Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 510
therefore wonder whether there was an underlying number or other symbolic 'reading' or
'listening' system used by diviners when they practiced divination. Unfortunately we did not
explore this and can only presume that there must have been such a system, one which had
significance not only as a way of perceiving the world but also as a symbolic 'language'
system. This was perhaps based on which method the diviners used to either 'read' or 'listen' in
order to provide their required treatment or liturgical advice. 4
In 1996 we witnessed the practice of Katiwa ga Ghuda, a Dagha diviner in Ghwa'a, and how
he sliced twenty pieces of vavanz mandatha into a calabash of water. Afterwards we
interviewed him for an explanation of what he thought he had done. Katiwa included the use
of divinatory sticks (glipa) in combination with the twenty mandatha slices.
Plates 62a-62g show Katiwa's demonstration of divination combined with spiritual healing:
Plate 62a: Cutting of the
mandatha slices
Plate 62b: The twenty
mandatha slices are ready
Plate 62c: The throwing of
the mandatha slices
Plate 62d: The washing of
the wulinge leaves
Plate 62e: The wulinge leaves
are held above the patient
Plate 62f: The diviner rubs
the sternum of his patient
4
Philip M. Peek (1991:193-212) provides us with a new way of discussing African divination systems,
and refers to the relationship between the diviner and his client as crucial, by suggesting that the
diviner is often seen as the ideal communicator between this world and the world of divinity. He refers
to the left and right cerebral hemispheres as a biological phenomenon, and points in that context to the
reversal of left and right, and that diviners facilitate their communication by appealing intuitively to the
more imaginative right side of the brain of clients. This is not only a biological reversal in relation to
the left and right hand but also one in terms of symbolic classification.
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