BUSUUTI THE GOMESI - BUGANDAN IDENTITY

Busuuti/Gomesi aka gomes is the official dress for women in Buganda. The busuuti/gomesi is very elaborate, with a square neck adorned with two buttons, pointy sleeves, full skirt, and a huge sash. There are many historical contradictions about the origin of the busuuti/gomesi. Contemporary history indicates that the it was originally made for Gayaza schoolgirls in around 1940s and 50s. Their first school uniform was a cotton sheet, which they wrapped around their breasts and tied to the waist with a strip of cloth. But the uniform often slipped off whenever the girls bent down to dig. Their missionary tutors thought it was indecent for a woman to expose her breasts. So, they had an Indian tailor sew out the busuuti/gomesi. Two decades later, the gomesi became a popular outfit at all traditional functions for the Baganda and later the Basoga, Iteso, Alur and Japadhola.

But some people, especially the Baganda, dispute this version of history and say the busuuti/gomesi existed long before the coming of the missionaries and that missionaries only improved the existing design made from bark cloth and changed the name to claim the discovery.

The women of the groom's clan line up for the procession

The men of the groom's clan line up for the procession into the future in-law's compound. The men are wearing Kanzu


She-goat given to the bride's parents


Photos by Sarah

The busuuti/gomesi is usually worn during festivals and ceremonial occasions. For example during the engagement ceremony Kwanjula, weddings and funerals. The bussuti/gomesi is worn more often as a day to day garment by women in rural parts of Uganda.

Young women prefer contemporary garments because the busuuti/gomesi does not enhance their feminine body curves and hips as they would prefer. To the point where it is alleged that some women stuff blankets underneath the busuuti/gomesi to enhance their curves and hips.

ALICIA KEYS The singer, an ambassador for the HIV/AIDS organization Keep a Child Alive, which provides medication, nutrition and childcare throughout six African countries, visited the Masaka Healthcare Center in Uganda, donning a "gomesi," the country's traditional dress.

TEXT SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION

Tracing the Origin f the Gomesi/Busuuti

Should we have a national dress?

Photo by Lukas Vermeer

Traditional Marriages in Uganda: Marriages in Buganda- Kwanjula

AFRICA ON LENS - HANS SILVESTER

Hans Silvester-This is Africa through my Lens

Hans Silvester, born in 1938 in Lorrach, Germany is an acclaimed award winning photographer who has published numerous photography books, including Les Peuples de l’Omo, Abrams' Horses of the Camargue, Desert Eves: An Indian Paradise, and H2O: The Beauty & Mystery of Water.

The people of the Surma and Mursi tribes live in the Omo Valley of Southern Ethiopia are body painters: they paint their bodies with pigments made from the earth as an immemorial and quotidian practice – mothers paint babies, children and adults paint themselves and each other in a tradition that seems unchanged for thousands of years. Their paintings range from abstract designs of circles, lines, dots and swirls, sometimes focused on specific body parts, to all-over patterns of flowers, zig-zags and fingerprints that form a dazzling array on the entire body. White, yellow, orange and ochre; the natural pigments that they use are derived from the soil and rocks of their surroundings. The tribes’ daily paintings are an essential expression of their lives – more elemental to them than music or dance. Fascinated by the Surma and Mursi tribes’ painting practices and astounded by the beauty of their ephemeral art, Silvester captures the diverse and extraordinary effects that they achieve through their ancient tradition.

Source Malborough Gallery

BOOKS BY HANS SILVESTER

Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa by Hans Silvester

Ethiopia: Peoples of the Omo Valley by Hans Silvester

In this ambitious work, Hans Silvester turns his photographic eye toward ancient Africa, the birthplace of humanity. Silvester was essentially adopted by his subjects during his travels, and his stunning color photographs present a rare, intimate view of their world.

The first volume of this deluxe two-volume set presents the everyday lives of the Omo people, their rituals, parades, children’s games, and even their battles. In the second volume, each photograph becomes a masterpiece of abstract art, revealing close-ups of the tribes’ traditional body paintings. Silvester’s accompanying text traces his journey to the Horn of Africa, revealing the fascinating beauty of a world now in danger of extinction.