The grounds of Kisiizi Hospital includes a traditional site which is not only a popular tourist destination, but also symbolises the work of the Hospital; Kisiizi Falls.
For the local tribe, the Bakiga, it is traditionally great shame when an unmarried woman gets pregnant. Up to 100 years ago this resulted in the woman’s family pushing the woman to her death from the top of the Falls. The task was given to her oldest brother because he was the one to suffer financially. On marriage the eldest son benefitted from the ‘bride-price’ paid by the groom to the woman’s family – having a child severely diminished the woman’s value on marriage.
The United Nations Tourism Development Fund paid a local craftsman to construct from concrete a memorial which highlights the despair caused by this practice, (which ended in 1921, in part it is rumoured because one woman pulled her brother over the falls with her).
In agreeing to the memorial the hospital wanted to contrast the despair of the tradition with the hope the Hospital brought to the area. Rather than the Falls bringing death to mothers and their child, it brings hope.
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