aspects of the narratives. When some elders told the stories to me, I was amazed at their meaning and relevance for people today. I started to think of them as 'sacred texts' and started to understand that it did not matter one bit if the Bacwezi were real people - it only matters that they exist as historical figures.

Then one day I realized that all the stories I was hearing from Baganda, Banyoro, Banyonkore, and Basoga babandwa were very much alike... especially the stories about very early times - the coming of Kintu, the Batembuuzi, and of course the Bacwezi and Babiito. When I heard about the Biito, I hopped a bus to Nebbi and talked to people up there. And, wow, the stories that the Alur and Acholi told were different, but they intersected with the others from the south in such as way as to make them related. So I decided that I needed to explore these narratives as sacred history, rather than dig up and harm a sacred site. The change actually led to many problems for me - I could no longer work with my faculty supervisor who insisted I go dig up Mubende no matter what. For nearly two years I struggled to make him understand that the narratives were more important, but in the end he was too stubborn to see and I had to change to a new supervisor.

So, as I've looked more at the published narratives and the transcripts of interviews I had with many elders from around the country, I saw how all those stories came to together to create the idea of kingship -- and then how they then link all the kingdoms together through the various figures like Kimera, Kaleemera, and Ruhinda, etc. Then I realized how poetic the narratives are and started to look at them as an art form - a symbolic expression of faith in the past (through which the present is constructed and which leads to belief in the future). So that is what I am studying right now - what the narratives are, what they mean, how they are all connected, and what they mean to the kingdoms and people today.

 Phew! Sorry that is so long - I didn't realize how complicated my journey had become. : )

 -kalisa

omucwezikalisa:

Hi TIICA!

 I wanted to respond to your post with a little more information about my project for which I needed the translation.

I am a PhD student in Archaeology at the University of Florida -- I am currently writing my dissertation on Uganda traditional history. My concern was, and still is, that many of the archaeologists working in Uganda do not take oral history (and these narratives) seriously. In fact, they basically call it MYTH and dismiss it as evidence. Obviously, that is not right as it divorces Ugandas from their own history.These archaeologists have also been preoccupied for 70 years with the Bacwezi - especially the question of "were they real at all?" and "where were their capitals?". At first, even I was going to excavate at Mubende Hill to see if there really had been Ndahura's royal compound there.

After I spent some time at Mubende Hill with Nyakahima, I realized that the research question was irrelevant because people believe that the Bacwezi existed...... I was amazed at their meaning and relevance for people today. I started to think of them as 'sacred texts' and started to understand that it did not matter one bit if the Bacwezi were real people - it only matters that they exist as historical figures.......

 

.

 ----------------------------------------------------    Ee BAITU KANDI  KANIIWE OMUCWEZI :omucwezi Kaliisa, -------------------------------------------------------------------

 I understand better why you need a translator for your work on the study of African Traditional history. But what is amazing is the stubborn insistence of the wester scholars who think that their view of history must be the world view of history. And worse still when they insist that they need written matter as to verifiy that these societies existed. But that is the work of historian and archaelogists who want to dig up things of tha past so that they canalso prove that these peple existed in time of history. But what will they say to the many developments that came in the form,ation of language or the Bantu languages as the people made further moves in migrations and met more tribes and new experiences that forced them to coin new words that were not existing befor. Will the archaeologists say its also myth since its not writeen down. that is wrong for the western worl to impose their system of evaluation on us. But then I can understand the dillema you are going thru as you mus read for the PhD and get the DIGULI while appeasing the supervisors and at the same time without dipleasing the ancestors and the people's history.

