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Rainbows, pythons and waterfalls: heritage, poverty and sacrifice among the Busoga, Uganda
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7775-5434
2019 (English)Book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Cultural and natural heritage is a fundamental part of society and crucial in any development process; yet because of the complexity, it has proved difficult to incorporate culture and tradition in actual policy practice. Here the rich heritage of the Busoga is explored, using the water cosmology at the Itanda Falls in Uganda, with a specific emphasis on a rainmaking ritual and sacrifice to the rain-god during a drought. While rainmaking rituals cannot mitigate climate change in the modern world, and while fewer and fewer people believe in the traditional religion, the past and its traditions are still sources for the future. As we rethink the role of heritage in the processes of poverty alleviation, it is argued, a strong emphasis on cultural and natural heritage is one of the most efficient and important areas of long-term development in an era of globalization, when traditions are disappearing. Without a past, there is no future.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2019. , p. 148
Series
Current African issues, ISSN 0280-2171 ; 67
Keywords [en]
Cultural heritage, Religion, Traditional culture, Water, Rivers, Rain, Mythology, Rituals, Belief, Nile River, Uganda, Rainmaking, Cosmology, Ethnic groups, Soga, Busoga
National Category
History and Archaeology Philosophy, Ethics and Religion
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:nai:diva-2321ISBN: 978-91-7106-847-7 (print)ISBN: 978-91-7106-848-4 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:nai-2321DiVA, id: diva2:1350758
Note

CONTENTS: Acknowledgments. -- 1. Mythology of hydrology. -- 2. Senses and science and rainbows. -- 3. Giant snakes and rainbow serpents. -- 4. Rainbow cosmologies. -- 5. Busoga water cosmology, rainmaking and the rainbow. -- 6. Rainmaking and understanding water in society and religion. -- 7. History and heritage. -- 8. Literature. -- 9. Endnotes. -- Index.

Available from: 2019-09-12 Created: 2019-09-12 Last updated: 2019-09-16Bibliographically approved

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Oestigaard, Terje
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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf