Author Archives: Frank Musoke

Riddle – Central Uganda

Nationality: Ugandan
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: North Hills, CA
Performance Date: April 10, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Luganda

Nina       Mukyala       Wange   Agenda      kumaakya           Akomawo           kyilo

I have     wife              mine      she goes     in the morning    she comes back   night

When we were little kids, we used to engage in riddle competitions with my friends at school. All kids would pose their best riddles for everyone else to solve. Kids would often come up with the hardest riddles in order to win the contest. The winner would always be the one with that riddle that no one can solve. In one of the competitions, my friend Paddy posed the above riddle. No one around could come up with the right answer for it, which meant he (Paddy) was crowned the champion of the day. When we asked for the answer, he said that his wife was the household front door.

In his explanation of his answer, paddy said that the household front door is opened in the mourning and closed at night, which is true among the Baganda households. This, and several other Luganda riddles, is commonly heard in riddle contests, which are often between young kids of about 5 to 10 years old.

Analysis

If someone this riddle were told to someone from a different culture, it would most likely sound meaningless. That means that different cultures in most cases have different riddles. That being the case, it then means that riddles are subjective to the cultures in which they are told. That is to say:  a person from a culture dominated by coffee production is unlikely to tell riddles about car production. Riddles, therefore, can have some cultural significance. Riddles can be true, joking, catch, obscene, or oppositional depending on the type of information given in them. In the case of Charles’s riddle, it is a true riddle because all the information necessary to solve it is given.

I would also consider riddle contexts as an informal way of teaching culture to children. As Charles said, it is true that the Baganda open doors in the morning and close them at night. This means that the riddle was orally formulated to teach that particular norm to kids. It might be dramatic but when the riddle is solved for a kid, he or she is most likely to learn and remember that a door is supposed to be opened in the morning and closed at night. In a way, riddles build cultural identity. Like in this case, it teaches kids what it is like to be a member of the Baganda culture. This riddle, I think, also teaches family structure to the Baganda children.

There is a sexual orientation issue indirectly being tackled by this riddle. As we see, Nasser (a boy) tells his friends – one of them being Hamis (a boys too) – that he has a “wife.” To me this has something to say about who gets to pair up with whom in a romantic relationship. In essence, this riddle says that men marry women and not fellow men. That said, I would not be surprised to for a girl to say the same riddle but say, “I have a husband” in place of  “I have a wife.”

Folk Gang Sign – Van Nuys, California

Nationality: Ugandan
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Residence: Van Nuys, CA
Performance Date: April 15, 2008
Primary Language: English

Anthony told me that him and his gang members used flashed this sign whenever they met each other. He also told me that they could show the same sign to strangers (about their age) who seemed to them that they were from some other gang. If that stranger showed a different gang sign from theirs, then a fight could either break up or he could be warned not to walk through their territory again. He told me that the Van Nuys West side gang had just been recently found and its members were mostly high school boys. To join the gang, you had to be physically strong. He said that fights with; either existing gang members or a random rival gang member tested a new members physical strength and mental toughness.

Analysis

I have personally seen numerous gang signs including this west coast sign. However, I always saw this sign being used in another context. Most notably, Tupac Shakur in most of his videos continuously used it. Particularly, Tupac and his group “The Outlaws” used this sign several times in Tupac’s music video Hit ‘em up. The video was popular at the time when the “West coast vs. East coast” rap battle hit the top. In the battle, Tupac represented the West coast and Notorious BIG represented the East coast. The “West coast vs. East coast” battle ended with both rappers loosing their lives.

In the context of the “West coast vs. East coast” battle, the West Coast sign was used by Tupac to show his representation of the entire Western side of USA. Contrary, Simon told me that they use this sign for the Van Nuys west side gang. That reminds me of the problem of folklore ownership. If the West Coast sign were to appear in an advertisement, a movie or anything commercial, we would see various groups of people claiming its ownership. That is one of the biggest problems with folklore.  It is just too hard to trace it back to its roots. Nevertheless, folklore remains important. As Simon said, “If a stranger showed his gang members a different sign, then a fight breaks.” That shows the strength of folklore. Just a hand sign can be the difference between fighting and not fighting. It is because those kids feel that someone showing them a different gang sign is actually disrespecting their identity.  Their identity is built around that sign.

Annotation: Tupac Shakur. Hit ‘em up. Death Row records, 1996. Hit ‘em up. 4th June 1996.

Ritual – Fort Portal, Uganda

Nationality: Ugandan
Age: 26
Occupation: Student
Residence: Burbank, CA
Performance Date: April 26, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Luganda

Jail Hazing

I was incarcerated when I was seventeen years old. The policeman led to a cell full of older man of about 28years and older. When I reached the cell, one of the men – who I soon realized had a title of commander-in-chief – asked me if I had any money on me. Luckily, I had some and I gave it to him. He ordered everyone else not to touch me. In about half an hour, another inmate was walked into the cell by another guard. He was about 60years old. When the commander-in-chief asked him for money, he said he did not have any. Kenneth (the commander-in-chief) ordered other inmates to, what he called “introduce him to jail.”

They ordered him to strip butt naked. After stripping, he was ordered to bend over with his face against the wall. When he did, one of the inmates pulled out a horse pipe, which was connected to a water faucet. They opened the faucet and aimed the horse pipe to his anus. They horsed him down for a good ten minutes when the commander-in-chief ordered them to stop. I felt for this man but my remorse for him soon vanished when he welcomed the next inmate in a similar fashion. After a while, I also started welcoming younger kids of my age in the same way.

