CHAPTER 52
FOOD IN BUSOGA
There are many legends in connection with food in Busoga. There are legends about bananas, sweet-potatoes and other food crops but millet was and still is, excluded from these legends, apart from the story which states that Mukama had some millet with him when he journeyed through Busoga. It is said that he left some of the millet with his children who remained and settled in Busoga. This story is believed by every one of Mukama’s grandsons; but the grandsons of Kintu believe that millet was first brought into Busoga by their grandfather, Kintu.
The significance of this is that, millet was the staple food in Busoga; nobody in Busoga can dispute this statement; but it is true that after some time, millet was no longer the staple food in Busoga. This was after the discovery of bananas and sweet potatoes; the new generation, following the discovery of the new food, did not eat the millet. But when the people of Bukedi, whose food was mainly millet, came to Busoga, millet was again embraced. The people from Bukedi not only used millet for food but also brewed beer from it.
Although it has been stated above that millet was forgotten in Busoga for some time, it must be noted that millet, ever since it was first brought into Busoga, was always there and was used as food during feasts, such as wedding feasts. However, the bride was customarily fed on millet for her first meal in her husband’s house. Millet was also used to give offerings to the gods and to perform certain rituals such as the burial ceremonies, or initiating children. On such occasions, just little millet would suffice to fulfill the customs, about two or three pounds being cooked. The ritual was usually performed by the senior wife in the home. She administered the ritual by breaking the lump of millet into two halves, to which she added pieces of meat and then made offerings to the gods. Sometimes this specially prepared millet food and meat was eaten by the husband, one other senior wife and a grandson or granddaughter. The food was eaten just in front of the god’s house. No other people ate this food. Hence the truth that millet was always in use in Busoga.
When the people from Bukedi introduced beer made out of millet, those chiefs who employed these people also began drinking the millet beer (Malwa). At first, this beer was drunk in secret by the big chiefs only; the common people could not afford it; but as more and more Bakedi came into Busoga, more millet, was grown, particularly in Bulamogi, Bukono, Busiki and part of Bugabula where Bakedi people were many. The Basoga in those parts learnt how to make this beer and even made millet their staple food. By l906 - 1916, millet was widely used for food and beer in Busoga. Those Basoga people who had come into contact with Bakedi people early enough were by this time experts in brewing millet beer. The expansion of the skill of brewing this beer in Busoga was due to the migration of people from Bulamogi to other counties in 1903. This migration was most pronounced in 1905 - 1918, when Balamogi people migrated to almost every part of Busoga. The migrators taught the rest of the Basoga how to make millet beer, and also influenced people to enjoy millet as food. This was particularly so after the advent of the Europeans who introduced the cultivation of cotton and other employment which left no time to tend the banana gardens. In this setting, millet was, therefore, the easiest food crop to grow. The growth of millet was greatly encouraged by the Government which exacted a tax of 50lbs of millet annually. This was a precaution against famine and was kept in the famine granaries. Thus millet became once more the most widely grown food crop in Busoga.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE PLANTAINS
According to legends, banana plants were discovered by hunters. They found a banana tree bearing a big bunch of bananas which was ripe. They were tired and hungry so they took some of the bananas and ate them. They did not enjoy the bananas because they were strange to them. Moreover, they feared that the bananas might be poisonous and so kill them, but when they found that none them was harmed, they took the whole bunch back home with them. They also took a young banana tree and planted it. This grew and brought forth a big bunch which, when it was ripe, was eaten. Later on, when more and more people had planted banana trees in their gardens, they tried to cook the unripe bananas and eat them that way. Later on again they pealed the banana and then cooked it. When it tasted very nice. From this time people went on eating bananas as food.
