Female-men, male-women, and others: constructing and negotiating gender among the Baganda of Uganda

Abstract

Not all males are men and neither are all females women. A historical review of gender in Buganda confirms that gender is a construction and that the gendering process, based partly on biological factors and partly on arbitrary and cultural traits, relates dialectally with social, cultural and political forces that have shaped Buganda's society. This essay examines this history to chart the construction and negotiation of gender among Baganda from the eighteenth century. The construction of gender in the realm of royal authority within the palace will be contrasted with gender construction among Baganda commoners outside of the palace. Aspects of gender construction in relation to the Catholic church are also briefly considered. While male-dominance and man-power have remained dominant in gender relations, with female-subordinance and women-submission still apparent, these positions have not been stable over time. Baganda females have not been passive receptors of cultural dominance, but have instead challenged their position whenever opportunities have arisen. In Baganda gender constructions, boundaries have remained fluid and have shifted over time.

Keywords:

• Buganda
• kingship
• music
• dance
• gender
• homosexuality

Notes

1. Rothenberg, “Introduction,” 8.

2. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender, 18.

3. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender, 16.

4. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender, 18.

5. Miller, “Anthropology of Sex and Gender,” 4.

6. Strobel, “Women in Religion,” 88.

7. Hall, “Question of Cultural Identity,” 598.

8. Prominent male historians include Roscoe, Baganda; Kaggwa, Ekitabo Kya Bassekabka, Ekitabo kye Bika bya Buganda, Empisa za Baganda, Ekitabo kye Mpisa za Baganda; Kizito, “Ensi Muwawa Buganda,” “Kintu Anonebwa e Mangira”; Kiwanuka, A History of Buganda.

9. Wrigley, “Kinglists of Buganda,” 130.

10. Gray, “Early History of Buganda.”

11. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba : Gender, 7.

12. Pirouet, Historical Dictionary, 7.

13. Kiwanuka, History of Buganda, 95.

14. For the Kintu legend, see Roscoe, Baganda; Kaggwa, Ekitabo Kya Bassekabka, Ekitabo kye Bika bya Buganda, Empisa za Baganda, Ekitabo kye Mpisa za Baganda; Gray, “Early History of Buganda”; Cox, “Growth and Expansion”; Kiwanuka, History of Buganda; Ray, Myth, Ritual, and Kinship; Nsimbi, Amannya Amaganda.

15. See for instance, Kaggwa, Ekitabo Kya Bassekabka, Ekitabo kye Bika bya Buganda, Ekitabo kye Mpisa za Baganda; Roscoe, Baganda; Cox, “Growth and Expansion,” 19; Kiwanuka, A History of Buganda, 93.

16. Gray, “Early History of Buganda,” 260.

17. Kaggwa, Ekitabo kye Mpisa za Baganda ; Bonvillian, Women and Men, 246, reminds us that a mythological origin of a group of people and their gendering is not peculiar to the Baganda. Women's historical suffering and subordination has been attributed to Kintu's mythology, Kaggwa, Empisa za Baganda, 161. See also Kiwanuka, History of Buganda, 93. Kintu mythology has also been used to construct ideologies about gender in Buganda: Nannyonga-Tamusuza “Baakisimba: Music”, Baakisimba: Gender.

18. Kizito, “Ensi Muwawa,” 6; Musisi, “Women, ‘Elite Polygny’,” 768

19. Kizito, “Ensi Muwawa,” 6; Musisi, “Women, ‘Elite Polygny’,” 768.

20. Mutibwa, Baganda Factor, 1.

21. Musisi, “Transformation of Baganda,” 54–5.

22. Musisi, “Transformation of Baganda,”, 50–1.

23. Musisi, “Women, ‘Elite Polygny’.”

24. Gray, “Early History of Buganda,” 264; Kiwanuka, History of Buganda, 31; Nsimbi, “Clan System,” 26.

25. Nsimbi, “Clan System,” 25.

26. Nsimbi, “Clan System,”, 26.

27. Translation from Luganda into English is mine.

28. Kiwanuka , History of Buganda, 92.

29. Nsimbi, “Clan System.”

30. Nsimbi, “Clan System.”, 27.

31. Nsimbi, “Clan System.”

32. Ogundipe-Leslie, Re-Creating Ourselves, 34, reminds us that men's dominance occurs in patrilineal and matrilineal African societies alike.