Personally am one of the strong supporters of ORAL history or ORAL LITERATURE as it is called. I take the example of my parents who told me that am the son of so and so, who is the son of so and so,etc. actaually I managed to go to see the old man the great clan leader befor he died and he narratre the same story by word of mouth and then I was able to write down my lineage which takes me from me , then my father and his father etc, going almost 11 generations back to the time of the birth of Kabalega. Research has been made by me and the clan leaders that the mother of Kabalega was a lady MUNYONZA by clan. Wow that is great for me to be able to tell that its my  great grand father who was th Dad of the mother of the great King. Its on record now and finally writeen that its the Banyonza who gave birth or mothered Kabalega. When was Kabalega born???? it must be may be 1830s there ... I stand correction for the exact date. And it cannot be said that because it was not written down so he did not exist. Must we wait for the Movies the Last King of Scotland to come out as a Document in order for the western world to finally say -- oh yes Amin was really there , see , there is the film. This is wrong. But may be thats why the West still asks :Are you from Uganda? the land of Amin? Did you actaaully see Amin? as if every Ugandan of today was there to see Amin alive and be able to tell the story they want to write.

I have also learnt that language grows by borrowing from other cultures, take the example EMEEZA= table, from the potuguese and latin languages for table. Esaati= shirt, Benseni=basin, Kabada=cupboard,motoka=motor car,etc. these words came as we came into contact with other peoples.Then there is the fact that the archaelogist look at ORAL HISTORY and dismiss it as baseless or think its MYTH.Once again there they are wrong and in your dissertation point it out that for the peasant and agrarian and pastoral societies that did not have a chance to develop the writing or written literature, these societies kept their history by making sure that the RICH DEPOSIT of their culture is handed over from one generation to the next by the word of mouth andthats oral history. How otherwise would these historians and archaelogist explain that the different clans have been here for years and centuries and that you find the BASIITA, BAHINDA, BANYONZA, BASENGYA clans spreading from the pipoz as far as River Nile at Karuma falls all the way down to Kagera River and into Rwanda and Burundi?

I hear that the archeologist have found that there was abig city set up by the Chwezi leaders and are at Bigo Bya Mugenyi site and else where. Was their existence a myth too? But of course for you it a study and yes you have to defend your work with the western imposed tools of evaluation which is the toools of written history and achealogical findings. But as you say for the people the Bacwezi ar real they existed and had a superior leadership skill than the Batembuzi and that just as kingdoms come and go and just as the so called Super powers are claiming to have come they will also go. The Mighty Egyptians, Romans ,Greeks, are no more but we have the sites and languuages that were written then but as years went by they evolved into new langauges eg, Latin now becoming Italian as it came into contact with the new tribes that came from the north of Europe at the collapse of the Roman empire. I was in South Africa and also went to Maseru the capital city of Lesotho and there they were saying HAKUNA MATATA = no problem. And I said to myself: this must be swahili or are these east africans?... then I realized it was the migrations that had done the taking of words to south africa.

The oral narratives are not just expressions of faith idealised for the sake of praising the past, but for the pipo, they are real, they are historical facts and that is what I hope you will defend and bring out in your Paper, I wish I would contribute to the debate but alas you are limited to the written field, may be my page here may help. Hey did you know that some of those trying to say no to oral history may be trying to cover up the destruction that was made by the arrival of the western world in the interior of Africa and that their arrival led to the conseqeunt looting of traditional and historical items that were taken to the MUSEUMS of the WESTERN world where they can learn more about the so called primitive early days of the African society? Now who will believe their story.

Any way SUCCESS IN YOUR WORK, I hope I get to read the book of your reseach.

Oh yes!!! I found myself nodding along with your thoughts... I'd like to think that my work will help correct some of these injustices of colonialism and the (self-serving and righteous) goals of western academia. It was my honor and priviledge that I was able to study these narratives and the history of Uganda, and I am so grateful that everyone was and still is so willing to share and to teach me. I might say that I 'study' Ugandan history, but really it is that I am lucky to be a student of Uganda - and what wonderful things I have learned about life and history in the process! 

