Thanks, Albert!

Here is a copy about the heritage in form of culture about my tribe Buganda. This part talks about the clans of buganda which include Ekima(monkey), Engo(leopards). Buganda's clan system is central to its culture. A clan represents a group of people who can trace their lineage to a common ancestor in some distant past. In the customs of Buganda, lineage is passed down along patrilineal lines. The clan essentially forms a large extended family and all members of a given clan regard each other as brothers and sisters regardless of how far removed from one another in terms of actual blood ties. The Baganda took great care to trace their ancestry through this clan structure. A formal introduction of a muganda includes his own names, the names of his father and paternal grandfather, as well as a description of the family's lineage within the clan that it belongs to. The clan has a hierarchical structure with the clan leader at the top (owakasolya), followed by successive subdivisions called the ssiga, mutuba, lunyiriri and finally at the bottom the individual family unit (enju). Every Muganda was required to know where he falls within each of these subdivisions and anyone who could not relate his ancestry fully was suspect of not being a true Muganda. If you belonged to a clan which was eaten you werenot soppossed to eat or touch it.

The Luganda Language

(part one)

The Introduction:
Luganda, the native language of the people of Buganda, developed over the centuries as a spoken language. Its written form is only as recent as the arrival of the Arab and European influence among the Baganda. It is not easy, and of course it is not within the scope of
this discussion, to trace its origins, but it is proper to assume that in a dynamic society with such well structured cultural, social, and political institutions the language must have experienced a reciprocal influence during most of the changes which the society went through over the course of its history. It was not however, until after the second half of the nineteenth century, that Luganda was first written down and appeared in print in its own right.

The first writers however, were faced with a problem since many of them were illeterate. It became an academic adventure for them, trying to correlate the linguistic features of their native languages with the sounds they were simply detecting in the Luganda words. These efforts were necessary because the task of imparting the Christian norms and social standards
of their home base to the Baganda demanded a system of communication in a medium that was natural and easily understandable in Buganda. A system of writing in vernacular was therefore developed and for the first time the Luganda word sounds were represented in alphabetical symbols.

The Coming Of Kintu

Prior to the establishment of Kintu's dynasty, the people who lived in the area that came to be known as Buganda had not been united into a single political entity. The people were organized into groups that had a common ancestry and constituted the most important unit in Buganda's culture - the clan. Despite a common language and culture, the clans were loosely autonomous. The clan leaders (Abataka) ruled over their respective clans. There was no caste system and all clans were equal. This did not preclude the fact that from time to time, the leader of one clan might be militarily stronger than the others. In such a case, the leader could establish hegemony over the
other clans for a time.

There was no generally accepted overall leader however. The leadership would pass to whoever proved his might in battle. There were times when there was no common leader at all if none of the clan leaders could overwhelm the others. Some powerful leaders who
are said to have established themselves for periods of time prior to Kintu's arrival include: Sseguku, Buwumpya, Bukokoma, Bukulu, Bandi, Beene, Ggulu, Kyebagaba, Muyizzi, Bukuku, Bukadde-Magezi, Nakirembeka, Tonda, Maganda, Mukama, and Bemba. According to the most widely accepted version of history, Bemba was the acknowledged leader at the time of Kintu's arrival.

Kintu came into Buganda as a conquering hero. It is seems that at that time, Buganda was very sparsely populated. There are said to have been a total of five clans in Buganda at that time, now called the original clans (bannansangwawo). These were the Ffumbe, Lugave, Ngeye, Nnyonyi Nnyange and Njaza clans. When Kintu invaded Buganda, he is reputed to have brought 13 clans with him. So it appears that the sheer force of numbers played a key role in Kintu being able to establish himself as king. Another factor may have been that Bemba was a harsh and ruthless ruler. His subjects were already primed to rebel against him and indeed some prominent clan leaders joined Kintu's invading force. Key among these was Mukiibi, head of the Lugave clan, who was assigned command of the invading force.

As an interesting aside, Buganda was the name of the house in which Bemba used to live. This house was located at Naggalabi, Buddo. When Bemba was defeated in battle, Kintu slept in Bemba's house as a sign of his victory. Thus Kintu became the 'ruler' of Bemba's house. This name eventually came to mean all the territory that Kintu ruled. To this day, when a new king of Buganda is crowned, the ceremony takes place at Naggalabi, to recall Kintu's victory over Bemba.

Buganda Culture

Buganda is a tribe centrally located in Uganda. It takes up the central part of Uganda holding the capital Kampala. The ancient kingdom known in the great lakes region in Africa has a wonderful culture that grew right back from the early begiinning.

Buganda is headed by a king known as the Kabaka(local name) having a royal seat called Namulondo(local).

The ancient kings are burried at kasubi tombs. A true muganda man has to put on a Kanzu(local) to show total respect to the culture as the women dress long vails covering the whole body.

For a man to have a blessed and peaceful marriage he has to pay dowery in form of food spices drinks money and many valuables to show that he can look after the girl.

Traditional healer are common in buganda and play a great role they act as doctors and are also fortune tellers.

Baganda women are not supposed to seat in a chair when the husbands are arpound this earns the women great respect in the family.

Women have to look after the family as the men go to drink though now days it's rarely practiced because of the western culture that is conquering Buganda.