Beyond the Royal Gaze: Clanship and Public Healing in Buganda

Conclusion

conclusion In January 2007 I had the unexpected opportunity to return to Uganda for a quick, three-week visit. At the top of my list of people I wanted to contact during this short stay was Morris Ssekintu, a man who had been instrumental in the construction and curation of the Uganda Museum in the mid-1950s. An artist by training, Ssekintu designed and built many of the models that fill the museum’s interior to this day. I had actually met Ssekintu five years earlier while conducting my dissertation research, when I had spoken with him at length about the history of the Lion clan. Upon rereading the transcript of our conversation several years later, I noticed that Ssekintu had mentioned in passing that he had worked as a research assistant for Michael Nsimbi in the early 1950s. In addition to serving as an inspector of schools, Nsimbi conducted extensive research on Ganda history and culture. His e√orts culminated in the 1956 publication of Amannya Amaganda N’Ennono Zaago (Ganda names and their origins), in which Nsimbi presents a wealth of information on the origins and meanings of Ganda names as well as on the histories of Buganda’s clans. Ssekintu’s casual reference to his role as Nsimbi’s assistant, which as mentioned earlier caught my attention only several years after our conversation, led me to reconsider the circumstances surrounding the production of historical knowledge contained in the works composed by the second and third generation of literate Baganda intellectuals. Despite drawing quite extensively upon Amannya Amaganda in my work, I had not considered the process of its production nearly as closely as I had the works produced by the first generation of literate Baganda, such as Apolo Kaggwa and James Miti (see chapter 2). I therefore contacted Ssekintu in the hope that he might provide some insights into the motivation behind his and Nsimbi’s endeavors, the research process itself, and the reception of Nsimbi’s work in Ganda communities. Ever the gracious host, Ssekintu suggested that we meet at the Uganda Museum, a place in which he continues to take obvious pride given his contribution to its design and construction. After we exchanged greetings and renewed our acquaintance, I explained to Ssekintu that I was interested in learning about how he had come to assist Nsimbi in his research and about his experiences in this capacity. Ssekintu began by describing how as a young man he had honed his natural artistic talents at Makerere College, where his gifts drew the attention of Buganda’s o≈cials and eventually ∞π∏ : beyond the royal gaze resulted in their commissioning him to design Buganda’s flag.∞ A few years later he received a commission to design a display at the Uganda Museum, which at that time was located on Makerere Hill. After working for a couple of years at the East African Literature Bureau and the Coryndon Museum in Nairobi, Ssekintu returned to Uganda in 1953 to help move the Uganda Museum from Makerere Hill to its current location in a suburb of Kampala. The knowledge of early Ugandan history and culture that he displayed in constructing the models for the new museum drew the attention of Nsimbi, who eventually asked Ssekintu to assist him in his ongoing research. Ssekintu explained that he respected Nsimbi’s research methods because Nsimbi insisted on visiting a place before he spoke or wrote about it. He said that when they visited a site, ‘‘I would collect the material artifacts and Nsimbi would collect the words—the stories. The material artifacts were very important as far as the museum was concerned and the words— the information—made them even richer. They were complementary—what I did and what he did. So we joined forces.’’ Ssekintu cited as an example their visit to the Ssese Islands. A young man named Ssebaduka, who was knowledgeable in the techniques of conservation, accompanied Ssekintu and Nsimbi on this outing, during which they collected information related to the many shrine centers located on the islands. ‘‘I was of the opinion that when we found a cult still active,’’ Ssekintu recalled, ‘‘we should not take things away but rather advise people if we saw them engaging in practices that were ruining the regalia.’’ Ssekintu recollected that he, Nsimbi, and Ssebaduka found themselves in an interesting position: that of Baganda fully literate in Ganda culture who did not engage in many of the practices they were interested in documenting. In...