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Divining Dice

Smaller set: Tshitambo
Tsonga, South Africa
Ivory; each 3.5 x 1.8 x 0.5 cm (1 3/8 x 3/4 x 3/16 in.)
Late 19th–early 20th century
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Standard Bank Collection of African Art

Larger set: Makakata
Shona, South Africa
Wood; each 10.8 x 2.9 x 0.5 cm (4 1/4 x 1 1/8 x 3/16 in.)
Early 20th century
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Standard Bank Collection of African Art

1. See S. S. Dornan, "Divination and Divining Bones," South African Journal of Science 20 (1923), pp. 506–611; M. Bartels, "Die Wurfelzauber Südafrikanische Völker," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 35, no. 3 (1903), pp. 338–78; P. J. Coetze, "Dolosgooiery in Suid Afrika," Annale van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch 98, no. 2 (1931), pp. 1–43.

2. See Bartels, "Die Wurfelzauber"; Noel Hunt, "Some Notes on Witchdoctor’s Bones," Native Affairs Department Annual (Salisbury/Harare) 27 (1950), pp. 40–46; Noel Hunt, "Some Notes on Witchdoctor’s Bones" Native Affairs Department Annual (Salisbury/Harare) 31 (1954), pp. 16–23; Michael Gelfand, Medicine and Magic of the MaShona (Johannesburg: Juta, 1956); Hugh Tracey, "The Bones," Native Affairs Department Annual (Salisbury/Harare) 12 (1935), pp. 23–26.

3. See Hugh Stayt, The BaVenda (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931); Nikolaas J. Van Warmelo, Contributions Towards Venda History, Religion and Tribal Ritual, Government Ethnological Publication no. 52 (Pretoria, 1932).

4. Ibid., p. 288.

Shona and Venda Divining Dice
(Makakata and Dzithangu)

by Anitra Nettleton

hroughout central southern Africa, divination instruments in the form of "dice"—small wood or bone tablets—have been used over a long period, one set having been found at Khami in Zimbabwe dating from about the seventeenth century. These divining instruments show a remarkable degree of similarity, sometimes in their shapes but particularly in the symbolic structures according to which they are put into action. Referred to as dolosse in the early literature, a name derived from the SeSotho speakers of Southern Africa, these divination objects were used by Sotho, Tswana, Venda, Shona, and Makonde peoples across a very widespread geographical area.1 All these divination systems appear to follow the same pattern, in which the tablets—called makakata (singular, hakata) in Shona, and dzithangu (singular, thangu) in Venda—are grouped into complementary pairs, either a senior male-and-female pair, together with a junior male-and-female pair; or a pair of males (one senior and one junior) and a pair of females (one senior and one junior). Two sets of dice are shown here: the larger dice are Shona makakata (singular, hakata) made of wood, and the smaller ones are Tsonga tshitambo (singular, umtambo) made of ivory. (Tsonga diviners adopted the use of such dice from North-Sotho and Venda diviners early in the twentieth century; the patterns on Tsonga tshitambo follow Venda patterns exactly.)

Each tablet is assigned a name, and while these names are standard within each language group, they differ from one language group to another. It is important that the diviner be able to distinguish the "dramatis personae" from one another, something that is made possible by the variety of designs on the Shona makakata, and by the notches on the bottoms of two of the Venda dzithangu and their relative sizes (the seniors are the larger pair—the pair of females). The tablets are often carved by specialist carvers, although some diviners (nganga; plural, dzinganga) may carve their own, and this may explain why, within each language group, there is some degree of uniformity of style across most sets of these divining instruments.

Historical records suggest that, in Shona sets, the identification of the tablets almost invariably followed a set pattern, which was maintained among the Kalanga, Karanga, Zezeru, and Korekore ethnic subgroups within the Shona culture:2 the senior male, Chitokwadzima, is almost always indicated through the carving of a more-or-less stylized crocodile; the senior female, Kwami, is indicated by designs contained in two or three horizontal bands of either chevrons or interlace; the junior male, Chirume, and the junior female, Nokwara, are indicated by vertical bands of chevrons or diamond shapes, and are not as easily differentiated from one another.

