BANTU NEGROES 077 



a twentieth part of its population, which is Muhammadan. That is to say. 

 that all the chiefs and aristocracy and a large number of the peasants 

 have become more or less professing Christians, and any open adherence 

 to pagan beliefs is practically at an end, though, no doubt, a great deal 

 of belief still exists in outlying parts in the ancestral spirits and in 

 witchcraft. When Speke first entered Uganda the chiefs and people 

 firmly adhered to a somewhat elaborate religion, based, no doubt, like all 

 African religions, on the original worship of ancestors, but actually developed 

 into a cult of numerous spirits or supernatural agencies (about thirty-seven 

 in number), who were associated with the lightning, the hurricane, the 

 rain, various diseases, earthquakes, and other natural phenomena. 



No doubt the religious beliefs of Uganda were at one time identical 

 with those of Unyoro and Busoga. Nowadays, the word in general use for 

 the Supreme Deity is Katonda. It is doubtful, however, whether, before 

 the Baganda came under the influence of Muhammadans and Christians. 

 they recognised one supreme god high above all the other deities. 

 The spirit which came nearest to occupying such a position was Kazoba, 

 who was the god of immensity, of the firmament. His name is interesting 

 etymologically, as its root " -zoba " is a variant of an old Bantu word for 

 " sun," a root which, with other prefixes, is sometimes applied to the sky 

 in general. The most influential of their gods was Mukasa, who seems 

 to have been originally an ancestral spirit,* and whose place of origin and 

 principal temple was on the biggest of the Sese Islands. Mukasa became 

 in time the Neptune of Uganda, the god of the lake, who was to be 

 propitiated every time a long voyage was undertaken. In former times — 

 in fact, down to the conversion of Mwanga to Christianity— Mukasa and 

 some of the other gods were provided with earthly wives. Virgins were 

 set apart to occupy this honourable position, and lived under the same 

 disabilities as the Vestal Virgins, though it is to be feared that their 

 infraction of the rule of chastity was far more frequent. 



Among other gods was Musisi, who was identified with the cause of 

 earthquakes; Kiwanuka, the god of lightning; Nakayaga, the deity who 

 rode on the hurricane. Lule caused the rain to descend, or withheld it. 

 Ndaula was the smallpox fiend. t Kiwuka and Nenda were the gods of 

 battle.} Many temples to Mukasa existed in the coast-lands of the Victoria 

 Nyanza and in the Sese Islands. There was one large house dedicated to 



* According to tradition, Mukasa was one of the companions of Lukedi, the 

 " AYilliam the Conqueror" of Unyoro. 



t Note that this evil spirit is developed from the worship of the real or mythical 

 person Ndaula, of Unyoro, who founded the Unyoro dynasty. Vide p. r>94. 



X Besides the ancestral spirits and demi-gods, the Baganda. especially those dwelling 

 in the Kiagwe Forest, believed vaguely in the existence of elves, or sprites, whom 

 they call " Ngogwe." 



