As a sacred landscape, Nyakiriga presents two mutually compatible scenarios for the
site to be chosen as a shrine by the Padhola. First, it is probable that the makers of the
rock art and the Padhola chose the same location by chance. Since Tororo is a relatively
flat area, a large boulder surrounded by forest stands out as a special place. The area
was not occupied so they sought to occupy it and make it theirs. Given the Padhola
belief in the concept of Jok who resides in rocks, Sere would be ideal to make offerings
and to justify the need to protect the area as a place for ritual honouring of deities who
guard the villages and the people. In many African societies, rock shelters, among other
places, are believed to be the abode of ancestral spirits and are therefore the preferred
places for ritual.
Second, it is probable that the rock art itself marked the site as one of supernatural
power or one linked to ancestors. To illustrate this point, Nyakiriga can be compared
with Thaba Sione in the North West Province of South Africa where the Tswana chief
developed a corporate history around the place to perpetuate the chief’s political power.
Persistence of chieftaincy over time tied in with the belief that the rock art of Thaba
Sione was made by ancestors of the Tswana chief (Ouzman 1995: 63).
Finally, like Sere, in western Uganda, oral traditions have developed around an
archaeological site to indicate the existence of a very short-lived, but large, Cwezi
As a sacred landscape, Nyakiriga presents two mutually compatible scenarios for the
site to be chosen as a shrine by the Padhola. First, it is probable that the makers of the
rock art and the Padhola chose the same location by chance. Since Tororo is a relatively
flat area, a large boulder surrounded by forest stands out as a special place. The area
was not occupied so they sought to occupy it and make it theirs. Given the Padhola
belief in the concept of Jok who resides in rocks, Sere would be ideal to make offerings
and to justify the need to protect the area as a place for ritual honouring of deities who
guard the villages and the people. In many African societies, rock shelters, among other
places, are believed to be the abode of ancestral spirits and are therefore the preferred
places for ritual.
Second, it is probable that the rock art itself marked the site as one of supernatural
power or one linked to ancestors. To illustrate this point, Nyakiriga can be compared
with Thaba Sione in the North West Province of South Africa where the Tswana chief
developed a corporate history around the place to perpetuate the chief’s political power.
Persistence of chieftaincy over time tied in with the belief that the rock art of Thaba
Sione was made by ancestors of the Tswana chief (Ouzman 1995: 63).
Finally, like Sere, in western Uganda, oral traditions have developed around an
archaeological site to indicate the existence of a very short-lived, but large, Cwezi
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