THE barkcloth plays a major role in Buganda’s history and although it is regarded as a primitive fabric by some, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has named it among the world’s collective heritage.
The barkcloth is a sacred fabric, which defines the spirit of Buganda. It remains a ceremonial dress code for royalty, chiefs and heirs during coronations and funerals. Shrines and homes of deities are draped with cloaks of barkcloth to render mysticism.
In the 19th Century, the introduction of cotton threatened the existence of barkcloth to near extinction. But the threat was a flash in the pan. We are in the 21st Century and the barkcloth is still a venerated fabric in Buganda Kingdom.
“We (Baganda) consider it a very special fabric because it is the first cloth we made,” Prof. Livingstone Walusimbi, a lecturer at Makerere University Institute of Languages, says. The predominant use and infinite importance that Baganda attach to the barkcloth is as mysterious as its origin.
John Kiyimba, a barkcloth maker in Rakai district, says in ancient times, the Baganda stumbled on the barkcloth while searching for alternative clothing. The search, he says, saw many trees debarked. But of all the trees, the bark of the Mutuba tree (ficus natalensis) presented a more realistic opportunity of getting fabric from a tree.
During debarking, it was realised that the bark of the Mutuba tree had the ability to stretch incomparably,” Kiyimba says.
In some circles, however, it is believed that a man discovered the barkcloth because it was very difficult to acquire animal skin, which was used as clothing at the time.
Rose Mwanja, a principal conservator at the Uganda Museum, says there are no facts to prove which tribe in Uganda initiated the use of barkcloth. History suggests that the Bantu, who migrated from central Africa, introduced barkcloth to Uganda through
The enthusiasm and tradition of barkcloth-making in Bunyoro was buried with many Banyoro barkcloth craftsmen killed during colonial confrontations.
However, when the Baganda embraced it 600 years ago, they made it their own.
“They (Baganda) purified the barkcloth-making process and made it what it is today,” says Mwanja.
The Ngonge, a clan based in Mawokota, Mpigi district, became the kingdom’s legitimate barkcloth craftsmen. They dressed the royal family and other communities and barkcloth-making became their exclusive preserve. The practice prospered and eventually, every village in Buganda picked interest. Its popularity spread to other Bantu-speaking tribes like Basoga.
Although widely believed to have originated from central Africa, the custom of barkcloth-making has also been found in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of West Africa, South East Asia and the Caribbean.
The introduction of cotton cloth by Arab caravan traders 200 years ago and the banning of traditional religions by the British in 1929 affected barkcloth production but it still survives .
Its manufacturers were marginalised and production eventually faded out but it was still worn during cultural and spiritual functions like healing rites and funerals.
However, the restoration of the Buganda monarch in the early 1990s revived barkcloth production. Once again, it stood out as a prestigious symbol of Buganda’s political and cultural traditions, serving as a ceremonial dress and red carpet for the king during the coronation. The survival of the Bark cloth up to now has made it be listed as a world heritage .
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