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Divination in sub-Saharan Africa
Part 5: Malagasy

he divinatory systems noted thus far have two features in common: all of them are used to gain an understanding of present circumstances in terms of past events, near or distant; and questions about the future focus on matters in the immediate future, such as recovery from illness or adjudicating a family conflict—with the exception of the ever present desire to know if one will have a long and prosperous life. There is also pervasive concern about witchcraft as a cause of personal misfortune, although other causes are identified as well. Among the Malagasy of Madagascar there is a very different focus of interest. As John Mack has observed, mpanandro—the most prestigious form of divination among the Malagasy—is primarily concerned with destiny (vintana).52

According to Pierre Vérin and Narivelo Rajasonarimanana, the ombiasy—a general term for a diviner who practices mpanandro—is a "destiny maker."53 The Malagasy regard the ancestors' role in their lives as crucial, and there is constant communication between the living and the ancestors through dreams, possession, and other signs. However, the significance of the messages is not always clear and requires one to seek out the expertise of a diviner (see fig. 6).

For the Malagasy, the most important method of divination is sikidy, a form of geomancy that relies on the interpretation of "sixteen signs," using texts known as sorabe (literally, "great writings"). These texts, written in Arabic script, have been passed down over generations. They "are at once a repository of esoteric knowledge indicating precedent in the past, and an ongoing archive of observation, . . . an evolving work of reference."54 Sikidy is employed when the diviner does not know the date of birth of his client or lacks other information essential for bringing the esoteric knowledge of the great texts to alleviate the anxieties and suffering of his client. As in Yoruba Ifa divination, the session begins with the diviner calling on the masters of divination and the great ancestors to aid in the inquiry. As described by Vérin and Rajasonarimanana, figures are then "set up by interpreting even and odd piles of grain. Single or double dots are arranged by fours in sixteen columns, each of which has a name."55 Then the figures are read in accordance with the importance of the columns. (This procedure is strikingly similar to the tossing of coins or sticks and the interpretation of the resulting configuration through the tetragrams in the I Ching.) To the layman, the sikidy procedure seems almost mechanical and its resulting patterns cryptic, and the sorabe texts are equally unfathomable. Thus, the diviner plays an essential role, interpreting the signs and translating the texts in relationship to the client's vintana, and situating the individual within a larger context of cosmic forces.

The idea that an individual's destiny is closely related to the cosmos is at the heart of Malagasy divination. It is not a matter of fulfilling a prenatal destiny that one has chosen prior to entering the realm of the living, as in Yoruba Ifa divination, or being in rapport with originating powers, as in Yaka spirit mediumship. Malagasy divination is "astrologically based." It is, as Mack observes,

a system which seeks to locate people, things and events in time and space. It further seeks to influence otherwise inevitable results by setting them in the most judicious temporal and spatial context. This is done by identifying more and less propitious moments for action against a background of information on the destinies of individuals determined by their times of birth and subsequent life experience.56

In this system, positioning in space—as in the construction of a house in a particular area, or the relationship of houses to one another in a town, or the location of household artifacts inside a house—is of paramount importance, for compass directions have auspicious and inauspicious associations. The northeasterly direction is the sacred or ancestral direction and is therefore regarded as the most beneficial direction during the performance of certain rituals, such as circumcision. Similarly, the timing of the events in a person's life is believed to affect his or her destiny, with particular hours, days, and months considered to be the most (or least) propitious for certain activities. Within the Malagasy worldview, "destiny is constantly in motion, encountering zones of varying significance on the way."57 By consulting sikidy and sorabe, an individual achieves an understanding of his or her life in terms of the forces that shape one's destiny, and an awareness of how to live and to orient oneself in relation to such cosmic powers.

CONTINUE

Fig. 6. Betsimisaka ombiasy (diviner and ritual specialist) invoking the ancestors at the blessing, which precedes sacrifice. Eastern Madagascar. Photograph by John Mack, 1984.

52. Mack 1986; Mack, "Telling and Foretelling," in Pemberton 2000.

53. Pierre Vérin and Narivelo Rajasonarimanana, "Divination in Madagascar: The Antemoro Case and the Diffusion of Divination," in Peek 1991, p. 54.

54. Mack, "Telling and Foretelling," in Pemberton 2000.

55. Vérin and Rajasonarimanana, "Divination in Madagascar," in Peek 1991, pp. 53–68.

56. Mack, "Telling and Foretelling," in Pemberton 2000.

57. Ibid.