The people we live amongst are the Bagisu tribe. They are one of 48 tribes that live in Uganda. Their language apparently has Bantu roots but they have no more understanding of other Bantu related languages than I do.
The Bagisu are renown for their circumcision rite. Every two years (maybe 4) they choose the lucky boys who they assess to be ready to er,... become men. These lucky young lads are usually around 14 or so but they could be younger or older depending on their behaviour. Once they have been given the nod, they go up a mountain and think about things (There's a lot to think about... like “Why am I doing this? Do I really want to be Man?”) and then they come down to the valley where they get the ends of their private parts lopped off in a public ceremony. If they go through the process without showing any discomfort, they are highly esteemed by their people.
If I were a Bagisu, I'd act very childish for a long, long, time.
If I read between the lines correctly, this tribe is not on the ruling government's gravy train. The ruling party is mainly from the population dominant tribe called the Bugandans. Whatever the case, this is a very poor part of the country.
Everybody goes to some kind of church. There are frequent references to God and Faith in their day to day lives. They are very kind and warm hearted people and they love to have visitors like us around. It is a completely agrarian world...with the exception of a few teachers and shopkeepers. There are kids everywhere. In the 5 km to the nearest village, there are 4 primary schools all with over 500 students.
The plan for the Bagisu is to have lots of kids. Often one or two die of malaria or something so the plan is to procreate. Lots of kids also mean lots of help in doing the family chores. Most importantly, kids grow up to be adults who can look after you in the off chance that you reach old age. This kind of thinking I believe is at the heart of this country's problems.
The emphasis in families is respect for parents and discipline from the parents. This, in and of itself, is not so bad but there is no noticeable effort made to communicate love back down to the kids. They are very hard on them and don't have any time to invest in them... especially when you have 10 or so to look after on little or no salary. I know that they do love their kids. It's just not expressed through many kind words or hugs.
The above applies to the families that have stayed intact with two parents. So many kids are born outside of the family environment and so many don't have both parents or any parents, the lack of attention to the developing children creates a dysfunctional world. The children reach puberty and they are desperate for love, affection and any kind of attention. The result is lots of very young kids engaging in the intimacy of casual sex, lots of babies and lots of AIDS... which of course feeds back into the loop of more unwanted children not getting enough affection from loving parents.
Diana was teaching about sexuality and she was told that talking about abstinence and fidelity was a waste of time. She talked about it anyways because it is the real problem. AIDS is horrible but virtually all the children are effected by this pervasive and debilitating lack of attention. Maybe this sound too conservative but sorry, generations of affection deprived children is clearly much more insidious than AIDS in my opinion. I don't think we need to pull any punches about safe sex or anything... I just think the emphasis has to be on fidelity, smaller families and less... much less... sex outside of long term relationships.
The other thing is that divorce is easy as pie if you're a man. If you get tired of wife 1, you divorce her and find wife 2. There is no such thing as splitting the family assets. It all goes to the guy. Easy peasy. If you don't want to divorce, you can keep wife 1 around while you pick up wife 2 ...and 3. Polygamy is legal and acceptable here.
The girl looking after our house had a father with three wives. The first wife was taking a lot of in-law heat because she was unable to have kids. She began to look around to find a suitable wife for her man. She found one and the surprised husband was very pleased with new addition to the family. She bore him several children. The whole idea seemed very acceptable to this man so he went out and found wife number 3 ... this time without the assistance of #1 and 2. Nobody raised an eyebrow. The daughter actually seemed perplexed by our questions about the matter.
I make these wonderful people sound so strange and immoral. It's not true. They are not perfect but my ranting has more to do with my strong opinion about the source of the problem for the Bagisu (and Africa?). We are very safe here. There is an incredible sense of community. They all know each other and each others' families for miles around. They all seem to get along well in spite of living so close together with wayward chickens and cows munching on each other's property, etc... They have this thing called humility that is oh-so-foreign in our world. It is so refreshing to be living in that kind of environment. Of course they work hard... and although the women may do the majority of work, it is not so pronounced as I hear about other parts of Africa.
They are full of joy and love to laugh. Big, white smiles & unabashed laughter...it is medicine for the soul to be around them. It's also particularly wonderful for me because now I actually have found people to laugh at my jokes.
As a father of teen aged kids, I can vouch that this is has been most therapeutic indeed.
The Bagisu are renown for their circumcision rite. Every two years (maybe 4) they choose the lucky boys who they assess to be ready to er,... become men. These lucky young lads are usually around 14 or so but they could be younger or older depending on their behaviour. Once they have been given the nod, they go up a mountain and think about things (There's a lot to think about... like “Why am I doing this? Do I really want to be Man?”) and then they come down to the valley where they get the ends of their private parts lopped off in a public ceremony. If they go through the process without showing any discomfort, they are highly esteemed by their people.
If I were a Bagisu, I'd act very childish for a long, long, time.
If I read between the lines correctly, this tribe is not on the ruling government's gravy train. The ruling party is mainly from the population dominant tribe called the Bugandans. Whatever the case, this is a very poor part of the country.
Everybody goes to some kind of church. There are frequent references to God and Faith in their day to day lives. They are very kind and warm hearted people and they love to have visitors like us around. It is a completely agrarian world...with the exception of a few teachers and shopkeepers. There are kids everywhere. In the 5 km to the nearest village, there are 4 primary schools all with over 500 students.
