Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Uganda and British East Africa
- PART I THE BANYORO A PASTORAL PEOPLE
- CHAP. I THE COUNTRY, THE PEOPLE, THE KING
- CHAP. II GOVERNMENT
- CHAP. III CLANS, TOTEMS AND TERMS OF RELATIONSHIP
- CHAP. IV MARRIAGE AND BIRTH
- CHAP. V SICKNESS AND DEATH
- CHAP. VI INDUSTRIES
- CHAP. VII WARFARE
- CHAP. VIII HUNTING, DRUMS AND THEIR USE
- CHAP. IX RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
- PART II THE BANYANKOLE A PASTORAL TRIBE OF ANKOLE
- PART III THE BAKENE, LAKE DWELLERS
- PART IV THE BAGESU A CANNIBAL TRIBE
- PART V THE BASOGA
- PART VI NILOTIC TRIBES. THE BATESO AND THE KAVIRONDO
- INDEX
- PUBLICATIONS OF THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS RELATING TO AFRICA
- Plate section
CHAP. V - SICKNESS AND DEATH
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Uganda and British East Africa
- PART I THE BANYORO A PASTORAL PEOPLE
- CHAP. I THE COUNTRY, THE PEOPLE, THE KING
- CHAP. II GOVERNMENT
- CHAP. III CLANS, TOTEMS AND TERMS OF RELATIONSHIP
- CHAP. IV MARRIAGE AND BIRTH
- CHAP. V SICKNESS AND DEATH
- CHAP. VI INDUSTRIES
- CHAP. VII WARFARE
- CHAP. VIII HUNTING, DRUMS AND THEIR USE
- CHAP. IX RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
- PART II THE BANYANKOLE A PASTORAL TRIBE OF ANKOLE
- PART III THE BAKENE, LAKE DWELLERS
- PART IV THE BAGESU A CANNIBAL TRIBE
- PART V THE BASOGA
- PART VI NILOTIC TRIBES. THE BATESO AND THE KAVIRONDO
- INDEX
- PUBLICATIONS OF THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS RELATING TO AFRICA
- Plate section
Summary
Death of the king. The Banyoro, in common with other known tribes of Africa, would not allow their king to lie ill of any serious sickness. They sought to end his life while he was in full strength: indeed, the king himself would, when he felt his strength declining through age, or when he feared he was about to fall ill, end his life by taking poison. The king's chief wife kept herbs ready to hand and prepared a cup at his bidding; he swallowed the drug and in a few moments he was dead. Under other circumstances, for example, when suffering from any slight indisposition, the king kept his bed and was attended by his chief wife who obtained assistance from a chief and a medicine-man, and they nursed him until he was able to resume his duties, such slight ailments seldom confining the king to his room for more than one or two days. If after two days the king did not recover his general health, he adopted the usual custom of his predecessors by ending his life. The wife who administered the poison-cup called one or two of the leading chiefs when the king was dead and made known to them the real state of affairs, and they kept the king's death secret until they could make preparations for the wars which would inevitably follow when the princes learned that their father was dead and the contest for the vacant throne began.
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- Information
- The Northern BantuAn Account of Some Central African Tribes of the Uganda Protectorate, pp. 50 - 61Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010