The hunters who discovered the banana plants were not known, nor the country where they came from. Another story states that the discovery of bitoke (banana plants) was Mulimba, who had a brother named Bulo. These two men were great trappers of animals and had meat in their house every day. They had traps in many places and consequently trapped many kinds of animals. One day they trapped a big animal which had no head. When the trappers saw the animal they were frightened and looked for a doctor who could advise them about the extraordinary animal. They went to Kiwagama where a very wise witch-doctor named Majaji lived. They told him about the strange animal that they had trapped and he proceeded to pray to the gods for a possible meaning of the strange animal. When the answer came from the gods, Majagi advised the two trappers to go back and build a strong fence round the strange trapped animal and he instructed them not to remove it from the trap or even to touch it at all, and that after they had built the fence, they were not to go back to the place until three months had elapsed. The two trappers did as they were advised.
After the three months had elapsed, the two trappers went back to see what had happened. The fence was still in place but in the middle of the fence there had grown a number of big trees with large leaves. They came near the place but did not see the animal or its remains at all. The trap was also gone and instead stood those strange trees, which differed very slightly.
Being mystified by what they saw, the two trappers again sought advice from Majagi. told him that they had done as they had been told - that when they went back after three months they saw strange trees growing everywhere inside the fence where the trapped animal had been, but that the latter two things were nowhere to be seen. Then Majagi told the two trappers that the strange trees were known as ‘Bitoke’, that these trees bore fruit good to eat and he encouraged them to go and gather the fruit from those trees and eat them without fear. The two men went back and did so. The first fruit was from the banana tree which is used for brewing beer. They waited for it to ripen and ate the bananas. Later on the other trees bore fruit as well and the men had many bananas to eat as a result. Later on they attempted to cook some of the bananas and saw that it was nice. After some time other people also learned how to eat ‘matoke’. They transplanted some of the young trees and planted them in their gardens (‘ensuku’). The place where the strange animal was trapped and where the bitoke grew was named ‘Lukolo’. This place is in Butembe near Mutayi and it is still known as such.
THE NAMES OF FOOD CROPS
1. Amatoke — banana
2. Lumonde — sweet potatoes
3. Bulo — millet
4. Mpande - groundnuts
5. Mpindi enjeru eziribwako egobe — peas (white)
6. Mpindi empokya peas (black)
7. Enumbu — small pumpkins
8. Ebira - types of yams
9. Kasooli — maize
10. Maido — groundnuts
11. Bikajo — sugar cane
12. Nsala — runner beans -
13. Entungo — simsim
14. Muwemba — sorghum
15. Malibwa - three types of pumpkins
16. Amakobe — (Masoma Lusoga)
There are many other types of fruits.
BANANA FOOD - THE OLD METHOD OF COOKING BANANAS
First the wife harvests the bunches from the garden and brings them home, placing them where she intends to peel them. She puts them into a basket. After washing her hands she prepares some banana leaves and lays them inside another basket, into which she then places the bananas as she peels them. After that, she washes the pot and inside it she lays some banana stalks. She then puts the bananas into the pot and covers the bananas firmly with banana leaves. Then she pours one to two pints of water into the pot, lights the fire and begins cooking the food, adding more water to the pot later as necessary.
After cooking the bananas, she removes the pot from the fireplace and places it over a pad. This pad is round and is made from banana straw and dried banana leaves. The reason why the pot is placed on this pad is to protect the pot from breaking while she stirs the bananas into a thick meal. After washing the wooden spoon (‘omwiko’) she then breaks down the bananas with the spoon into a thick meal. Then the meal is divided into several lumps wrapped into specially prepared banana leaves. One lump she takes to her husband and another lump she eats with her friends, leaving the other lumps in the pot covered with banana leaves. If the husband needs more food or if the wife requires more food, they may get more out of the pot.
The spoon mentioned above is similar to a big European spoon and is made out of a tree called ‘Omukongoito’ or from ‘Omutuba’ and is as long as a golf stick. After emptying the pot, it was washed out and hung up on a rope. The spoon was also hung on the same rope.
If the wife wished to prepare a quick meal of matoke she would peel the bananas and place them in a small clean pot, the bottom of which is covered with banana leaves. She then covers the pot with banana leaves, pours water into the pot and cooks it. After cooking, she removes the pot from the fireplace and puts it on the floor; she uncovers the pot and empties all the bananas on to the banana leaves. The Lusoga name for such a meal is ‘Muswa’.
