The Bahororo People | Culture & History in Uganda
The Bahororo people are the people who settled in the Mpororo kingdom south west of Ankole, northern parts of Kigezi and some parts Rwanda. The Bahororo are mostly in the south western parts of Uganda and they can trace their roots easily from Rwanda because they are related to the Tutsi of Rwanda. They speak dialect Nkore – Kiga Ruhororo and because they don’t want to cause confusion they now refer to then selves as people from Rujumbura.
Mpororo covered the areas of Butaye now Rwanda, and Burundi, now the province of Karagwe in Tanzania, kagera south of river Katonga basin, Kooki now Rakai, Bushengerwa, the central highlands of Kigezi and Bufumbira, Butimbi, Bwera now Kabula, Masaka, Ssembabule and parts of Mubende districts and the areas along the Western Rift valley. Thats before coming to Uganda.
It also covered the areas of Buzimba present day Kitagwenda county of Kamwenge district which was also part of Mpororo
The Bahororo have a lot in common with the people of Ankole where most of them adapted the Ankole culture and inter-married with in the Ankole where the Bahima are cattle keepers and the so called Bairu who are cultivators. There so related to the Bahima of Ankole and the Banyamulengye of Rwanda who settled in Congo and adopted their culture
The Mpororo kingdom got some misunderstanding in the past between themselves and some went back to Rwanda while those who stayed inter- married with the banyankole and became commoners like Bairu.
The word Utsi was used by the Bahororo to refer the raised ground inside a hut. This was the place where visitors sat or rested. It was adjacent to the orujeje (the raised platform where the milk vessels were kept).
Bahororo under the leadership of Rwebiraro from Bashambo clan migrated to Rujumbura and established headquarters at Nyakinengo in Nyakagyeme sub-county of Rujumbura in Rukungiri district.
In Rujumbura, Bahororo found Bantu-speaking people growing food, tending short-horn cattle, goats and sheep and engaging in manufacturing activities especially iron products such as spears, axes, knives, etc.
Bahororo are mostly concentrated in the former Ankole district and Rukungiri district. They are Nilotic people who speak Bantulanguage and cousins of the Bahima Batutsi and Banyamulengyewho do not marry outside their ethnic group. They are peaceful and sedentary people, the Bantu were quickly subdued and turned into Bairu to serve the interests of their new masters. Oral traditions confirm this relationship. These people are still known as Bairu.
Their way of life
The Bahororo are basically cattle keepers and their ecoannomic activities are fishing, product manufacturing because they have a lot minerals and iron specifically which they use to produce their products. They also manage farms where they have the Bairu who work in their farms. But they are originally cattle keepers
Naming and giving birth
Giving birth was believed that if you gave birth to a boy first it called for celebration and a blessing and if it was the case of a girl born first, it was believed to be a curse because they believed a boy always has to come first. When a woman got pregnant she was supposed to go to the mothers home to give birth from there. If a woman found trouble in giving birth the husband would go with a mortar and pestle to make an alarm to the gods to help the wife and after that he would throw the motor down from the top of the roof. Present day most of them have changed with the modern life i.e. going to hospitals and others who still believe in them have continued with their norms.
The Bahororo in naming based on the situations that happened to the mother giving birth, the father’s past experience or the mother’s past experience, Kahoma means survival, Korugyendo which means she gave birth on a journey among others. They also named in accordance to what God has done for them or their love for God i.e. names like Natukunda which means God loves us, Asiimwe meaning thank you lord among others. They share their names with the Banyankole.
Cultural set up
The Bahororo stayed in grass thatched round hut with two rooms one was called the living room where they had a platform to display their milk pots and visitors were attended to there and the back room that was for other things. They used cow dung to paint it inside to make the floor
The staple food for Bahororo Karo which is millet and Eshabwe (ghee sauce) which is made out of ghee where they sometimes add roasted meat.
The Bahororo culturally dress in Mishanana like the Banyarwanda and their traditional ceremonies have the Kuhingira which is the giveaway ceremony, the kwanjula which is the introduction and the wedding just like the Banyankole.
Death and burial
The Bahororo didn’t believe that someone died of natural death; they always thought that it was witch craft and therefore they would go to a witch doctor and ask who bewitched the person who has died. They would also make special ceremonies for bachelors, spinsters and those who committed suicide.
For the case of the girl they would call a brother to come and have sex with the dead body for her not to haunt the men she once liked when she was alive so that her spirit can rest in peace.
For the bachelors would be buried with banana stems so that they feel like that they have not died alone they had a woman besides them.
For those who committed suicide they would dig up a hole on the tree you hang yourself on cause those were the common suicidal cases and they call a woman who is in her menopause to cut the rope up and you fall straight in the hole and then buried but the woman still who cut the down the rope of the person who committed suicide would be believed to be the next one to die.
But lately the bahororo burry mostly in the afternoons in either compounds or banana plantations. For those who died annoyed at anyone for because of their riches or had the urge to be rich were buried with materialistic things so that they don’t come back. This concludes with the bahororo tribe of Uganda
