Bugisu leaders want Imbalu copyrighted

Local leaders in Bugisu sub region are mooting a plan to copyright the Imbalu ritual and preserve it for the Gisu tribe.

In Namisndwa District, Lwahakha Town clerk Edie Wesonga said: “We need to get a copyright for it because anybody can come and grab intellectual property over Imbalu.”

“By law, you cannot remove it from a person who owns the property rights,” he explained adding that “copyrighting the rite is intended to preserve it for ages.”

The Imbalu is mainly a cultural circumcision ritual that takes place every even year among the communities in Bugisu.

To the Bagisu it marks the initiation of boys into manhood. Every year, hundreds of boys aged 16 and above qualify for the “Imbalu.”

Speaking during a press briefing at Najeera Gudie Farm as he was announcing a cultural immersion code-named the Elgon Region spotlight, Wesonga said “copyrighting Imbalu will also save the ritual from people with bad intentions to sabotage the community.”

However, Wesonga told Monitor that local leaders are sensitizing the Bagisu communities to ensure that they modernize their culture to end traditional norms that can affect people’s lives.

“In the past it was crude as you could get one knife in a courtyard for circumcising 10 people. Right now, we are preaching one knife one candidate because HIV/AIDS exists”, he stressed

Further, local leaders have also announced plans to ban rituals that appear to violate human rights such as smearing mud and exposing private parts of circumcision candidates.

Dr Gudula Naiga Basaza, the Managing Director of Gudie Leisure Farm said the cultural immersion is a social enterprise intended to provide various agribusiness development opportunities through the cultural traditions of the area. The event is set for June 11 in Mbale City.

The Gisu people comprise about 5 per cent of Uganda’s more than 44 million population, according to government data.