History of the Popular Traditional Dress for Ugandan Women ~ Gorilla Tour Booking Safaris
The Gomesi

Dress is highly valued and people who dress well are respected. Most Ugandans wear western style clothing although many people still wear traditional clothes which differ from region to region. In most rural areas women have to wear clothing that covers the leg. Men always wear long pants; shorts are just for little boys. People like to be exceptionally fashionable.


History of the Popular Traditional Dress for Ugandan Women 

The Gomesi

1/8 Gomesi started being with us in 1940s when it was adapted as the dress for boarding schools in


History of the Popular Traditional Dress for Ugandan Women
Uganda, starting with Gayaza. Gayaza, as we know was founded by Christian missionaries ‘…to train girls especially the daughters of chiefs in those skills that would make them better wives’.

2/8 Initially, the ladies of the school donned the basic Kiganda ladies’ attire of the day: a sheet of cotton cloth wrapped around the breasts and tied to the waist with a smaller strip of cloth. This left much of the torso exposed and there were often some accidents with that attire especially when the ladies went to work in the school shambas. The missionary tutors found the exposure of the ladies’ torsos and breasts indecent and sought to craft a dress code that was a compromise of their own fashions and the bed sheet-like sash with which the ‘natives’ draped themselves (see attached picture, from Speke’s journal of the ‘discovery’ of the Nile).

3/8 They enlisted the services of a tailor from Gayaza trading centre, an Indian called Fernando Gomes. Mr Gomes was from Goa , an Indian province formally under the Portuguese. The people there like Mr Gomes and the Pintos, Almeidas etc adopted Portuguese names.

4/8 In designing the new Gayaza uniform, Mr Gomes maintained the extravagant sash, very much like the oriental Kimono or West African Obi that was to form a massive skirt. On to this, he stitched a quasi blouse with a square neck with two buttons opening on the left. The new dress was named after him, hence, gomesi. This became the first uniform for all girls in boarding schools (hence ‘boodingi’) and when they went back home for holidays, the traditional authorities were impressed by the new fashion, turning it into the ‘traditional’ dress.

5/8 Mr Gomes was later to be evicted from Gayaza by the Anti-Asian rioters in the late 1940s. A fifth generation Indian Raj Vajrakaya Gomez has recently come up to claim that he is a grandchild of Gomes and wants the ‘bodingi’ to be patented to benefit the family of its designer. His claim can however be doubted because his name, Gomez is Spanish where as the Portuguese version given to the Goans has a letter‘s’.

6/8 The gomesi dress symbolises the ostentation and conspicuous display and extravagancy of feudal society where value for money is an alien concept. From one gomesi, a contemporary designer can make at least 3 size 12 ladies’ dresses….let alone the ‘Kikoyi’, ‘kitambi and ‘Kitambala’ that accompany that courtly attire.

7/8 The gomesi can only be a ‘national dress’ (hopefully for ladies only) if the nation’s life is going to be confined to the slothfulness, lethargy, flamboyance, splendour and vanity of the feudal court. An active, productive, non-parasitic, bi-cycle riding, boda-boda mobile female population cannot manage in that cumbersome garb. A mukiga lady will not wear it, and never wears it, and in much of the West, the less cumbersome two-piece dress and sheet remains popular: it makes it easy to shed off the sheet, which for the gomesi and get on with work, is the entire garb.

8/8 To think that ‘Gomesi’ is a traditional dress is a bit problematic when we do not even have a vernacular name for it and at the very moment when some of us are agitating for a ‘national’ language. Looking at the name Gomes itself, its Portuguese origin makes the naming of the attire for our women even more problematic. Gomes or Gomez in Spanish derives from ‘Guma’ meaning a man or male, or masculine….i.e., Mwami/Ejakait/Ladit. A name that refers to masculinity, for a dress that embodies femininity is a comical contradiction in terms!