The plan for the Bagisu is to have lots of kids. Often one or two die of malaria or something so the plan is to procreate. Lots of kids also mean lots of help in doing the family chores. Most importantly, kids grow up to be adults who can look after you in the off chance that you reach old age. This kind of thinking I believe is at the heart of this country's problems.
The emphasis in families is respect for parents and discipline from the parents. This, in and of itself, is not so bad but there is no noticeable effort made to communicate love back down to the kids. They are very hard on them and don't have any time to invest in them... especially when you have 10 or so to look after on little or no salary. I know that they do love their kids. It's just not expressed through many kind words or hugs.
The above applies to the families that have stayed intact with two parents. So many kids are born outside of the family environment and so many don't have both parents or any parents, the lack of attention to the developing children creates a dysfunctional world. The children reach puberty and they are desperate for love, affection and any kind of attention. The result is lots of very young kids engaging in the intimacy of casual sex, lots of babies and lots of AIDS... which of course feeds back into the loop of more unwanted children not getting enough affection from loving parents.
Diana was teaching about sexuality and she was told that talking about abstinence and fidelity was a waste of time. She talked about it anyways because it is the real problem. AIDS is horrible but virtually all the children are effected by this pervasive and debilitating lack of attention. Maybe this sound too conservative but sorry, generations of affection deprived children is clearly much more insidious than AIDS in my opinion. I don't think we need to pull any punches about safe sex or anything... I just think the emphasis has to be on fidelity, smaller families and less... much less... sex outside of long term relationships.
The other thing is that divorce is easy as pie if you're a man. If you get tired of wife 1, you divorce her and find wife 2. There is no such thing as splitting the family assets. It all goes to the guy. Easy peasy. If you don't want to divorce, you can keep wife 1 around while you pick up wife 2 ...and 3. Polygamy is legal and acceptable here.
The girl looking after our house had a father with three wives. The first wife was taking a lot of in-law heat because she was unable to have kids. She began to look around to find a suitable wife for her man. She found one and the surprised husband was very pleased with new addition to the family. She bore him several children. The whole idea seemed very acceptable to this man so he went out and found wife number 3 ... this time without the assistance of #1 and 2. Nobody raised an eyebrow. The daughter actually seemed perplexed by our questions about the matter.
I make these wonderful people sound so strange and immoral. It's not true. They are not perfect but my ranting has more to do with my strong opinion about the source of the problem for the Bagisu (and Africa?). We are very safe here. There is an incredible sense of community. They all know each other and each others' families for miles around. They all seem to get along well in spite of living so close together with wayward chickens and cows munching on each other's property, etc... They have this thing called humility that is oh-so-foreign in our world. It is so refreshing to be living in that kind of environment. Of course they work hard... and although the women may do the majority of work, it is not so pronounced as I hear about other parts of Africa.
They are full of joy and love to laugh. Big, white smiles & unabashed laughter...it is medicine for the soul to be around them. It's also particularly wonderful for me because now I actually have found people to laugh at my jokes.
As a father of teen aged kids, I can vouch that this is has been most therapeutic indeed.
your comment that this is a very poor part of the country could be misleading.
ReplyDeletehave you made any comparisons with places like pallisa, busoga,karamoja,bunyoro and the northern parts of uganda.
these bagisu have a chance to plenty of rain, enough water,green fresh vegetable/foods,good dispensaries,numerous primary schools with free education,telephone networks, coffee & banana plantations etc.
these people could be very poor if compared to britain or germany but can hold a better position than peple in siberia,the aborigins in australia,the bangladeshi,etc.
pse send facts and avoid showing a fair situation as too bad.
the ruling party is not dominated by bagandans, its by banyankore.
ReplyDeletethere is nothing like bagandans it is baganda.
for your info, the bagisu have 3 ministers in government,they had a mugisu speaker of parliament, there are approximately 36 undersecretaries and district commissioners. isnt that something?
Oh thanks anonymous guy,
ReplyDeleteThe Bagisu have about 14 members of parliament too. But I am left hanging when some one whose home country accepts homosexuality finds polygamy to be difficult,strange and immoral.
this monk should be suprised that our women are not gold diggers.
with all the due respect. was this study complied by all the 5monks coz it looks like it was complied from a pespective of a single person who did'nt do his research well & does'nt differenciate btn the western culture and african culture & then goes ahead to express that ignorance throught the article. i think these monks were shocked when they did'nt find gays in the bugisu villages,prostitutes, rehabilitation centers for drug addicts & stressed people, divorce cases in courts citing irrecible differences,guns,cases of people found dead in their homes, coz the bigger %of people in europe r found dead in their homes and hotels.
ReplyDeleteunderstand culture be4 expressing views
There was no study done as per zero mention of a study being done. Just an experience.
DeleteWe thank you for your compilation but at least you would have done more research on Bugisu tribe and culture we are not so poor or badly striven by life we are fair like any other Ugandan so pliz for your information we are also so much aware of the social ,political and economic standards of our country including health,we are not all illiterates so don't try to show the world that you know much about our tribe on baseless facts ,
ReplyDeleteThank you for information.
ReplyDeleteVisit us at:
www.happytoursug.com
www.happytoursafrica.blogspot.com
Paul