Where Knowledge Of Dealing With Pandemics Is Alive
From Aliwa spring, Nyipir/Gipir moved following his cow that had strayed. He first heard it mooing in the thicket surrounding the tamarind tree, forcing him to enter the thicket where he ended up spending a night lying on a rock under the tamarind tree. Cwa Nyipir/Gipir, therefore, means the tamarind tree of Nyipir/Gipir. It is also sometimes referred to as Cwa Yoana. Chief Yoana Ombidi is the former chief of Panyimur Kwonga Chiefdom and the grandfather to the reigning chief Yoana is said to have rested under the same tamarind tree on his return journey after guiding the British colonialists in erecting the boundary between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1914.
Legend has it that while resting under the tamarind tree, Nyipir/Gipir reflected about his trouble of searching for the spear and the revenge on Nyabongo and he lamented: “Re ru ku lembe manyen,” meaning, “Every new day breaks with a new task”. The place was named “Reru” [Rero].
The cow is said to still moo today without being seen to anyone who encroaches on the site with ill intention. Such encroachers sometimes find snakes with feathers or hear the mooing of the miraculous cow and are punished by the spirits with unique ailments [with pale or reddish skin] and sometimes they die unless a ritual to mitigate their offenses is performed.
The site is located on a raised ground with a vantage point of being spotted from as far as Bunyoro and Democratic Republic of Congo.
It is said that since Nyipir/Gipir’s time, no bush fire has ever burnt the site; the spirits extinguish any fire threatening the site. Human activities like collecting fire wood from the site or bush burning at the site attract punishment in form of pandemic or mosquitoes infesting the area.
When such bad omens happen, the Panyimur priest for the area sets fire at the site and sits around it as he waits for instructions from the spirits. It could be either to offer sacrifice at a designated spot [to disperse the mosquitoes] or to collect the prescribed herbs and administer to the community members. The priest pounds the herbs with the pounding pestle in a mortar or with stones; mixes with water in a calabash or a wooden plate; places the mixed herbs at the entrances in each home for people to drink. People kneel down, folding their arms behind and drink the herbs three times for a male and four times for a female.
In the week of such traditional vaccine, several signs show: voices of the spirits are heard sending the pandemic away, “wucidh cen, kizi” meaning “go away pandemic” and the people instructed by the priest through their family heads, reply:
“wudok yo pa Lendu” meaning, “go away to the land of the Lendu and do not come back to us.”
Within a few days, those who had contracted the disease recover. Meanwhile, the victims’ family members are obliged to go through the process of truth telling, during which they tell all the wrongs they have done and cast millet grains in fire in turns. Anyone whose millet grains burst in fire is considered righteous while anyone whose millet grains do not burst is considered wicked and must continue reexamining his/her conscience and casting millet grains till they burst in the fire. Families nursing pandemic victims are quarantined by tying immature elephant grass on the house where the victims are or at the entrance of that particular home. By passers respect those signs and avoid those homes. Late movements of people are controlled, late pounding of cassava and talking late in the night are all forbidden to give time to the spirits to inspect the homes. After the pandemic is gone, the priest calls the family heads or move personally through the homesteads to inform them.
Cwa Nyipir(Gipir)/Yoana is also significant for rainmaking [wang kasato]. This is conducted by the rainmaker under the instruction of the highpriest. The Panyimur priestly position is in the lineage of Okello Wonyarajika – Anselmo – Anjelo okello / alirac Verunika. The last priest to perform rituals at Cwa Nyipir(Gipir)/Yoana site was Anselmo. His position has remained vacant since his death. The annual ritual is done in the month of January of every calendar year. After the annual ritual at Cwa
Nyipir(Gipir)/Yoana site, the priest reports to the chief of Panyimur Kwonga who invites the palace rainmaker to perform his annual rain ritual at the palace.
At dawn of the annual rain making event, a young girl who has not yet started menstruating or a woman in her menopause fetches water for the rain ritual and the rainmaker collects “afuru” from the chief’s wife. The rainmaker and his crews dress in animal skins. They carry the ritual items and tools and go to the forest where the ritual is conducted by pouring the “afuru” at designated positions while making ritual recitations in Alur language to invoke the spirits. The rainmaker cleans the rain stones and smear them with shea nut oil, points at the four compass directions with the ritual stick. The rainmaker and his crew return home without looking back and talking till the high priest enters the ritual hut.
After this, voices and songs, shakers and drumming, shake of earthquake, snakes with feathers on, ululation by the spirits are heard and or seen all over the site by people in the neighbourhood and down pour of rain within one week is experienced. After a while, jubilation begins. People eat, drink and dance the whole day.