The whole experience really taught me - as you say - that "history" is what we make it, how we define it, and no one in the world 'owns' history or can define it for everyone. How terribly arrogant it is to think that history must be written down to be history; and how insulting is it that they say the Bacwezi don't exist? I really have never encountered so much disrespect for others as in western scholarship in Uganda. I used to work in Sudan, where the Egyptologists run everything to ruin with their bigotry. Can you believe their are professors here who seriously think the Egyptians were not African? that they were white people? Ridiculous! And so as you say, there has clearly been a cover up of the destruction of African culture and history that happened in colonial times. The colonial governements - especially the British unfortunately - set out to "bring culture" and "civilization" to their colonies. For pete's sake, in Uganda and much of sub-Saharan Africa, there were even laws against leaving offerings at the shrines, and laws against dancing in public, and laws against wearing traditional dress. Did you know, for example, that in Acholi in 1912 they made it against the law to live more than 4 miles from a road? And why? because the colonial government wanted easy access to the people so they could control them and collect taxes. But the people had lived in the hills for a reason - because there is less malaria and tse-tse fly above 4500feet elevation. So all the people were made to move into the valleys where, guess what, they and their cows started getting sick and dying. It was genocide as bad as when the Spanish gave the South American Indians blankets for the winter - but they were blankets purposely laced with small pox!! So yes, you are absolutely right that there is a cover up. And many of us younger scholars know it. But there isn't much we can do until the older professors retire or die - in the meantime they control who publishes and who gets degrees, etc. But we forge on and try to make dents in their logic here and there as best we can.

With me, my first degree was in African Studies, so before I was an archaeologist, I was reading Nkrumah, Asante, Mafeje, and many other African scholars. If you want to read a great book, see if you can find "Yurugu" by Marimba Ani. I fell in love with Africa after I lived in Egypt for a year. Never had a felt sense a sense of family and brotherhood as I did there. In America, you can walk down the street and fall flat on your face and no one would help you up or ask if you were ok. In Kampala, if you trip on the pavement people will rush to say "sorry" and "bambi". No one cares about each other here and it is very depressing. Anyway, I was trained to be Afrocentric and I really believe in it. There are too many remaining cover-ups and injustices from colonial times to today for me to sit still and do nothing. BTW has anyone in Africa or Uganda seen any of those millions of dollars Bush promised a few years back to fight AIDS? or how about the Bujagali dam? are they still saying that Dada Bujagali is fraud driving around in a mercedes? or have they realized that the place really is sacred? Yes, people need electricity, but there are how many rivers in Uganda?? why there in Bujagali? to me it seemed like in even in aiding "development" the West is still trying to destroy every last remining piece of traditional history and pride. Oh it just makes me so mad. How would Americans feel if some Basoga came over and made an mpago on top of Mount McKinley? (that's the one where all the presidents' faces are carved)

>> The oral narratives are not just expressions of faith idealised for the sake of praising the past, but for the pipo, they are real, they are historical >> facts and that is what I hope you will defend and bring out in your Paper,

That is exactly what I am going for... it IS history. Just because it is not written down or it is not Western-style does not mean that it is NOT history. It is history. And I feel so lucky that it was shared with me and that I was made to understand these things. I hope I can pass that on to my colleagues and students in the future.

>>conseqeunt looting of traditional and historical items that were taken to the MUSEUMS of the WESTERN world where they can learn more about >>the so called primitive early days of the African society? 

Oh yes, isn't that sad. And now there are repatriation laws that are requiring museums to return what was stolen. But you know what they are saying that the African museums aren't "good" or "safe" or "cliamte controlled". Amazing just how ignorant some are to think that Africans can't take care of their own heritage. What is primitive is NOT the cultures of the past or present in Africa - it is the thinking of the people in power in the West that is primitive. And Mr. Bush has not helped one bit. He is a national embarassment. He thought Brazilians were Spanish (many have Portuguese ancestors) and was surprised to see that some of them were black (because he didn't know there were slaves in Brazil). What a fool.

I hope I am different and that my research shows others how fruitful life can be when you stop and listen to what others are saying about the world, the past, and themselves... without judgements about what is real or not real. Every culture has their own view of the past that we must honor and understand, it is not an academic's place to define the past for someone else. Our only roles should be to learn and share and bring understanding and respect.

-Nyakalisa

BTW they now say that Bigo is not a Bacwezi site because there was no royal compound. Instead they say that Ugandans are wrong about their own history - that they must be mistaken about Bigo, Mubende, Ntusi, etc, becuase there are no royal compounds at any so-called Bacwezi capital site. How stupid is that? They just don't understand.

