2 - Waswa, a commoner in the Kingdom of Buganda (c.1865–c.1884)

Summary

Introduction

Kivebulaya was born ‘Waswa’ – the name for the elder of male twins – in Buganda, during Kabaka (king) Mukabya Mutesa's long reign (1856– 84). His early life was marked by his twin status; ‘They considered us as very important,’ he wrote in his autobiography, ‘twins were carefully looked after because of the customs around them.’ The fear and excitement surrounding the birth of twins he described as follows:

They dug another entrance at the back of the house. The first twin to be born took the first entrance outlet and the next one took that at the back which is just dug…They also beat drums which were known as Entuuyo za balongo (the sweat of the twins). The beats were very different and everyone knew that they were beats of two children. And people danced much as they were happy for getting two children at the same time. It was believed that if the rituals of dancing were skipped, the babies or their parents would die instantly… So that is how my birth was, so frightening!

This passage, and an account of the influence of twins on the family and community, discussed later in the chapter, is one of Kivebulaya’s more detailed descriptions. He gives little information about events of his childhood, although he notes that his parents were married in the reign of Kabaka Sunna (c.1830–56) in the county of Singo and had five living children. However, his short autobiography gives enough information about his background to locate him in a wider history of the Great Lakes. His account moves him from a small village to the capital; from the customs (mpisa) of twins to contact with two cosmopolitan religions (dini); and, eventually, from insecurity to a respected position. It provides the background to the commitments he loosened in order to develop new relationships and affiliations. Kivebulaya and his family were commoners (bakopi) in a hierarchical society at a time when the social situation of bakopi had become particularly precarious. He was formed by clan systems of obligation and honour: systems that were under stress in the mid-nineteenth century, a stress that increased the mobility of Baganda men as they attempted to live up to traditional ideals of masculinity. He was also influenced by an apprenticeship to a healer, something he does not mention in his autobiography.