Bananas could also be cooked without peeling. In this case the wife would detach the banana from the stalk and put them into the pot, cover it with banana leaves and, after adding some water, cook it. After cooking, she would empty the bananas onto banana leaves; every one removes the tops from cooked bananas before eating. That was the third method of cooking known in Luganda as ‘Mogolwa’ and in Lusoga as ‘Nsugunyu’.
Among the cooking-type bananas, the class called ‘Namukago’, the variety known as ‘Bikono’ was never peeled before cooking; it was always cooked as ‘Nsugunyu’. The bananas of this variety are short, resembling the ‘Namaaji’ variety of the beer-type bananas called ‘Mbidde’. After a meal of ‘Nsugunyu’ the peels were always hidden away to avoid the chance of a leper spitting over them as it was believed this would spread the leprosy among the people who had eaten the food. Any one who has never suffered from leprosy would not eat ‘Bikono’ bananas lest they became re-infected.
Dried bananas known in Lusoga as ‘Buteke’ could be prepared from both the cooking and the beer types. The wife brings the banches from the garden and collects them under a shady tree. After detaching the bananas from the bunches, she leaves them there for three days, after which they are peeled and split in to two long halves each. The split bananas are then spread on a sun-table, exposing the inner surfaces to the sun. When the bananas are sufficiently dry, she collects them all into a basket and takes them home. She sweeps a patch of the courtyard and spreads the bananas on the ground for further drying. When they are completely dried they are wrapped up into a bundle which is hung on a rope inside the house.
From the bananas known as ‘Mbidde’, sweet juice and beer are made. The bunches are harvested and allowed one day in the sun to rid them of the sap. On the second day the husband prepares a hole dug out in the ground. He sweeps it out and buries fire in it with dry banana leaves. The hole which is then warm is cleared of the ashes and inside it he spreads the leaves of a plant called ‘Olugerogero’ in Luganda and more leaves from the trees known as ‘Musita’ or ‘Mpuluguma’ in Lusoga, or alternatively he puts at the bottom of the hole an old yellowing leaf (banana). He selects two of the best bunches and puts them first in the hole, splitting one of the bunches into two. He then detaches the rest of the bunches to fill up the hole before covering it up with banana leaves. After two days he uncovers the hole from early morning for four hours. Again on the third day he uncovers the hole leaving a layer of only one banana leaf over it. He leaves them uncovered for six to eight hours.
On the same day he also cuts the grass and banana leaves which he intends to use in extracting the juice, if he has not got a basket or small canoe in which to squeeze the juice. The following day the juice is extracted, and some water is added to it in proportion to the quantity of bananas. This juice is drawn away into pots, when about six more pots of water, according to the quantity of bananas, is added to the hole to produce the diluted mixture of juice which is then filtered into clean pots ready for fermenting with sorghum flour. This sorghum is roasted before it is ground into flour. The flour is then mixed into the juice in a pot or basket, which is carefully covered with banana leaves and kept overnight, when the beer is ready for drinking. When the beer is fully fermented, a small pot or calabash is first filled to be offered to the gods of the home or as an offering to the dead ancestors of the home. After this rite has been carried out, the beer is ready for drinking. The beer is then carefully filtered and filled into clean pots. The husband then gives out some of the pots to his friends to drink. During the old days it was difficult for any peasant to consume his beer without offering a pot to the village chief. This was a big offence.
The following are the rites attached to the subject of Bananas and a newly acquired acre of land.
If a man planted his banana garden, when the bananas have matured, the wife owning the garden would harvest enough bunches to make a meal for a large number of people. The husband would slaughter chickens or a goat if he was a rich man and give them to the wife to cook. The husband would then invite relatives and friends to enjoy a feast to mark the opening up of the banana garden. That night the husband was bound to sleep with the wife whose garden was being inatigurated. If it was found out that he spent the night with a different wife after the feast, the wife would take the matter before the elders and if the husband was found guilty, he would be asked to pay a fine in the form of a fowl, goat or money.