Buganda traditional dress:

The above information is from 
http://ugandansatheart.org/2012/08/28/gomesi-as-national-dress-how-national-how-dressy-which-nation/

Short Wildlife Safaris to Uganda 

1 Day Kampala Tour, One Day Kampala safari visit by Gorilla Tours Booking


Long Wildlife Safaris 





0 comments:

Post a Comment

Printfriendly

Translate

Support the Orphans

We have parthered with Nalongo Youth
Empowerment (NYE) to give support to
the youth,women and orphans this is done
with the profits we get from your
tours Read More
Powered by Blogger.

Rwanda ⇒ Uganda Tours

⇒1 Day Lake Mburo National Park Wildlife Safari Tour
⇒1 Day Jinja Tour and the Source to the Nile
⇒1 Day Ngamba Island Excursion Tour
⇒2 day Lake Mburo National Park.
⇒2 Days Murchison falls National Park Plus Rhinos.
⇒2 days Chimpanzee trek to Kibale Forest National Park

⇒2-Day Tour to Queen Elizabeth National Park.


⇒2 Days Murchison Falls Short Wildlife Safari Tour

⇒2 Days,Rwanda Gorilla safari Gorilla tracking Adventure.
⇒3 Days Gorilla Trekking Tours , Gorilla Expeditions Safaris Bwindi National Park.
⇒3 Day Wildlife Safari -Queen Elizabeth National Park- Short Safari in Uganda.
⇒3 Days Murchison Falls Experience Safari to Uganda.
⇒3 Days Kibale Forest - Chimp trekking Mini - Safaris - Best of the Best Safaris.
⇒3 Days Lake Mburo National Park Tour and Game Safari in Uganda.
⇒3 Days Rwanda Gorilla Trekking Tour & Dian Fossey -Rwanda Safari.
⇒3 Days Gorilla Trekking Safari-Uganda, short Gorilla tour in Uganda.
⇒4 Days , Uganda Mountain Gorilla tour Uganda Gorilla Trekking Safari.
⇒4 days Uganda Gorilla Tracking and BIG 5 Queen Elizabeth National Park Safari.
⇒4 Days Gorilla Tracking in PNV.
⇒4 Days-Track Rwanda Gorillas twice! Rwanda Gorilla tracking Tour.
⇒5 Days Uganda Safari trekking Chimpanzees and Gorilla tracking.
⇒5 Days gorillas and wildlife safari to Bwindi Impenetrable national park, and Queen Elizabeth N.P.
⇒5 Days Uganda Safari trekking Chimpanzees and Gorilla tracking.
⇒6 Days Gorilla Trekking in Uganda Bwindi Super Safari.
⇒6 Days Uganda/Rwanda Double Gorilla Tracking.
⇒7 Day Uganda Safari Gorillas and Chimp Tracking Kibale, Queen Elizabeth and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
⇒7-Day Uganda Super Safari: Lake Mburo ,Bwindi Impenetrable , Queen Elizabeth and Kibale
⇒7 Days Gorilla Trekking Safari Adventure and Wildlife Uganda .
⇒7 days-Gorilla tour Rwanda Uganda Gorilla Tracking Tour.
⇒7 Days Rwanda Gorillas & Chimps .
⇒8 Days: Gorilla tour ,Chimpanzee Trekking and Big 5 in Uganda.
⇒8 Days Uganda Chimps and Rwanda Gorillas.
⇒9 Days Bwindi Gorilla Trekking Lake Bunyonyi-Queen National Park .

⇒10 Day Uganda Gorilla and Wildlife Safari.
⇒10 Days Rwanda - Uganda Primates
⇒10 Days Uganda Honeymoon Safari
11 Days – Tour Rwanda Uganda Gorillas Gorilla Tour Uganda Rwanda
⇒12 Days Rwanda Gorillas & Uganda Safari.
⇒13 Days Uganda Rwanda Wildlife Tour
⇒14 Days All Round Cross boarder Tour.
⇒14 Day Gorilla Adventure Tour and Uganda Highlight Holidays Tour.
⇒15 Days Genocide, Gorillas and Wildlife.
⇒26 Days Uganda Rwanda Safari.
⇒Professional Programmes Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer or any other profession Safari to Uganda or Rwanda.

Popular Posts

We are Waiting for You Enquiry

Name

Email *

Message *

\