IDNO

P.49909.DRI

Description

"Bari rain shrine at Shindiru - shewing old grindstones & rain spears. Skulls in corner." [Driberg's caption]

Place

NE Africa; South Sudan; Shindiru [Sudan]

Cultural Affliation

Bari

Named Person

Photographer

Spire, F.

Collector / Expedition

?Seligman, Charles Gabriel S.; ?Seligman, Brenda; ?Driberg, Jack Herbert

Date

May 1904

Collection Name

Driberg Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.49897.ACH2. to P.49909.ACH2. were found in envelope now marked C210/3/. This was found in another envelope now marked C210/ which came from the wooden drawer 1.

Place: The Place field was previously recorded as being "Africa; ?Shindiru", but Bari are a cultural group of southern Sudan. The Place field has been amended accordingly. [Source: Ethnologue 15th Edition, JD 18/6/2009]

Publication: Image published in Seligman, Charles, and Brenda Seligman, 1932. Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (George Routledge & Sons, Ltd, London) plate opposite p. 288 with the following caption:
"Rain-shrine at Shindiru"
and the following text of pp. 287-288:
"Almost thirty years ago Mr. F. Spire published a most important account of rain-making at Shindiru, which he now allows us to reproduce his photograph of the shrine. He states that Leju, the rain-maker of Shindiru, is the hereditary ‘Chief rain-maker’ of the Bari, and that his village is situated at the top of the hill.
... ‘Between a hut and village wall was a miniature enclosure about 10 feet in diameter. This enclosure contained most of the strange implements used by the rain-makers. Arranged on the ground within the enclosure were some twenty old grindstones. The hollow of each contained from two to eight pieces of rock crystal and granite, the latter in two colours, pink and green, and both circular and conical in shape. A number of small earthen pots, capable of holding about 1 pint, were filled with water and placed near the ‘nests’. Laid across these hollow stones or nests were numerous iron rods varying in size and shape." [JD 14/9/2009]

Bibliographical Reference: F. Spire, ‘Rain-Making in Equatorial Africa’, in Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 5, No. 17 (Oct., 1905), pp. 15-21. Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society. [JD 14/9/2009]