Nnalongo’s snake child
Jan 30, 2003
A set of twins means two infants, but Nnalongo Rehema Nakabugo Kabasi's second set of twins now 18 months old constitutes of a baby boy and a snake, named Wasswa and Kato respectively.
By Moses Nampala
in Kayunga
A set of twins means two infants, but Nnalongo Rehema Nakabugo Kabasi's second set of twins now 18 months old constitutes of a baby boy and a snake, named Wasswa and Kato respectively.
The preceding set of twins now aged seven, is equally strange. She says it constitutes of a girl and a leopard, Nakato and Wasswa respectively. Unfortunately both men who fathered the strange sets of twins are dead.
When she conceived, Nnalongo knew the pregnancies were very special. Before each set of twins was delivered, she would get a vision. Last Friday I traced Nnalongo and found her at her in-law's home, Musa Kawonawo in Kangulumira sub-county, Kayunga District.
The middle-age looking woman ushers us to the barely furnished living room. She introduces a healthy toddler, seated on her laps as Wasswa. We run out of the room in shock when Nnalongo calls out Kato (her snake son) to come and greet us.
“Kato where are you. Are you hungry,†she calls out as she searches for the serpent.
After a frantic ten-minute search, she finds the serpent hiding under the bed in one of the bedrooms.
Seen from a distance, with the help of a torch, Kato a sparkling black serpent, lays motionless with its head hidden under its coiled body.
When its mother calls it out in a tender voice, Kato shoots out his head, forked tongue darting.
As though threatened, the snake measuring about three feet, flattens its neck like a cobra, and hisses before gliding away into a dark shed.
“He is shy and harmless,†says Nnalongo.
“He lives on raw eggs and milk served to it on a plate once a day,†she says breaking two eggs on a clean blue plastic plate. She beats them with a spoon before disappearing into the room where the serpent is.
Nnalongo wears a sullen look on her face when she begins to recount her tribulations under the hands of the ancestral spirits of the Buganda Kingdom that caused her to give birth to the snake.
“I’m acting on instruction of the spirits that have constantly reminded me to find a way of making my woes known to the authorities at Mengo. The spirits insist that a spacious shrine be constructed for me at Lubiri in Mengo before the end of this year, lest I face more punitive pangs,†she Nnalongo reveals.
Nnalongo says that for a long time she remained adamant to the directives of the spirits until she gave birth to her first set of twins in 1997.
“Countless strange incidents have occurred to me since 1997. The incensed spirits that often speak out in the open air constantly accuse me of infidelity. They reprimand me of being promiscuous, contending that I have always given in to men who lure me.â€
The spirits contend that they chose her as their ‘bride’, when she was only seven-years-old. “They had allowed me to bare only three children with my late husband,†she says admitting to disobeying the directive of the spirits and getting more children.
“During the pregnancy I suffered untold pain. I could feel sharp objects pricking inside my belly that the experience usually followed by nausea, and I would moment's later vomit blood."
She consulted a medium who said she was carrying an extraordinary pregnancy. Later, she was rushed to Kawolo Hospital but after 48 hours of severe labour pains, the spirits advised her to return back home.
“They had warned me against resisting the demands, and threatened to kill me,†she says.
She claims to have given birth to a baby girl and 45 minutes later, a kitten (a newly born domestic cat).
"When the twins were six months old, the cat disappeared from home. Until one day, at around 1:00p.m. when he (the leopard) paid us a visit. He entered in the living room and laid on the floor like a domestic pet. He stayed around for four hours before disappearing again."
Nnalongo was married to the late Arajab Bisaso, an ex-Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) soldier who was then attached to Gulu Barracks. Bisaso a born of Bukambaga Luweero, district died in the battle in 1998.
After the death of her husband, Nnalongo paid a visit to her sister in Bukeka. That was when the late Mohammed Kayondo, the father of the youngest set of twins, saw her and lured her into an affair.
“I realised that I had conceived,†she recalls.
She admits that she had gone against the instruction of the spirits that declared immediately after the death of Bisaso that they had now repossessed her.
“There is no way you can substitute nature as a normal human being I had find some body whom I could turn to,†Nnalongo confides.
Nnalongo’s second set of twins, constantly plunges her into fright.
“Can you imagine sharing a bed with that snake (Kato)? When the twins were younger, I would often scamper out of bed in shock. But one night the incensed spirits warned to desist from the habit, reminding me that Kato was equally a child,†a resigned Nnalongo recounts.
And since that day she has painfully endured. In the evening after dinner, Nnalongo narrates, we go to bed while the serpent lays some where in the discreet areas of the house.
“But I wake up in the dead hours of the night with the ever ice-cold serpent, lying besides me,†she says tears rolling down her cheeks.
When the twins where six-months-old, the serpent would play with its twin, Wasswa.
“These days, however, Wasswa, scampers away in fright whenever his snake-brother attempts to glide on him,†she says.
