Introduction

Kivebulaya was born ‘Waswa’ – the name for the elder of male twins – in Buganda, during Kabaka (king) Mukabya Mutesa's long reign (1856– 84). His early life was marked by his twin status; ‘They considered us as very important,’ he wrote in his autobiography, ‘twins were carefully looked after because of the customs around them.’ The fear and excitement surrounding the birth of twins he described as follows:

This passage, and an account of the influence of twins on the family and community, discussed later in the chapter, is one of Kivebulaya’s more detailed descriptions. He gives little information about events of his childhood, although he notes that his parents were married in the reign of Kabaka Sunna (c.1830–56) in the county of Singo and had five living children. However, his short autobiography gives enough information about his background to locate him in a wider history of the Great Lakes. His account moves him from a small village to the capital; from the customs (mpisa) of twins to contact with two cosmopolitan religions (dini); and, eventually, from insecurity to a respected position. It provides the background to the commitments he loosened in order to develop new relationships and affiliations. Kivebulaya and his family were commoners (bakopi) in a hierarchical society at a time when the social situation of bakopi had become particularly precarious. He was formed by clan systems of obligation and honour: systems that were under stress in the mid-nineteenth century, a stress that increased the mobility of Baganda men as they attempted to live up to traditional ideals of masculinity. He was also influenced by an apprenticeship to a healer, something he does not mention in his autobiography.