Art and Oracle: A Scholarly Resource of African and Rituals of Divination | Explore & Learn

Divination in Sub-Saharan Africa
Part 1: Azande

t is appropriate that we begin our survey with the Azande of the southern Sudan and the northeastern region of the D.R.C., since their divination practices are the first in sub-Saharan Africa to have been thoroughly examined and written about, in E. E. Evans-Pritchard's masterful study Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, published in 1937. For decades it remained the only extensive and serious discussion of divination as practiced by sub-Saharan African peoples. Evans-Pritchard established the norms by which future students would address the subject, including the premise that divination is a form of inquiry and communication that has to be taken seriously, if one is to understand the worldviews of the Azande and other African peoples. For them, divination is a method of harnessing spirit forces to obtain guidance in dealing with ill will, envy, suspicion, and other universally human feelings and behaviors.

The Azande dwell in savanna forest, where they cultivate the soil, raising a variety of plants, and also hunt and fish. They live in relatively small villages that are linked through identification with larger areas presided over by princes within what was once a larger kingdom prior to the colonial period. Their world is one of interaction with kinsmen, neighboring peoples, and ancestral spirits and other spiritual powers—the latter distinguishable from, but participating in, a primal Spirit that pervades the universe of human experience in all its diversity. Evans-Pritchard's study established that witchcraft—the manipulation of matter and words as agents of demonic powers—is an inextricable part of Azande life. An often-quoted passage from that study provides a context for understanding witchcraft and oracle among the Azande:

In Zandeland sometimes an old granary collapses. There is nothing remarkable in this. Every Zande knows that termites eat the supports in [the] course of time and that even the hardest woods decay after years of service. Now a granary is the summerhouse of a Zande homestead and people sit beneath it in the heat of the day and chat or play the African hole-game or work at some craft. Consequently it may happen that there are people sitting beneath the granary when it collapses and they are injured, for it is a heavy structure made of beams and clay and may be stored with eleusive [millet] as well. Now why should these particular people have been sitting under this particular granary at the particular moment when it collapsed? That it should collapse is easily intelligible, but why should it have collapsed at the particular moment when these particular people were sitting beneath it?23

As Evans-Pritchard observed, the Azande fully understand that termites and the granary's own weight caused the structure to collapse, and that on a hot day people might well be sitting beneath it and be hurt or killed. One could say that it was a coincidence of events, "two chains of causation intersected at a certain time and in a certain place." For the Azande, the question remains: why these people at this moment at this place? The question is not simply one of "how," but of "why"; and the Azande answer is that "it is due to witchcraft."24 The Azande understand multiple causality and do not blame witchcraft as the cause of an event when it is evidently a transgression of social norms (such as adultery) or a violation of customary law (such as theft),25 but they do regard witchcraft as an ordinary event in their lives. Indeed, it is considered hereditary, and no one appears to be spared the power—or at least the possibility—of being a witch. At times, the accused may be unaware of having used such powers.

In Azande life and thought, oracles and other divination practices are closely linked with witchcraft. When misfortune occurs—such as a granary falling on a group of people, or a failure in the hunt, or the onset of a physical ailment—an oracle is used to find out whether witchcraft is involved. In this respect, divination is a means of understanding present circumstances in connection with past events, especially in terms of the ways people are affected by those events. However, divination is also concerned with future possibilities—for example, whether one should fear the intrusion of witchcraft on a journey that one plans to take, or whether the woman one wishes to marry will die early in life due to the power of a witch.

Given the Azande people's pervasive anxiety about witchcraft and its varied manifestations, it is not surprising that they have developed numerous different forms of divination. The most powerful and accurate form is the poison oracle (benge, a term that also refers to the poison itself). This rite is performed outside the village, in the bush—untamed wilderness—with the participation of those who are actively involved in the consultation or are consulted as witnesses to it. A man without any special standing in the community, if he knows the required procedures and has respected the prohibitions against certain kinds of behavior—such as refraining from sexual intercourse for several days or abstaining from eating forbidden food, especially elephant meat—is selected to administer poison to a young chicken. After the group arrives at the location chosen for the divination rite, the suppliant addresses a question to the benge, and the chicken is given the poison. The phrasing of the question is crucial; it must be neither too vague nor too specific. The benge responds through the action of the poison: if the chicken is still alive, then the suppliant's suspicions may be allayed; but if the chicken dies, those suspicions are confirmed. After the inquiry and response, the poison is administered to another chicken to learn if the first response was accurate. Resolution of the suppliant's problem may require a series of questions and several chickens. As in Western modes of "objective" inquiry, doubt is part of the process of divinatory inquiry for the Azande. Due to the costs, time, and people involved, benge is used only for the most serious circumstances, such as the death of a family member, illness, barrenness, or accusations of adultery.

Another form of divination employed by the Azande is the termite oracle (dakpa), in which termites are offered branches from two species of tree—dakpa and kpoyo—and responses to questions are determined by which type of tree branches the termites choose to eat.26 Sometimes both will be eaten, and this response also has a particular significance. As with the benge oracle, the questions put to dakpa are often concerned with the possibility of witchcraft being used against one in the course of an enterprise, such as building a house or clearing a plot of ground for seed; and the questioning can refer to specific people or families one suspects of harboring ill will. When the responses suggest that the problem is serious, then benge will be employed in order to confirm what one has learned from dakpa.

The most widely used form of divination is the friction oracle (iwa).27 The poison oracle entails the expense of owning and preserving the rare substance benge, and the termite oracle takes time and requires a particular setting—a termite mound—in which to be performed. Iwa, however, is valued for being easy to use and readily available when one needs to ask questions and make decisions. It is not considered as reliable as the other oracles, which involve independent agents and are less prone to manipulation, but it is quickly accessible and its responses may subsequently be confirmed by benge.

A person may carve and prepare his or her own friction board. The Azande, though not a people noted for their visual arts, have a reputation as excellent smiths, potters, and carvers of domestic objects, and in the past were noted for their beautiful carved harp-lutes.28 The iwa is often made in striking geometric shapes. It consists of "male" and "female" parts: the lower part, shaped somewhat like a three-legged stool with one leg extended, on which a person places a foot to hold the instrument in place; and an upper part, a lidlike object that serves as the rubbing implement (fig. 1). Once the iwa is carved, preparing it is of the utmost importance. The suppliant—who must respect the same ritual prohibitions stipulated for consulting benge—scores the rubbing surfaces with a hot iron, rubs the carved areas with the juices of various plants, hides it under several inches of soil on a well-trodden path for several days, and then applies leaf and root preparations to the rubbing areas. While the friction oracle is in use, the rubbing implement is regularly dipped in a gourd of water.

When a question is addressed to the oracle—for example, inquiring about the cause of a sudden illness or if a journey should be avoided because of witchcraft—the movement of the rubbing implement indicates a positive or negative response. This is determined by whether it moves with ease or with difficulty—for example, sticking to the surface of the lower, female portion—or simply moves in a noncommittal circular fashion. As with the poison and termite oracles, a second, confirmatory test is usually made. The advantage of the iwa is that it is easy to use in public and can be consulted any time the need arises, such as to solve a vexing problem that is diverting attention from other matters.

CONTINUE

Fig. 1. An Azande diviner uses a friction oracle (iwa), holding his foot against the lower part to keep the instrument in place and rubbing the upper part against it.

23. Evans-Pritchard 1937, p. 69.

24. Ibid., p. 70.

25. Ibid., p. 75.

26. Ibid., pp. 352–57.

27. Ibid., pp. 359–74.

28. Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers, in a letter to the author, December 1999.