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The Cwezi-Kubandwa Debate: Gender, Hegemony and Pre-Colonial Religion in Bunyoro, Western Uganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Shane Doyle
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Abstract

The Cwezi-kubandwa cult was the most prominent form of religious belief in the interlacustrine region of East Africa during the pre-colonial period. It has long been regarded as providing ideological support to monarchical regimes across the region. Recently, though, scholars have contrasted the hegemonic ambitions of the state with evidence that Cwezi-kubandwa also provided opponents of pre-colonial authority structures with both ideological and organizational resources. In particular historians of the cult have hypothesized that Cwezi-kubandwa offered women a refuge from patriarchal political and domestic institutions, and that Cwezi-kubandwa was dominated by women in terms of its leadership, membership and idioms. This article challenges the new orthodoxy by suggesting that both traditional religion's hegemonic and counter-hegemonic roles may have been over-estimated. A re-examination of the Nyoro sources indicates instead that Cwezi-kubandwa was far from homogeneous and dominant, that kubandwa was not obviously oppositional to other, supposedly male-dominated, religious beliefs, and that Cwezi-kubandwa brought female exploitation as well as empowerment. These findings require either a re-evaluation of the nature of Cwezi-kubandwa across the region, or recognition that the cult was much more geographically diverse than has hitherto been believed.

Résumé

Le culte du kubandwa (cwezi) était la forme de croyance religieuse la plus proéminente dans la région interlacustre d'Afrique de l'Est au cours de la période précoloniale. Il est considéré depuis longtemps comme un élément de soutien idéologique aux régimes monarchiques de la région. Or,des savants ont récemment mis en contraste les ambitions hégémoniques de l'État avec des éléments indiquant que le kubandwa (cwezi) a également fourni des ressources idéologiques et organisationnelles aux opposants aux structures d'autorité précoloniales. Des historiens du culte ont notamment émis l'hypothèse que le kubandwa (cwezi) offrait aux femmes un refuge contre les institutions politiques et domestiques patriarchales, et qu'il était dominé par les femmes en termes de ses dirigeants, de ses membres et de ses idiomes. Cet article remet en question la nouvelle orthodoxie en suggérant la possibilité que les deux rôles traditionnels de la religion, hégémonique et contre-hégémonique, aient été surestimés. Un réexamen des sources nyoro indique au contraire que le kubandwa (cwezi) était loin d'être homogène et dominant, que le kubandwa n'était pas en opposition évidente aux autres croyances religieuses prétendument dominées par les hommes, et que le kubandwa (cwezi) était porteur d'exploitation des femmes, mais également d'habilitation des femmes. Ces observations appellent soit à une réévaluation de la nature du kubandwa (cwezi) dans la région, soit à une prise de conscience que ce culte était bien plus diversifié sur le plan géographique que l'on avait pu le croire jusqu'à présent.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 77 , Issue 4 , November 2007 , pp. 559 - 581
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2007

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