Analysis

If a humanitarian read about this brutal jail introduction process, he or she might file a big lawsuit against the jail guards. However, such introduction processes, however horrific they may seem, they often have a rather positive ending. It is this initiation process that helps an individual to understand the traditions of his new environment. In essence, we can call it an orientation process. Such practices always take place during the liminal period. A liminal period is a transition period between two stages. I can also call a liminal period a period between two different identities. Because it is a transition, it is characterized by ambiguity, openness and indeterminacy. That is why it is easy to make a 60year old man strip butt naked. He was in that susceptible stage. He was going from one identity (a freeman) to another identity (inmate). He just had to do whatever was asked of him in order to build his new identity.

Proverb – Hoima District, Eastern Uganda

Nationality: Ugandan
Age: 29
Occupation: Student
Residence: Burbank, CA
Performance Date: April 14, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Runyoro

I heard the Nyabwino legend when I was still a little kid of about 5years old.  I first heard it in a conversation between my grandmother and one her friends. I went on to hear the legend a couple of times later and I believe it is still told around Hoima district and several places of Masindi district (35 miles away). The legend goes like this: There was once a lady called Nyabwino who lived in a remote village in Masindi district. Nyabwino was married to a certain man who also had two other wives. She was the most loved lady among the three because she was the most beautiful. After a while in marriage, Nyabwino got pregnant, had a baby, and dropped it (the baby) somewhere in a garbage heap. She did that because she wanted to punish her husband for being polygamous. She went back at her husbands place from the maternity ward childless. When her husband asked for the baby, she said she had had a miscarriage. Her husband did not believe that. Consequently, he went to a local witch. The witch worked his magical powers on Nyabwino for her evil doing. The magic works and since that day, Nyabwino had been walking from Hoima district to Masindi district searching for her baby from one garbage pile to another.

Personally, I once saw a mad lady called Nyabwino both in Hoima and Masindi districts. I also saw her searching garbage piles but not sure if she was the one the legend referred to. Nevertheless, this legend was and is still commonly told by various people around the two districts. I also heard of a similar account when I was visiting my brother-in-law in Entebbe. The account was very similar except for the ladies name. Instead of “Nyabwino” they had “some lady” or a “lady.”

Analysis

Whether Nyabwino existed or not, I think this story is meant to protect male dominance in the cultures where it is told. As the story goes, Nyabwino kills her newborn baby to punish her husband for being adulterous. A person listening to the legend might feel sorry to hear that Nyabwino’s husband hurt her feelings by committing adultery. However, her reaction to her husband’s behavior would soon change the listener’s feelings. After hearing that Nyabwino killed her baby in revenge, the listener would most likely blame Nyabwino’s actions instead of her husband’s. In short, her husband’s adulterous behavior is overweighed by Nyabwino’s murderous action.

This shift from blaming a man to blaming the woman is exactly what the plot of the legend. It puts a man on the safe side. In a way, it is as if to say, men are not wrong for being adulterous. In that sense, the legend is meant to ensure stability in polygamous families.  In another way, the legend is meant to confirm and maintain male dominance at the same time male dominance maintains the legend. As we saw in the legend, a male heads the household in which Nyabwino resides and when she kills her baby, a “male” witch punishes her. As we can see here, males are taking up all the authoritative positions, which is typical of a patriarchy.

Nyabwino’s killing of her baby brings forward a gender roles issue.  The issue is: who actually owns children? Are they males’, females’, or both parties?  In the context of the legend, children are men’s and Nyabwino’s actions can be viewed as a push back to the system. It is as if to say that she kills her baby because it is not her baby but her husbands. All in all, what I am trying to say is that this legend is meant to negotiate gender issues in the societies where it is told.

Proverb – Kampala, Uganda

Nationality: Ugandan
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Residence: Van Nuys, CA
Performance Date: April 15, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Luganda

Omugaaga       Tabba             Nanzina

A rich              never has         dance style

My friend Julius used this proverb a lot. The first time I heard him say was at our high school graduation dance party. Julius was not the best of dancers around and he used this proverb for his defense. In essence he jokingly misused the proverb. The right way to use the proverb is a case where people just laugh and cheer instead blaming or booing when a rich or renowned person does something that is considered inaccurate or inappropriate by that particular society. An example is when a rapper calls his fans bitches and whores. Instead of them walking out of the show, they just continue shouting and dancing. Of course if a regular person on the street called someone a bitch or a whore, the reaction would be different.

In essence, I think that this proverb is meant to give rich – and not to mention famous individuals – power to influence the society. They can effortlessly break society norms and create their own because people believe that whatever they (the rich) do is right.

Analysis

I like Peter’s explanation of the proverb. His explanation makes it easy to relate to this proverb – especially in the American culture. In America, it is just ridiculous how the media glorifies the rich people especially movie stars and musicians. Like it or not, the rich have a very big influence on an average person’s culture. For example, it is always the movie stars that are hyped as society’s sex symbols.  Of course he or she becomes a sex symbol after he or she becomes rich and famous.

The rich and famous have such a big influence on culture that it is almost too easy for them to change our dress style. An example is the hip-hop culture today. If we did not have rappers dressing on baggy jeans, that fashion would seize to exceed. People are so obsessed with famous that they would fall for every style people do. Pamela Anderson gets a breast implant and all the little girls go around looking for surgeons because they think bigger is better. That is how much influence these famed individuals have on the people and culture at large.