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Religion & Family.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

Prior to the Christian missionary movement in the 19th century, the Ankole people’s idea of a Supreme Being was Ruhanga (creator) who was believed to be living in the sky. He was believed to be the maker and giver of all things.

However, it was believed that evil persons could use black magic to interfere with the good wishes of Ruhanga and cause ill-health, drought, death or even barrenness in the land and among the people. It is believed by the people of the land that Ruhanga created humanity in the form of a man called Rugabe and his wife Nyamate. Rugabe and Kyamate gave birth to a long line of kings who became deified. These gods had special temples and priests often in the royal compound, and tended to be concerned with helping people to solve special problems. These were for instance: a god of fertility, a god of thunder, a god concerned with earthquakes, and the deities for specific clans and their affairs.

The Banyankole generally believe that illness is caused by Ruhanga, ghosts, or magic. Ruhanga is said to cause illness and ultimately death because his desires and rights have not been fulfilled and adhered to. A ghost causes illness if cows dedicated to the family are sold or bartered without the consent of the ghost, if offerings due to him are not made, and if clan laws are violated.
A hostile ghost from another clan can cause illness. If a person has a grudge against another person, a magic rite may be performed over beer, which is then offered to that person to drink. Once a person discovers that he has drunk such beer, he or she dies of fear.

The aspect of the Kinyakole religion that still exists today, is the belief in ancestral spirits. It is still believed that many illnesses result from bad behavior to a dead relative, or to Ruhanga, and especially paternal relatives. Through divination it is determined which ancestor has been neglected so that presents of meat or milk, or change in behavior, can appease the ancestral spirit in order to address the misfortune spiritually. The Banyankole (people of Ankole) respect ancestors and name children after them. They also believe the dead can communicate to them through dreams, warning them or directing them about something. Few Banyankole believe that death is a natural phenomenon. According to many, death is attributed to sorcery, misfortune and the spite of the neighbors.
They even have a saying: Tihariho mufu atarogyirwe, meaning; ‘there is no body that dies without being bewitched’.
Today many Banyankole are Christians, Anglicans and Catholics, with some Seventh Day Adventists and Muslims.

Family life
The Banyakole home was designed creatively for accommodation, interaction and hospitality to promote family values, respect among society members and a place for co-creation.
The success of the family was based on the type of a home one had and the entire set up of the homestead.
The Banyakole never stayed in one place because they kept moving from place to place in search of resources that favored their livelihoods; they lived as either cattle keepers or crop cultivators. Houses were round and temporarily built with organic materials, especially flexible trees, thatched with grass. And the houses could be kept as long as the family would be in one location.

The house was divided mainly into three parts: the living room that contained the Orugyengye (milk pot platform); the living room also containing the father’s stool, which was a greatly respected item. Whenever children sat on it innocently, they would be rebuked by their mother because it was sacred. Other than sitting on it, the stool was either to bless or curse. The other part of the grass thatched house was the Ekitabo Kyabana (children’s bedroom), and the Ekitabo Kyanyineka (the master bedroom). The house provided a space in the master bedroom for keeping important items such as the spear and other household goods and valuables.
And as such, a home design set up a hospitality venue where families entertained visitors. Traditionally, households were set up on an extended family model whereby visitors were expected anytime. As such, visitors had a special stool, especially the elders. The interior of the house was covered with eyojwa (soft grass) with well-trimmed animal skins laid on top on which young people and women would sit.

Herd of ankole cattle© Can Stock Photo / anankkml

The common practice among Banyakole homes was the okuterama (vigil) which was a practice where young men and women would gather at the house of the families, tell stories and share happy moments. This practice compelled families to construct large houses so as to allow as many people as possible to enter during okuterama. Light and warmth for members was provided by the fireplace which would remain burning in one corner of the house or outside. The fire was tended carefully so as to avoid spreading which could burn the house.

The Cattle.
In Ankole, cattle were and are still the most treasured possession in the people’s lives, providing milk, ghee, beef and hides; cows were a state of value and a medium of exchange. Cows were and still are the mode of payment of the bride-price and some special cows were used in religious rituals as well as cultural and political ceremonies. The long horned Ankole cows are still the most valued because they are adapted to the climate of the region and resistant to most diseases. A cow was appreciated for the amount of milk it yielded, for its size and stature, its body color and for the shape and whiteness of its long horns, as well as its ancestry. (G.L.M.)

COP26 – An end to the 100 years war on Creation.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

Climate Change is a perilous turning point in human history. We are beginning to acknowledge this but are still far from achieving the level and intensity of economic change required to meet the threat.

The kind of planned, co-ordinated, radical action by governments that is needed is just not happening. As Greta Thunberg put it at the September Youth4Climate conference in Milan, “We can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is. Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah blah blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action”. Lies and half-measures condemn her generation to be Climate Change’s victims.
They will be living with its dire consequences. Climate Change is about the betrayal of youth.

Hope, along with faith and charity (or love), is traditionally known to Christians as one of the theological virtues, one of the habits or skills that promote moral conduct.
These virtues are found in St Paul’s Epistles – but not in Aristotle – and are seen as a divine gift. They and the moral conduct they promote, carry sacred authority for Christians who are enjoined to hope. But much of the West has to do its hoping – telling the truth and acting courageously with urgency – without the sacred authority.

Climate change is not just a turning point in human history it is as great a moral issue as the threat of nuclear holocaust and for the same reason. The moral conduct that can significantly reduce the peril has to characterise governments as well as citizens, within the context of geo-politics. But geo-politics is dominated by a very limited concept
of national interest.

Foreign policy, moreover, perpetually looks over its shoulder at public opinion and domestic policy. The geo-political world is not accustomed to acting on the principle that the purpose of politics is justice, a proposition elaborated by the thirteenth century theologian, Thomas Aquinas. In the case of Climate Change today, it is justice for future generations. Without massive public pressure, based on a moral argument about responsibility to future generations, governments’ action will not be commensurate with the magnitude of the threat.

No contemporary political system or government wins prizes for effective action to curb global warming. The Chinese Communist Party could but, despite coercive and authoritarian rule, isn’t giving up its damaging addiction to coal as an internal energy source. It tries to make itself into a secular version of sacred authority, threatening a dictatorial surveillance dystopia with ugly results.

In democratic societies, because of the dominance of individualism and libertarianism, countering Climate Change becomes a matter of personal choice; you can modify your behaviour – what you eat, how you travel, energy use, or not. But to choose to do nothing can seem justified when you acknowledge how little difference individual actions will make without dramatic political and economic change by the major carbon emitters, the USA, China and India. How many trees and vegans, for example, are needed to offset China’s use of coal?

