Uniformity or Diversity? : Facing Portrayals of Ganda Religion

Abstract: This study researches, in a primarily historiographical way, conforming as well as, and in particular, dissenting thought and behavioural dispositions in Ganda religion. It lets the Ganda's existence, by and large, speak for itself on this matter. This occurs in two major ways. Self-portrayals of the religion come to us along with especially those made of it by individuals who have written about it. These are either Ganda or foreigners. Because almost all of the Ganda writers were converts to Christianity or Islam, they were thus, like foreign authors, significantly "outsiders" to the religion. First-generation Ganda converts among them, however, had been truly "insiders" of it until then. What, therefore, they wrote of it was partly from within and partly from without. Somehow, for that reason, they are first-rate accessories of the religion's self-representation to us. Focus on a number of particularly important sub-themes - dealing with issues of the Ganda's ethnic background and "oneness", monotheistic beliefs or none, religious leadership and power, Buganda's most celebrated culture hero Kintu, and an overview of the people's shared life - provides results to the exploration.