Respondents from Inzu ya Masaaba during the Imbalu documentation exercise at Mutoto Cultural Site in Mbale
The Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU), with support from UNESCO, is collaborating with four universities—Kyambogo University, Islamic University in Uganda, Uganda Martyrs University, and Kabale University—to document selected ICH elements to facilitate learning and research by students offering cultural heritage studies in the four universities. The documented ICH elements will be published through academic research papers by university academic staff.
From 9th to 16th, CCFU staff held meetings with university academic staff, students from the four universities as well as their attendant ICH knowledge bearer community members to brainstorm on the ICH elements for documentation. During the meetings the ICH inventorying tools were collectively reviewed and the ICH elements to be documented were selected.
At Kyambogo University, the ICH elements that were identified included indigenous funeral rites, bone setting, traditional greetings, and child-naming ceremonies among the Baganda. At IUIU in Mbale, the elements identified included the Imbalu (a male initiation rite) and its associated practices, indigenous foods and their preparation processes, traditional governance systems (such as land and clan management), and indigenous worshipping. A community meeting was held at the Mutoto cultural site (where the practice is usually launched before it spreads in other parts of Bugisu) to profile the practice of Imbalu. While at Uganda Martyrs University in Nkozi, indigenous worshipping, drum-making skills, and clan systems were some of the elements identified and prioritized for research and documentation. At Kabale University, elements such as indigenous music (ekizino, kakitaari, etc.), indigenous foods (including the making of local beer, enturire and Rwarwa), indigenous medical practices, and witchcraft (magic and native healing) were identified for documentation.
During the brainstorming sessions, the university academic staff and the ICH bearer communities realised the urgency for documenting cultural heritage given that most of the elements and their transmission mechanisms are threatened by modernity and the disconnection between young people and the elders (knowledge bearers). They further realized that elements present virgin opportunities for university students to carry out academic research to provide objective and scientific data on cultural aspects that are being ‘demonised’ in communities.
At the end of the documentation exercise by the four universities, CCFU will develop a compendium of all the university-specific research papers which shall disseminated at the national level. This compendium will not only benefit students/researchers from the four universities but will provide access to ICH-related information to local, national, and international students and researchers interested in Uganda’s diverse and living cultures.