And according to my sources the estimate is that your grandfather Kabalega was born about 1840 and died 1923. His birth year is hard to estimate because of the difference between the traditional Ugandan 'year', and the western calendar 'year'. But he was in his mid-30s I think when Baker arrived to visit him in 1877. "The 23rd Omukama of Bunyoro, Kabalega was a powerful king and a war genius whose power and wealth posed danger to the establishment of colonialism. Because of his strong will and mistrust for Europeans, Kabalega was the most hated king in Uganda by colonialists and their agents." He sounds like an amazing man who fought hard for his convictions, TIICA! Here is a picture:

 

 

 

 

omucwezikalisa:

Oh yes!!! I found myself nodding along with your thoughts... I'd like to think that my work will help correct some of these injustices of colonialism and the (self-serving and righteous) goals of western academia.

And according to my sources the estimate is that your grandfather Kabalega was born about 1840 and died 1923. His birth year is hard to estimate because of the difference between the traditional Ugandan 'year', and the western calendar 'year'. But he was in his mid-30s I think when Baker arrived to visit him in 1877. "The 23rd Omukama of Bunyoro, Kabalega was a powerful king and a war genius whose power and wealth posed danger to the establishment of colonialism. Because of his strong will and mistrust for Europeans, Kabalega was the most hated king in Uganda by colonialists and their agents." He sounds like an amazing man who fought hard for his convictions, TIICA! Here is a picture:

 

  HANGIRIZA  AGUTAMBA, HANGIRIZA  ENTALE YA BUNYORO. HANGIRIZA MUKUMANFUZI ZA BUNORO-KITARA.

 KABALEGA THE KING OF BUNYORO.THE HERO KING WHO FOUGHT FIERCELY AGAINST COLONIAL CONTROL OF HIS KINGDOM 

THANKS A MILLION AND ONE FOR THE PHOTO OF KABALEGA THE GREAT KING OF BUNYORO. I have a copy of that very foto. thanks.

Can you imagine that when the British came to the interior of East Africa they were siprised to find that some communities in Uganda hada a system of leadership which had Kings and chiefs and because the British had  Queen Victoria as the head of the British so they fell in love with the Interlacustrine Kingdoms or what these days they call the kingdoms of the Great Lakes of Africa. And when theyapproached Kabalega to have him be under the powers of the Queen, he refused and began to wage a guerrila warfareeon the Britsh troops untill they were given a very humiliating defeat by the army of Kabalega at the battle of Baligota Isansa. That they wer defeated is not put in their journals, but they say they withdrew as tactical moves in war. And then how does their view of history  explain the sudden and eventual and gradual mass destrucxtion of the people and property of the Banyoro pipo who had sided withtheir King Kabalega to fight off British Imperial and Colonial powrer that had come to take control of the peopleos of the present day Uganda. Then there was the pretext that there presence was to stop the slave trade -WAPI?

Some time last year Iwas able to meet a Muzungu who was collecting data on the cause ofg the low populatiuon in Bunyoro,and after avery lenghty discussion i finnaly told him that part of the bacwardness or underdevelopment of Bunyoro is a result of the Master plan by the Colonial Leaders to punish Bunyoro for having offered a stiff resistance to the presence of the British and their eventual colonisation of Uganda.Its the very old people born in the 1890s,1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s who told the story ORAL HISTORY that Bunyoro was a great kingdom and that the King had provisions to take care of the orphans and widows and assist in timew of famine.And the Wazeee would go on to ask: what happened to our many goats and cattle? they were looted and some destroyed in retaliation of the British humilation at Baligota Isansa. Then there is oral tradition that when the so called disease of sleeping sickness and syphilis came, and under the pretext of vaccinating the people , actually more Banyoro died than before and the women did not give birth to as many children as before and thus the Banyoro population went down after the capture or fall of Kabalega. And so the very old pipo advised their sons to go beyond River Mziizi and cross into Tooro and Ankole and Busoga so as to marry women from there and thus try to improve the birth of the Banyoro and have an increase in the population. Kabalega was  captured by the British and they took him to exile in the far of Seychels Island in the Indian Ocean. he did not come back till 1923 old and weak and they had put a puppet leader to replace Kabalega. Are you aware that on his way to exile and while Kabalega was still in Nairobi he fatherd the would be President of Kenya- Jomo Kennyata. I hia Kenyatta on his inauguration as Head of State of kenya said  Isdend my greeetings to my brother Oukama Tito Winyi Gafabusa King of Bunyoro and Son of Kabalega. Recently they put up photos showing Kabalega, Kennyata, King Iguru of Binyoro and Uhuru son of Kenyatta, they have a lot of resemblance but the western media or academia will not register that. And there have been efforts to trace the children birthed by Kabaleega while in exile and again the Colonial Masters made sure that there be no trace of that on the island, but research is still going on. 

