I will help the forum on this, since I am the only village boy online today. The Baganda have a complicated tendency to discriminate when it comes to children. For starters a Mganda would have ‘Omwana bwoya’ and Omwana Omuboole, Omwana owomuntumbwe and omwana ow’enda and omwana ow’okumugongo and omwana ow’okumugugu. Kateregga will help bail us out on the interpretations (hopefully not translations). For purposes of pertanity, maternity and belonging, there is a clear distinction between children born of males and those of females among the Baganda. The most coveted grand children Among the Baganda are those from the females. The reason is simple, before the era of DNA and other scientific pertanity tests, the females were best placed to prove they owned the kids in question.
Without distinguishing ethnicity of parantage, the children born of girls into the family or tribe are called Bajjwa, and they occupy a position of prominence amongst the Baganda, where they are put at the forefront of every occasion and function. They are especially to the likes of me who keep shooting doubles, because they have to step (literary) in the food before we serve it to the revellers who have come along to celebrate a birth of twins.
Non-Baganda forumists with Baganda spouses fear not, your children are our children, we shall not discriminate them, but beware, we would love to take them away from you. Anyway, we always encourage the Bajjjwa to find a solid footing from amongst their own people. The Proverb…
“ Ebukojja Banjagala nga adda ku nnyoko gyali” (I am loved by my maternal relatives is true only if the one who follows your mum by birth order is still living) is meant to stop abajjwa from getting too comfy.
And those born to non-Baganda mothers by Baganda spouses automatically become Baganda.
Ssalongo Ssennoga
KAMPALA
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I am no expert on nnono z’abaganda. It is my understanding, though, that bajjwa are valued in any home not because they are the surest deal of being related to the daughters of the house. Rather, it is because they are close enough for the family to be concerned to take them into their confidences (ensonga) yet they are un-related enough to “okumala ensonga” without having any resultant evil-ness re-visited on them. Thus the various roles bajjwa play in nnyimbe, okwalula abalongo, etc. Bajjwa can step into the breach to bridge, cure any ddogos, etc, without having ddogos sticking on them as it would omwana owekika, owomunju.