The Language of Flowers: Knowledge, Power and Ecology in Precolonial Bunyoro

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Periodical article

Title:	The Language of Flowers: Knowledge, Power and Ecology in Precolonial Bunyoro
Author:	Doyle, Shane
Year:	2003
Periodical:	History in Africa
Volume:	30
Pages:	107-116
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Uganda
Subjects:	writing systems Bunyoro-Kitara polity taxonomy plants flora secret languages history traditional polities Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172084
Abstract:	This paper examines the limited evidence for the existence of an indigenous form of writing in the 18-19th-century precolonial kingdom of Bunyoro in the Uganda Protectorate. The form of writing that developed in Bunyoro was based on a floral code, which was not only a significant means of communication - the evidence suggests that a sophisticated form of flower language was used as a secret language of government and diplomacy - but also an example of the classification and application of botanical knowledge. The flower language could be interpreted as an example of Bunyoro's archaic, irrelevant tendency to focus on all things ancient, but it would be more accurate to view it as a feature of Bunyoro's elitist but utilitarian approach to governance. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]