Prime
A taste of beautiful scenery and culture in Rukungiri
Kuhinjira ceremony
Day 1: The river between
Off to Rukungiri my family heads, to attend a Kuhingira traditional marriage ceremony between my brother, Edwin and his fiancée, Susan. Rukungiri is a six-hour drive South West of Kampala via Masaka and Mbarara on what is arguably the worst stretch of road in Uganda. Just after Ntungamo town, on a turn to the right, do things begin to look up.
Travel enthusiasts on Facebook have noted this Ntungamo-Rukungiri stretch as one of Uganda’s more beautiful highway sceneries - imposing hills on either side of the highway, dotted with impressive houses surrounded by vast banana plantations and dairy farms whose cows graze off with bovine indifference. As far as the eye can see, it is rolling hills and farms galore! At Kahengye, a river cuts in-between two large hills as it slithers its way to the land down south, inadvertently creating a natural boundary between Ntungamo and Rukungiri. The cross-breed cows grazing on green slopes, as the river roars away in the valley, provide a rather spectacular portrait for the photography enthusiast!
Further on to Rukungiri, on either flanks of the highway, herdsmen lead their cattle back from the grazing fields, their trademark nkoni (herdsman stick) held across their shoulders. You however have to drive carefully lest you knock a goat, overfed from a day’s grazing. We drive into Rukungiri town past 8p.m. and most of it is gone to sleep. My rather overpriced hotel room is right opposite a church, where believers bellow off worship choruses in Ruhororo amidst demon-binding prayer on top of their voices in signature Pentecostal style. My body is weary with travel fatigue and soon I slip off into a serene sleep!
Day 2: A cultural affair
Its 4p.m and our entourage arrives at our host’s lovely home, set on a vast dairy farm in Buyanja-Kitoojo. The courtyard is adorned with four white tents splashed with pink decorations in rectangular format. In the centre lies a smaller tent housing the ceremony’s cake. It is highly unlikely that in the days of yore they served cake or any confectionaries for that matter, but as I am soon to discover, this is a blend of the old and new.
First the elders’ walking sticks are taken from them into the host’s home, then the “daughters of the home” - four fine belles - officially welcome us. Our hosts belong to the Abanzira/Abashambo clan of the Bahororo, whose language and culture is much like that of the Banyankore/Bakiga. In fact, from Bunyoro to Kigezi, the peoples of Western Uganda bear striking similarities in culture and language that other Ugandans labour to tell them apart, or simply refer to them as “Banyankole” - who in reality are only the largest of a dozen or so groups!
The greetings done with, next comes Entachweka, a millet non-alcoholic drink, a highly symbolic gesture of friendship between the two sides. What follows is an elaborate gift-giving ritual and then the bride is selected from a bevy of young women. At this point, two elders from our entourage rise up to deliver ikyivugo, a praise poem delivered in rapid fire fashion, while the women let off a three-phase ululation with their arms swaying in the air - a vestige of a rich but fast-fading cultural heritage! At the end of the ritual, the bride is presented with Emihingiro (gifts for the bride) including several gourds, each fashioned for some kind of milk product. The groom then, down on one knee, slips an engagement ring on the bride’s finger to cap off a splendid celebration of love, marriage and culture!
