[See also previous post] Chantal told me about this so I Googled:
The Bambala, these missionaries found, regarded as special delicacies human flesh that had been buried for some days; also a large, thick, white beetle grub found in palm trees… and human blood boiled with manioc flour. The women of the tribe were forbidden to touch human flesh, but had found many ways of circumventing the tabu, and were particularly addicted to human flesh, extracted from graves and in an advanced state of decomposition.
Garry Hogg, Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice, p. 114
For various reasons, the custom was kept secret, and even members of the [Bagesu] tribe were not permitted to look on during the ceremony, which was performed by night. Yet the custom was known to all, and each family was aware of what was going on, though they never sought to watch their neighbours’ doings.
When a man died, the body was kept in the house until the evening, when the relatives who had been summoned gathered for the mourning. In some exceptional instances it took one or two days to bring the relatives together, but as a rule all was ready by the evening of the day of death, and at sunset the body was carried to the nearest waste ground and deposited there. At the same time, men of the clan hid themselves in different places round about and, as darkness deepened, they blew upon gourd horns, making a noise like the cry of jackals.
The villagers said that the jackals were coming to eat the dead, and the young people were warned not to go outside. When darkness set in, and it was felt to be safe to work without intrusion from inquisitive onlookers, a number of elderly women relatives of the dead man went to the place where the body lay, and cut it up, carrying back the pieces they wanted to the house of mourning, and leaving the remains to be devoured by wild animals.
For the next three, or sometimes four, days the relatives mourned in the house in which the death had taken place, and there they cooked and ate the flesh of the dead, destroying the bones by fire and leaving nothing. There was no ‘purification,’ or ‘shaving’ when this mourning was ended; sometimes an ox was killed for a feast when the heir was announced, but as a rule the people simply returned to their ordinary life without any ceremony. The widows, however, burned their grass girdles, and either went about naked or wore the small aprons used by unmarried girls.
John Roscoe, The Bagesu and Other Tribes of the Uganda Protectorate, The Royal Society, 1924 Read more –>
Category Archives: Friends
Spree
DM. came over this morning at 10.00 to pick up one of the workbenches that are in the spare room. I took it apart but left the bottom bit because I wasn’t sure if it could fit in the car. It would only take me another three minutes to take it apart though so it wouldn’t be a problem at all. I discussed the car with DM. because we offered them to buy it from us. It feels better to me if a friend buys the car than having to sell it to a total stranger. A. put some ads online but so far we didn’t get any serious response just a couple of emails and a weird phone call.
I’ve also built a small website with pictures of the car, it’s been visited quite often. We had an appointment this morning but the woman seemed to have canceled all of a sudden. That gave us plenty of time to reorganise this day so to us it was actually convenient. She seemed to be some weirdo anyway so we didn’t really take it serious. I took DM. for a test drive, we went to her studio to show the car to ER. her boyfriend who had a drive himself. They are both happy with it and we are happy with this solution.
We can keep the car until they’ve sold theirs and in the meantime we can still use it to move all our stuff, excellent deal hey?! We went back home and had another coffee. DM. left after half an hour or so. I then called Chantal because I promised her to bring over the espresso machine since we would be in the neighbourhood anyway. We would also have to take some stuff to CH. so on our way there we could drop off the espresso machine. So I called Chantal to tell her that we would be there in half an hour, then I called CH. to tell her that we would be at hers in 45 minutes.
We dropped off the coffee machine, Chantal was waiting for us outside the apartment block. It’s a busy road and there was nowhere to park so it was easier to do it like this. We drove to CH. and gave her all the stuff, mostly garden furniture, some PC speakers, a little bamboo table and two shelves that I took of the wall in the lounge and computer room. We stayed for an hour and had a coffee. CH. was preparing food for the BBQ party that she was going to throw on Sunday.
We went to the supermarket afterwards and bought some groceries for the weekend. Then we went to Decathlon, my favourite sports store to see if they had some flees for me. Unfortunately most of the summer stuff was already sold out but I managed to find some cool Adidas clothes. Light weight and quick drying fabric which is very handy. to take with me on holiday in a couple of weeks. So we had a busy and productive day.
I’ve thrown out so much stuff, put it all outside for the garbage truck to collect. Funny thing was that most of the stuff was gone in a couple of minutes. Francoise took my CD player, some neighbour took my laundry spinner which was perfectly fine and almost brand new, I didn’t use it anymore because my old washing machine died years ago, the one I bought after that had a built-in spinner. I cleaned out the garden and most of the kitchen. One big job needs to be done and that is sorting out my clothes…
I will save that for last because it will take me a while and I will have to pass that on to friends as well, so better wait with it… It’s not really necessary but I’d rather do it now then after the move… I’m happy to see that other people are happy with my stuff, whether they are friends or neighbours or total strangers, it feels good like that.