On every morning of Christmas eve for the last 10 consecutive years, at least 10 people come to Joseph Magezi’s farm located in Ntambaazi village, Kazo in Kiruhura district.
After a brief meeting, three middle-aged men approach the herd of his cattle, armed with ropes, tactically entangled on enkoni (grazing sticks). With the help of Magezi, a fatty local breed bull is usually singled out and led out of the paddock to its death.
In preparation for this year’s Christmas, Magezi has grazed the bull for nine months. Every member contributed Shs 70,000 to purchase it in March. After slaughtering, every member takes a share to his or her respective family. As Magezi explains, no one has ever complained about the sharing. He believes this is the reason the tradition has never shown signs of ever dying away.
“We do this (cost-sharing) every year as a people. It is not because we can’t individually afford meat, but we want to entrench the spirit of togetherness in our society,” Magezi says.
He is, however, concerned that individuality and selfishness have taken root in the 21st century. The former National Agricultural Advisory Services coordinator argues that society is stronger when its people are united and that the gesture of cost-sharing helps keep the spirit of unity alive.
One of the benefactors, Todozio Bategeine, told The Observer that given the numerous deseases attacking livestock, it is not safe to purchase meat for Christmas from butcheries.
Some animals, she argues, have died of strange diseases or are ill, but because the owners want to make money, they have them slaughtered and sold to people. This puts people at risk of contracting the diseases or worse.
After selling her harvest of beans, Bategeine – a mother of eight – sent in her contribution. A bull was purchased from a neighbour’s farm and brought to Magezi’s to graze under keen scrutiny. Tomorrow morning, Farouk Kafeero will need no reminder as he has already been tasked to precisely behead, peel its skin off and reduce it to pieces for human consumption.
GENESIS OF THIS COST-SHARING
To some city dwellers, this practice might sound new or even strange, but it is one that has stood the test of time for generations. According to 88-year-old Peragiya Rukundo, cost-sharing was common in the 1930s in Ankole kingdom as extended families sought to galvanize their bond.
Rukundo explained that the tradition started from within families before it was adopted and diffused across societies.
“The men made a big fire and roasted the meat and they enjoyed tonto, a local brew, as the women peeled matooke. Then we would converge under the moonlight and eat as one big family,” she said in retrospect, as she massaged the knots of the rosary in her neck.
Rukundo added that nothing was left to waste as families shared the beef equally – including the intestines. In her thinking, the tradition of cost-sharing could have partly been a result of polygamy.
Men, she argues, had at least two families and these could be expensive to feed during the festive season if all of them had to be separately catered for. Given the closeness of Christmas and the New Year’s day, families tended to save more by preserving meat using local methods as opposed to slaughtering or purchasing yet again.
On this year’s slaughter too, nothing is expected to go to waste. Although there is no measuring scale, Kafeero, who has been in the slaughtering business long enough to earn the title omubaagi (slayer), can weigh the beef with his hands. All members get a little bit of everything edible, except the hide. The hide is always his reward for services rendered.
Being a Muslim – expected to care less about Christmas – he usually wraps his share in the hide, hooks it onto a long stick and carries it home by the shoulder.
IS IT A MUST TO COST-SHARE?
“We don’t have to do this,” Getrude Bafaki’s son told her through the telephone when she called him seeking money for her contribution.
Her son, Richard Ashaba, works in Kampala and has not returned home since Easter Monday this year. Although he eventually sent the money, he was reluctant to partake of the cost-sharing tradition which, Bafaki says, only reflects the attitude today’s generation has towards such culture.
“Nothing matters to them anymore. They think they can single-handedly solve their own problems because they have the money and means. This is narcissistic and should change,” she adds.
The African tradition was known for its communalism, holistic and united approach, but with the entrenchment of consumerism, selfishness and individualism have replaced generosity and humility.
As the dogs feast on the remnants from Kafeero’s temporary butchery in Magezi’s banana plantation, the winner is not who takes the most meat. It is the knowledge that families will do this – once again – next Christmas.
alex.taremwa@yahoo.co.uk