Bunyoro through the Looking Glass
| Published date | 01 April 1960 |
| Date | 01 April 1960 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1960.tb00165.x |
| Author | J. H. M. Beattie |
Bunyoro
through
the
Looking
Glass
By J. H. M.
BEATTIE
How
an
African people
regard
themselves
and
their
country
after over
half
acentury
of
British administration is a
matter
of
importance.
For
the ideas
and
beliefs which people
have
about
themselves determine their social
and
political behaviour,
and
unless they are understood
much
of
what
they do
and
say is likely to be misinterpreted. Thus, misunderstanding
may
be
added
to
misunderstanding, with
unhappy
consequences.
In
acquiring this kind
of
understanding the field anthropologist has
certain
obvious advantages.
He
lives
in close
and
sustained
contact
with the local community, he knows its members
individually
and
he talks their language. Also he
can
claim asort
of
neutral.
status
if
he
can
persuade people
(and
this is
not
always easy)
that
despite
his skin colour he is neither amissionary
nor
agovernment official,
the
two
broad
classes into which, for
many
African communities, all Europeans
have
hitherto
been grouped.
During
about
two years in Bunyoro,! alarge
Bantu
kingdom
of
western
Uganda,
I
learned
a good deal
about
Nyoro attitudes to themselves
and
to
Europeans - for
them
the two themes
are
practically inseparable since present-
day
Banyoro see themselves in the historical context
of
Nyoro-European
relations. Most of my information Iobtained unsolicited in
the
course
of
inter-
views
and
informal conversations on
other
topics.
But
also, as a research
technique, Iorganized
an
essay competition, inviting literate Banyoro to
submit
texts on selected topics
and
awarding
prizes for the best.
One
topic
was
"the
state
(of
well-being)
of
the
country"
(obuTungi
bw'ensi).
Of
the
dozen or so
competitors who wrote on this theme, some of
them
teachers in mission schools,
it was
remarkable
that
not
one
considered Bunyoro's present state a
happy
one;
all extolled
the
past,
and
all disparaged
at
least some aspects
of
the present.
In
this they expressed
an
attitude
shared by almost all Banyoro. I do
not
here
concern myself
with
the
question why this
attitude
should be so widespread; to
answer it detailed
account
would have to be taken
of
Nyoro history
during
the
past century.
For
my present purpose it is enough to say
that
although
there is
little or no overt hostility
and
individual Nyoro-European relations
are
generally
good, it is, nevertheless, widely believed
that
Europeans have been
and
still
are
opposed to Banyoro
and
to Nyoro interests.
There
is, consequently, adeep fear
and
distrust
of
European
motives,
and
of
course this has been
an
important
cause of the
'apathy'
which has so irritated Europeans who
did
not
understand
the
reasons for it.
That
this underlying antagonism has never,
at
least in
recent
times, become overt,
and
that
it is, I believe, being gradually overcome, is
due
to
the
patience
and
good sense
of
responsible people
of
both
races. But
it still exists,
and
it is as well
that
it should be recognized
and
some of its causes
understood.
In
the
rest
of
this
paper
I discuss some characteristic
Nyoro
attitudes bearing, broadly, on government
and
administration,
the
economic
field,
community
and
family life,
and
the sphere
of
religion
and
magic.
Like
other
people, Banyoro often criticize
'the
government.'
For
most
peasants this means the chiefs, especially
the
higher grades;
and
it is often said
1I
carried
out
field research in Bunyoro
during
1952
and
1953
and
for a few
months
in 1955.
It
was mostly financed by the
Treasury
Committee
for Studentships in Foreign Languages
and
Cultures,
London,
whose
support
Igratefully acknowledge.
85
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