GGULU

Sky, supreme deity

Ggulu, sometimes transcribed Mugulu, is the great celestial figure of Baganda cosmology, associated with the sky, storms and rain. His very name means the sky in Luganda, underscoring his identification with the realm above. Ggulu is known above all through the founding myth of the Baganda, which tells how Kintu, the first man, climbed to the sky to win the hand of his daughter Nambi. Ggulu put Kintu through a series of trials meant to test his worth, then, satisfied, granted the marriage and gave the couple cattle, seeds and provisions to people the earth. He warned them, however, to leave at once and not return, so that Walumbe, Nambi's brother and the embodiment of death, would not follow them. Nambi's return to the sky to fetch grain allowed Walumbe to descend to earth, thus bringing death among humans, despite the efforts of her other brother Kayikuzi to capture him. This narrative explains at once the origin of Ganda humanity and the presence of mortality in the world. Within the structure of the pantheon, Ggulu belongs to the celestial sphere and stands apart from the earthly or lacustrine balubaale such as Mukasa and Kibuka, while sharing with Katonda a supreme dimension bound to the sky and to the origin of things.