Among the Venda, the patterns on the surface are often more or less consistent across all elements of the set, but there are several known examples where designs differ from one character to another.3 They can be identified as follows: the senior male, Hwami, has no notch and is one of the two larger tablets; the senior female, Twalima, has a notch and is also large; the junior male, Tshilume, has no notch and is one of the smaller pair; the junior female, Lumwe, is one of the smaller pair and has a notch. The circle-and-dot motifs on these dzithangu are referred to by the Venda as either mato a ndau ("eye of the lion") or mato a ngwena ("eye of the crocodile"), the latter being the most common.

Diviners deliver a verbal commentary while throwing the tablets, and crocodile imagery is common in the verbal commentary of Venda and Shona diviners. In the past, the tablets were often treated with substances derived from the beds of rivers and pools, the domain of the crocodile. This animal not only appears on Shona makakata in recognizable form, but also in the names of the combinations of the tablets as they fall after being thrown. In the Shona system, a combination of Chitokwadzima and Kwami with their faces up (i.e., the carved sides showing) is greeted with a response in Karanga dialect, "Rutokwadzima ane ngwena" ("[Two] Rutokwadzima have [the] crocodile"); while a combination of Tokwadzima and Nokwara is greeted with another Karanga response, "Ngwena ino mwana" ("Crocodile has a child"). In the Venda system, a combination of Tshilume and Lumwe is called Thamba-dzivha ("washers in the pool"), referring to the crocodile; it is greeted with the refrain, "I ri 'nulu!' ndi nu wela thivani, 'nulu!' ndi bvela nnda. I fara Mbedzi ya tshigewna-matope" ("It says 'splash!' falling into the lake, 'splash!' coming out. It catches Mbedzi of mud crocodile." The latter phrase refers to a Venda subgroup, the Mbedzi, whose emblem is the "mud crocodile." The latter refers to a Venda subgroup, the Mbedzi, whose emblem is the "mud crocodile.")4

The nganga throws the tablets, and if they all fall with their faces—carved sides—down, it is said that they are "refusing" (i.e., refusing to speak). There are sixteen possible combinations for any one set of four tablets, and many diviners in the past used to work with as many as three sets. The names that dzinganga use for the various combinations differ from one language group to another, but it seems that the values attached to particular characters, and even to some of their combinations, may be fairly uniform across the entire geographical region in which they are used. No combination can be regarded as an inherently positive or negative indicator; its value is contingent on the questions being asked of the diviner, such as whether the hunt will be successful or if an individual will pass a matriculation exam, or determining the identity of an adulterous wife’s lover or the reasons for an illness or death (the latter usually being ascribed to a neglect of one’s duties to the ancestors).

In general, combinations of junior male and female are the most strongly affirmative responses to questions being asked, but three characters in any combination may also be affirmative. The combinations that include the senior male and female in a pair or in a threesome with one of the junior characters are most likely to indicate ancestral involvement or the involvement of negative forces. These combinations are regarded with a degree of ambivalence that is only resolved if the nganga is able to assess the circumstances surrounding the situation that led the client to consult the diviner. The process of divination is further complicated by the fact that many Shona and Venda diviners have combined more than one system of divination—for example, sets of four seedpods or sets of bones such as those derived from Ndau and Tsonga diviners—and the divining tablets then form only one element in a very complex system. Without a doubt, there is much opportunity for individual innovation and variation within the use of such a fluid and deliberately imprecise system, ensuring a certain freedom in interpreting the throws of the tablets, even when they are used on their own. However, the basic identity of each "character" in the four "dramatis personae" of any set of tablets appears to have become fixed some time ago, and has remained a feature of the system since the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, when it was recorded by various commentators.

These divining instruments were often beautifully carved, treasured possessions, carefully kept by their owners, washed and ritually purified before use. They were conduits to a spirit realm from which answers to important life questions were obtained, and they are integrated into a cosmological complex in which the spirit realm and that of the living are contiguous, overlapping, and intertwined.