148 AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
the payment of poll-tax to-day, they accepted as part of the order of things. It was an admitted burden, but it had to be made in order that life could be carried on.
Okutoizha, or the payment of homage by the client to the Mugabe, was a source of considerable income. Here, again, the exact amount is beyond investigation. Every Muhima, upon becoming an omutoizha, or client, presented the Mugabe with from one to three head of stock, depending upon the size of his herd. Poor herdsmen who could not afford to give away cattle brought milk, butter, or calf-skins. The payment of okutoizha was made periodically and as long as a Muhima wished to be th^ Mugabe's client. Okutoizha differed from tribute in that it was freely given by the client, who believed that the protection received warranted the payment.
Although okutoizha was essentially a political instrument, a means for setting up the Mugabe-client relationship, we are here concerned with it as an economic measure, a specific institution for the maintenance of the State structure. As the cattle came to the Mugabe's kraal and were presented to him, they became his personal property; he knew the names and appearance of these cattle and knew also the increase which they constituted to his herd. The Mugabe, himself, however, did not use these cattle for his own food, but sent them to swell his herds distributed throughout the country of Ankole. For the purpose of keeping a tally upon his cattle, the Mugabe had special men called entuma, who knew exactly where every cow was stationed and from whom
it had been received.
From the purely economic standpoint, cattle received through
okutoizha formed a savings fund, a surplus upon which herdsmen in distress could draw. Any of the Mugabe's clients, when in need of cattle, could come to the Mugabe and explain his plight. A.fter carefully hearing the matter, the Mugabe would present the man with a number of cattle in order that he could establish a new herd. The number of the cattle which the Mugabe would give to a client depended upon the man's former wealth and his rela- tionship to the Mugabe. If the man had performed many services for the king, he would be given more help than if he were unknown. This differential treatment among the Mugabe's favourites was a source of ill will among the Bahima and often led to open rebel- lion on the part of dissatisfied herdsmen. It was the particular
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149
duty of the Enganzi, or favourite chief, to see that equal treatment was extended to all followers of his master.
The surplus fund of okutoizha cattle was also used by the Mugabe for making engabirano payments to servants, magicians, and other followers. Important chiefs like the war leaders (abatware), were given extensive herds by the Mugabe on their retirement. Exceptionally successful cattle-raiders were given great numbers of cattle as a reward for increasing the king's herds. The numerous marriages of the Mugabe demanded many cattle for the marriage-prices. Large feasts, before and after cattle raids, were supplied with meat from the Mugabe's herds. Finally, as hostile as the Mugabe's relations were with the neighbouring kings, there were times of peace in which the kings exchanged gifts of cattle, during which time they aided one another against other kings or rebellious subjects. The Bahima have a saying, 'Darkness makes the mountains touch', meaning that, unknown to the commoners, the kings have dealings with one another in which cattle pass from one monarch to another. Okutoizha cattle were not used for ritual purposes by the Mugabe. All cattle which he set aside for the spirits of his ancestors or to those of his emandwa or which he permitted to be used in divination came from his private herd, the enkorogyi.
Another form of economic income to the Mugabe, which was not, however, very extensive, was the payment of okutoizha by the Bairu. With the political aspects of this form of gift we shall deallater. WheneveraMwiruvisitedtheking'skraal,hewould bring with him a goat or a sheep, millet, beer, maize, beans, &c., aspresents. ThesearticlestheMugabeusedformakingpayments, especially to his Bairu diviners and sorcerers, and for feeding his largefollowingofBairuworkmenandslaves. AnyMwiru,more- over, who had consistently visited the royal kraal and made pay- ments of this kind to the Mugabe could claim his assistance if he found himself in economic distress.