The world’s faith communities, led by Pope Francis, are taking action whilst governments seem to have been on a drag-anchor moving away from the binding 2015 international treaty agreed in Paris and committing us to “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. ”

On 4 October, the feast of St Francis of Assisi, forty leaders of the world’s major religions together with leading Climate Change scientists met in the Vatican. They had gathered together as faith leaders to sign their appeal, Faith & Science Towards COP26 worked on since February, and handed to them by two representatives of the September Youth4Climate conference in Milan.

“We plead with the international community, gathered at COP26, to take speedy, responsible and shared action to safeguard, restore and heal our wounded humanity and the home entrusted to our stewardship” reads the summary addressed to the participants of COP26 to be held in Glasgow this month. Underlining the importance of the occasion the Pope then presented copies to the two President-Designates of COP26, Alok Sharma and the Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio. (Italy and Britain, chairing the G20 and G7 respectively this year, have been supporting preparations for this religious summit).

“COP26 in Glasgow represents an urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations…Future generations will never forgive us if we miss the opportunity to protect our common home,” said the Pope.

British Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States and spokesman for this gathering of faiths, has emphasised how the different religions saw ‘nature, world, environment as a gift to us…not something we are here to abuse’. In the words of Sally Axworthy, Britain’s former ambassador to the Holy See, we need to “moderate our desires, rethink our economic model to be within the bounds of what nature can sustain, and focus on support for those least responsible for but most affected by climate change. The dialogue with the scientists has been creative – facts and values coming together – or as one speaker put it, enlightened passion”.

This consensus between youth, scientists and the world’s faiths, sealed in a symbolic event, is a hopeful sign of truth-telling. We urgently need facts, values and virtues to be aligned. We urgently need governments to heed the faiths’ vision that countering Climate Change is a moral obligation. And to heed the scientists whose disclosure of facts must dispel our tendency for denial. “We have in the past 100 years declared war on creation”, declared the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in Rome. It must end.

Catholics are taught that inaction and half measures, the absence of truth, can be grievous sins of omission. The secular world should perhaps settle for a different description: crimes against humanity.

Ian Linden
Professor at St Mary’s University,
Strawberry Hill, London.

South Sudan. Sowing peace amid the violence.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

A young man is killed. The family members arrange the vendetta. The blood of the culture seems to be thicker than the waters of Baptism. Reflections of a missionary who spent fifty years in Africa.

It is just a month since the life of my friend James was snuffed out, the umpteenth life cut short by hatred, by violence and by vendetta in this country of South Sudan that yearns and hopes for the peace that still seems far from being achieved. I was in my hut one evening, at about 19:00, writing a letter, when I heard a loud pistol shot that seemed to shake the very ground a few dozen paces from the church.
We soon realised that something horrible had happened and we silently waited to hear what was going on. Just a minute had passed when we heard the desperate cries of people, mostly women weeping for their son, his body lying on the ground in a pool of blood. The people continued their weeping and wailing while the dead body of James, a young man of 29, recently married and with a young child, was wrapped in a sheet and taken to the house of his father where, according to tradition, it was immediately buried. Torrential rain fell that night, a night of tears and anguish.

The following day, the roads are deserted and the few people going to the market walk in silence, No one speaks to anyone else and no one knows what will happen now. The schools are closed. The house of James’ father is surrounded by soldiers to provide security in the area. On the morning of the following day, together with a catechist, I go to visit James’ father, John, at home. The house is full of crying women wanting to console one another. James’ father is in bed, disconsolate. James was his only son who had a job, the only one who could help to buy food and support the family and now he is no longer with us. We try to bring some hope amid the violence through firm faith in the God of life who alone can give us the strength to struggle and sow peace where there is conflict.

The soldiers want me to go to a nearby village as James’ family want to take revenge immediately. Vendetta is an all-too-common practice in Nuer culture. “If someone, does you wrong and you do not take revenge, you are not a real man”, they say in these parts. We listen to the family members. Their hearts are full of sadness and anger and they are armed to the teeth. I am struck by the sight of a young man of 25 with a Rosary around his neck and a rifle in his hands: I will never forget that young man. One of James’ uncles says they have to hit the family of the assassin immediately, in cold blood. The others do not agree. They say they will teach their children from childhood and when they grow up one of them will kill one of the sons of the one who killed James. The desire for vendetta is handed down from generation to generation. Faith in Jesus is obscured by the culture of revenge; the blood of the culture is thicker than the waters of Baptism.

We preach peace with all our hearts and all our strength; that peace that only Jesus can give us. At James’ funeral, I shout out the Gospel of forgiveness and justice. There is no place whatever for ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’! We must never take the law into our own hands, never take up a rifle to kill but always leave room for the local authorities to bring about justice. Vendetta brings nothing good but simply increases sorrow and suffering. In this country that has just celebrated its ten years of independence, we are hoping for a better future, for the good of our people, for a real life for our children and young people. We are not alone. We are convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is with us, working for us and we ask that his Spirit may transform and convert the hearts of the warlords. Without Jesus, it would not be possible to live in this situation. It is only with Jesus that a new world is possible.

Father Mario Pellegrino

Brazil. Protection against Coronavirus in the Rainforest.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

The Coronavirus pandemic has hit Brazil’s indigenous people even harder than the rest of the population. To protect themselves, some peoples retreated deep into the rainforest.

It’s seven o’clock in the morning when the Capuchin friar Paolo Braghini sits down in a small aluminium boat, starts the outboard and sails up the Igarapé de Belém, a wide river that winds through the Évare I Indigenous Reserve in north-western Brazil. The rainforest around the river is so dense that the shore is barely recognizable. Branches protrude over the water. Some trees stand like piles in the river. As soon as Brother Paolo has set off, the sky opens its floodgates and the wind hits thick drops in the face of the 45-year-old friar. It’s rainy season in the Amazon basin.
After two hours of sailing, Brother Paolo approaches the village of Nova Jutaí. Around 100 indigenous people from the Tikuna tribe live here. Some of them stand on the shore and wave to the missionary as he guides the boat towards the village. The Capuchin Paolo is an Italian and has been a missionary for 16 years in the Reserves Évare I and II. The missionary looks after around 100 indigenous villages. Some he reaches only after days of boat trips.

Brother Paolo has just docked when a swarm of cheering children leads the tall friar into the village. Nova Jutaí consists of a dozen wooden houses. They were erected on stilts so that they would not sink into the mud during the rainy season. Behind it the jungle begins, from which the screeching of birds can be heard from time to time.
First of all, the missionary pays a visit to the oldest man in the village. The 71-year-old Hortênsio Antônio founded the village 45 years ago and was only one of four people who fell ill with Covid-19 in the village. He has his own explanation of how this came about. “The virus attacked me while I was fishing”, he says in Tikuna. He sits in a hammock in the middle of a wooden house with almost no furniture. There are a few stools around, but for beds, tables, and cupboards one would look in vain. The Tikuna usually sit on the floor, they sleep on hangings or on bast mats.

