Rafiki Adventure Tours Uganda

Mystical hill retelling the story of Kintu and Nambi

Nnalongo Nanteza hoists an offerings basket, while engrossed in a meditation pose. Photo by Rachel Mabala.
It is a tale we know. It was pushed down our ears in those mid-primary SST classes, a pseudo creation story, of the first man on earth, Kintu and his wife Nambi

There was Gulu, who tasked Kintu with basketfuls of food before he would give away his daughter Nambi. And there was Walumbe, Nambi’s evil brother who brought scourges, suffering and death unto Nambi’s children.

Somewhere in the Mukono township of Nakifuma, along Kayunga Road, is a hill claimed to be the very source of this story, for it is here that the graves of Nambi and her brother Walumbe are said to be located, to this day. It is a mysterious hill, or at least an air of mystery hovers around it. And as if that is not yet bewildering enough, the maps of Uganda and Africa, as seen on the map, were naturally curved out of stone-hard rock, without any human interruption.

Preliminaries
It is no wonder that the hill, a large grey mound with deep, sharp crevices all over, is now a resort for the spiritually yearning, a shrine where many go seeking blessings of many a sort. As soon as you approach the bodaboda (motorcycle taxi) and ask for Nambi hill, the cyclists will assume you are a patient, seeking treatment.

One is first ushered into the household of Omutaka Ssalongo Jjumba, and his wife, Nnalongo Nantezza. It is this couple that manages the site. Theirs is a simple two-room plastered house. It has wooden doors and windows. Beside this brick-walled plastered shelter is a small grass-thatched kitchen and a small bathroom, fitted with dry banana leaves and jackfruit trees at the edge of the compound to provide shade. A banana plantation and some coffee trees intercropped with vanilla surround this home.

The initial proceedings take place here. Ssalongo Jjumba wears a white kanzu, while his wife wears whitish gomesi. Upon arrival into a room, to the left of the compound, a visitor removes shoes, and sits on mats laid down. This room is called Kiggula Mikisa (source of blessings). Bark cloths hang as curtains in the doorway and in the windows. Animal skins swing on the main pole.

Before one proceeds up the hill, they are supposed to ask for blessings from this room; it is the gate pass, Jjumba says. Nantezza then brings a basket with dried coffee beans for the visitors to chew. The act signifies brotherhood, she says. It is in the same basket that one places the financial offering to the spirits. And the fee tourists pay, differs from what “patients” pay.

Up the hill
Jjumba then goes into a narration of the features found on the hill. He issues guidelines to follow while up on the hill, then sings, chants and plays away on some drums.

Jjumba and wife then lead you up the hill, some 400 metres away from their house and room of blessings. The rock bears many an entrance, one of which leads to where Nambi is said to have raised her children and also fed her chicken that she got from her father.

Farther on, now into a dark cave, one meets two large stones on the way. But no, these are not ordinary stones, Nantezza reveals, but the very graves of Nambi and Walumbe. Stone graves! There is already a lot to surprise here, without adding stone graves. The graves are covered with white clothes to show respect.

The second entrance is called Ensi Madala, with narrow crevices through which one squeezes as they move. A tale is told about the third entrance. When Kayikuzzi, another of Nambi’s brothers, went hunting down Walumbe for infecting her children with disease and affliction, he is said to have used this very entrance. The mysteries then get even deeper. The entrance is shrouded in darkness, barring you from seeing what lies inside. Apparently, Kayikuzzi never came out of the caves alive. He died in there; his grave lies below the waters deep down in the grave, and only people with spiritual powers can see it, Nantezza says.

Downhill, one sees Nambi’s kitchen, (ekyoto kya Nambi). There are three traditional well-laid blackish cooking stones filled with black smoke. It is from here that Nambi prepared her family meals. The scarcity of food then, forced her to prepare roots and leaves for her family. Apparently, blessing-seekers use the cooking stones to acquire charms to enable them succeed in life or marriage.

Then there is the astonishing assertion that all the hills in Uganda, including snowcapped mountain peaks, originate from Nambi hill. “Each stone you see here represents a hill or mountain somewhere in the country. Those are the said children of Kintu and Nambi,” Nantezza says.

At another rock, away from the hill, are different features including one that looks like an airplane. This, Nantezza says, is a blessing to people who want to travel abroad. “Usually, it is only those people who have failed to travel abroad after a struggle that lay their travel papers on the stone. This stone has powers that make the impossible things happen, it helps people fulfill their dreams,” she says. The other features include the Uganda map, map of Africa and that of the world. This rock is believed to be Jjmba, the main spirit’s shrine,” she adds.

The rock is also surrounded by two hut-shaped houses roofed with red iron sheets. Nantezza says Kabaka Mutesa I’s children built them. These houses provide shelter to people who visit the hill during the rainy seasons.By Rafiki Adventures