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Rev. K.
This would be a good idea -- may be absent of Ssenga's "supervision", unless they intend to marry off v. young girls and boys, and if some effort was made to encourage male virginity.
Actually, the Omukama is right to be concerned about the effects of AIDS. After all, it is due to infertility -- caused by the ravages of sexually transmitted diseases – that the population of Bunyoro declined from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s and eventually led to the decline of the Kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara (rather than battles with the Kingdom of Buganda, as is traditionally assumed).
Of course, like other communities, Buganda too was affected by venereal disease induced infertility – to the point that it was feared that we (Baganda), and others, would become extinct if the trend went unchecked. Like I have stated before on this forum, Mulago Hospital was founded expressly to combat venereal diseases.
This idea is set forth in a dissertation by Shane Doyle of the British Institute in Eastern Africa. If you have no time or inclination to wade through a dissertation, she has boiled down the central ideas into a paper that appeared in 2000:
POPULATION DECLINE AND DELAYED RECOVERY IN BUNYORO, 1860–1960, The Journal of African History, 41:429-458.
To pique your interest, here is the abstract:
Rapid population growth is commonly depicted as one of the greatest problems facing modern Africa. For decades, the tendency of birth rates to exceed mortality rates has prompted predictions of land shortage, resource depletion and mass starvation.
Underlying causes of high fertility are hypothesized to have been an unusually high demand for human agricultural labour, ‘traditional religious pronatalism’ and a ‘horror of barrenness’, while in some areas the later colonial period saw a shortening of the durations of post-partum sexual abstinence and lactation.
Mortality decline from the 1920s is commonly linked to the establishment of cash crop economies, networks of roads and railways, and the diffusion of western medicine, maternity facilities, missionary activity and primary education.
Yet the empirical evidence supporting this model of population growth is contradictory. Areas such as Buhaya, Buganda and Bunyoro should have experienced rapid demographic expansion by natural increase in the colonial period according to dominant theories but instead experts in the early decades of this century feared the extinction of the Haya, Ganda and Nyoro.
This paper will attempt to explain why population decline among the Nyoro was more severe than anywhere else in colonial Uganda, and probably East Africa.
Ssemakula
Joseph Kamugisha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Omw. Mujungu:While i applaud the efforts taken by the Kingdom of Bunyoro in combating HIV/AIDS in the region, i think some issues are better off when left alone.My view on the issues of "supervising" the virgin during her first sexual encounter, will end up promoting adultery, fornication and more aids in the region hence jeopardising the good intentions of fighting the disease.I'm told that in the olden days in Buganda, whenever the bride (virgin) failed to fulfill her expectations, the aunt (Ssenga) would take over and show the young lady what to do and how to do it.To me, the business of having such "supervisions" will be no different from husband/wife inheritance (okuhungura, in Rukiga) which is known to be one of the channels of spreading AIDS/HIV.Let the Kingdom leave that exercise to the potential husband and wife to do the reporting if the exercise is to be of any benefit.KamugishaAbu Senkayi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Wow! What a process!! And you get a certificate for
this?
"The process shall involve the aunt witnessing the
maiden sexual act between the bride and the groom
which will be on a white bed sheet. If blood is found
on the bed sheet, then the kingdom shall be notified
through its sub-county chief to award a certificate to
the bride, Nsamba explained."
--- Johnson Mujungu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
> Bunyoro Kingdom to give certificates to virgin
> brides
> By Francis Mugerwa
> HOIMA - The Omukama's Private Secretary, Mr
> Yoram Nsamba, has said the Bunyoro- Kitara Kingdom
> has launched a comprehensive campaign against
> HIV/Aids.
> He said this was to curb the increasing
> HIV/Aids infection rate in the kingdom.
> Nsamba was on Saturday addressing journalists
> at the kingdom's headquarters at Karuziika Palace.
>
> "Omukama Solomon Gafabusa Iguru I has noted
> that in Hoima alone there are 1,000 registered
> HIV/Aids patients and the there are high chances
> that several other infected persons are not
> registered," Nsamba said.
> He said there were reports that the situation
> in Kibaale and Masindi districts could be worse.
>
> He said the king's visit to Kibaale district
> last month was to establish task forces in the
> district to fight the disease.
> "This campaign intends to reform cultural
> practices like wife/husband inheritance, polygamy
> and early marriages which contribute to the spread
> of HIV/Aids," Nsamba said.
>
> He said the kingdom shall award certificates
> and other prizes to adult girls who are found
> virgin s at the time of marriage.
> The girl's aunt and her prospective husband
> shall be involved in gathering the proof.
>
> "The process shall involve the aunt witnessing
> the maiden sexual act between the bride and the
> groom which will be on a white bed sheet. If blood
> is found on the bed sheet, then the kingdom shall be
> notified through its sub-county chief to award a
> certificate to the bride," Nsamba explained.
>
> He said the Omukama had directed every public
> address by the kingdom officials to contain an anti-
> HIV/Aids message.
> The kingdom's Press Secretary, Mr Ford Henry
> Mirima, said the kingdom will soon publish leaflets
> and issue press releases about the project.
>
> © 2005 The Monitor Publications Ltd
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