“When I paddled back to the village in my canoe, I felt the fever rising in me”, Antônio continues. “It was Corona”. In the imagination of the Tikuna, all diseases have a master. Antônio is convinced that the Lord of the virus haunted him on the river. It is more likely that Antônio was infected by another villager who had previously been in the next larger village. Despite his age, Antônio is an agile man, he has full black hair and alert eyes. Only his missing front teeth indicate his advanced age.

Strong traditions
It was months ago that he contracted Covid-19. A few days he felt bad, then he felt better, says Antônio. He did not feel fear. After all, the Tikuna would have a cure: burning honeycombs and tree resin. He had inhaled the smoke. “He protected us”, says Antônio.
There were no deaths in Nova Jutaí, the settlement came through the pandemic well. Brother Paolo has his own explanation for this: “The village community is intact. During the pandemic, the villagers listened to the Kaziken, their chief, and only left the village in urgent cases. They wore masks, no one strayed. The indigenous tradition strengthened the village”. Meanwhile, Hortênsio Antônio is vaccinated, like everyone in the village. The indigenous people in the Évare Reserves were given preference in the distribution of the vaccine. Brother Paolo is very relieved: “I can visit my communities again”.
When the rain subsides in Nova Jutaí, the community moves into the small green-painted wooden church. The indigenous people lovingly decorated it with palm leaves and flowers.

The service begins with a sweeping song on Tikuna. Then Brother Paolo begins the divine service in the language of the indigenous people: “Numagüẽ!” — “Good day!”
After the celebration the community invites him to eat in the parish hall, which is open on all sides. To celebrate the day, the men shot a wild pig in the forest. There they kill monkeys and deer. Or they fish on the Igarapé de Belém, in which they lay out nets. The community sits together chatting. Everyone eats with their hands.
The families of Nova Jutaí own small fields on cleared forest areas where they grow plantains and cassava. The Amazon fruits Cupuaçu and Açaí are also important for the local economy. Their juice and pulp are bottled and sold at the market in Tabatinga, a border town with Colombia, five to six hours away by boat.
Social assistance also contributes to the maintenance of the village. From it, the Tikuna buy rice, sugar, and salt, but also consumer goods such as soap, kitchenware, and mobile phones. Although there is no mobile network in Nova Jutaí, the Tikuna also take selfies. They keep in touch with the outside world via radio. Electricity is generated by a diesel generator, which the residents start when needed.
It is dark when the missionary returns to Belém do Solimões, on the banks of the river of the same name. Here Brother Paolo lives with three friars in a brightly painted wooden house. Belém do Solimões is the largest indigenous settlement in Brazil with around 5,000 Tikuna.

Every evening they hold a service in a different neighbourhood. Their house is open to everyone at all times. Brother Paolo has created an Olympics, to which people travel from afar to compete in disciplines such as archery, canoeing, and fire-making.
“When I got here, there was no mission. At the time we were just two of us, it was very difficult”, he says. “Today, many indigenous people thank us for changing the place for the better. We have become part of their family”.The next day, Brother Paolo visits the shaman of Belém. The ‘Pajés’, as they are called in the language of the indigenous people, are spiritual and medical authorities. They are familiar with medicinal plants, natural medicine, and ancient rituals.
Tchopaweecü Üegücü is a quiet and modest-looking man. He thinks he is 58 years old. His name means ‘White beak of macaws’. The Pajé sits down. His gaze seems to be directed to a place far away. “At the beginning of the pandemic, I didn’t know if I was up to the virus”, he says. “Then I dreamed of a boat on the Rio Solimões. In it sat the Lord of the disease. But I was able to push the boat back onto the river because I knew that he fears bitter medicine”.

Üegücü advised people to burn honeycombs and resin and to inhale the smoke deeply. He also advised to drink tea made from leaves and herbs. In fact, studies have found that a tea made from the leaves of the Jambu herb has a strong soothing effect on breathing difficulties such as the type that occurs with Covid-19. Around 150 people fell ill with Covid-19 in Belém, so many of them visited the Pajé. “The spirits of the sick took refuge on the rivers, and I went there to retrieve them”, he says. Two people from the village died in the hospital in Manaus. Thus, the mortality rate in Belém is far below that of Brazil as a whole.
Finally, the Pajé’s wife starts a fire to burn honeycombs and resin. Brother Paolo takes a deep breath of the smoke. To say goodbye, he hugs the Pajé. You can feel the respect and sympathy of the two men for each other. They are the religious signposts of Belém. Both give people support and orientation.

Philipp Lichterbeck/Kontinente

Little Sister Magdeleine on the way to sainthood.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

Pope Francis has approved a decree on the heroic virtues of the Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus, who – inspired by the spirituality of St Charles de Foucauld – founded the Little Sisters of Jesus. She used to say: “I am never so close to God as when I am travelling”.

Magdeleine Hutin (Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus) was born in Paris in 1898, into a family from eastern France. Her infancy was sadly marked by the First World War: her family was decimated and her village destroyed. From childhood, she wanted to give her life totally to God while from her father she learned how to love the Arabic peoples.
In 1921, she was struck by her discovery of the figure of Charles de Foucauld, reading his famous biography by the writer René Bazin. She too wanted to live a life centred upon Jesus among the Moslems and witness by her life, like Jesus of Nazareth, the love of God for humankind.However, she suffered from polio and this seemed an insurmountable obstacle to her plans until – to her great surprise – she was advised by a doctor that the only cure was to go to a country where it never rains. Consequently, in 1936 she travelled to Algeria together with her companion Anne Cadoret.

In 1939, she reached Touggourt in the heart of the Sahara, among the Tuaregs and gave her life to the Fraternity of the Little Sisters of Jesus. During her time there she wrote: “I have realised that loving friendship can co-exist with racial, cultural and social differences. They have treated me with such goodness and moving gentleness”.
Gradually, Little Sister Magdeleine understood that the vocation of this sign of the Spirit is not only to the Sahara and its nomadic populations. As a result, in 1946 the Fraternity opened up to the whole world, with a particular desire: to be present especially in places marked by hatred among nations. The Little Sisters then began to go beyond frontiers then believed impossible to cross. For example, beginning in 1956, Magdeleine succeeded in organising very discreet visits to Eastern Europe, beyond the Iron Curtain. Her mode of transport was a small van nicknamed the Shooting Star. Her aim was to comfort persecuted Christians and establish ties of friendship with all she met, of all faiths and none. In Russia, she joined in the prayers of the Orthodox Christians and many members of that Church became her close friends.

