vegetal tombs gather history into the living present.

The Kasubi tombs are not merely historical artifacts or static structures to be preserved for the sake of cultural heritage. They are built from the earth of the region, and their ongoing decay and renewal testify to a continuous engagement between the living community and their ancestors. When we treat these sites as objects to be protected by external agencies or optimized for tourism, we pull them out of their context and transform them into resources. We collapse the significance of the site the moment we view it as a relic to be saved rather than a space that is currently doing the work of gathering a people. By framing these tombs as landmarks to be observed, we distance ourselves from the very way they function: as a bridge that maintains the presence of the past within the immediate daily life of the Buganda. The danger is not that they might vanish, but that we will successfully turn them into something that no longer speaks because we have successfully stripped them of their role in the world.