Wecomefinallytoaformofincomeknownasekyitoro. Asthe name indicates, ekyitoro cattle were derived from the Abatoro, conquered herdsmen. The king's entuma, cattle collectors, went periodically among the herds of the Abatoro taking as many cattle as the king required. Very little attention was given to the needs of conquered herdsmen and very often a man's entire herd would be taken from him. The Bahima look upon the payment of ekyitoro
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as a terrible event and say that 'the entuma are like lions which attack at night when the men are drunk'. Ekyitoro was open to the worstphasesofabuseintributecollection. Theentumatookwhat they wanted, keeping many cattle for themselves and if a cattle- owner threatened the collectors with exposure to the Mugabe he was simply speared to death. The Bahima also apply the word ekyitoro to a form of compulsory tax levied upon their cattle by the Mugabe. If through disease or raid the Mugabe had lost many of his cattle, he claimed the right, as supreme protector of all the cattle herds of Ankole, to send out his entuma to bring in as many cattle as were needed in the royal kraal. I have never heard the Bahimaobjecttothislevy. Theyclaimthatthisrightwasseldom exercised by the Mugabe and was always practised with due con- sideration to the needs of the herdsmen. Ekyitoro was a royal privilege and was extended to the Mugabe's mother and sister and the mother's brothers. The greatest honour which the Mugabe
couldconferuponachiefwastherightofekyitoro. Veryfewmen received this privilege for life but many able warriors were given the right temporarily. While a man had the right of ekyitoro he could take what cattle he wished within the kingdom, excepting onlythoseoftheking. Alongwiththisprivilegewenttherightto kill any one who resisted the confiscation of his cattle. The Bahima claim that any man who had been given this right used it to damage his enemies by taking their cattle and by killing any
people who had formerly harmed him.
V. TheCultofBagyendanwa
A visitor to the royal enclosure on Kamukuzi Hill, near Mbarara, to-day would be shown an old ramshackle, mud-walled, grass- roofed hut, the shrine of Bagyendanwa. If he were to enter into the dim, smoke-grimed interior of this shrine, he would see on a raised platform or altar a number of drums surrounded by milk- pots and partly covered with bark cloth robes. Before the drums he would see a number of bleary-eyed natives squatting beside a fire which, he would be told, is never permitted to go out except upon the death of a Mugabe. A European acquainted with the
Banyankole would tell him that these drums are the royal drums of Ankole and would add that no white man has been able to solve their mystery. He would gain little, if any, insight into the true meaning of the drums to the Banyankole, the tremendous magical
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power which the natives attribute to Bagyendanwa and the part which it, along with other objects, plays in the life of the people.
Bagyendanwa is the tribal charm or fetish of the Banyankole. In the past, it is said, that at the accession ceremonies human sacrifices were made to it. 'So long as Bagyendanwa remains in Ankole,' the people say, 'so long will the country and the people prosper.' The Banyankole do not think of Bagyendanwa as a symbol of abstract unity, but as a concrete power capable of helping men in need. 'Bagyendanwa is like the Mugabe, only greater. AnkoleisthelandofBagyendanwaandwearethepeople of Bagyendanwa. The Mugabe is his servant', is the way in which a Munyankole describes the power of the drum over the king and the people.
It is difficult to understand the beliefs which the Banyankole hold about Bagyendanwa. They will deny that the drum has a soul like human beings, but will say that it can see and hear and that it knows what is going on in Ankole. The notions held about Bagyendanwa are akin to the beliefs which they hold about the magic horns of the magicians. Like these medicine-filled horns, Bagyendanwa has the power to perform acts, but, unlike these horns, the power in the drum is inherent and not due to the appli- cationofmedicines. TheBanyankolehavenospecialwordforthis power,butdescribeitasacapacitytoperformcertainacts. This
power or capacity, although inherent, can be reduced by the evil influences of men, things, and events, and the drum has, therefore, to be periodically purified and protected. Furthermore, the drum requires cattle, milk, meat, millet, and beer for its welfare. Although these offerings are given to the drum as offer ngs by indi- viduals who require its help, the Banyankole believe that the drum
must have food to remain strong. Bagyendanwa must be kept warm, so it is usually covered with a bark cloth and the fire is said to add to its comfort. Bagyendanwa is considered a male, and a female drum has been selected for him which is always kept by hisside. Attendantsmustnotspeakloudlyinthepresenceofthe drum, as he is believed to punish such levity.