During that same period, she reached Kabul where the Little Sisters would live for sixty years (until 2017) serving in the hospitals and being “Afghans among the Afghans”. Later, when Jerusalem was divided in two by the 1948 borders and she was offered a house at the church of Saint Veronica at the VI station of the Via Dolorosa, she was extremely happy. Nevertheless, after establishing this foundation in the Arabic sector of Jerusalem, she felt the need to found a community in the Jewish sector as well, among the people on the other side of the barricade.
Eventually, she herself, together with some companion Sisters, passed through the Mandelbaum Gate, the only crossing-point in the armistice line which, until 1967, physically divided the Holy City into two rigidly separate parts. That small community opened in the heart of modern Israel would later play an important role in the life of the Vicariate of St James, the tiny Hebrew-speaking church that was reopened in Jerusalem.
Little Sister Magdeleine was a woman from all the peripheries of the world. She would say: “I am never so close to God as when I am travelling”.To her fellow Sisters she said: “All I ask of you is that you be the smile on the face of this world: if you do just this and nothing else, you will be like a small ray of sunshine entering a cold and dark room to light it up and warm it and this will be enough”.

On 8 September 1989, the Sisterhood celebrated its fiftieth year since its foundation. A short time earlier, Sister Magdeleine, now over ninety, suffered a fall. Her worn-out body never recovered fully. Her longing for Heaven was about to be granted. Her last words were: “I can wait no longer” as she departed this life on 6 November 1989.
On the day of Sister Magdeleine’s funeral, the large number of people from many different countries, of different religions and denominations, clearly showed the greatness of this woman who appeared so fragile.

To her fellow Sisters she said: “All I ask of you is that you be the smile on the face of this world”

Though Little Sister Magdeleine was always aware of her defects and her limits, repeating often throughout her life that she was just ‘a crooked tool’ in the hand of the One who led her by the hand, after her death, many people testified that they found her to be ”a friend of God’, a companion in their spiritual lives and one whose intercession they invoked in their prayers. For this reason, at the request of many friends, the Cause of her beatification was opened in 1997.
On 13 October 2021, Pope Francis authorised the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to promulgate the decree of the venerability of Little Sister Magdeleine of Jesus. It was acknowledged that she had lived, to a heroic degree, the Christian virtues. Her message lived with simplicity and love, consisting in respect for the least, the acceptance of others with their unique differences of faith, temperament or culture, is very relevant in the world of today. (G.B.)

Colombia. The Ticuna ritual called ‘Pelazón’.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

The Ticuna indigenous ethnic group is one of the most numerous in the ‘Amazonian Trapezium’ which includes the triple border of Colombia, Peru and Brazil.

The Pelazón ritual, which marks the transition from childhood to adulthood of a girl, is part of the cultural ceremonies of the Amazon community of the Ticuna people. Although some communities of this group do not perform it anymore, it has remained important to many other Ticuna people who are spread throughout the Amazonian Trapezium, as they are one of the most numerous ethnic groups in the Amazon.The Pelazón is a ritual that keeps tradition alive and that, over time, has been adapted to modern times and the new realities that the Ticuna indigenous people have experienced in the past, and are experiencing today.

When a girl has her first menstrual cycle, she is aware that she is going through an important stage of her life. In fact, she has been prepared to this event by her mother since she was very young. Following her first menstruation, each young Tikuna girl who has chosen to take part in the ritual and Pelazón ceremony to mark her transition from childhood to adulthood, will isolate herself in a small house made of palm leaves; nowadays she may stay in an isolated part of her own house. No one (other than her mother and a paternal aunt whose job is to educate her) is allowed to visit the girl. She is taught about her future responsibilities as an adult member of the tribe, and especially as a future mother. During her isolation the girl is supposed to follow a special diet. This experience is considered as a new beginning, a time for purification. Contacts with people other than her mother and her aunt would be considered as an interruption of the girl’s development process. The girl must also protect herself from the spirits of the jungle (called ngo-ogü), which try to contact her.

Photo credit: 123mn/123rf.com

The girl may remain confined from one to six months, depending on the time her family needs to get enough meat and masato (an alcoholic beverage produced from cassava) for the guests who will attend the Pelazón ceremony. Meanwhile, some community members prepare the black dye obtained from the fruit of the ‘huito’ tree (Genipa americana). This is a natural pigment used to paint the entire body of the girl as a symbol of protection. When everything is ready, the celebrations begin and the girl can be welcomed back into the tribe as a woman. Some women paint her body with the black dye. When the girl comes out of the room where she was confined, she wears a crown that is initially used to cover her eyes preventing her from seeing and she wears a dress mainly made of beautiful feathers of macaw, the common parrot, and white heron which are inserted in a yanchama cloth, which is dyed with vegetable dyes of annatto red and yellow saffron.
The women attending the ceremony offer food to the participants. Then, some dancers wearing masks, chamu’, arrive and start to dance to the flute music and the beating of the drums.

Photo credit: 123mn/123rf.com

The making of the masks is completely secret, no one but the person who makes them knows what they represent since he gets inspiration from dreams. He is the only one who decides the design and the colour of the masks. In some cases they represent the girl’s clan; other times beings of the earth, water, jungle or natural phenomena such as rain, lightning, wind, or the sun and the moon; other times they represent ants or worms, or other insects.
On the ceremony day, at the end of the afternoon, the girl’s hair is removed (hence the Spanish name ‘Pelazón’ for this ritual). Formerly, they would actually pull out the hair by hand, but currently the process is often less painful and scissors are sometimes used. This also to make the ritual more acceptable to the eyes of non-indigenous people who may consider pulling hair out by hand a rather wild practice.

While the ceremony begins with the Ticuna girl leaving isolation, it ends with the girl being carried to a lake or river. Here her mother washes her, the other participants also bathe and this marks the end of the ritual, while the party goes on with constant music, singing, dancing and drinking masato until dawn. (Open photo: People on the boat from Ticuna people – 123mn/123rf.com)

Salima Cure

The Ankole cultural spots.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

Places, legends, instruments, dances, to preserve the Ankole’s rich and diverse culture. At a glance some of these sites.

Nkokojeru tombs: these are the resting places of the Ankole’s last two kings: Mugabe Edward Solomon Kahaya II buried in 1944 and Omugabe sir Charles Godfrey Rutahaba Gasyonga II, who ruled from 1944, and who died in 1982. There are also other tombstones in this area marking the graves of other royal family members.
Igongo cultural centre: this is for the preservation of Ankole’s rich and diverse culture, and is located where Mugabe’s palace once stood.

