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
