Catherine Namono: Uganda’s first female archaeologist
Jul 08, 2011
SHE did not hope she would become an archeaologist, until Catherine Namono went to South Africa to pursue her second masters degree in art history.
By Frank Mugabi
SHE did not hope she would become an archeaologist, until Catherine Namono went to South Africa to pursue her second masters degree in art history.
“The market was flooded with art historians. I wanted to generate new information on a virgin area, so I enrolled for another masters degree in rock art studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. That degree marked my shift from art history to archaeology,†Namono says.
After graduation, she wasted no time pursuing a PhD in her newfound passion. Namono’s graduation with a doctorate last year inked her name in the books of history as Uganda’s first female archaeologist with a PhD. Todate, she still monopolises that status.
She also became Uganda’s second archaeologist after the late Prof. David Mulindwa Kiyaga.
Namono was born to Eng. Martin Wambwa and the Joyce Apaku (RIP). For her early education, she attended Fairway Primary School in Mbale, before joining Mt. St. Mary’s Namagunga till S.4. For A’level, she attended Trinity College, Nabbingo.
She was thereafter admitted to Makerere University for a bachelors in art history. She also offered her first masters in the same field before moving to South Africa.
She says her desire to do archaeology originated from her passion to discover the meaning of rock paintings in Africa.
“When I was studying art history, I did not know that rock paintings were part of archaeology. The urge to explore more made me go for archaeology,†Namono says.
For her master’s programme, she explored a unique rock art tradition within the Bantu speakers.
She says there was rock art theme that had been linked to boys’ and girls’ initiation. The boys’ art had been covered by some archaeologists and therefore she went for the girls’ art, which was a virgin area. She did the study in the Limpopo province in South Africa.
For her PhD, Namono produced a research paper that offers a significant and substantial interpretation of some shapes in the geometric rock art collection in Uganda.
Namono is currently doing another study on pygmy rock art tradition and rock art in Kondowa in Tanzania.
Her challenge was to argue how the rock images were linked to girls’ initiation. Further findings can be got in her academic paper.
Back home, Namono found that up to 2006 rock art in Uganda had not been studied since James Chaplin did so in 1969.
Chaplin was a master’s student of archaeology who documented some sites around the Lake Victoria basin including Kondowa and Mwanza in Tanzania.
He however did not take photographs or they were never published and this formed a basis for Namono to go back and re-document the area.
“Back then James talked about eight sites that had paintings but during my survey in 2006, we found about 43 new sites,†Namono says.
Her findings significantly increased the data base on rock art in the Lake Victoria basin.
The interpretation, drawing on Pygmy ethnographies, provides a key to unlocking how Pygmy groups probably experienced their cosmos.
Focusing on Lolwe Island of Lake Victoria Nyanza, it attempts to explain the symbolism of Dumbbells and circles, demonstrating their associations in pygmy thought.
In so doing, it places Uganda rock art into a new conceptual framework stressing Pygmy authorship, unlocking aspects of geometric rock art hitherto not understood.
A researcher in rock art mainly focusing on East Africa and the Bantu speakers in Southern Africa.
SHE did not hope she would become an archeaologist, until Catherine Namono went to South Africa to pursue her second masters degree in art history.
“The market was flooded with art historians. I wanted to generate new information on a virgin area, so I enrolled for another masters degree in rock art studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. That degree marked my shift from art history to archaeology,†Namono says.
After graduation, she wasted no time pursuing a PhD in her newfound passion. Namono’s graduation with a doctorate last year inked her name in the books of history as Uganda’s first female archaeologist with a PhD. Todate, she still monopolises that status.
She also became Uganda’s second archaeologist after the late Prof. David Mulindwa Kiyaga.
Namono was born to Eng. Martin Wambwa and the Joyce Apaku (RIP). For her early education, she attended Fairway Primary School in Mbale, before joining Mt. St. Mary’s Namagunga till S.4. For A’level, she attended Trinity College, Nabbingo.
She was thereafter admitted to Makerere University for a bachelors in art history. She also offered her first masters in the same field before moving to South Africa.
She says her desire to do archaeology originated from her passion to discover the meaning of rock paintings in Africa.
“When I was studying art history, I did not know that rock paintings were part of archaeology. The urge to explore more made me go for archaeology,†Namono says.
For her master’s programme, she explored a unique rock art tradition within the Bantu speakers.
She says there was rock art theme that had been linked to boys’ and girls’ initiation. The boys’ art had been covered by some archaeologists and therefore she went for the girls’ art, which was a virgin area. She did the study in the Limpopo province in South Africa.
For her PhD, Namono produced a research paper that offers a significant and substantial interpretation of some shapes in the geometric rock art collection in Uganda.
Namono is currently doing another study on pygmy rock art tradition and rock art in Kondowa in Tanzania.
Her challenge was to argue how the rock images were linked to girls’ initiation. Further findings can be got in her academic paper.
Back home, Namono found that up to 2006 rock art in Uganda had not been studied since James Chaplin did so in 1969.
Chaplin was a master’s student of archaeology who documented some sites around the Lake Victoria basin including Kondowa and Mwanza in Tanzania.
He however did not take photographs or they were never published and this formed a basis for Namono to go back and re-document the area.
“Back then James talked about eight sites that had paintings but during my survey in 2006, we found about 43 new sites,†Namono says.
Her findings significantly increased the data base on rock art in the Lake Victoria basin.
The interpretation, drawing on Pygmy ethnographies, provides a key to unlocking how Pygmy groups probably experienced their cosmos.
Focusing on Lolwe Island of Lake Victoria Nyanza, it attempts to explain the symbolism of Dumbbells and circles, demonstrating their associations in pygmy thought.
In so doing, it places Uganda rock art into a new conceptual framework stressing Pygmy authorship, unlocking aspects of geometric rock art hitherto not understood.
A researcher in rock art mainly focusing on East Africa and the Bantu speakers in Southern Africa.