The Igongo Cultural Centre. Photo: Daily Monitor

Itaaba Kyabanyoro: this is Ankole’s most significant cultural site for it is where the last king of the Bachwezi crafted the sacred Ankole royal drum called the Bagyendanwa. Itaaba Kyabanyoro is the birthplace of the founder of the Ankole kingdom. This drum was a sign of power and legitimacy owned by a Mugabe on the royal seat. This is in Kitagata Hot spring, whose hot springs are believed by many to have healing powers. One of the springs known as the Ekitangata ky’omugabe: it is very significant for it is believed to be the only spring which was used by the omugabe of Ankole. There is another spring known as Mulango named after the Mulango referral hospital, Uganda’s largest referral hospital.
Sanga cultural village: this cultural centre is known as the great Ankole culture and customs centre.
It lies around lake Mburo National Park and is inhabited by the Hima community of Bahima people, the Ankole cattle pastoralists.

Karegyeya Stone is an historical monument found in Kategyega Village in Ntugamo District. Photo: CC BY-NC 4.0/ Tonny Mpagi

The Karegyeya Rock: known locally as Eibare rya Karegyeya, can be found just over a mile outside of Ntungamo in Karegyeya village. The legend of the rock encompasses local traditions of the ancient Bachwezi; semi-gods who took on human appearance but did not die and simply disappeared into the underworld. They were said to be the original, traditional rulers of the empire of Kitara, a probably mythical kingdom that existed in the 14th and 15th centuries and covered parts of modern-day Uganda (including Ntungamo), Tanzania, DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi.
The Bachwezi were in turn believed to be related to the Batembuzi, a dynasty founded by Ruhanga, the creator. The last of the Batembuzi rulers, Isaza, is believed in tradition to have married and had a child with Nyamata, the daughter of the king of the underworld, Nyamiyonga. Nyamiyonga was later to seek vengeance on King Isaza for attempting to deceive him over a pact and lured him into the underworld from where he was never to return to the world of men.
The Karegyeya Rock is believed to form an entrance to this underworld and it is believed that the Bachwezi still reside down there, a legend perpetuated by rumors of fires seen at night emanating from the rocks with ashes and worldly goods scattered around them at day break. In order to keep the locals away and to prevent them from exploring the secrets of Karegyeya Rock further, another legend of a giant snake that lurks under the rock also exists.
A snake so large its belly contains a lake, a lake so large that if the rock was ever destroyed the waters from the lake would break free and devastate the surrounding areas like a dam breaking.

Ankole Long-Horned Cattle: (also known as inyambo), these have a dark brown coat and long white horns that curve outwards in the shape of a lyre. They are majestic, elegant animals, able to travel long distances in search of pasture and water.
Their horns are very impressive, almost six times longer than those of European cattle breeds). This breed continues to have a sacred role in the community of Ankole and were once considered the incarnation of divine beauty, a yardstick for women and warriors.
Ekitaguro (Ankole traditional dance): the Ankole people have their most treasured dance participated in by both women and men who dance imitating the movement of their long-horned cattle. Women dance with their arms prolonged above their head forming a symbol of two long horns of their cattle inyambo, while the men jump with vigor holding spears as they stamp the ground imitating the movement of the Ankole long horned cattle. This magnificent dance is accompanied with songs and mimes praising the cattle for providing milk and beef, and making their mooing sound and the sound of the milk pouring into the gourd. (Open Photo: © Can Stock Photo / robin_ph)

Gaaba Lucky Maria

Five proposals. So that everyone has enough food?

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

The UN Food Systems Summit was set out to review food systems to see if they ensure that the goal well defined by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, is achieved: “Build a world in which healthy and nutritious food is available and affordable for everyone, everywhere. But this should not be at the expense of nature.”

The Summit brought together ideas from leaders, businessmen, academics, producers, consumers, and environmentalists; however, not from small farmers or representatives of the hungry peoples. It was held in the context of the 76^th UN General Assembly, last September 2021. The contributions of the participants to this summit were summarized in five proposals-objectives (See the five proposals of the summit).

The first objective/response is to guarantee access to healthy and nutritious food for all 811 million people who suffer from hunger. “The most vulnerable suffer the most, not because food is scarce (the world produces enough to feed all people), but because of political and logistical factors that make it too expensive or difficult to obtain,”
said a report presented by the Program of the United Nations for Development (UNDP).

The second objective/response is to adopt sustainable consumption patterns for the 7,800 million inhabitants of the planet who suffer from malnutrition and the 1.9 billion who are overweight. For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) wants to promote a coalition between States, the private sector, and multilateral entities to guarantee the sustainable production of nutritious foods that ensure healthy diets, which implies improving transportation, storage, distribution and educate consumer families with “food values.” It should be remembered that each year more than 900 million tons of food are thrown into landfills around the world.

The third objective/proposal is to promote a respectful production of nature, based on studies and debates on the environmental and climate impact of agriculture, livestock, and fishing activity. Guterres has therefore called for “ending the war with the planet” and recalled the role of food systems in global warming: they produce a third of greenhouse gas emissions and are responsible for 80% of loss of biodiversity.

The fourth objective/proposal is the promotion of equitable livelihoods in which, according to Guterres, include the defense of agricultural producers and transport and distribution workers, in particular those who have worked during this time of the pandemic carrying food to markets and homes. “These men and women have been the forgotten heroes of the last 18 months. Too often, they are underpaid workers, even exploited, and to change this situation it is necessary to re-evaluate the approach of agricultural subsidies and employment support for these workers,” said the Secretary General.

Studies by UN agencies indicate that of the 540,000 million dollars that go into agricultural subsidies each year, 87% distort prices and promote practices that are harmful to the environment, and mainly benefit large producers, at the expense of small farmers.
And this when these small farmers who work on average less than two hectares produce a third of the food consumed worldwide, and up to 80% in regions of Africa and Asia.

The fifth objective/proposal is then the creation of resilience in the face of vulnerabilities that range from natural disasters such as floods and prolonged droughts to the persistence of pests such as African locusts and the Covid-19 crisis. In addition, there are the armed conflicts that cause the displacement of farmers and herders in areas of chronic poverty, and the sharp ups and downs in food prices. “Food systems have incredible power to end hunger, build healthier lives and sustain our beautiful planet,” said Agnes Kalibata, special envoy of the Secretary General for the Summit on Food Systems, in summary.

However, for two years, Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, has been the main promoter of this summit. During this time, in 148 countries and all over the world more than 600 meetings have been held, with the participation of some 45,000 people to update proposals aimed at sustainable food systems. So, what to say in front of this explosion of agreements?

