Spirit possession takes place through the diviner’s incantations and percussion instruments played by the wife/husband of the diviner. Once possessed by the spirit, the diviner decorates his or her own body with chalk designs and adorn him/herself with necklaces and beautifully colored headbands of beads and fur, the patterns of the beads signifying the presence and power of the spirit. When possessed, the diviner talks, acts, and thinks as — and, indeed, assumes the identity of— his/her consulting spirit. When a male diviner conducts a divination ritual, his wife will sit at his right and a sculpture of a seated or kneeling female figure holding a bowl will be placed on his left. The carving represents the wife of the diviners possessing spirit, for among the Luba, women are regarded as vessels of spiritual power. A consultation proceeds with concerns addressed to the diviner by the suppliants. The diviner in turn speaks to his/her spiritual consultant while shaking an mboko —a covered gourd filled with various items: animal bones, dried beetles, birds beaks and claws, shells, seeds, seed pods, twigs, caddis-fly cases, beads, tiny iron replicas of tools, and small, carved wood figurines in various postures covered with chalk. When the diviner opens the lid, he/she interprets the configuration of objects that have ended up on top, the diviner uses this to give a hypothesis of the problem, then repeats the processes until a clear understanding of the problem has been formulated. Luba People, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 15:52:42 +0000
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