Nnalongo is the daughter of the late Sentogo Mukome. He was a famous wrestler of Nakifuma, Bukunja, Mukono District. Her mother is Akiiki Kabasime.
in Kayunga
A set of twins means two infants, but Nnalongo Rehema Nakabugo Kabasi's second set of twins now 18 months old constitutes of a baby boy and a snake, named Wasswa and Kato respectively.
The preceding set of twins now aged seven, is equally strange. She says it constitutes of a girl and a leopard, Nakato and Wasswa respectively. Unfortunately both men who fathered the strange sets of twins are dead.
When she conceived, Nnalongo knew the pregnancies were very special. Before each set of twins was delivered, she would get a vision. Last Friday I traced Nnalongo and found her at her in-law's home, Musa Kawonawo in Kangulumira sub-county, Kayunga District.
The middle-age looking woman ushers us to the barely furnished living room. She introduces a healthy toddler, seated on her laps as Wasswa. We run out of the room in shock when Nnalongo calls out Kato (her snake son) to come and greet us.
“Kato where are you. Are you hungry,†she calls out as she searches for the serpent.
After a frantic ten-minute search, she finds the serpent hiding under the bed in one of the bedrooms.
Seen from a distance, with the help of a torch, Kato a sparkling black serpent, lays motionless with its head hidden under its coiled body.
When its mother calls it out in a tender voice, Kato shoots out his head, forked tongue darting.
As though threatened, the snake measuring about three feet, flattens its neck like a cobra, and hisses before gliding away into a dark shed.
“He is shy and harmless,†says Nnalongo.
“He lives on raw eggs and milk served to it on a plate once a day,†she says breaking two eggs on a clean blue plastic plate. She beats them with a spoon before disappearing into the room where the serpent is.
Nnalongo wears a sullen look on her face when she begins to recount her tribulations under the hands of the ancestral spirits of the Buganda Kingdom that caused her to give birth to the snake.
“I’m acting on instruction of the spirits that have constantly reminded me to find a way of making my woes known to the authorities at Mengo. The spirits insist that a spacious shrine be constructed for me at Lubiri in Mengo before the end of this year, lest I face more punitive pangs,†she Nnalongo reveals.
Nnalongo says that for a long time she remained adamant to the directives of the spirits until she gave birth to her first set of twins in 1997.
“Countless strange incidents have occurred to me since 1997. The incensed spirits that often speak out in the open air constantly accuse me of infidelity. They reprimand me of being promiscuous, contending that I have always given in to men who lure me.â€
The spirits contend that they chose her as their ‘bride’, when she was only seven-years-old. “They had allowed me to bare only three children with my late husband,†she says admitting to disobeying the directive of the spirits and getting more children.
“During the pregnancy I suffered untold pain. I could feel sharp objects pricking inside my belly that the experience usually followed by nausea, and I would moment's later vomit blood."
She consulted a medium who said she was carrying an extraordinary pregnancy. Later, she was rushed to Kawolo Hospital but after 48 hours of severe labour pains, the spirits advised her to return back home.
“They had warned me against resisting the demands, and threatened to kill me,†she says.
She claims to have given birth to a baby girl and 45 minutes later, a kitten (a newly born domestic cat).
"When the twins were six months old, the cat disappeared from home. Until one day, at around 1:00p.m. when he (the leopard) paid us a visit. He entered in the living room and laid on the floor like a domestic pet. He stayed around for four hours before disappearing again."
Nnalongo was married to the late Arajab Bisaso, an ex-Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) soldier who was then attached to Gulu Barracks. Bisaso a born of Bukambaga Luweero, district died in the battle in 1998.
After the death of her husband, Nnalongo paid a visit to her sister in Bukeka. That was when the late Mohammed Kayondo, the father of the youngest set of twins, saw her and lured her into an affair.
“I realised that I had conceived,†she recalls.
She admits that she had gone against the instruction of the spirits that declared immediately after the death of Bisaso that they had now repossessed her.
“There is no way you can substitute nature as a normal human being I had find some body whom I could turn to,†Nnalongo confides.
Nnalongo’s second set of twins, constantly plunges her into fright.
“Can you imagine sharing a bed with that snake (Kato)? When the twins were younger, I would often scamper out of bed in shock. But one night the incensed spirits warned to desist from the habit, reminding me that Kato was equally a child,†a resigned Nnalongo recounts.
And since that day she has painfully endured. In the evening after dinner, Nnalongo narrates, we go to bed while the serpent lays some where in the discreet areas of the house.
“But I wake up in the dead hours of the night with the ever ice-cold serpent, lying besides me,†she says tears rolling down her cheeks.
When the twins where six-months-old, the serpent would play with its twin, Wasswa.
“These days, however, Wasswa, scampers away in fright whenever his snake-brother attempts to glide on him,†she says.
Nnalongo is the daughter of the late Sentogo Mukome. He was a famous wrestler of Nakifuma, Bukunja, Mukono District. Her mother is Akiiki Kabasime.