The newspaper El Salto writes: “Food prices have risen around the world by 40% during the last year” [read the time of the pandemic]. And he explains that on the African continent, one in five people is in a situation of food insecurity.” In The New Humanitarian it is stated that: “They demand sex in exchange for food from women in Burkina Faso.”

Reading these texts, by association of ideas, one goes back to the essay El hambre (Anagrama, 2015), by the Argentine journalist Martín Caparrós, where he explains what the Chicago Stock Exchange is.

“Chicago is no longer the place where everything is bought and sold, but it is still the one that sets the prices that will later be paid and charged all over the world. The prices that will define who wins and who loses, who eats and who does not eat” (p. 287). “Before it was a market for producers and consumers, and now it has become a place for financial gambling & speculation” (p. 288).

“The history of food took an ominous turn in 1991 (…). It was the year that Goldman Sachs decided that our daily bread could be an excellent investment” (p. 289). So, “Food became an investment, like oil, gold, silver or any other action. The higher the price, the better the investment. The better the investment, the more expensive the food. And those who cannot pay the price must pay it with hunger” (p. 290).

There are no clearer quotations and, of course, as usual, the UN analyzes the problems well, makes optimal diagnoses and draws valid principles to solve the problems. However, it does not risk going to the bottom of the spring, where the earth has turned into a putrid sludge that infects the water that is then drawn, distributed and drunk. So, what’s the use of talking?

Jean Paul Pezzi

Climate migrants. The great exodus.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

The great climate migration has already begun. The number of people fleeing their birth country is expected to grow over the next thirty years, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Experts warn: governments and the international community must act now.

By 2050, at least 216 million people could be forced from their homes by the impacts of climate change. Sub-Saharan Africa alone could see as many as 86 million internal climate migrants, 4.2 percent of the total population, East Asia and the Pacific area 49 million, and South Asia 40 million. Internal climate migration is also expected to grow, though with lower but not less dramatic percentages in North Africa, Latin America and also in old Europe, especially Eastern Europe. North Africa, however, is expected to have the highest proportion of climate migrants, with 19 million people on the move, equivalent to around 9 percent of its population, mainly due to the increasing water scarcity in the north-east of Tunisia, north-west of Algeria, west and south of Morocco, and the central foothills of the Atlas.

Despite security risks, the number of migrants travelling from the Horn of Africa to Saudi Arabia through Yemen had been on the increase over the past four years. Photo: IOM.

According to the World Bank’s second Groundswell Report, such forced migrations will be inevitable if urgent action is not taken to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Especially if far-reaching initiatives, to bridge the gap between that part of the world that produces more pollution to the detriment of that other part that mainly seems to be affected by it, are not implemented.
In the next thirty years, individuals and entire communities are destined to become climate migrants who will have to face water scarcity, decreased crop productivity, and rising sea levels. Climate stress due to rising temperatures (the years 2016, 2019 and 2020 were the hottest on a global level), but also extreme events – floods, continuous rains, typhoons, long periods of drought – will cause the constant reduction of cultivable areas. Fleeing is the only option when there is no fertile land and water. However, the scenarios proposed by the study are not totally pessimistic: whoever wrote the report seems to want to send a message: ‘We still have time. It all depends on what initiatives will be taken’.

Devastating floods in Bujumbura Rural. Photo:Lauriane Wolfe, OCHA.

The number of people forced to leave their homes could be reduced by 80% – about 44 million people, which in any case are not few – if we reduced greenhouse gases, started working on truly green development projects, and planned the phases of a migration which is now impossible to contain in order at least to ensure forms of adaptation in other areas and climates.The issue of international protection laws for ‘climate migrants’ should also be addressed. And speaking of greenhouse gases, it should be remembered that five years after the Paris Agreement, the world is still dangerously on track to warm by almost 3 degrees Celsius by 2100, while we should be aiming to limit global warming to just 1.5C.
Impacts of climate change have already been observed for some time. They are destined to change the use and availability of livelihoods, and resources in rural, coastal, and urban systems in all regions. Consequently, the distribution of the population and the dynamics of mobility that have always characterized the sub-Saharan populations are also destined to change.

Over 26,000 migrants have been rescued in the desert since 2017 through IOM’s humanitarian search and rescue operations in Niger. Photo: IOM.

According to the authors of the report, it would be a big mistake to be caught unprepared, which would make the problem even bigger. For example, governments and local and international organizations should already start creating hotspots to manage exceptional migratory flows and at the same time they should devise forms of assistance for those who remain. Of course, these are transitional measures that do not take into account the enormous social impact on safety, as well as the psychological impact that migration induced by climatic events causes to the people who experience this tragedy.
Sub-Saharan Africa is more vulnerable than any other region to climate change, due to desertification, the fragile coasts – erosion is another problem – and the dependence of the population on agriculture. Despite increasing urbanization, the rural population still exceeds that of the cities. The experts also point out that many areas are not only affected by the climate change but also by other crisis factors such as conflicts, insecurity, the presence of terrorist groups, poverty, and social inequality. All these factors of social crisis would be stressed and fuelled by the climate change issue.

Climate migrants, just like the economic ones, are moving within national borders or towards neighbouring countries, and this trend is expected to continue; three migrants out of four will likely remain in their country. They will have to face many difficulties concerning migrant acceptance, assistance, or finding a job.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), conflict and disasters triggered 40.5 million new internal displacements at the end of 2020, 30.7 million as a result of disasters related to weather conditions such as storms (14.6 million), and floods (14 million). Most new displacements triggered by disasters in 2020 were recorded in East Asia and the Pacific (12.1 million) as well as South Asia (9.2 million). Tropical cyclones, monsoon rains and floods hit highly exposed areas that are home to millions of people. Moreover, now, for the first time in a generation, the quest to end poverty has suffered a setback.
Global extreme poverty rose in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years as the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic compounded the forces of conflict and climate change, which were already slowing poverty reduction progress. About 120 million additional people are living in poverty as a result of the pandemic, with the total expected to rise to about 150 million by the end of 2021.

Climate change effects on the most vulnerable populations and categories are happening faster than expected. Suffice it to say that just three years ago, the World Bank’s first Groundswell Report predicted that, by 2050, climate change would cause the migration of 143 million people (South Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa).
Juergen Voegele, vice president of the World Bank for sustainable development said: “The impacts of climate change are increasingly visible. We have just experienced the hottest decade on record, and we are witnessing extreme weather events all over the world”. Many people who had barely escaped extreme poverty could be forced back into it by the convergence of COVID-19, conflict, and climate change. (Open photo: Migrants walking in the desert. IOM/Alexander Bee)

Antonella Sinopoli

Herbs & Plants. Blighia unijugata. A Plant with a remarkable healing potentiality.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

A genus Blighia comprises only three species and is endemic in tropical Africa. It can be distinguished from the other two species by its leaflets having tufts of hairs in the axils of lateral veins. It is an indigenous tree widely distributed in the tropical forests in the Sub-Saharan Africa. It is commonly referred to as triangle top.

