Twins in Buganda Culture

When my head of department Prof. Monica Chibita introduces me to people she first mentions the relevant background information one would expect—“Prof. Miller is a Fulbright scholar with us here at UCU who lived in Kenya for many years. . . .” Then she pauses for effect, smiles, and says, “AND she is Naalongo (nah LONG go)!” Typically there is a ripple of appreciation among the listeners. Naalongo means “mother of twins.”

Of course by virtue of the fact that there is actually a word for it in the language, one would guess being a mother to twins is something special here. (There’s also a word for father of twins: saalongo.) Being an American, though, I initially took this aspect of Monica's introduction as more of a mention of fun facts than a communication of critical information. Recently I have learned that I was wrong.

In the U.S. we think it's cute when twins are dressed in identical clothes in toddlerhood, and we assume they maintain a unique bond with each other into adulthood. But to us giving birth to twins is a value neutral event. In contrast, some cultures have traditionally considered twins a curse or a blessing. In some places the understanding bass been that no more than one child should occupy the mother's womb at one time, so the second was presumed to be the spawn of an evil spirit. This was the situation over a century ago in certain parts of Igbo-land in Nigeria when Scottish missionary Mary Slessor arrived. Her influence toward stopping the killing of twins there was perhaps the greatest impact of her work.

Among the Baganda of central Uganda, however, twins are received as heralds of good luck. They are highly honored and admired and so, by extension, are the parents who produce them. According to one acquaintance here, in past years parents of twins were so appreciated that they were allowed to freely gather produce from their neighbors’ gardens. That’s a pretty big deal among subsistence farmers. Ugandan strongman Idi Amin, who bestowed upon himself a litany of grandiose titles, included "Saalongo" right up there with “Last King of Scotland” in the long list of honorifics that every Ugandan school child was required to memorize and recite.

Among the Baganda, as among some other African ethnic groups, there are specific names assigned to the twins themselves. Naming depends on birth order. Readers who know my twins will not be surprised that although we do not know which of them was born first, Joanna immediately claimed the position of eldest, and appropriated for herself the feminine firstborn twin name Babirye (bah BEE ree yeh). That relegated Luke to second-born, and the male version name for the position: Kato (“kah TOE”). It seems Joanna chose well, because popular wisdom says older twins are usually hyper. Younger twins (like Luke?) have the reputation of being sanguine and quiet.

Although twins among the Buganda were uniformly pampered, we suspect our older chldren are unlikely to be impressed. Luke and Joanna will just have to get the most out of their celebrity status in Uganda. When we get back to the U.S. they will no longer get the respect their twinness deserves, and I, alas, will have to give up what turns out to be the most impressive title in my curriculum vitae.

Twin photos below: crossing the Victoria Nile by ferry with Saalongo; Joanna lives up to her rep as the firstborn twin at Murchison Falls; 21st century Kato in safari van.