The "origins of MOWOG" was a seriously discussed topic about 7 years ago on
this email list. The question drew comment from archivists from all over the
world. The definitive answer (which many of us kept for posterity) - came
from Reid Trummel.
So, in the spirit of legends passed down from generations - here is Reid's
post from 1997......
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From: "Reid Trummel" Wed, 26 Nov 97
The definitive "MOWOG" explanation:
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I think I can shed a little light on this mystery about what, exactly,
"MOWOG" means. It has been interesting to read the many interpretations and
theories which all revolve around the quaint western paradigm of assuming
that it is an acronym. Far from it.
Actually the word "mowog," or in its more accurate original form,
"moh-wawg", traces its history to its original use by the Tutsi tribesmen on
the eastern slopes of the Mitumbar Mountains in central Africa. Among the
Tutsi, "Moh-Wawg!" was an exclamation pronounced at the end of a hunt when a
prey had finally been fallen. The ritual evisceration of the prey,
originally performed immediately after the kill to prevent the spirits from
claiming the carcass, was accompanied by the tribesmen chanting "Moh-Wawg!"
over and over as both a celebratory incantation as well as to warn away any
hungry spirits who might be considering stealing their bounty.
Over time, the word Moh-Wawg became associated with the first sight of the
entrails of the prey as it was being disemboweled, thus the exclamation,
"Moh-Wawg!" was often heard not only when the animal's breast was split and
the fear of losing it to the spirits had passed, but also when the prey was
shared with other members of the tribe as a way of ritually connecting them
to the kill.
The British connection to the word dates from the late 1880s and early 1890s
when the "scramble for Africa" was in full swing, with several European
colonial powers sending expeditions into Africa to stake claims in their
competitive land-rush for new territories from which to extract natural
resources, one of which was manpower, or as we might now say, "human
resources."
The Viscount Abingdon, Great-Great-Uncle of Leonard Lord whom we would later
meet as chief of Austin and then Managing Director of the fledgling British
Motor Corporation in the early 1950s, was among the British expedition
leaders sent to central Africa to thwart a German attempt to gain control of
the headwaters of the Nile. While charting navigable waters in the extreme
western portion of what would initially be known as the German colony of
Tanganyika, but would later be ceded to Belgium's King Leopold and
incorporated into the Belgian Congo, The Viscount encountered the Tutsi
people.
Abingdon was so impressed with the skill of the Tutsi in fabricating
watercraft (not to mention tools for eviscerating fallen prey), that he
befriended their leader whose name defies transliteration into the Roman
alphabet. This relationship eventually proved useful not only for countering
potential German exploitation of the region, but also for furthering British
claims that they could later barter for Belgian acquiescence in the Queen's
establishment of key ports in the Gulf of Guinea on Africa's *western*
littoral. These ports would later become indispensable as waypoints for
British maritime trade with India and indeed the entire subcontinent, and
the establishment of the Dunlop wire wheel industry, which is a story which
shall have to wait for another time.
In any case, so deep was Abingdon's affection for his hosts, or, as the
French might call them, "cooperants", in Tutsi-land, that he eventually gave
his third son the middle name of "Mowog," which was simply Abingdon's
not-quite-correct transliteration of the original Tutsi exclamation, q.v.
above.
The name went little noticed for many years until that third son, having
later led an ill-fated World War I mission that unfortunately delivered his
mess kit maintenance platoon into the hands of a German Army field kitchen,
was repatriated after the war. His heroic conduct as a prisoner, wherein he
steadfastly refused to compromise British knowledge of field sanitation
measures or of the impending deployment of "tanks" against the German lines,
would earn him not only accolades in the home press, but would also bring
him to the attention of the British industrialists who had manufactured
those tanks used in the battle at Ypres (which the British mispronounced
"wipers" and which, of course, later led to the Lucas connection to
electrical accessories).
During this time it was, of course, quite fashionable among the gentry to
assume off-beat nicknames related to British colonial exploits, (see, for
example, the Duke Winston "Mombasa-man" Rutherfordshire) and so "Mowog" was
a ready made natural for Abingdon's son.
Well, Mowog's popularity led him to a prestigious if not lucrative position
in the nascent post-war British motor industry, and among his new corporate
duties was securing markets for British motor products. Germany had, of
course, been (temporarily) laid low by the war, and so Mowog struck out to
ex-German colonies in Africa to attempt to establish British hegemony there
as a supplier of motor transport for the colonial infrastructure.
Naturally he took several lorries with him to Africa to rove the land (...)
and thereby prove their durability under the extreme conditions to which
they would be subjected while serving with colonial administrators. Now, it
seems that Mowog was also a bit of a history buff, as one might expect, and
so he used the opportunity to attempt to retrace his father's route into the
interior to Tutsi-land. The lorries proved amazingly resilient as roads were
literally constructed as they proceeded, and eventually they did arrive on
those eastern slopes of the Mitumbar. The trek had, of course, taken some
toll, and only one of the original five lorries made it all the way, the
others having been, um, cannibalized for parts and fuel en route.
As fate would have it, the exhausted but steadfast contingent finally did
encounter Tutsi tribesmen just as their last lorry ran out of gas, upon
which they opened the bonnet and the tribesmen were heard to exclaim,
"Moh-Wawg, Moh-Wawg, Moh-Wawg..."
And the rest is history.
Ne cede malis,
Reid
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