The plant grows to form a dense crown, usually up to 30 m in height. The bole is often quite short, usually straight, and with a girth of up to 1.80 m in diameter, slightly fluted at the base. The compound, alternate leaves are 80 to 300 mm long. The main vein of the leaf (rachis) and 40 mm stalk are both hairy. The leaflets can be found in 1(2)-4(5) opposite pairs, with the uppermost pair usually the largest. The shiny, dark green leaves are hairy and paler underneath, with wavy margins. It also has a drip tip and the midrib and veins stand out.

Photo credit: CC BY-SA 3.0/ Michael Hermann

The young leaves can be distinguished by their shine and pinkish red colour. The small, sweetly scented, whitish to yellow flowers are in spike-like, axillary sprays. When ripe, the fruits split into woody, red-lined valves to expose shiny, black seeds resting on a soft yellow base. With age, the seeds will hang from the dried capsules. It is found mostly in moist evergreen forest, but also in semi-deciduous forest, in more dry areas in riverine forest, and in wooded grassland and is often associated with termite mounds, at about 1,900 m above sea level.

The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as food, medicine and source of wood. It is sometimes grown to provide shade for coffee and is commonly planted as a shade tree.
Ethno-medicinally, Blighia unijugata (Family Sapindaceae) has been used in folk medicine to treat and manage various health conditions including rheumatism, kidney pain, stiffness, leprosy, eye aches, cough, headaches, nausea, fever, vomiting, dizziness, as well as high blood pressure. The plant has been reported to enhance childbirth process due to its oxytocic action. It is also recognized for its sedative and analgesic properties.
As an analgesic plant, it is used in treatment of rheumatism. The seed infusion is given to prevent vomiting. The concentrated decoction/infusion liquor resulting from heating or boiling the bark, is taken to treat fever, and is also used as a purgative. The bark pulp is applied as an enema. The leaf decoction is used to treat vertigo; a feeling of being in motion when not. Leaf pulp is administered as an embrocation to serve as rejuvenator and relaxant.
The leaf infusion is used in vapour baths for the treatment of fever in children, and as tonic. The leaf decoction is also used to treat fatigue. The roots are used to treat postpartum bleeding (haemorrhage) and boils. The fruits have also been used in some communities for the treatment of nausea and vomiting.

Photo credit: CC BY-NC 4.0/Wayne Fidler.

The leaves of the Blighia unijugata medicinal plant are traditionally used in the management of depressive psychosis. The numerous medicinal activities of Blighia unijugata plant may be attributed to a number of phytochemicals in it including polyphenols, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, alkanoids, sterols, polyterpenes, reduced sugar, coumarins, quinones, and cardiotonic glycosides.
Apart from its uses in traditional medicine, the leaves of Blighia unijugata can be cooked and eaten as a vegetable. The pleasantly scented flowers are sometimes soaked in water and used as a fragrance. Its other social applications are in soap making; the seeds, because of their oil content, and the seed coat because of its potash content, are burned and the ashes used in making soap. The wood of this tree is durable, with a reddish heartwood, and is used for furniture and building. Twigs, leaves, flowers and fruits are softened by soaking in a liquid and used as fish poison. (Open photo: CC BY-SA 3.0/Jerome Walker)

Richard Komakech

Uganda. Journey into the Ankole cultural heritage.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

Ankole is one of the oldest and most famous dynasties in Uganda. It is believed to have been created back in the early 15th century. The people of Ankole Kingdom are called the Banyankole and they speak a language called Runyankole.

The Banyankole are inhabits of the present-day districts of Mbarara, Bushenyi, Sheema, Ntungamo, Kiruhura, Ibanda, Mitooma, Rubirizi, Buhweju, and Isingiro situated in Western Uganda.
The Ankole community is divided into two stratified castes; the Bahima (known for pastoralism) and the Bairu (known for agriculture) who live together in the land of Ankole.

This region is located in the south-west part of the country with over 400,000 people, according to the latest Uganda Bureau of statistics. Most of the districts in this region depend mainly on agriculture as a source of food and the commercial production of tea, coffee, tea, sweet bananas and Matooke, especially in the districts of Bushenyi,
Sheema, and Isingiro.
Currently, the significant economic activity in this region is ranching for beef, and dairy farming for milk production, both widely practiced especially in districts of Ntugamo, Kiruhura, Isingiro, and Bushenyi.

The History of Ankole
Before the kingdom of Nkore’s name came to be, the Nkore land was known as Karo Karungi (‘the beautiful land’) till the 17th century when the name Nkore was adopted due to several invasions by the then powerful Omukama of the Bunyoro-Kitaara kingdom, Cwamali, which was seeking good pasture in the strategically located Karo Karungi. It’s believed that Nkore was first occupied by the agriculturalist Bairu for a very long time, who cultivated and occupied the land peacefully until the invasion of the Bahima people who are said to have come from Ethiopia. This noble pastoralist clan invaded and took over the ruling of Nkore as kings (abagabe) and chiefs forcing the Bairu to submit to them. For a very long time, the two groups of Bairu and Bahima lived peacefully with each other, with the Bairu submitting to the Bahima. However numerous they were, Bahima still remained the dominant ruling class among them.

The last Omugabe Charles Godfrey Gasyonga who ruled from 1944 till 1982.

Nkore existed as a small kingdom under the rulership of an omugabe (‘king’) till 1901 when British rulers declared Uganda a protectorate, merging the similar small kingdoms of Mpororo, Igara, Buhweju, and Busongora to Nkore. The name then changed from Nkore to Ankole to describe the now large Nkore kingdom. This made it easy for the British rulers to curtail the powers of the omugabe and control him though his titles. Dignities and dominance in the community were maintained in the traditional realm according to the customs and laws of Ankole.
Thus, with the British rule, Bairu became less marginalized.
The kingdom had a centralized administration system headed by the omugabe (king) who came from the nobility of the Bahima clan, assisted by abakuru b’ebyanga (local chiefs) and an overall appointed enganzi (prime minister). The pastoralist Hima people established a close relationship with the Iru people based on trade and symbolic recognition, though only Bahima could rule.

John Patrick Baringye was crowned as Ntare VI in November 1993. This coronation was nullified by the Ugandan government in December 1993.

