Anyone who studied history in Uganda is familiar with this picture; the Luzira Head.
A ghostly sepia-colored photograph of the Luzira Head has for decades graced the cover a high school history textbook called “The Incomplete, Inaccurate and Infuriatingly Inadequate History of Uganda from 1800.”
Okay, that’s not what it is called, but considering that I have had to relearn Uganda’s history despite studying it for 13 years, that’s what it should be called.
Although I always knew of the Luzira Head, it wasn’t until last week that I was made aware of what a fascinating piece of the history of the interlacustrine region it is. It is a mysterious piece of my country that is lost forever.
The Luzira Head is a terracotta pottery figure that was discovered in 1929 when a gang of prisoners was set to work on leveling the top of a hill within Luzira Prison. The prisoners were alarmed when they uncovered the clay figure of appeared to be a human face. On examination by a British police officer in charge of the prison, it was found to be a head of a pottery figure.
Continued excavation revealed fragments of other figures. The material recovered consisted almost entirely of ceramic figures and associated pottery fragments.