33. Gramsci, Selection from the Prison.

34. Nannyonga-Tamusuza , “Baakisimba: Music”, Baakisimba: Gender.

35. Musisi, “Transformation of Baganda,” 66.

36. Faupel, African Holocaust, 9–10. There has been denial of homosexuality among the Baganda and a claim that the practice was introduced by Arabs; Kaggwa, Ekitabo kye Mpisa za Baganda, 172. See Nannyonga-Tamasuza, “Baakisimba: Music,” 90–9, for the orientalization of homosexuality.

37. Howell, The Fires; Faupel, African Holocaust; Langley, Firm in their Faith; Cullen, The Uganda Martyrs; Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender.

38. Richards, “Authority Patterns,” 268.

39. Quoted in Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender, 80.

40. Roscoe, Baganda, 187.

41. Schiller, “Royal Women,” 267.

42. Weiss, “Gender and Gender,” 23.

43. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, “Baakisimba: Music,” 80.

44. Roscoe, Baganda, 232.

45. Schiller, “Royal Women,” 459.

46. Gray, “Early History of Buganda,” 260.

47. Schiller, “Royal Women,” 458–9.

48. Musisi, “Transformation of Baganda,” 76.

49. Lebeuf, “Role of Women”; Schiller, “Royal Women.” See also Speke, Discovery, 300, 340, 376; Roscoe, Baganda, 234, 244–6, 269, 447; Kaggwa, Empisa za Baganda , 95; Fallers, King's Men, 112, 201, 208; and Wrigley, “Kinglists of Buganda,” 21.

50. Gray, “Early History of Buganda,” 261.

51. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender, 85.

52. Nsimbi, Amannya Amaganda, 35; Schiller, “Royal Women,” 460.

53. Musisi, “A Personal Journey,” 370.

54. Irstam, The King of Ganda, 23.

55. Gramsci, Selection from the Prison.

56. Gray, “Early History of Buganda,” 261.

57. Wrigley, “Kinglists of Buganda,” 178.

58. Nannono was already pregnant at the time of the king's death. Nsimbi, Amannya Amaganda, 53.

59. Sathyamurthy, Political Developments, 203–4, 207–8.

60. Richards, “Traditional Values,” 305.

61. Wards and White, East Africa: A Century, 199.

62. Mutibwa, Uganda since Independence, 11.

63. Maxon, East Africa: An Introductory, 123.

64. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, “Baakisimba: Music,” 276.

65. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender, 115.

66. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender, 116.

67. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, “Baakisimba: Music,” 73–7.

68. Walser, Luganda Proverbs, 294, no. 3272.

69. Musisi, “Transformation of Baganda,” 66–7.

70. For details, see Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender, 122–3.

71. Walser, Luganda Proverbs, 285

72. Pirouet, Historical Dictionary, 138.

73. Darlow, “Women's Education”; Bell, “Further Education”; Obbo, “Dominant Male Ideology”; Musisi, “Transformation of Baganda,” “Women, ‘Elite Polygny’”; Tamale, When Hens.

74. Waliggo, Struggle for Equality, 69.

75. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Baakisimba: Gender, 167.

76. Nannyonga-Tamusuza, “Baakisimba: Music.”

77. Tinkasimiire, “Women's Contributions”, 139.

78. Waliggo, Struggle for Equality, 7. See also Oduyoye and Kanyoro, The Will to Arise.

79. Lorber, Paradoxes of Gender, 123.