IDNO

N.18888.ROS

Description

Two medicine men seated on the grass taking the omens?, over the body of two animal carcasses in order to exorcise a ghost. Both men are wearing ragged knee-length toga-style attire. The man on the left wears a long fez-shaped hat which appears to be decorated with feathers? and the other man wears a band around his head, decorated with cowrie shells and one long feather. The two medicine men sit opposite each other examining the animal carcasses. On the grass between the two men appears to be two circular rattles. In the foreground, to the left, there is a male onlooker wearing a European-style hat and a white coat over a long dark robe. In the background there is a boy wearing a kanzu (white tunic) and holding an unidentifiable object. There are also two other Bahima? men? hoeing the land and watching the proceedings from afar.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Ankole

Cultural Affliation

Bahima

Named Person

Photographer

?Roscoe, John R.

Collector / Expedition

Roscoe, John R. [Mackie Ethnological Expedition, Uganda, 1919 - 1920]

Date

1919 - 1920

Collection Name

Roscoe Collection

Source

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in an envelope marked C29/46/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C29/ by the cataloguer.
Previously stored on Shelf 4, in group of 4 wooden boxes numbered 180.

Publication: Similar image published in Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.). p.88 with the caption: "Ankole: medicine-men exorcising a ghost.” [ED 12/9/2007]

Context: "More ceremonial importance is attached to sickness in a herd than in a household. When sickness or plague appears among cows the owner of the kraal sends a messenger hastily to the chief medicine man to come and ascertain and remove the cause and prescribe remedies. This king of the medicine-men is received with honour, a special house is prepared for him, a bull is killed, and he is feasted on the best they can provide. His general procedure is first to inspect the herd and listen to all the men have to say, and then to take the omens. This is usually done over the body of a goat or a sheep, but in more serious cases over that of a bull. The animal is killed, and by watching the flow of blood from the severed arteries and noticing markings on the liver and small intestines he forms his verdict. In the evening another bull is selected to be the bearer of the disease of the herd. The medicine-man takes a bunch of herbs, rubs them over each of the cows, and ties them round the neck of a bull. The animal is then marched around the outside of the kraal several times and returned to the herd for the night. At dawn the medicine-man and his assistants kill the bull in the kraal gateway; the blood is caught in vessels and the inhabitants and cattle are all sprinkled with a brush of herbs dipped in blood. The next procedure is for the people to pass out of the kraal over the dead bull, and the cows are then made to jump over it as they go out. The disease is thus transferred to the bull and the rest of the herd go out free, to be treated later with some herbal remedy for their sickness. The herbs from the neck of the bull are tied over the doorway to keep the disease from re-entering” (Roscoe 1922, pp. 86 - 87). [ED 12/9/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 11/9/2007]