Then to hit the last nail on the head or as the say to add injury on top of injury, the local population was then disbanded and displaced and put on land that was less fertile so as to control the socio-economic development of the Banyoro. the good fertile soils were then gazzetted by colonial gavment land for forests ,parks for animals, Game reserves, and forest reserves for the trees and monkeys to grow. Yes and the the population was left to be suarters on their oen land as beggars. Land tiitles were given to places in Buganda and Ankole and parts of the East but areas of RESISTANCE to British Rule (the Nyangire Revolt 0f 1905)  were not given land titles, because the British knew that if these people get land titles in future they can use them to again develop Bunyoro. And now with the increas in population in Bunyoro, its astruggle and people are encroaching on the so called game and forest reserves--- may be its the only way for the BATAKA to force their correction of errors made by colonial gavt and be corrected by the current national Govt.

Well let me end here, for the now. As you can see Iam of the opinion that we must rewrite our history anew and tell the facts the way they are and not let the outsiders tell the story. ITS THE GREAT EDUCATIONIST PAULO FREIRE OF BRAZIL WHO SAYS THAT LET THE PEOPLE IDENTIFY THE ITEM AND GIVE IT A NAME------ read his book called CRITICAL CONCSIOUSNESS. let us wite our own history and let the archaelogist go ahead and dig the fossils after all they are doing it for MONEY and for us we are determined to explainand write our history for the FUTURE GENERATIONS TO KNOW THE TRUTH OF WHO WE ARE < WHERE WE CAME FROM AND WHERE WE ARE GOING AS PIPO OF UGANDA.

success in your studies. -- write for us the real history of the Batembuzi-Bacwezi-Babiito. can I be of help in contributing ideas?

Hey the Muzungu researcher went away having been told that up to now the Bataka dont trust the Bazungu because they made havock to the Banyoro. I told him its only JOHN BEATTIE the historian  and DUNBAR the Agriculture officer , the only two BRITISH who wrote POSITIVELY aabout the events and facts and history of Bunyoro, he should be the third if he so chooses , and surely he just looked at me and smiled . yes I had told him nothing but the truth.   

wow I have been ignoring this post coz ma runyankore is the pits and now decided to check it out so much information hope u get all the help u need wld definatly read that history if u are ever done with it.....I have been trying to get some info on the History we learnt in school and I think you just woke me up again africa does have a vast and rich history and the upcoming generations need to have it recorded accurately so it doesnt die out....now with all of us scattered to the different corners of the world it wld be nice to be able to teach our kids about where they come from ...GOOD LUCk

k_raw:

.....I have been trying to get some info on the History we learnt in school and I think you just woke me up again africa does have a vast and rich history and the upcoming generations need to have it recorded accurately so it doesnt die out....now with all of us scattered to the different corners of the world it wld be nice to be able to teach our kids about where they come from ...GOOD LUCk