The Mugabe is a Muhirfia and has the interests of the Bahima at heart; the Bairu are his serfs. Bagyendanwa is impartial. He is as much interested in the Bairu as in the Bahima. The con- quered herdsmen, Abatoro, also had the right to offer to Bagyen- danwa and used this practice as a way of getting into the good
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graces of the Mugabe as a preliminary step towards clientship. Slaves who had no legal status were barred from worshipping the royal drum. While Bagyendanwa showered his blessings upon the Bahima and the Bairu alike, he still distinguished between them. The Banyankole say that, 'the Bahima are the cattle of Bagyen- danwaandtheBairuarehisgoats'. 'TheBahimamustoffercattle and the produce of their cattle and the Bairu must offer the produce of their gardens.' Thus, while Bagyendanwa was the tribal charm, it would be untrue to say that he considered his 'children' of equal status.
The power of the drum is apparent in the activities which it performed. When a chief decided to ask a favour, or to ask for advancement from the Mugabe, he would first go to the shrine of Bagyendanwa and offer a cow. He would take the beast in person before the drum and say, 'I have brought a cow; one of the Abachwezi, they w^ho have gone before, may you take this cow, this red one of mine, one that I have herded, a clean one in the oruremho [kraal], so that the king will not refuse me, so that the king will not walk towards his nyarubuga [private quarters]'.
Once an offering had been made, a man felt encouraged to make his request. This does not mean, of course, that no other magic was resorted to, but that the offering to Bagyendanwa was an essential element in uncertain enterprises. If the request was granted, the chief would take another cow to Bagyendanwa as a thank-offering. 'I have brought you this one, my king, for you have heard me. The great ones have heard me; they shall have what I have.'
Similarly, any man undertaking a cattle raid, in the past, would always offer to Bagyendanwa, asking the drum to protect him from the spears of his enemies. 'We are making a raid for you. We are going to increase your herds. We are going to make your land strong', they would say. Not only in cattle raids would the Bahima ask for the help of the drum, but also if they were moving into another part of the country, digging a new water hole, or launching any enterprise in which there was great danger. The Bairu would also ask the drum for success when they moved to new parts, when going on a hunting trip, or beg for help when their crops failed or their children died. In the case of the Bairu, beer and millet would be offered, and if they were successful a second offering would be made to thank the drum for its solicitude.
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Not only did Bagyendanwa help people in their endeavours, but he was also believed to punish evil-doers and to avenge wrongs. If a man felt that he had been wronged by some one, but could not prove his case before the Mugabe, he would go to the drum and beseech it to punish his enemy. The common occasions for thus appealing to the drum were theft, adultery, sorcery, and slander. The Bairu, it is claimed, sought justice more often from the drum than did the Bahima, for the Mugabe was 'often deaf to the complaintsofhisserfs'. Bagyendanwapunishedpeoplebymaking them ill, letting their cattle die and by causing wild animals to destroytheircattleandcrops. Ifthroughdivinationamanfound that the drum was punishing him because he had wronged some one, he would go to the person whom he had wronged and com- pensatehimforthelossordamagehehadincurred. Sometimesthe two men who had come to terms thus would go to the shrine of Bagyendanwa and offer to him and swear by the drum not to harm eachotheragain. Suchmenwouldcontinuetooffertothedrum for some time afterwards, for, they said, 'he had brought peace wheretherehadbeenhate'. Forallrequestsandanswersofferings had to be made.
Even though nothing had gone wrong, the people would some- times take offerings to the drum in order to solicit protection against the evil devices of men and spirits and the malignant forces which every Munyankole believes to reside in the world at large and which are revealed to him through omens and signs. The wealthier a man is, the greater is the danger around him and the greater and more frequent must his offerings be to the drum. Wealthy chiefs who were envied by rivals were particularly careful to make large offerings of cattle in order that evil would not be spoken about them to the Mugabe.
