The mystical coffee beans of Buganda kingdom – Uganda safari news

coffee beans - ugandaDifferent things in Africa tell incredibly interesting individual stories. Ugandans in particular attach value to almost everything around them, and boy, do they back them up! For reasons such as this, a Safari in Uganda can never feature on the list of boring things in life, there’s just so much to explore; and whole lot to discover.
Most of us have a cup of coffee a day, or at least know a friend or relative who just won’t go a day without having a couple of sips off that coffee cup. Some of us go a step further to purchase coffee brewers to tailor our coffee to a taste we personally enjoy. Others are conversely very fine with making daily trips to Starbucks, because Starbucks’ coffee mix-up is just fine. Well the beans that form that coffee have a meaning, which though slowly disappearing, is still in the minds and hearts of the Baganda (people from Buganda Kingdom). Buganda Kingdom can be found in central Uganda on a Uganda Safari including Kampala the capital city.
Emmwaanyi, meaning coffee beans in Luganda (the language of the Baganda), was the major emblem in the Buganda brotherhood ritual. Brotherhood and sometimes friendship was to be bound with blood and not by mere voicing of phrases like “I Love You” or “You are my brother”. In the presence of witnesses, the two participants got a seed and split its stones into two, each taking one. Each participant made a cut on his body and applied some of the blood to the coffee stone. They then traded the coffee beans and made oral vows to stand by each other forever no matter which circumstances arose. On completion of the vows, they were required to swallow the stones, signifying that they had been joined by both vows and blood. “Your enemy is my enemy and your blood is my blood”, they meant to say. It was believed that this bond would only be broken by death.
There’s more to this story and many more interesting stories that you will enjoy listening to while on your Safari Tours in Uganda, but shouldn’t we discover some additional importance s ? The same coffee was used by the Baganda people to treat a number of illnesses of the heart and asthma; they were used to freshen up one’s breath; the coffee was also drunk, like we do, to keep people strong, awake and active, especially when there was work that needed to be completed.
One of the things you can think about doing while on your Uganda Safaris and Tours is to have a taste of some of this natural coffee; and you are also free to take back home with you a couple of these mystical seeds, and perhaps the brave ones can also redo a pact with their friends. This is Uganda, The Land of Surprises!
Uganda safaris/Uganda safari News
Prime Uganda safaris & Tours Ltd

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