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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Mythology in Karagwe: a starting point for a religio-historical study about interlacustrine kingship symbolism |
Author: | Farelius, B. |
Year: | 1989 |
Periodical: | The African Mind: A Journal of Religion and Philosophy in Africa |
Volume: | 1 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 156-163 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic terms: | Tanzania Uganda East Africa |
Subjects: | Bunyoro-Kitara polity traditional rulers myths (form) religion Mythology Karagwe (Uganda) |
About person: | Wamara Fofana |
Abstract: | The author examines two versions of the myth about Nyamushagi which she recorded in Karagwe, Bushangaro (Tanzania), in 1975 and 1976. She compares them with the myth about the fall of the last Muchwezi king, Wamara, as recorded in the twenties by Father Cesard in Ihangiro, and then with other oral evidence from Karagwe recorded by Ruth Berger in the sixties. From inside its own frame of reference, the Nyamushagi mythology provides a key for interpreting the role of the Bachwezi pastoral rulers in the interlacustrine area and the fall of Wamara, namely the theme of stewardship, which implies that if one is not thankful to God for what one has and does not conform to what God expects, then one will lose all. The author situates the story of Wamara in the religiohistorical context of the interlacustrine area and concludes that the Bachwezi have dominated the scene as both historical rulers and spiritual agents. Ref. |