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Authors: Harry G. West
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sorcery and to practice “sorcery of construction” ( uwavi wa kudenga ). Such figures of authority were assumed by Muedans to be sorcerers themselves (for how else would they be able to enter the invisible realm of sorcery?), but they were assumed, or at least hoped, to be “cured,” “reformed,” or “retired” sorcerers who exercised their power to constructive ends.
Even as Muedans conceived of the visible and the invisible as distinct domains, then, they also understood these domains to be linked. As Muedans described the relationship between these domains, the invisible existed within the visible, and the visible within the invisible. The cosubstantiality of these domains was made manifest and apparent through the visible effects of invisible forces. Sorcerers, in other words, envisioned the world and brought their visions to fruition. Among other things, they imaginatively produced lions that ultimately came to prowl the same, visible, realm in which their victims lived, as Lazaro Mmala reminded me in the ARPAC seminar room. That Muedans thought of, and spoke of, sorcery lions differently than they did ordinary lions —vantumi va ku mwitu (bush lions)—bore evidence of their recognition that such beasts originated in a realm apart, a distinct domain. From the safety of distance in space or time, Muedans often referred to such lions as “false”— vantumi kulambidyanga (untruthful lions). Alternatively, they called them vantumi va malao (magical lions) or vantumi va kumpika (fabricated, or made up, lions). When, however, such beasts were encountered in or around the village—in other words, within the visible realm—Muedans fled them just the same.
M ASKED AND D ANGEROUS
We participate in this world through its illusions, and as its illusions. The inventions in which it is realized are only rendered possible through the phenomenon of control and the masking that accompanies it, and the conventional distinctions in which control is grounded can only be carried forth by being re-created in the course of invention.
« ROY WAGNER , The Invention of Culture (1975: 53–54) »
In August 1999, Marcos and I sat together around a small fire in the compound of his Matambalale relatives, warming ourselves after a meal of ugwali (cornmeal porridge) and roasted chicken. Out of the darkness emerged the figures of three of Marcos’s kin. They had been youngsters when I first met them in 1994, but they had come of age now and served as core members of the village militia. Were we not “family” to them, I might have found them intimidating owing to their shared penchant for drunkenness and bluster. As it was, they often joined us, and other members of their family, after nightfall to exchange stories. It was from them that I first heard about the “sorcery dance.” 1
“The guys in this dance troupe all live in Shitashi,” one of them told me. “They perform a dance that shows exactly how sorcerers eat human flesh.”
The next morning, another young man appeared in the compound, sent by our young relatives to speak with us. He toldus that he was in Matambalale visiting his own relatives, but that he was a member of the Shitashi dance troupe. Later in the day, he accompanied us in our pickup truck as we descended the plateau at Namakande and made our way to the steamy village of Shitashi in the lowlands near Lake Nguri. There, we were introduced to Fernando Chofer Nankoma, a young man of perhaps twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, chefe (leader) of the dance troupe. Chofer explained to us that he and his dancers performed for a fee of 50,000 meticais 2 at matanga (funeral) ceremonies. 3 He agreed to organize a performance for us for the same fee in a week’s time.
When we returned on the appointed day, we found Chofer napping, but as the afternoon sun relented, his troupe of eight dancers appeared. Beneath two enormous mango trees, they constructed an enclosure in which the dance would be
Even as Muedans conceived of the visible and the invisible as distinct domains, then, they also understood these domains to be linked. As Muedans described the relationship between these domains, the invisible existed within the visible, and the visible within the invisible. The cosubstantiality of these domains was made manifest and apparent through the visible effects of invisible forces. Sorcerers, in other words, envisioned the world and brought their visions to fruition. Among other things, they imaginatively produced lions that ultimately came to prowl the same, visible, realm in which their victims lived, as Lazaro Mmala reminded me in the ARPAC seminar room. That Muedans thought of, and spoke of, sorcery lions differently than they did ordinary lions —vantumi va ku mwitu (bush lions)—bore evidence of their recognition that such beasts originated in a realm apart, a distinct domain. From the safety of distance in space or time, Muedans often referred to such lions as “false”— vantumi kulambidyanga (untruthful lions). Alternatively, they called them vantumi va malao (magical lions) or vantumi va kumpika (fabricated, or made up, lions). When, however, such beasts were encountered in or around the village—in other words, within the visible realm—Muedans fled them just the same.
M ASKED AND D ANGEROUS
We participate in this world through its illusions, and as its illusions. The inventions in which it is realized are only rendered possible through the phenomenon of control and the masking that accompanies it, and the conventional distinctions in which control is grounded can only be carried forth by being re-created in the course of invention.
« ROY WAGNER , The Invention of Culture (1975: 53–54) »
In August 1999, Marcos and I sat together around a small fire in the compound of his Matambalale relatives, warming ourselves after a meal of ugwali (cornmeal porridge) and roasted chicken. Out of the darkness emerged the figures of three of Marcos’s kin. They had been youngsters when I first met them in 1994, but they had come of age now and served as core members of the village militia. Were we not “family” to them, I might have found them intimidating owing to their shared penchant for drunkenness and bluster. As it was, they often joined us, and other members of their family, after nightfall to exchange stories. It was from them that I first heard about the “sorcery dance.” 1
“The guys in this dance troupe all live in Shitashi,” one of them told me. “They perform a dance that shows exactly how sorcerers eat human flesh.”
The next morning, another young man appeared in the compound, sent by our young relatives to speak with us. He toldus that he was in Matambalale visiting his own relatives, but that he was a member of the Shitashi dance troupe. Later in the day, he accompanied us in our pickup truck as we descended the plateau at Namakande and made our way to the steamy village of Shitashi in the lowlands near Lake Nguri. There, we were introduced to Fernando Chofer Nankoma, a young man of perhaps twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, chefe (leader) of the dance troupe. Chofer explained to us that he and his dancers performed for a fee of 50,000 meticais 2 at matanga (funeral) ceremonies. 3 He agreed to organize a performance for us for the same fee in a week’s time.
When we returned on the appointed day, we found Chofer napping, but as the afternoon sun relented, his troupe of eight dancers appeared. Beneath two enormous mango trees, they constructed an enclosure in which the dance would be
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