The mystery hill of Lugbara origin

Jul 03, 2013

Mount Wati is the highest point in the West Nile region and central to the ancestry of the Lugbara people in the area. High atop the mountain is a collection of stones sandwiched by seemingly deserted woodland.

By Richard Drasimaku

 Mount Wati is the highest point in the West Nile region and central to the ancestry of the Lugbara people in the area. High atop the mountain is a collection of stones sandwiched by seemingly deserted woodland.


This site is revered as the old gravesite of a somewhat superman that the locals have come to know as Oli Banyale, their ancestor. Not far from the legendary grave is a natural crater that the locals named Mbindri, whose waters they claim have never dried.

Standing on Otitia, the bare peak of the mountain, one is thrilled by the surrounding scenery punctuated by cone-shaped grass thatched huts, some iron-roofed houses, cultivated gardens and smaller hills and valleys.

Fascinating stories are told of this mountain and of a great interface between cultural, traditional and spiritual adventurism in the ancestral world. The bearers of these tales are people spellbound by cultural wisdom and knowledge. Oral tradition, dance and folksongs continue to transmit the ageless tales of the significant role that Mount Wati has played in the origin and evolution of most of the people living in West Nile and parts of Congo.

The mountain, estimated at 1250m above sea level, is located in Erea parish in Aii-vu sub county, Terego County. There are no set paths up the mountain. For an hour or more, one has to negotiate through steep rocks, caves, cliffs and thickets where wild foxes and venomous reptiles prowl.

Lightning strikes during rainy or cloudy weather are also common up the mountain.

According to Valente Azabo, 52, the LC1 chairman of Ayuri village, in Aii-vu Sub County, many tourists visit the place, but go back disappointed because they fail to trek up the mountain.

But for the locals living in the vicinity and lower slopes of the mountain, Wati offers vast opportunities for hunting game meat. Men and women frequent the mountain slopes with axes and machetes to harvest wood fuel, burn charcoal and get poles for building houses and hoe handles.true

Cassava and tobacco plantations are a common site on the mountain slopes, alongside other agricultural activities.

LEGEND HAS IT...

Oral tradition has it that for ages, atop the mountain, a grinding stone, four poles of a granary and a clay pot shaped like a calabash (saku), were placed on Oli Banyale’s grave.

These items symbolised the most common things that Oli Banyale used in his lifetime, according to Louis Oaja Aludi, 53, an elder from Odoa village, in Terego County.
Whenever termites destroyed the poles, elders would replace them. Visitors to the grave placed old currency coins in the saku to seek blessings from the ancestor.

However the grave is a shadow of what it is described to have been, following a series of incidents said to have happened in the early 2000s.

An unknown person is said to have stolen the saku with the thousands of coins that nearly filled it up. The suspect reportedly exchanged the coins and bought a car.true

Aludi says the theft triggered a severe drought that forced elders from across Terego County to analyse the situation and see how to make the ancestor happy again.

“We collected dokoro (a mixture of fermented maize and cassava flour) to make kwete (local beer) and slaughtered a sheep on the grave. As soon as the ritual was done and people ate and drank, heavy rains started showering and we scampered down the mountain to avoid the risk of lightning,” he narrates.

He adds that following the rituals, the thief’s new car broke down and has never been on the road again. However, this incident offended fundamentalist Christians who accused the elders of turning the grave into a place of devil worship. They stormed the area and burnt down the granary poles, destroyed the grinding stone and vandalised the previously neat grave.

Aludi says the grave can be restored, but only after a joint resolution by all elders who must also perform the accompanying rituals.

The Geneology of the Lugbara

Louis Aludi Oaja explains that the Lugbara are an offshoot of the Lui and Bari tribes who lived in Sudan together with the Kakwa. There was an Arab called Ghazal who chased them away and took their cradle land, the place that came to be known as Bar-el-Ghazal.

“We are called Terego because of our great grandfather Tere. Forced out of Bar-el-Ghazal, Tere moved to Nimule and later to Acholi in Uganda. He married an Acholi woman with whom he got two sons — Gboro and Tifoli.

“Gboro was a hunter of water animals like the hippopotamus, crocodiles and fish. One day he was hunting on a reed raft when a strong storm blew it across River Nile to the Western side.

“He did not return to Acholi, but stayed and married a Madi woman from Kanaba clan in Imvenga. They got four children: Oli, Kibira, Olu and a girl Obaru. Oli being the eldest son wielded supernatural powers and privileges of kingship that was symbolised by a bead. His first descendants are the Madi Pawor.

“During this time, an elephant came to destroy millet in the garden. Out of anger, Oli took his younger brother Kibira’s spear to try to kill the elephant, but it ran into the wilderness with the spear stuck in its side. When Kibira heard this, he demanded that Oli must bring back his spear. Oli prepared Akarafi (snacks) and set out to trace the elephant.

“On his journey, he met an old woman who offered him water to drink. She asked what he was looking for and Oli explained his quest for his brother’s spear. Incidentally, Alungaru knew where animals hurt by hunters ended up dead. She would dry their meat for food and keep the spears. She brought many spears to Oli and he identified his brother’s spear, which he returned. Later, Kubira’s child swallowed Oli’s bead and in revenge, Oli demanded the same bead. Kubira had to slit open the child’s stomach to retrieve the bead.

“Another time, Oli was going to bathe at the river when a piece of liver fell off from the talons of an eagle flying by. He picked and ate the liver. It was more delicious than any animal liver he had eaten. Oli hunted several animals for their liver, but none was as delicious as the one the eagle had dropped. Finally, he thought about killing a child and indeed the liver was exactly what he had been desperate for. He started killing children when their parents were away gardening. He would hide the bodies in cow dung.

“One day, a clever child hid under a granary to find out what was making small children disappear. Soon, he saw Oli killing a child and raised an alarm that attracted the people.

“A meeting was convened to decide Oli’s fate. They nicknamed him Banyale (the one who eats human beings) and banished him from the community,” Aludi narrates.

The legend about Oli Banyale’s journey is detailed, with his supernatural powers saving him each time he got into trouble.

At the flooded River Enyau, he could not cross, so he waited for his uncle, Rawule, to join him. They later headed to Iti (Mount Wati). When they climbed to the top of the mountain, they found a buffalo drinking water from Mbindri (the natural crater). The two killed the buffalo, but did not have fire to roast the meat. They climbed to the highest peak of the mountain from where they spotted smoke rising near the adjacent Obauji hill. Banyale sent Rawule to get the fire.

From then on, this became his base.

 

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