704 Waset
in the region were therefore determinant factors
in the spiritual and political orientation of the
interlacustrine peoples, where the cultures of
Wamala and Ryangombe also played a role as
political opposites.
Along with ancestor veneration, ceremonies
addressed to Wamala, Baganda rituals, and reli-
gious performances took place among the Cwezi
and the Baganda under a common Ssese ancestry,
in whose traditions Wamala and Mukasa were the
central figures. Mukasa, the spirit of the Wamala
Lake and the ruler of all the deities of place, is
remembered as one of those who accompanied
Wamara/Wamala in his passage into the under-
world and the realm of the ancestors. As pro-
tectors of their people, Mukasa and Wamala
conducted them in a long warfare of conquest
around the lake, and their influence saved the
Baganda from a military defeat.
As a result, the Wamala culture was intro-
duced to the Luba Empire in the 19th century
following their conquest by the Yeke, who were
originally from the Bunyamwezi region. The suc-
cessful conquering enterprise of the Baganda
people also resulted in the establishment of bonds
of unity with the spiritual systems of prominent
groups who relate to a common ancestry and share
common places, rituals, initiation and ancestral
ceremonies, offering patterns, and shrines
throughout the region.
The ancestor spirit of Wamala has therefore
become more than the spirit of his direct descen-
dant group alone: His prominence and dominance
is remembered and venerated by both descendants
and those with whom he came in contact.
This is what, according to some authors, has
evolved into the belief that Wamala may be the
supreme example in the interlacustrine region of a
religious idea that has passed to other peoples such
as the Bunyamwezi-Luba extension and has found
diffusion to northern parts of Rwanda, Kigezi in
Uganda, and even farther north to Ankole.
Sacred kinships, such as Wamala’s, are associ-
ated with initiation ceremonies and with rituals
of unity among groups historically connected
to the same ancestor that are responsible for
keeping the tradition and customs of the religion.
Religious ceremonies, narratives of origin and
performances, initiation rituals, and Wamala’s
veneration as placed in their structural historic
and cultural contexts are significant in the under-
standing of the political and social fabric of
Central African countries like present-day Rwanda
and Uganda.Ana Monteiro-FerreiraSeealsoTutsiFurther Readings
Cohen, D. W. (1968). The Cwezi Cult.The Journal of
African History, 9 (4), 22–27.
De Heusch, L. (1966).Le Rwanda et la civilisation
interlacustre. Brussels, Belguim: Institut de Sociologie,
Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Roscoe, J. (1907, January–June). The Bahima: A Cow
Tribe of Enkole in the Uganda Protectorate.The
Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland, 37 , 34–53.WASET
Waset was the name of the capital of Egypt
during the time of its greatest power and glory.
Made famous by the kings of the New Kingdom,
especially the 18th and 19th dynasties, the city
was a magnet for nationals from various other
countries in Africa as well as Asia.
Waset is the city that was named Thebes by the
Greeks and later Luxor by the Arabs, although
its ancient name, Waset, was written extensively
on the temples and tombs of Kemet. Called “the
city of the hundred gates,” Waset embraced its
splendor from its deep origins and came to full
bloom in the New Kingdom as a city that had
lasted for more than 1,000 years as the center of
the world. The ruins of Waset form some of the
most extensive wonders in the ancient world.
Here was a city that was not as old as Men-nefer
(Memphis) or as sacred as Abydos or On, but a
city that had the good fortune to be host to the
most powerful and glorious dynasties in world
history, as well as home to the huge complex of
temples known as Karnak.
The city of Waset sat on the eastern bank of the
Nile River and stretched about 2 miles inland
enclosing the temple of Karnak. Thirteen hundred