The following are the rites connected with the acquiring of fresh land. A man, on acquiring a fresh piece of land, his first wife known as Kadulubaale’ would harvest one bunch from their banana garden and take it to the husband’s father to ask him to implore the gods to bless the new land. At this time the husband spends the night with his first wife known as ‘Kaidu’in Lusoga. Any breach of this custom was treated in the same way as in the opening of a new banana garden.
Bananas of the variety known as ‘Gonja’ are prepared in the following manner : — If it is intended to eat them roasted, after removing the peels (with bare hands), the bananas are dried over red-hot charcoal and after drying, they are buried inside hot ash. When it is properly roasted, it is cleared of the ashes and then is ready for eating. Alternatively, the gonja may be roasted before removing the peels. When the -peels are removed, the gonja may then be dried near a fire for a short time before being covered under hot ashes for the final roasting, after which they are ready for eating.
Ripe gonja may be roasted by covering it under burning fire in the fireplace before or after peeling. Ripe or unripe gonja may be peeled and then steamed and may be eaten with a little salt, added to taste. Ripe gonja, if not consumed at once, may be preserved by drying in the sun, when it can be kept for about three days and eaten as required, just as the European keeps his bread.
Gonja is sometimes cut up and made into mutere by drying in the sun. When dried, it is as sweet as the mutere made out of other types of ripe bananas. It is so sweet that it may be eaten even before cooking.
THE COOKING OF MUTERE
To prepare a meal of ‘Mutere’, the wife takes out some mutere from the bundle and spreads it out in the sunshine to drive out any insects and dust. After shaking out all the dirt, the mutere is then put in to a clean pot for cooking.
It is possible to cook mutere mixed with sweet potatoes, bambora nuts or cow-peas smashed together in to one meal.
Mutere is cooked under plenty of water and after cooking, it may be served whole or smashed and cut into lumps served in the usual way – one lump to the husband and another to the wife with the rest of the family.
It is also possible to make thick porridge from mutere. After spreading it in the sun to remove insects and dust, it is pounded in a wooden mortar. The coarse flour is made into fine flour by grinding on a grinding stone.
The method of cooking mutere porridge is the same as that for cooking porridge made fom millet flour. If the wife likes, she may mix mutere and millet together to make a mixed porridge. This porridge is as sweet as if sugar had been added to it.
THE DISCOVERY OF SWEET POTATOES
Once upon a time there was a man who had two wives. He loved one of them very much but hated the other intensely. The hated wife had two children but the beloved wife had none. It is not certain where this man lived; some people stay he lived on the Buganda side of the Nile in Kyaggwe county but some say he lived on the Busoga side of the Nile. Where-ever this man lived, there was a big famine and the people had nothing at all to eat.
This man went to very many places in search of food, with his favourite wife, and every time he obtained any food he and his favourite wife ate it, leaving the other wife with her two children to starve.
When the hated wife found that she was faced with starvation, as well as her children, she tried to search for food everywhere but could not find any. She and her children were desperate and had no alternative but to starve, while her husband and the favourite wife were happy as they were able to obtain some food from distant places which the hated wife could not do, so she went to a nearby forest to’look for some wild berries to eat and share with her children. They fed on berries for some time until there were no more to be found. Therefore they turned to the roots for food. She had observed the leaves of sweet potatoes and also noticed cracks in the ground near them but did not know what was underneath. When she dug up the cracks she found the potatoes. First she feared that she might die if she ate them but as she knew she was going to starve anyway, she decided to take two potatoes home. She cooked different roots for her children and ate the potatoes herself, as she did not like to risk giving them to her children in case they were poisonous.
Although she feared the potatoes might kill her, she was not afraid of eating them. She thought that she might die during that night’s sleep but to her delight she woke up the following morning quite strong and healthy. She therefore went back to the forest for more potatoes and this time gave them to her children to eat as well.
After that they made these roots their daily food and the children, who were thin, became healthy; but neither the hated wife nor her children mentioned this to anybody. The husband only noticed that his hated wife and her children had grown fat. The husband was puzzled because he could not think of any reason why his hated wife and her children were so healthy although they could not obtain food anywhere.
