Kiganda Politics and Kawuugulu Musical Performance

The Baganda are organized into over fifty patrilineal clans (bika, sing. kika). These clans are exogamous in the sense that members marry outside of their clans. Each clan traces its origins to a forefather called jjajja w’ekika, “grandfather of the clan,” who may not have been one of the clan's original leaders. Also, every clan has a leader called mukulu w’ekika, “head of the clan”; in addition, every clan head has a unique title name. Clan heads run an administrative structure that all clans share. The structure comprises different hierarchical levels (see figure I.1), each of which contains several lineages of people, with independent leaders.

These lineages allow clan members to manage their growing numbers. For instance, when the population of a clan level grows large enough to require multiple leaders, its members may approach the clan head to request approval to create one or more additional lineages. Because the Baganda are a patrilineal group, they have primary membership in their fathers’ clans and secondary membership in their mothers’ or matrilineal clans. Many people, however, acquire secondary membership in clans through blood brotherhood (mukago), marriage (bufumbo), or kinship between ancestors of different clans. Every clan has a primary totem (muziro) and a secondary totem (kabbiro). A totem may be a plant, an animal, a part of either one, or a nonliving substance such as water from a special source or an inanimate object such as an awl (lukato). Clans take their names from their primary totems. It is taboo to eat a totemic animal and plant, consume a totemic substance, or use a totemic object, in part because many consider totems as kin. Clans discussed in this book include those with an animal as the primary totem and those with a plant as the primary totem: