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22. Divination Kit: Gourd and Elements
Songye, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gourd, wood, metal, fiber, leather, other materials; Diam. 21.6 cm (8 1/2 in.)
19th–20th century
Private collection

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22. Divination Kit: Gourd and Elements

he divination instrument for a method of inquiry practiced extensively in central and south-central Africa consists of a gourd or basket containing natural and manufactured objects. When it is shaken, the arrangement of its contents is interpreted as a visual code used by the spirit world to reveal and communicate insight into human experiences.

The design of this Songye diviner's vessel, like its contents, represents a seamless synthesis of natural and manufactured elements. Its structure is that of a hollowed gourd, the top of which has been carved to form a lid, with a handle made from a bullet cartridge. Through holes that have been drilled around the perimeter, a strand of vegetable fiber has been threaded and used to suspend a series of miniature iron clappers and eleven wood figurines. Two of the miniatures are dogs, the rest human. With their hands resting on either side of a somewhat distended abdomen, these relate stylistically to monumental Songye community nkishi sculptures (see cat. no. 10).

The gourd contains an assemblage of items, including carved miniatures—additional figures and a drum—as well as organic matter composed of bones, seeds, bird skulls, twisted vines, eggs, claws, feathers of various birds, and animal teeth (lion and elephant). Such a collection of matter is inert unless ignited by the diviner (nganga) who owns it and recognizes its potential. His vision must allow him to extrapolate from these component particles a complex of ideas associated with the sources from which they are drawn. As individual units, each evokes a distinct series of ideas and associations. Comparable materials interpreted by Ndembu diviners in northwest Zambia have been characterized as "polyvalent," and Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts have called attention to the "mnemonically multireferential" quality shared by each item within a Luba mboko gourd.1 Victor Turner recorded the far-reaching scope of the ideas associated with items in Ndembu divination baskets, with some of them suggesting principles of social organization, others alluding to customs that regulate social behavior, and still others relating to aspirations and emotions.2

When linked to one another in physical juxtapositions resulting from a diviner's actions, the interpretive possibilities increase exponentially. Each time he randomly reconfigures the gourd's contents by shaking it, the relative placement of symbolic elements shifts, and these relationships are themselves similarly associated with a range of meanings.3 An nganga's ability to interpret successive images is rooted in his understanding of the natural world and how he connects it to a specific case at hand. This ability to interpret abstract precepts insightfully and relate them to contemporary realities enables him to wield enormous influence, which is regarded as a force in itself, called bukopo.4

The Songye and their Luba neighbors are closely related and share many cultural institutions, forms of representation, and divination techniques (see cat. no. 20 and part 2 of the Pemberton essay); some of these techniques are also practiced by Lunda Aruund, Chokwe, Lovale, and Ovimbundu diviners (see cat. no. 11). The work shown here appears to be especially closely related to the mboko gourd of Bilumbu diviners and to another Luba form of gourd divination known as kilemba, used to determine the guilt or innocence of individuals suspected of criminal acts ranging from theft and adultery to sorcery and murder.5 Mary Nooter Roberts observed comparable divination gourds with Songye-style figures in use in Luba areas.6

1. Turner 1975; Memory 1996, p. 194.

2. Turner 1975, cited in Memory 1996, p. 195.

3. Ibid., p. 194.

4. Alan P. Merriam, An African World: The Basongye Village of Lupupa Ngye (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1974), pp. 157–60.

5. Memory 1996, p. 202. Roberts and Roberts note that a large decorated gourd called kilemba, like the mboko or kileo, "contains an assortment of items that respond to questions posed by the diviner. . . . Whenever there is a disagreement between the diviner and the client, the ‘kilemba' is placed on the client's lap. If the gourd is sensed to adhere to the client's legs, this implies guilt, or indicates that the client has been lying. If the client is shown to be innocent of the crime or dilemma in question, the diviner will take chalk from the gourd and spread it on the person's arms, face, and chest to signify acquittal." Ibid.

6. Mary Nooter Roberts, in a telephone conversation with the author, May 1999.