They called it Kaaro Karungi – the beautiful land.
At Kabura and Nyansheko, they marvelled at the horns of the strawberry beast of Rwakitungu, She Whose Horns Are Not Stunted.
The warriors
They called it Kaaro Karungi – the beautiful land.
At Kabura and Nyansheko, they marvelled at the horns of the strawberry beast of Rwakitungu, She Whose Horns Are Not Stunted.
The warriors of the Bahima people spent their evenings reciting poetry – which reminds me of the sentiment expressed by a hard-drinking man in a Colorado bar when I asked him about the sign I had seen advertising a ‘Cowboy Poetry Evening’. Swaying a little in his spurs, he said, ‘Huh! I don’t call them men.’
It would be quite wrong however to view the Bahima men as an amateur poetry group. Their poetry was as much a part of their life as bleeding the cattle and was in the same tradition as other epic heroic literature such as the Homer’s Iliad or the Irish The Cattle-raid of Cooley. Their recitations were poetic boasts of prowess in battle and of the magnificence of their cows.
Heroic recitations followed strict rules of syntax and delivery that every male member of the clan was expected to learn. Objects such as spears were given ceremonial names and the skill of the omwevugi (composer) was to come up with a metaphor or alternative noun that was new, but which fitted the rhythm of the recitation. For instance the omwevugi might refer to a spear as enyarwanda. Ente enyarwanda is the name of a breed of cattle with particularly long spear-like horns; or he might have said amashongorwa-nyondo meaning those which have been beaten out on an anvil.
The warriors were given praise names such as Rutatiina-byoma-biiragura: He Who Does Not Fear Black Steel, and Rutashooba Runyabyoma: He Who Moves Quickly. The cattle had their own names based on their colour or the shape of their horns, but they also had praise names, such as Rutunguuta: She Whose Horns Stand Out Above The Herd.
While skirmishes and cattle raiding were common subjects for recitations, other dramas in the life of the clan were also commemorated, such as this sad lament composed in about 1918 during an outbreak of rinderpest.
It starts happily enough:
At Rwekubo near Kinanga, the herd walked proudly having killed a loaned beast.
At Byembogo, they played with the antelopes;
At Natarama, they borrowed the dress of the sorcerers;
But the mood soon darkens:
At Nyumba and Rwemiganda, they were 