The First Banana: A Baganda Legend
According to Baganda tradition, the banana (matooke) was a gift from the gods to sustain humanity. In the time after Kintu, the people had grain but no fruit trees. One day, a woman named Nalongo was mourning the death of her twin children. She buried them in her courtyard and watered their graves with her tears. From one grave grew a banana plant, its leaves spreading like comforting arms. From the other grew a plantain. Nalongo tended the plants faithfully, and when they bore fruit, she discovered that cooking the green bananas produced a soft, nourishing food that could feed many people. Sh