Early one morning he decided to enter the house of the hated wife and remain there. The wife went out to the forest and brought some potatoes and cooked them. Then she asked the husband to go away to the favourite wife’s house as it was bed-time and she wanted to go to bed. The husband refused to go out, saying that he would wait for supper before leaving the house. Finding that he was so insistent on staying, she brought out the potatoes and the four of them ate the meal. The husband, due to love for his favourite wife, stole some of the food and took it to her. The following day the favourite wife went to the hated wife and asked her where she got this food from and was told that the food came from the forest. The favourite wife asked her ‘What is the name of the fruit?’. The hated wife replied that she did not know the name of the fruit but that it grew on the roots of wild plants and that they were found not far from the surface of the ground, bunched together - which is described in Lusoga as ‘Kimondere’.
From this word the name Lumondere was derived, as the prefix ‘Lu’ denotes the diminutive form of Kimondere. As went by, the name Lumondere became ‘Lumonde’, dropping the “RE.”
Soon many people heard of this food and went out into the forests to search for it. Those who found it ate it, and the famine ended. Since then, cultivation of sweet potatoes began and spread throughout Busoga until it became second to bananas, pushing millet to third place.
METHODS OF COOKING SWEET POTATOES
1. The wife digs up the potatoes in the garden and collects them in a basket which she carries home. She prepares the potatoes, cutting any spots damaged while digging them up from the garden, and also cutting away any other damaged or rotten parts. Then she washes the potatoes in a pot after which she puts them into a clean pot, covers it up with banana leaves, adds some water and cooks it. When it is ready, the pot is removed from the fire and is then served. In the foregoing method, the tops are not removed.
2. Potatoes can also be peeled before cooking and when ready, may be broken into a mash using a wooden spoon, or eaten singly.
3. Thirdly, the tops may be scraped off with a knife and the potatoes are washed and cooked, mixed with cow-peas. After cooking, the mixture is mashed up, using a wooden spoon, and then cut into lumps, the wife giving one to her husband and the rest, as she finds necessary.
4. Potatoes may be roasted before or after scraping off the peels and then eaten, removing the tops if they have not been removed before roasting.
The following are the rites connected with sweet potatoes: -
When the wife is collecting cutings of the tops from any garden for planting, she wraps inside the bundle of cuttings two or three potatoes from that garden so that the new garden may be as productive as the old one.
When the potatoes have matured, whenever the wife goes to the garden to dig up some, she places her basket upside down and puts one potato on top of the basket. This is believed to make the potatoes in the garden abundant and easy to find.
Sweet potatoes may also be mashed up and eaten without being mixed with any other type of food but may sometimes be mixed and mashed up with either cowpeas or bambora nuts. Modern cooking is not as thorough as in the olden days. Also, the rites described above are no longer practised.
PREPARATION OF FINGER MILLET MEALS
1. First the wife takes a quantity of millet from the granary and spreads it out on a flat basket to dry, after which she thrashes it in a mortar or, if she lives near a rock, she dries the millet and thrashes it on the rock. If it is a big quantity and there is no rock nearby, she thrashes the millet inside her house on the floor. After thrashing, she winnows it to get rid of all the straw and dust, and then roasts it on an earthen roasting pan. After roasting, the millet is again thrashed in a mortar. When the millet is ground on a grinding stone. She then washes a pot, in which she boils some water. Then she mixes the flour into the boiling water while stirring with a lean wooden spoon until the porridge is evenly mixed into a thick meal. Then she cuts up the meal into lumps giving one to the husband to eat and the rest to the other members of the family. Any food remaining is put into a pot hung up in the store with an earthen cover over. In the same pot the millet flour was stored.
2. A millet meal may be eaten by patients or any other people in need of a quick meal.
3. Beer may be brewed from millet in the following way -
It is ground into flour, after drying the fingers in sunshine, thrashing and winnowing. The husband digs a hole four feet deep and inside the hole he lays soft banana leaves slightly withered in the sun by the wife or by the husband himself. The flour is then mixed with water and put into the hole, which is then covered up with banana leaves and finally earth on top. If he has a large pot with a wide top (called ‘Kibange’ in Lusoga), he puts the mixture into it, thus avoiding the use of a hole. This mixture is kept covered for a whole month, after which it is taken out, roasted and spread out in the sun to dry. That is the ancient method.
