Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 513
system once practised by the Dghweɗe, and the equal position of the diviners as gifted
members of the local community, even if as individuals they belonged to specialist lineages,
in our opinion underpins this conclusion.
With regard to the description of Katiwa ga Ghuda's demonstration of bringing back a lost
spirit, we will now briefly discuss Ekkehard Wolff's description of a similar procedure to cure
a condition he refers to as an 'illness' of 'loosing one's soul' (1994:80ff). Wolff translates the
Lamang word sənuku as soul, but considering that the similar-sounding Dghweɗe word
sɗukwe means 'shadow' we suggest that it could perhaps better be translated as spirit. Wolff
also speaks of a Ɗagha healer who uses wulinge leaves and cuttings of Cissus quadrangularis,
but wrongly identifies the latter as euphorbia. We are sure that he is describing what we have
identified as vavanz mandatha, meaning a floating variety of ritual Cissus quadrangularis,
which according to Wolff (ibid) the Ɗagha healer places into a calabash which he then fills
with water, to perform the following ritual healing action after the sufferer has agreed to
sacrifice a goat at a particular location:
Then he sprinkles the water over the person whose soul has been taken away. After a while, he
takes the things which he has gathered in that calabash and walks to (a place) distant from the
compound. He takes the wulaliŋ [wulinge] leaves out of the water, fans with them like someone
who fans into the flames of fire... When he has fanned forcefully, he becomes giddy and rests – he
does that twice. The third time, he puts back the leaves into the calabash with force like having
caught something. Then he comes back to the house with those things. While he is coming back,
he keeps pressing the leaves under water... he [then] places the leaves directly over the heart of the
person whose soul has been taken away... He takes out one slice of the euphorbia [Cissus
quadrangularis], and puts it onto the forehead, and one again directly over the heart of the one
whose soul has been taken away. He places euphorbia slices also (one) on each finger. He then
massages the heart from left to right. He then rubs the euphorbia all over the shoulder and the
forehead and the toes. The water in the calabash, he pours onto the toes. He turns the calabash
upside down: "Sit on it!" he tells him, and he sits on it. Three times he sits on it, three times he
gets down from it. "Your life has come back", he tells him. If the person is of "female birth order",
four axes and four slices of euphorbia, if he is of "male birth order", three axes and three slices of
euphorbia are put on the bottom of the calabash together with the leaves which were in it. He
places it under the bed of the one whose soul had been taken away. After three days, water is
poured into the calabash, and the person whose soul had been taken away drinks it. The coming
back of his soul is finished.
Wolff points next out that a healer would know that someone's soul/sprit has been taken as the
person's body would have become sick in a particular way, and they would look pale and
unwell. He further says that if it is a male person, the 'body of the male does not rise', and
then explains that this meant that the 'penis does not erect'. This interpretation is obviously a
reference to erectile dysfunction as a principal symptom of someone suffering from lost spirit
syndrome, and we will use Wolff's insight to emphasise the possible implications of this as
part of what we know about the importance of the reproductive ability of a succesful husband
and father of a Dghweɗe family. Considering that lost spirit syndrome is a synonym for
erectile dysfunction, and as it is seen to be the result of sorcery or witchcraft, it is possibly not
too far fetched to view it as a psychosomatic illness, especially if we take into account how
important family expansion was for the identity and wellbeing of a husband and father in his
role as egalitarian protector and promoter of socio-economic reproduction. There was quite
some competition, not only inside families but across local group organisation, which
promoted individual success over seniority beyond the family level. That males were seen as
the most powerful sorcerers who were able to entrap another man's spirit could be seen as the
downside of social competiton, and interpreted as the negative aspect of divinity which
existed at its very root.
We have already hinted that the predictive algorithms a Ɗagha diviner applied could perhaps
be linked with the system of symbolic classification used by the Dghweɗe, and we also said
we would use Mafa sources about ritual counting to illustrate the importance of symbolic
classification in relation to the reproductive luck of male and female interaction. Wolff's
account refers to four slices of floating Cissus quadrangularis to a person of 'female birth
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