allAfrica.com: Uganda: Bahima Not Luo; But Basoga Luo (Page 1 of 1)

In The Weekly Observer of June 5-11 2008, an article appeared on page 2 titled, 'New Research says Bahima were Luo'.

The author, Edris Kiggundu, apparently intended to justify President Museveni's claim that the Baganda, Banyoro and Batoro (royals) are Luo (not the whole tribes by the way), at the same time to refute Museveni's claim that the Banyankole (read Bahima) resisted the southward advance of the Luo invaders, thereby preventing Luo blood from entering Banyankole veins.

To me, it was for the above reasons that the author of the said article laboured to bring to light excerpts from Eric Kashambuzi's research findings.

What surprises me in the whole Luo debate is that nobody seems to want to mention that the Basoga royals are also Luo. The Isebantus are from Bulamogi clan, who are Luo in origin (from the Lamogi clan.)

As the Luo criss-crossed the Great Lakes region, one of their dominant clans, the Lamogi, moved from the Palwo area of Bunyoro (now Mutunda Sub-county) and moved across Busoga, where a small section settled and remained while the main group continued into Tororo (the Jo Pa Adhola), Western Kenya (the Jaluo, who identify themselves as the Jaramogi), and into Northern Tanzania (Mwanza area).

I might as well add here that when Barrack Obama (whose paternal ancestry is among Kenyan Luo) assumes the office of president of the United States of America on January 20, 2009; a Luo will literally rule the whole wide world, not just the small entities in the Great Lakes Region!

My interest in the Bahima-Tutsi ancestry is neither to refute President Museveni's claims, nor to support Kiggundu cum Kashambuzi's claim. Mine is just to bring another angle to the debate.

That the Bahima-Tutsi are not Bantu, but Caucasian in ancestry is widely known. That their origin is somewhere in Ethiopia or Asia is also well documented. That they are related to Ethiopians and Somalis is also evident from their physical appearance. So what is the new angle I am trying to bring?

Many years ago, as a pupil in Primary Six, I was fascinated by the story of the Bachwezi demigods (which we were told was a myth of half human, half spirit people who came, conquered and ruled the indigenous people that they found in Western Uganda).

That story continued to recur throughout my secondary and tertiary education, and obviously deepened my fascination. Even now I frequently hear of chwezi spirits which still manifest themselves and affect the lives of many people in Southwestern Uganda and Rwanda.

Why were the Bachwezi referred to as demigods? Where did they come from? Where did they go? Who did they leave behind?

I seem to find the answers to these questions in the Bible's book of Genesis (Chapters 6 and 7). Chapter six chronicles a period before the great flood (many authorities now agree that the great flood did take place) when daughters were born to men, and the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, so they married any of them they chose.

What the Bible calls "sons of god" must have been fallen angels expelled from heaven after they rebelled against their creator. They were therefore evil spirits. The result of their intermarriage with the daughters of men (mortals) produced offsprings who were not fully man, but were half men, half spirit.

Being descendants of evil spirits, they were inevitably wicked, hence the wickedness of their time, which motivated God to send a great flood to destroy all mankind.

Chapter seven [of Genesis] gives the details of the flood and how it destroyed all mankind except those sheltered in Noah's Ark by God's own appointment. Common sense tells me that the ordinary mortals would naturally drown and perish in the flood of the magnitude described in the Bible, which most authorities now agree did take place, but not the half spirit-half human creatures.

These could not drown, so they simply migrated southwards, following the line of hills and highlands of the Great Rift Valley (which stretches from Asia across the Red Sea and into East Africa). Indeed as thy moved, they left behind numerous land marks such as footprints, mweso holes, etc. Such footprints can be seen on one of the hills in Apac District at Ibuje (locally, the foot prints are known as tyen Olum, i.e. Olum's footprints - the Langi think the footprints were left by one of their great ancestral spirits called Olum).

The big question is, how could ordinary mortals walk on rock and leave footprints?

On reaching the Great Lakes region, these marauding half-human half-spirits found unsuspecting weak and disorganised peoples whom they conquered and imposed on them the Chwezi dynasty. Their intermarriage with the conquered societies is what probably resulted in the Bahima-Tutsi ethnic groups - many of whom still worship Chwezi spirits.

After centuries of their domination in the Great Lakes region, Arabs and Europeans started to penetrate the interior of Africa. These came with new and superior cultures and religions which forced the Chwezi to gradually withdraw (disappear), promising to return in future. As I write, there are increasing cases of supernatural occurrences attributed to the Chwezi spirits in Western Uganda (Ankole, Kabarole, etc).

The article also mentioned that the Langi of Northern Uganda are Luo. The truth is that the Langi are Luo only in language, but are distinctly different in stock. The Langi probably separated from the Iteso and Karimojong during the great aparanat famine in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when many of their cattle died, and people were reduced to eating a variety of wild cassava known as aparanat. The Langi are therefore very closely related to the Iteso and Karimojong, and they share the same clans; Atek (Atekit in teso and Karamoja), Arak (Irarak in Teso and Karamoja), and Okarowok (Ikaribwok in Iteso and Karamoja).

They are Nilo-Hamites, unlike the Luo who are Nilotics. It is however possible that one or two of the Bahima-Tutsi clans entered Lango and was influenced by, and assimilated into the Lango ethnic group, especially the Oyima clan of Southwestern Lango, and Oromo in the North east.

The author is a teacher of Geography & History

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