The Cwezi-Kubandwa Debate

Gender, Hegemony and Pre-Colonial Religion in Bunyoro, Western Uganda

Bibliographic Data

ID2620002
AuthorsDoyle (0000-0003-1420-3434, corresponding author), Shane Doyle
Year2007
Volume77
Issue4
Pages559-581
Publication date2007-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/afr.2007.0077
OpenAlexW4254477165
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited46

The Cwezi-kubandwa cult was the most prominent form of religious belief in the interlacustrine region of East Africa during the pre-colonial period. It has long been regarded as providing ideological support to monarchical regimes across the region. Recently, though, scholars have contrasted the hegemonic ambitions of the state with evidence that Cwezi-kubandwa also provided opponents of pre-colonial authority structures with both ideological and organizational resources. In particular historians of the cult have hypothesized that Cwezi-kubandwa offered women a refuge from patriarchal political and domestic institutions, and that Cwezi-kubandwa was dominated by women in terms of its leadership, membership and idioms. This article challenges the new orthodoxy by suggesting that both traditional religion's hegemonic and counter-hegemonic roles may have been over-estimated. A re-examination of the Nyoro sources indicates instead that Cwezi-kubandwa was far from homogeneous and dominant, that kubandwa was not obviously oppositional to other, supposedly male-dominated, religious beliefs, and that Cwezi-kubandwa brought female exploitation as well as empowerment. These findings require either a re-evaluation of the nature of Cwezi-kubandwa across the region, or recognition that the cult was much more geographically diverse than has hitherto been believed

Archaeology · Colonialism · Cult · Empowerment · Hegemony · Ideology · Monarchy · Orthodoxy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · African cultural and philosophical studies · African history and culture analysis · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · History · Law

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