Totem Ente | etalina mukira Akabbiro Nnnggaali English Tailless Cow Runyankole Ente Kiswahili Nngombe Clan Leader Katongole Estates Mulema Ssaza Buddu Omubala Clan motto Ekyuma nkiridde n’omukimba ngulidde.

Although it is a rule that you don’t eat your totem, the nte clansmen do eat beef yet a cow is their totem. There are seven specific types of cows that are totemic and the rest are not. The six are the tailless cow ( Abagabo), the cow with a white patch on its head (Ente ya Kaasa), the cow with a dark stripe from head to tail (Ente ya Kayinda), the striped cow (ente ya Lubombwe), the cow that conceives before nine days elapse after giving birth (Ente y’Obusito) and a cow whose lower limbs are black or brown one side and white the other. (Ente eyina ekinuulo ekyeeru nekiddugavu erudda n’erudda) and a grey-spotted cow (ente empuula). All these cow clans are under Katongole as the chief clan head; however, each totem has a head answerable to Katongole.

There is a legend about the tailless cow second totem which is the crested crane. A newly married girl was being led by her fellow girls to her new home and she ate gooseberries (Ntuntunu) as her friends went for a call in the nearby bush. When they returned to find her eating Ntuntunu, they jeered at her and she felt terribly embarrassed. She ran towards the flock of the cranes that were wading through the Savanna and they never saw her again. The girls claimed that she turned into a crested crane as she approached the flock, and flew away. From that time on, the crested crane became a second totem to the cow Clan. The main economic activity of this clan was iron smith and smelting and this technology was passed from father to son.

This clan traces its origin from Katongole of the tailless cow who came from Bunyoro. His leaving was a result of persecution from the king of Bunyoro who married his sister and unfortunately gave birth to an albino. The king’s fortune-tellers advised him to kill the child, its mother and Katongole as well. Word reached him in good time and he organized all members of his family to leave immediately. He hid in a forest called Teero near Lake Nnalubaale (Lake Victoria) through Mawokota. He later moved to Bijja, the present day Biikira where his sons Nakaana, Lukyamuzi and Lwegaba left to go to Mulema. They settled there but despite their effort to bring their father and join them in their lucrative smith activities, Katongole refused and remained in Mulema.

Katongole eventually fell sick of Kawumpuli and died. His son Nakaana was his heir but he shifted the clan seat from Bijja to Mulema where it still is to date.
They were the smiths for the Kabaka specializing in hoes.

*** In Ankole, the cow clansmen are the Bagahe but this cow is usually brown with black sripes called ente ya Lubombwe in Luganda and ngoobe in Runyankole. ***

Popular names for men:
Kakooza, Kaweesi, Miwanda, Muwulya, Mugenyi, Ssemanda, Wangi, Ssempijja, Nakaana, Lwasampija, Lwegaba, Ddungu, Kigulenkumbi, Nakaddu, Kayaabula, Bwebale, Lwebuga, Ssennyondo, Kaweewo

Popular names for women:
Nabakooza, Nakaweesi, Namiwanda, Namuwulya, Namugenyi, Namanda, Nawangi, Nampijja, Namaganda, Nakyanzi, Nabuuma, Nakayima, Nabonna, Nante, Natoolo

About the animal
A cow is a large ruminant kept on farms to produce meat and beef. There are seven different cows that are totemic. Ente etalina mukira (tailless cow), ente ya Lubombwe (striped cow), ente ya Kayinda (white or brown patches or spots from head to tail), ente empuula (ash-grey or biege cow with tiny dark grey sprayed spots), ente ey’ekinuulo ekyeeru nekiddugavu (cow with black and white lower limbs), Kaasa (cow with a white spot on the face) and ente y’obusito (cow that conceives before nine days elpse after calving).
There are so many indigenous varieties of cows in Uganda and their weight, height and length, colour vary from region to region.