The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-05
All About the Baganda, Who Raise Their Clothes I'm Gardens

Copyright, 1908, by Frank C. Carpenter )
 Kampala, Uganda.

tCopyright, 1908, by Frank G. Carpenter )
 Kampala, Uganda.
 A WAY off here in the heart of the "A black continent, within a few \ hundred miles of the headwaters e1 the Kongo, and right at the source Of the Nile, is a nation of semi-civized Africans who are clad all in bark have just left the Kavirondo, on the other side of Victoria Nyanza. They go stark naked, and are not ashamed These peo- lle are fully clad, and they consider all exposure of the person indecent. A mar lied woman who would go about wearing only the girde of beads and the short fiber tail which constitutes full dress ebout Port Florence would be arrested in Kampala, and the Uganda men who would strut around with only little apron skin ted to his waist at the back would be Grummed out of the country
 The Baganda, as these people are called. ere a nation of prudes. This is so espe- cially as far the men are concerned Every one of them, when not working is clothed in long flowing garments from hls head to his feet, and in the time of tie last king the man who showed a bit
 
 instantly punished I have told you how the old blind musician of the present king lost his eyes by allowing princess to see kim in swimming. This was at the com rland of old King Mutesa, and that not wlthstanding he kept large corps of nude girls about his palace to act as his rslets. Nowadays the Uganda women aie almost as much clad as the men, and 1t is only when out working in the field that they may occasionally be seen bare to the waist.
 A Nation In Bark.
 There are about 100000 negroes in Georgia, and that is just the number of these semi-civilized Baganda If you could collect all our Georgia colored pop- nlation together and dress them in bark, having an occasional one clad in sheets of white cotton, you would have some thing like the nation here at the source Of the Nile. The people are Bantu ne- groes. They are if anything better look Ing than our colored people, and are far more intelligent than the negroes about the Gulf of Guinea, from where the great CT portion of our slaves came. Their bark clothing is made in the shape of great sheets of the size of d bed quilt and it is wrapped about the body, ex- tending in the case of the men from the neck to the feet, and with the women from under the arms we'll down to the ankles. The Baganda man begins dress ing by winding a strip of bark cloth about his hips and passing it between his legs and fastening it at the waist After this he puts on his large sheet, which he fas- tens around his shoulders and often ties in at the waist. It is only when at hard labor that any other part of his body is bare. When working his lower legs often show. The women do not seem to regard the exposure of their persons above the waist as indecent. although they are usually clad from armplts to ankles. I am told that many of them take off their clothes when dining inside the house, in order to keep from soilng them. The women see are on the whole pretty well clad
 Adam and Eve In Uganda.
 When Adam and Eve had their little trouble over the apple, and from it, as an eye-opener clad themselves in fig leaves, they set an example for these people of Uganda. The Baganda, however, use the park of fig trees and not the leaf This cark clothing is all made of the inside skin of a species of fig tree which they grow in their gardens. I have just re- turned from a long trip through the country and have had an opportunity to see how the bark is grown and how 1t is prepared for clothing.
 The ordinary Uganda family lives in thatche ed hut surrounded by banana plantat tions,. and these clothing trees are planted in among the bananas. They are to be seen everywhere along the roads. They grow to height of from % to 30 feet, and their branches be- gin at about eight or 10 feet from the ground The bark Is cut in such