Missions -- Uganda; Negrillos; Uganda -- Description and travel
When the drum beats for Sunday services, Kasagama is nearly always at
his place in the church to join with his people in prayer and worship.
Besides encouraging his young men and chiefs to offer themselves as
missionaries to the neighbouring villages and districts, he helps in
every possible way to supply the necessary means in order that the native
organisations shall be supported by themselves. When the large reed
Church showed signs of old age, Daudi Kasagama, like his namesake David,
King of Israel, set his heart to “build a house unto the name of the
Lord.”
Calling together his Christian Chiefs, he conferred with the Missionaries
as to the quantities of material needed for a large Church, and when the
approximate number of poles was given, he divided it up asking his Chiefs
each to be responsible for a proportion.
The new “Temple” was not to be built of carefully-hewn stone, prepared
bricks, or granite pillars, but of forest poles brought from long
distances, many needing fifty men to carry them in; bamboos from the
forest-clad heights of snow-peaked Ruwenzori; grass brought in by the
women for thatching; reeds fetched from the swamps by men and children,
and red mud for the walls. Every morning the King came down to work with
his people in the erection of the building, and when the framework was
completed, helped to bring in the grass which was cut up and beaten with
the mud to form a kind of solid brick wall.
[Illustration: NEW CHURCH. KABAROLE TORO.]
At 8.0 a.m. the Katikiro, Chiefs and others made their way down to the
mud pits, into which there was thrown red earth, straw and water. About
twenty men then would jump in, clasp arms in a circle, yell a native
air and stamp the mud with their bare feet till the right consistency
was reached. By that time they had become splashed and disfigured into
fearsome representations of painted Red Indians. The mud was then put
into baskets and shouldered by a body of carriers, who marched single
file to the scene where the building operations were being carried on,
while a drummer always went on before to give a spirit of militarism to
the work.
With shirt sleeves rolled up, Kasagama and an army of mud-layers were
ready to receive the mud and slap it into the walls with a whoop and
occasional mutual congratulatory exclamation “Wehale”—“well done.”
In this manner the Church, holding eight hundred people, was completed
in six months free of debt and not having caused any expense to the
Missionary Society!
When it is remembered that until the advent of Christianity six years
previous, the King and Chiefs had never done one day’s manual work, one
can only regard this Church as a standing testimony to the reality of
a religion that can call forth such a spontaneous demonstration of the
sincerity of its disciples.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account