Honouring Uganda’s rock art in writing
State minister for Karamoja Affairs Barbra Oundo and the author, Prof Barbara Turchetta, during the launch of the book at the Uganda Museum last month. PHOTO BY RACHEL MABALA
What you need to know:
Book Review. The book notes that rock cultural heritage is being destroyed by human activity like stone quarrying.
“Uganda’s cultural heritage is at risk of vanishing,” noted Prof Barbara Turchetta, a professor of Linguistics and Semiotics at the University of Tuscia in Italy.
He said this while at the launch of the book documenting the state of Uganda’s rock art sites at the Uganda Museum in August.
The book, “Uganda Rock Art sites; A vanishing heritage of Lake Victoria region” is the climax of a five-year research work of a team of experts from Italian Universities of Florence and Tuscia led by Prof Turchetta, including Ugandan archeologist Jackline Nyiracyiza and the staff from the department of Museums and monuments from the ministry of Tourism.
According to the book, rock art is mostly found in the eastern districts of Bukedea, Ngora, Soroti, Mt Elgon, Bududa, Lolwe Island, Karamoja region and parts of Lake Victoria.
For ages, rock art sites have been a relevant element for local communities.
These sites are known to be of ancestral homage and as such, members of groups living in areas have a deep respect for the sites. Nyiracyiza and Turchetta write that, “Testimonies from people around the sites of Nyero, Kakoro, Mukongoro informed us that spirits around these sites protect them from different demonic attacks.” For instance, according to the book, Nyero 2 has a pocket gift which has a cave where people would get powers to become traditional healers.
In other areas like the sites of Lolwe and Nyero, churches have been constructed near the rock shelters which show the spiritual transformation of the people from ancestral to Christianity.
The investigated areas, the book states, cover Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga areas and Karamoja, including among others the famous Nyero sites in Eastern Uganda, Lolwe/Dwole islands on Lake Victoria and the Dambos Landscape of Lake Kyoga.
The study involved geological, geo-chronological, semiotic and chemical analyses on landscape and rock art pigments.
Prof Turchetta said the findings in this research helped to shed a new light on the interpretation and possible functions of sites showing rock art in Lake Victoria region.
The book also corrects the earlier misconceptions about the history, culture and ways of life of people in these areas.
Prof Turchetta noted that many of the sites documented were under the threat of extinction due to extensive human activity and needed close protection.
Human activities like stone quarrying and farming have rendered some of the sites extinct due to the destruction of the art in the rocks.
For the book
Uganda Rock Art sites; A vanishing heritage of Lake Victoria region
What. The book documents more than 25 sites in Uganda in what the researchers say is the “the first step for conservation and management projects to start,” to make the sites hubs for tourism for the country.
Writers. Prof Barbara Turchetta and Jackline Nyiracyiza
Availability. It’s on sale in leading book stores at Ushs50,000.