Bagyendanwa is also said to induce fertility in barren women. In the past, women who had no children would take an offering to thedrumandaskittomakethemfertile. TheAbaruru,clansmen who were the drum-keepers, also had the power to induce such fertility, and upon request supplied charms made from plant medicines which had been prepared in the shrine and which con- tained powers associated with the drum. Besides having the power to induce fertility, Bagyendanwa looked with favour upon mar- riages and showered gifts upon important people after their marriagefeast. Whenthesonofachiefmarried,hewentwithhis
153
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bride to Bagyendanwa, where an omururu would show him the drum-stick, omurisyo, as a symbol of fertility and would give the groom bark cloth, milk pots, and millet. When a princess was married, the sacred spear, nyamaringa, was shown to the newly married couple and the groom would be given a cow called *cow ofthesacredspear'. Anycouplewhohadalongandsuccessful marriage with many children would go to the drum and thank it for its help and make an offering of beer and millet or a cow. Children who had been born to a couple through the goodwill of Bagyendanwa were called bene Bagyendanwa, or children of the drum. They were considered more fortunate than other children and certain to accumulate large herds and to be successful raiders.
Bagyendanwa, like the Mugabe, provided a certain amount of economic help to people in dire distress. Offerings of cattle and food accumulated at the shrine of the drum. Some of the food was consumed by the Abaruru drum-keepers and the slaves who fetched wood and water, but much of it found its way back to the peopleofAnkole. Cowsweremilked,bullcalveswereslaughtered, and the beer and millet accumulated in greater quantities than wereneededtosupplytheseattendants. Atmarriagesfoodand cattle were given away, as we have seen. But more important than these gifts of the drum were the cattle which were given to
Bahima who had lost their herds through raids or disease and the food which was given to Bairu who had suffered from crop-failure. The case of a person in distress was heard by the head drum- keeper, who decided whether the person had a just cause or not. It was said that no person was helped if he had rich relatives who could help or if he were a favourite of the Mugabe. Here, again, we see the power and importance of the Abaruru drum-keepers. They were believed to have, not only the magical power of Bagyendanwa, but also the capacity for justice and the discern- ment of human wrong and weakness. The shrine of Bagyendanwa provided a centre for the saving of surplus wealth and for the redistribution of it in times of economic stress.
It has been mentioned that the cult of Bagyendanwa acted as a unifying agent in the political organization of Ankole. How, specifically, did the drum cult perform this function? The particular teleological purposes carried out by the drum do not, in themselves, explain this integrative action. The drum, through
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its magical power, was believed to contribute to the welfare of the people as a whole, to enable individuals to rise in social posi- tion, to add to their strength in war and to the acquisition of material goods, to right wrongs and to punish evil-doers, to increase the fertility of women and cattle, and to protect men from evil powers resident in the world. But other spiritual and magical agents were also instrumental in furthering the interests and endeavours of men, such as the emandwa spirits, ghosts, sacred places, charms, and magical practices of various kinds. The power of Bagyendanzva, then, lay not so much in what the drum did, but rather in the fact that the drum did these things alone and for the entire tribe.
First of all, there was only one Bagyendanzva, while the spirit cults, the ancestor cult, magical charms, and shrines were very numerous and therefore differentiating influences. The beliefs and practices associated with these agents formed associations, it is true, but there was nothing about these groups which empha- sized and supported the unity which the political structure repre- sented. But Bagyendanzva was common to all men in Ankole as common as the land of Ankole and the king of Ankole. Its shrine was the tribal centre, where individual and tribal interests were furthered through ritual performances, and Bagyendanzva was the focus of all those beliefs which made for the well-being of men. 'Bagyendanzva is ours. We are the children of Bagyen- danzva', the Banyankole say in expressing their common aspira- tions and allegiance to a unifying agent that is at once concrete and a source of power. In the second place, Bagyendanzva belongs to Ankole and to the Banyankole. It differentiates the kingdom of Ankole from all other kingdoms. 'Bunyoro', the people say, 'has its Ruhuga; Karagwe has its Nyahatama; Ruanda has its Karinga; but Ankole has Bagyendanzjoa.' Here, again, other cults are of Uttle value as buttresses for political unity, for they extend beyond the borders of politically differentiated territories. The people of all these kingdoms had the ancestor cult, and the emandzva cult was common to Bunyoro, Toro, Karagwe, and
Ruanda. Thus while, on the one hand, the cult of Bagyendanzva formed a common centre for belief and practice in Ankole, overriding sectional beliefs and rituals, it differentiated, on the other hand, the people of Ankole from the inhabitants of neighbouring kingdoms.
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To say that the cult of Bagyendanwa supported the tribal unity is not enough in itself to show that this cult contributed to the maintenance of a particular form of political organization. Tribal cults emphasizing the unity of a group, by relating that group to its mythical origins, are common enough in Africa and elsewhere. The unity represented by Bagyendanwa was not of this general character. The drum cult was specifically a king cult. It sanc- tioned the particular complexion of political relationships which existed in Ankole by relating these relationships to their legendary origins, namely, to the Abachwezi. Bagyendanwa was the drum of the Abachwezi, and as such is concrete evidence that they once lived and founded the kingdom of Ankole. It does not matter whether the particular beliefs held about the Abachwezi are fact or fancy. The belief that the Abachwezi established the kingdom of Ankole a recognized number of generations back is to the Banyankole a fact and the belief upon which their political structure rests.
To the Banyankole, Bagyendanwa represents the Abachwezi; the Abachwezi, in turn, sum up the beliefs and values inherent in Ankole kingship. From what has been said about the functions of the drum, it has become clear that the drum performed the actions of an ideal king. Besides fulfilling the duties of leadership, the Mugabe has magical power which protects the people from evil. Thedrumhasthissamepowertoanevengreaterdegree. Both king and drum derive this power from the same source, the king by being a member of the Abahinda dynasty which links kingship by descent to the Abachwezi, the drum by being a relic of those ancient times which represent the values embodied in Banyankole kingship.
To the Banyankole, Bagyendanwa is greater than the person of the king. 'The Mugabe dies, but Bagyendanwa is always with us', they say, stressing the permanence of the drum as compared with the temporary nature of the individual ruler. The Mugabe is also the 'servant of Bagyendanwa' in that he guards it and watchesoverit. Inthesuccessionrights,asweshallsee,itisthe drum which makes the successor a Mugabe, which gives the final stamp and seal. The accession war is for the possession of the royal drum, and many Banyankole claim that if a foreign king were able to capture the royal drum he would automatically
become King of Ankole. In their tales of former wars, the
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157 Banyankole constantly stressed the importance of hiding Bagyen- danwa, so that it would not be captured. Perhaps the most con-
clusive evidence to the statement that Bagyendanwa is greater than the Mugabe is the power of the drum to provide sanctuary. If, after being condemned to death by the Mugabe, a Munyankole were able to dash to the shrine of Bagyendanwa and to touch the drumhewouldnotbekilled. TheMugabewouldforgivehim; he would be freed and given his former rights. This sanctuary was effective only in protecting a man from the death penalty and only when this sentence was passed by the Mugabe. When a father or head of a family passed such a sentence upon one of his subordinates, the drum provided no sanctuary.
VI. Succession
The emphasis which the Bahima placed upon the health, strength, and courage of the Mugabe was so extreme that it affected his tenure of office and the selection of his successor. This excessive concern about the physical virtues of the king's person is explained partly by his position as a permanent war leader, and partly by the magical powers attributed to him in his capacity as a protector of the tribe from evil influences. As has already been mentioned, no Mugabe was permitted to die of illness or of old age. As soon as his wives and followers observed signs of weakness, the Mugabe was given a poison which brought about his death. The Bahima compare the Mugabe to the leading bull in the herd. They say, 'The Mugabe is like the leading bull. When the engundu [leading bull] is beaten by a younger bull, we kill the engundu and let the strongest of the younger ones take his place'.
After the king's death a successor must be chosen. Two rules governed this choice. First, the new Mugabe must be in the royal line; second, he must be the strongest of the last king's sons. Patrilineal descent fulfilled the first requirement. The second depended upon some method by which the strength and courage of the Mugabe's sons could be tested. Primogeniture and favouritism, both important factors in the selection of a successor in the extended family of the commoners, also played their part in the royal family, but were overbalanced by the political and ritual demands of kingship. The Bahima demanded that the strongest of the king's sons should be their leader and that the
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