JStories abound about the promiscuity of the Batoro. It is, for example, believed that a good Mutoro woman never rejects a man - omusaija tayangwa, they say. Unlike the women in Ankole who choose to marry within the tribe, a Mutoro woman will readily marry not only outside the tribe, but race too. It's easy to find a Mutoro married to an Acholi or an Italian
It took months of formalities before a couple settled in as husband and wife. Prof. Oswald Ndoleriire, a professor of linguistics at Makerere University says it was the parents' duty to find partners for their children. "Marriage based on research was far better than today's marriage based on love, the love came later."
In the yet to be published manuscript Runyakitara Studies/Culture, Oswald Ndoleriire, a Mutoro and others write that a family would go looking for a suitable girl to marry or a father would have booked a wife for his son.
One form of betrothal was kuswera mu matundu or antenatal betrothal, where a father booked an unborn child for his son. Or, a man would tell a close friend, 'my wife is pregnant, I give her child to you.' If the child were a girl, this friend would have her as a wife for his son.
This young girl, who had been booked, attained the status of 'wife' at an early age. At five or six she was handed over to the family that had booked her where she grew up as a daughter and got groomed by her mother-in-law to be.
During this time, the boy meant to marry her had no knowledge that this was his future wife, and took her like a sister.
The colonialists later stopped this booking and it became a crime. The colonialists insisted that couples be united in marriage when they were old enough.
Those not booked earlier would start preparing for marriage at puberty. Girls would start applying special ghee on their skin, trimming their nails and shaving their hair.
A boy's family looked for a girl whose personal and family background was good and avoided families with chronic or hereditary diseases. When a good girl was spotted, Ndoleriire says a go-between, kiranga obuko, was dispatched.
"He would reach the compound and clear his throat loudly," said Amooti, "they would welcome him
and he would say he was looking for friendship."
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