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Figure 2.
Yaka diviner Lusuungu relying on his olfactory scrutiny, village
of Yibeengala, northern Kwaango region, southwest Zaire,
July 10, 1974. Photo by René Devisch. |
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gestures (e.g., "I see the uncle who is approaching the bed, who is offering kaolin. . . ."); other images concern allies, sorcery, ritual care for the patient, initiation, illness, and so on. This connotation makes clear the importance and efficiency of the images, by the fact that they inscribe the given problem into the self-generative articulation of meaning in the oracle. |
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The diviner's extraordinary powers are also metonymically spoken of as "dreams," i.e., as a dreamlike form of understanding the hidden. The Yaka diviner defines himself in a song as "the one who crosses all divisions, limits, barriers, the one who can see into the deepest darknesses of the forest." That the oracle is founded on an extended consciousness which brings to light hidden forgotten meanings is also metonymically symbolized. Before the oracle, the diviner eats a piece of kola nut (a stimulant) mixed with wood that has been sucked into a whirlpool and has resurfaced. |
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