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Enkai is the creator god of the Maasai people. He reveals himself in three colors: white, red, and black. Among them, red and black speak the loudest.

Inspired by the oral traditions of the Maasai, this episode follows a lone Maasai woman as she offers a series of prayers, pleas for life, for mercy, for a child. Her voice becomes a bridge between the earthly and the divine.

The story is told in a poetic, haiku-like form..sparse, symbolic, and intimate. Inspired by the oral traditions of the Maasai.

It’s an experiment.

Take your time. Listen. Feel it.

I hope you enjoy. 😁

Youtube Video: https://youtu.be/JD8Y9LJpmUk

SOURCES

Naomi Kipuri. Oral Literature of the Maasai. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1983.

Dorothy L. Hodgson. The Church of Women: Gendered Encounters between Maasai and Missionaries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.

Jomo Kenyatta. Facing Mount Kenya. London: Secker and Warburg, 1938.

Douglas E. Thomas. African Religions: Beliefs and Practices through History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2018.

Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama, eds. Encyclopedia of African Religion. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2008.

Project FUEL. Engai: God of the Maasai. Google Arts & Culture, n.d

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The king may be gone but his wives remain.

At the royal tombs of Kasubi, a small community of women continues to serve long after death.
They are the royal widows of Buganda: chosen from different clans, bound to the king in life… and still present in his death.

From sweeping the tombs to preparing rituals, they carry out their roles with quiet dignity.

Not as relics of the past, but as part of a living royal tradition.

Who are these women?
What do they remember?
And what does their presence mean for a kingdom that never forgets its kings?

This episode is a journey through royal duty, legacy, and the sacred roles that still echo within the thatched walls of Kasubi.

Sources!!!!

1. Kiwanuka, M. S. M. A History of Buganda: From the Foundation of the Kingdom to 1900. London: Longman, 1971.
2. Kodesh, Neil. Beyond the Royal Gaze: Clanship and Public Healing in Buganda. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010.
   
   
   
3. Ray, Benjamin C. Myth, Ritual, and Kingship in Buganda. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
   
   
   
4. Roscoe, John. The Baganda: An Account of Their Native Customs and Beliefs. London: Macmillan and Co., 1911.
   
   
   
5. Reid, Richard J. Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda: Economy, Society, and Warfare in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: James Currey, 2002.
6. Schiller, Laurence. "Royal Women of Buganda." The International Journal of African Historical Studies 10, no. 2 (1977): 171–188. https://doi.org/10.2307/217347.
   
   
   
7. Wrigley, Christopher. Kingship and State: The Buganda Dynasty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
   
   
   
8. CyArk. “Royal Tombs at Kasubi – 3D Explorer.” Accessed June 2025. https://cyark.org/projects/royal-tombs-at-kasubi/3D-Explorer
9. Personal Interview with Catherine, guide at Kasubi & Field Footage (Kasubi Tombs 2025)
10. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1022/

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What if a king never truly dies?
In Buganda, power doesn’t end with a funeral. It transforms.

Today, the royal palace is modern, more European in design than ancestral. But at the Kasubi Tombs, the old world still breathes. This episode traces how the king’s presence moved from palace to tomb, how his body became spirit, and how his home became sacred ground. We step inside a world where the roof was measured to the size of his head, where each clan held a cosmic role, and where power radiated from one man like the sun.

This isn’t just history.
It’s memory made architecture.
And the king?...Well.
He never really left.

Part 2: “Royal Widows” drops August 31st.

Youtube Video Link: https://youtu.be/nHKlrbTjKnA

Sources!!!!

1. Kiwanuka, M. S. M. A History of Buganda: From the Foundation of the Kingdom to 1900. London: Longman, 1971.
2. Kodesh, Neil. Beyond the Royal Gaze: Clanship and Public Healing in Buganda. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010.
   
   
   
3. Ray, Benjamin C. Myth, Ritual, and Kingship in Buganda. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
   
   
   
4. Roscoe, John. The Baganda: An Account of Their Native Customs and Beliefs. London: Macmillan and Co., 1911.
   
   
   
5. Reid, Richard J. Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda: Economy, Society, and Warfare in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: James Currey, 2002.
   
   
   
6. Wrigley, Christopher. Kingship and State: The Buganda Dynasty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
   
   
   
7. CyArk. “Royal Tombs at Kasubi – 3D Explorer.” Accessed June 2025. https://cyark.org/projects/royal-tombs-at-kasubi/3D-Explorer

8. Personal Interview with Catherine guide at Kasubi & Field Footage (Kasubi Tombs 2025)

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