In the present - day method, the mixture is kept underground for only seven to ten days, when, it is roasted, then becoming what is called
‘Malwa’ in Lusoga. A patch of the courtyard is smeared with cow dung, where the malwa is spread for drying, after which it is stored away. Later, before fermenting, the malwa is dried in the sun. The fermenting pot is washed out, using the biter leaves of ‘Jjobyo’ (a native vegetable) or ‘Omululuza’ (a wild shrub). After washing out the pot a quantity of the yeast flour is placed at the bottom of the pot, then the dry malwa and as much water as he thinks is sufficient. After two or three days the beer is ready for drinking. While the dried malwa is still in storage, it is covered with the leaves of omululuza to make its taste stronger.
4. On the day when the malwa is roasted, one may eat some of it if wished.
5. This is how the yeast is made : -
The wife gets millet from the granary, dries it, thrashes it and winows it. The millet is then soaked in water in a basket or pot. After two days it is mixed with grass and wrapped in banana leaves. After three days it is examined to find out if it has properly germinated and, if so, it is spread out in the sunshine to dry, after which it is ground into flour. If she finds it cold after grinding, she spreads it out in the sun to warm up. It is then placed in the pot and malwa and water mixed with it. It is necessary to add more yeast to the pot a second time before the beer is fully fermented. The beer is sucked from the pot with special wooden tubes after mixing it with boiled hot water, and the water pot is kept boiling throughout the drinking party.
The following are the rites connected with finger millet : -
When it was sowing time, during the months of December and January, the county chief would sound his traditional drums to summon all his courtiers and all the people to come to his court and bring cooked and uncooked food, beer and banana juice. The county chief then slaughtered cows, goats, sheep and chickens to make a feast for all the people to eat, giving offerings to the gods also.
This feast used to mark the beginning of the new millet planting season. The county chief’s deputies would also repeat the feast when they returned to their villages, including simsim soup in the dishes. That was the millet sowing feast held annual1y.
In January all the people began sowing millet. Inside the basket containing the millet seed was also put the beans from the pod of a wild creeper known as ‘Ennyangu’ in Lusoga which was known to be the charm for getting a high yield of millet.
When the millet became fully matured; everyone was free to harvest his garden; there was no ceremony atfached to it.
After harvesting the millet, people other than the head of the family (the husband) were free to eat the new millet, but the husband could not eat the new millet before making a feast to celebrate the harvest season. He would slaughter a goat and chickens, and his wives would prepare simsim to be eaten with the inaugural meal of the new millet. Banana beer and millet beer is also drunk during the feast, offering some to the gods.
Before making this feast and offering food to the gods, the head of the family was not permitted to eat the new millet. This rite is known in Lusoga as ‘Okwakira omwaka’.
The following were the rites connected with malwa spread out to dry after roasting : -
The wife or husband brings two fruits of a plant known in Lusoga as ‘Entonko’ (wild plant of Solanum genus) and places them in the drying malwa. This was believed to ward off any crows which might throw droppings into the malwa and in fact anybody who might drink the beer with an ailment called ‘Kamenya’ - a disease which weakens the body for several days.
This is the way millet is cooked nowadays:-
There is no difference from the old method except that the wives nowadays do not clean the pots as thoroughly as their ancestors used to do. The only difference in brewing millet beer is the period the mash is kept underground, which is seven days instead of about three months, as in the old days. The rites connected with the sowing and the feast commemorating the harvest season are no longer practised as they were in ancient times.
METHODS OF COOKING BAMBARA NUTS
1. After harvesting the bambara nuts, the wife takes off the quantity which she intends to cook. She washes them and puts them into a pot to cook them unshelled. This form is called ‘Mafuja’ in Lusoga, and when they are ready they are spread on to banana leaves to cool. The wife then shells some for her husband for eating, leaving behind what she and other people will eat, everyone shelling their share.
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