The Bairu remained socially and legally inferior to Bahima with the cattle being the symbol of their power; cattle were only owned by the Bahima as the Bairu only engaged in agriculture. The two groups maintained their identities by prohibiting intermarriages and keeping their relationship based on trade. The Bahima provided milk, milk products, and beef to the Bairu and in return the latter provided agricultural products.Cattle were offered by people of Ankole to the omugabe to show their loyalty and they also gave him protection and security through military service; only Bahima men could train and serve in the army. This kept any Bairu attempt to rebel well in control.
The Ankole kingdom survived in its ceremonial form under British rule till 1967 when it was officially abolished by the then Ugandan
president Milton Obote.
The last omugabe (23rd) of the dynasty was Charles Gasyonga who ruled from 1944 till 1982 when he was then forced to abdicate and the role was abolished as part of the new constitution of the Republic of Uganda. After an interregnum lasting until 1993 with Gasyonga II who died in the interim, his son John Patrick Baringye was crowned as Ntare VI in November 1993. However, this coronation was nullified by the Ugandan government in December 1993 and the kingdom has never been restored to date. Open photo: Ankole Flag. Can Stock Photo / daniel0 (G.L.M.)

Uganda. Ekipeyos. The prayer of the elders.

Monday, 1 November 2021 8:00

Stricken by adversity a Karimojong man, a member of an ethnic group of northern Uganda, does not keep it to himself but renders the entire community participants in his sorrow. Above all, he entrusts himself to the prayers of the elders who come to his aid with a traditional community celebration called the ekipeyos.

The Ekipeyos is a traditional ceremony consisting in the slaughter of a steer to celebrate and honour the elders gathered for the traditional assembly (akiriket) or to render homage to one’s own father or mother, one’s father or mother-in-law. On other occasions, the Ekipeyos takes on a deeper, more religious meaning, becoming an invitation to the elders to pray, during their assembly, for a particular member of the community who is in difficulty.

When an individual or an entire family is stricken by adversity, sickness or death, when their flocks become a cause for deep concern or their harvest is totally inadequate, the Karimojong can do nothing but recognise and accept their impotence and turn to God to free them from their troubles.However, the Karimojong man will never address God by himself. His strong feeling of belonging to a group or a people and the unlimited confidence he has in the efficacy of the prayers of the elders move him to share his troubles with the entire community and to seek the intervention of the elders that they may be intermediaries between himself and the divinity. With this in mind, he visits the elders of his area one by one and explains his problems to them.

The ox for the sacrifice
On the established day, the elders go to the village of the person seeking their intercession who meets them in front of the corral where he has his cattle. Only men who have been initiated may participate in this ceremony. All those present sit on the ground in a circle at the centre of which is the ox chosen for the sacrifice. When they are all in their places, the person requesting the prayers stands, holding the spear in his hand and with cautious gestures he approaches the victim. With a lightning-fast and extremely precise blow of the spear, he despatches the ox which falls to the ground.

While those appointed collect the blood in special vessels, an elder (ekasikout) approaches the animal and, with a few precise strokes of the spear, opens its abdomen and extracts the stomach; taking some of its contents, he approaches the man who requested and organised the ceremony and covers his entire body with the viscous material taken from the stomach of the ox. He then repeats the operation for the male members of the unfortunate family and all those present.
Meanwhile, a young man brings a pipe and fills it with tobacco. Another lights it by placing on it some coals from a fire that has been lit in a corner of the compound. Once the pipe is prepared, the young men hand it to the elders who pass it from one to the other for ritual smoking.
A piece of flesh is then taken from below the anus of the beast (elamacar), reserved for the elders, and the servants quickly cut it into four parts. The elder presiding over the rite turns to two young men saying: “take this meat and put it on the fire”.
They carry out these orders and when the meat is sufficiently roasted, they remove it from the fire and hand it to the two most esteemed elders at the assembly who are seated in the centre of the group. These two take the four pieces of meat and give a portion to each of their two co-elders sitting beside them.

When the elders have finished eating the elamacar, those responsible hand them vessels (ngwito) full of milk. They taste it and spray some of it into the vessel used to collect the blood of the slaughtered animal. This is the traditional form of blessing and reconciliation (akimwar).
At this point, the elders call the one who has asked them to pray and tell him: “gather all your people together. Come and sit down; we will now supplicate God”. All the male members of the family gather close to elders and crouch on the ground close to the pot of blood and milk, in front of the whole assembly.
One of the more elderly men gets up from his place and begins the prayer of exorcism (akigat): “O you, a being who are evil for the cattle, for men, for this corral and this village! You, evil being, leave, get out, go far away!” To convince the assembly even more as to the efficacy of his exorcism, he directly addresses it saying: “Has the evil spirit not gone away yet?” All those present, with a very loud vocal burst, accompanied by hand gestures answer: “It has gone away, it has gone away!”
The verbal tense used in this dialogue between the elder and the assembly: the past perfect, a tense that expressed an action already finished. He is praying for the liberation from adversity that has brought down a family and now he speaks of a past experience, of something no longer present. This is the most tangible demonstration of the unlimited trust the people place in the prayer of their elders.
Using the same tone of voice, the elder continues: “Will the grain not sprout? Has it not already sprouted?” Those present respond: “Alomut!”, “It has sprouted!” “Have the cattle not come back in the evening?” “They have come back!”

Having finished the dialogue with the assembly, the elder continues speaking, using formulas of swearing and exorcism unaltered for centuries, about the presence of the Karimojong in the region, their riches and their power: “The Karimojong are present; the Ngimoru (class in power) are present; the Ngigetei (the class below the one in power) are present; the Ngimiryo (children of the Ngigetei) are present”, etc.
The akigat is a form of prayer that is truly communitarian. All those present may indeed suggest, after the imprecation formulas, their own needs and desires to the presiding elder; he interprets them and proposes them to the assembly. For example, a boy may ask the elders and the assembly to pray for him as he has lost a cow. “Will the cow lost by this boy — the elder intones — not reappear in the evening?” And the people respond: “It has been found, it has already reappeared!”

The final banquet
When the prayers are over, those taking part in the ceremony begin the closing banquet. The meat of the ox is distributed to all present, always giving precedence to the most elderly. The same is done with the mixture of milk and blood: the first to drink are the elders Ngimoru (the class in power) and then the others in descending order.

Moroto Mountain in Northern Region of Uganda.

The assembly becomes enlivened and everybody becomes busy with their portions of meat that they cut with their spears or with an egolu, a round knife held in the right hand.
By the time people disperse to go to their homes, the sun is already going down. The only person who remains in the corral is the person who asked for the prayers, convinced of the effectiveness of the mediation of the elders. He has again found peace and confidence in the future: “I am very happy and satisfied! God will help me and free me from all my troubles!” The people going to their homes are also similarly convinced and repeat to themselves: “God has heard the prayers of the elders!” (A.P.)

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