k_raw,

Thanks for your response. You see the education system in Africa and Uganda has been handed over to us at Independece Day by the former colonial leaders. And what do we still read today? Its  things like Africa learns about Europe, Africa learns about Asia. Africa learns about America. Then its the Geography lessons with our kids made to learn about Vasco da Gama, Marco Polo, arrival of Colonial Leaders and not Masters, the British Isles, Canada and the timbering there, America and the midwest farms of maize or as they call it here MBU corn. then its the great rivers of Missisipi and later on its things that were discovered by the first Muzungu in the area - River Nile, Lake Victoria, Lake Albert, source of the Nile, Mt Rwenzoori.Come to think of it -- was it not called Lake Killer of locusts = MWITANZIGE = by all the nations or tribes surrounding that lake albert. Then the Muzungu asked:What is that mountain and was told that this Mt brings a lot of rain Rusozi rruleeta njura, RWENJURA, and he named it wrongly MBU a new name RWENZORI. then it ok for them to call france, italy,germany etc nations but when it comes to pipoz with areas as big as those of france or austria or holland, then those areas because they are of africans called Buganda, Busoga, Bunyoro, Achooli, Lango, etc then these are calle TRIBES and theirs are elevated to the evel of NATIONS because the french have the same language>So what , the Baganda too have the same language, so are the Acholi, so are the Zulu , so are the Kikuyu, and the Banyankole, but their are NATIONS and ours are TRIBES  and we arfe anamed to be backward because of TRIBAL WARS and conflicts and for them they claim not to have these funny tribal  things. MBU ---.AMAZING !!

Its time we woke up and contributed to the writing of our history. We must know where we came from(HISTORY-Zamani in swahili), where we are (PRESENT-Sasa), and where we are going (FUTURE-Kesho kutwa) as a nation. Europe is proud of its history and the great period of the Renainsance or Enlightment that pushed them to where they are now.America looks back at the great War between north and souther states and out of whichcame the United country of USA, and then they say African are ever fighting and will never come to a stop in war and make a United country of Uganda, or East African Federation, or African Union. They arre determined to make sure thatwe do not have any trace of our ROOTS. or HISTORY, and so they will despise our ORAL HISTOIRY as MYTH purposely to break the cultural and moral fibre and values tha once held us together.

 The Great African Philosopher and Proffessor John MBITI in his book THE AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY says that the African must know his roots and thus polish his image of SELF IDENTITY -- he says that the African has this wisdom:  IAM BECAUSE WE ARE AND SINCE WE ARE THEREFORE IAM --- my identity is very much tied on to a sense of BELONGING to a WIDER COMMUNITY of those who were there in the past centuries and those who are here now and those to come in future. By destroying the traces of our history and demystifying it as the claim to be doing, they think that they will have managed to make the African  loose and forget his SELF IDENTITY and thus be left in the dak cave of OBLIVION. We cannot accep this at all. The elite and inteligensia both at hoe in Africa-Uganda and abroad those in the Diaspora can wirk together to try to improve that image of the History of Africa by making research and writting THE CORRECT VERSION OF OUR AFRICAN HISTORY.

Fellow Ugandans living in the Diaspora and at home in Uganda, lets put in more effort in knowing our history and our roots and be able to hand over that rich deposit of cultural and historical heritage to our children and the future generations,. Remember that Uganda is coming to almost 29 million pipo  as population and with about 1 million beeing added born every year, and almost 60% of the entire population are children who are below the age of 15 years. These children are the future of the nation and they must be given a chance to know where they came from and where they are now, a chance to be proud of their roots whether they are in the Diaspora or at home.

OMUCWEZIKALIISA THANKS FOR THIS THREAD YOU PUT UP, IT HAS GENERATED MORE INTEREST IN VALUING MY ROOTS.--- success in your study of African history.  

Hello again TIICA!

Your responses are very thought-provoking and I am so pleased that this has turned into such a great discussion! I would be honored to call you a friend and include you more deeply in my research. I will have a whole chapter about the destruction of African history by the colonialists and what that means to people today. So mwebale nyo for your input... I know that many young scholars in Uganda are interested in their real history rather than the one written by Europeans, so I hope to start the fire and make a place in western scholarship for a different (and better) perspective on the past. There are many very talented scholars and students in Uganda and Africa thinking on these things. I look forward to having many more future conversations with you and the others here.

I use much of Beattie's work in my