allAfrica.com: Uganda: In Search of the Invisible Bachwezi (Page 1 of 2)

History has long dismissed their existence as a myth. However,in Buhweju, a mountainous county in Bushenyi District, the demigods still roam, as Tony Mushoborozi recently found out

By day, the steep bushy hills of Buhweju County in Bushenyi District are filled with goats, sheep cows, and people in their tea plantations. However, nights in Buhweju are characterised by the most remarkable signs and symptoms of invisible 'human' life - Demigods!At night by the well, after the general population has gone to sleep, one can see human figures washing clothes,

talking and laughing. Valleys are teeming with sounds of boys milking cows, and others taking cattle to drink water from a stream.

Sounds of people fishing on riverbanks can also be heard. But as one gets closer to these people, they disappear, except of course if one is drunk, according to 64- year-old Adonia Katsigire.

Apparently, the demigods kidnap drunkards who move late in the night. Katsigire is a resident of Katagata, in the hills of Buhweju. He has lived here since birth in 1942 and like all the residents of Buhweju, has had endless encounters with the Bachwezi.

"When I was a child," he begins, "Buhweju was sparsely inhabited. Tea growing had not started and all these plantation- filled mountains were bushes where we used to go hunting.

One day I had gone hunting and was shocked to find a set of black wooden gourds containing fresh milk stashed away in the cleft of a rock. I called my friends to show them what I had found.

When we came back a minute later, the gourds were gone." The old man seated opposite us in the tea shop has been watching as Katsigire talks. He says: "I remember the first time I ever saw the 'flying' drums.

It was around 8:00am in 1950 when my friends and I saw drums soaring in the air on our way to school. We heard the sweetest sound of drums wafted towards us from behind the hill. At first we thought the chief was calling people for community work. That was until we saw the drums.

"They were about eight drums of different sizes, and beautiful drumsticks held by invisible hands were playing a beat on them. The tune they played was the most beautiful I ever heard."

Katsigire says: "On another occasion in the early 1970s, my brother and I left my home at 2:00am. I had to go for a court session in Bushenyi and had to be there by 8:00am. After an hour of walking, we reached a football field.

In the field was a huge globe of flames and all In search of the

invisible Bachwezi around it were invisible people playing amahiri. We could hear them, but we could not see them."

Amahiri is a traditional game in which competitors throw a baton that goes cartwheeling rapidly along the ground until it loses momentum. The further the baton goes, the better. "Do you remember in 2000," another friend of Katsigire interrupts, "when Kamanzi disappeared for weeks? He had gone drinking on the market day.

When he finally came back, he said he had been taken by the Bachwezi who treated him using milk and told him drinking was bad for his health." Katsigire says recently, as he took his daughter to a boarding school, she suddenly stopped as if something unusual had happened to her.

"Then I saw a very tall man dressed in white clothes. He was as tall as a tree and he was standing by the roadside. We were considering taking another route, when he disappeared." These are a few of the many mythical tales that the men of Buhweju narrated.

If you are perplexed by these tales, you are not alone. I could hardly believe them either. My disbelief was apparent to Katsigire. Being a kind man, he proposed that I spend a night at his home so he could take me to a Bachwezi cave so I could see for myself.

It was 7:00pm and I had no option but to accept his offer. Nyakashaka is a small trading centre, 30km away from Bushenyi town, high up in the hills of Buhweju, and has no lodging facilities whatsoever.

After about an hour of walking, we arrived at his home. His grandchildren were playing in the moonlight. He entered the kitchen and greeted his wife and introduced me as a newfound friend. She welcomed me and gave me a calabash of sweet porridge. Katsigire's wife was not surprised to see me.

Her husband often brings home strangers. At supper, Katsigire narrated to his wife the story of how he met me stranded in a trading centre and decided to come home with me. His Christian wife was all smiles and nods as Katsigire spoke, until he told her I was looking for Bachwezi.

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