Nosology And Spirit Fields

Who or what exactly are these spirits? The worldview that inspires cults of affliction includes, as an axiom, the idea that ancestral shades and spirits, ultimately expressions of the power of God, may influence or intervene in human affairs. They are held responsible for visiting their sentiments and forces upon humans through sickness and misfortune. Who they are, why they come, and what to do about them is what cults of affliction are all about.

Scholarship has gone well beyond merely describing accounts of African spirits, to studying their configurations and relationships in society, in geographical space, and over time (Werbner 1977). Our aim here

is to identify some of the common features in spirit constellations across the ngoma region and to grasp the meaning of some of the variations. The spirits or shades may be either direct, identifiable lineal ancestors, or more generic shades. They may include more distant nature spirits, hero spirits, or alien spirits that affect human events in many ways. They may be benign or malign; very generalized or particular; male or female; African or foreign. The lineal ancestors, who are generally beneficent, although sometimes stern, are contrasted to wild malefic spirits or enemy hosts with sinister and strange characteristics. There is a spirit "geography" or "ecology" that widely contrasts spirits of the land from those of the water. The well-known African color triad—red, white, black—often is invoked to characterize the spirits as well. The strings of colored beads or cloth worn around the shoulder and waist designate spirits with which the novice or practitioner has a working relationship. Old as well as new knowledge tends to be related to the shade and spirit forces, as events are interpreted and adversities dealt with. Sometimes the proto-Bantu term zimu or dímu is used to name ngoma spirits, as in the Venda ngoma dza vadzimu , but a range of other names or terms is used as well (see appendix B, section B.16).

We begin this review somewhat arbitrarily with an Nguni group in southern Mozambique, the Kalanga, studied by David Webster (1982). For them the "Ndau," "Ngudi," "Chikwembe," and "Majuta" are the four main groups of spirits. The Ndau, or Vandau, are considered the original ancestors of the Kalanga (a South Shona or Thonga group) and the most powerful spirit group, with a direct interest in the affairs of the living. Because of Henri Junod's work on the Thonga in the '30s, the Vandau have entered the anthropological literature as one of the major examples of "true shamanism" in Africa (De Heusch 1971:273–276). They are mentioned popularly in Tanzania as having inspired the N'anga cult, thus reflecting a thread of Nguni, or Ngoni, influence of early nineteenth-century conquest fame (Zaretsky and Shambaugh 1978). The Ngudi, associated with local affairs, are spirits inflicting traumatic disease who need to be placated to avert human disaster when they become involved. The Chikwembe are the ancestors of isan-goma diviners. The Majuta are Arab spirits.

The distinction between lineal and alien spirits seen here is widespread. In nearby Swaziland the Emenlozi (literally, those one dreams about) are the personal ancestors and are often associated with white symbolism such as clay, white beads, white cloth, or with "mud," that is, the boundaries of water and earth. The Emenzawe and Benguni

spirits are those whom Swazi warriors killed in previous wars. The Emenzawe prefer the red beads, the Benguni the white. The Emenzawe, Benguni, and Dinzunzu possess diviners. The Dinzunzu or Tinzunzu are those spirits of the water who died of drowning; they also are associated with white beads. These fields articulate Swazi culture and consciousness.

In the Xhosa region of South Africa, and in the urban extensions of Xhosa culture, spirits are commonly identified as being those pertaining to the family or clan, those of the water, and those of the land or of the forest. Clan ancestors are important to keep in touch with, but they do not inflict illness. The ngoma practitioners, the amagqira, are called (twasa) by the forest and water spirits, and are represented in igqira costumes by animal skins and colored beads, in medicines by plants and mineral ingredients, and in ngoma songs by mediatory imagery such as the crab, the horse, or birds.

In coastal Tanzania the distinctions of spirit geography always hinge on the land/water dichotomy. Like the Southern African spirit cosmologies, this one, too, identifies spirits of the trees and shrubs, that is, the forest, with the land. In the urban Dar es Salaam setting immigrant waganga (healers) from the interior, predictably, are specialized in "interior" spirits, and in the corresponding ngoma such as Manianga, N'anga, and Mbungi, whereas waganga from coastal areas relate to coastal or water spirits. The vocabulary of the Swahili coast has adopted Arabic terms masbeitani and majini to speak of spirits. The spirits of the interior carry African names such as Mchela, Matimbuna, Mbongoloni, Chenjelu, and Kimbangalugomi (related to Ngoma Mbungi), whereas those of the beach or the water carry such names as Maruhani, Subiyani, and Mzuka (related to Ngoma Msaghiro). The colors red, white, and black also occur on beads worn over the shoulder of the mganga (healer), and in costumes.

The notion of "spirit fields" has been used by a number of authors to describe the organization of African spirits. It is an analogy of the concept "social field" used by Bateson and Turner long ago. Although some hermeneutic scholars such as Lambek (1981) insist that the spirits have little to do with social categories and forces, many other scholars prefer a Durkheimian correspondence theory between religion and society, economy, historical change, and psychological states. This permits scholars at least an opening hypothesis with which to assess such phenomena as the apparent shift in emphasis from lineal ancestors to more distant and alien spirits in recent decades. Thus the decline of cer-

tain local rites and the ascendance of others, or the rise and decline in many historic examples of spirit-possession rituals and cults, may be explained in terms of historical social forces and the changes that have occurred. For example, the breakdown of specific rituals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has been explained by the opening up of social relations and the expansion of the scale of known spheres of influence (Werbner 1977). Similarly, worldview as reflected in the understanding and treating of affliction reflects, in turn, changing social forces. It explains, for example, the generalization of symptom/ sign and etiology relations in the context of the Lemba rite in western Congo over the period from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century in the corridor of the great trade between coastal port towns of Cabinda, Loango, and Malemba, and the great market at Mpumbu near today's Kinshasa. Lemba's sufferers are said to have had a random variety of afflictions. Even the spirits behind the afflicting and therapeutic rites varied from region to region, indicative, I think, of the tremendous upheavals of the hour.

A brief review of the manner in which spirit or ancestor forces are aligned with social contextual disorders in contemporary urban settings suggests a trend toward greater reliance upon more broadly based, generalized in theme, symbolic figures, and a waning of local or lineage ancestors. Byamungu's overview of therapeutic rites in Bukavu, in eastern Zaire, shows the association of signs and symptoms to spirit nosology. In the Kakozi rite, present among Bashi (Rwandaise) and Lega inhabitants, all sorts of behavioral and physiological afflictions are attributed to "red" ancestral spirits or shades; red is also the color of the hair and clothing of the adepts. In the Enaama (also Mana) rite, found exclusively among the Bashi, a more open range of symptoms—for example, behavioral disorders, severe alienation, loss of appetite, and physical illness—is attributed to the Enaama nature spirits who frequently drive the afflicted to prolonged periods of wandering in solitude in the bush. In the Mitumba rite, among the Bemba and Lega, a similar wide variety of symptoms and signs is attributed to spirits of Europeans, that is, aliens, originally revealed or manifested in dreams and visions, and whose visitations are accompanied by loss of consciousness during possession; adepts of Mitumba spirits speak Swahili and smoke cigarettes. In the Mulangoyi rite, among the Lega, Zinga, and Songe residents of Bukavu, a variety of symptoms and signs is attributed to nature or water spirits, who in the possessed mediums present themselves in the Kisonge language, painted "white," eating earthworms,

toads, and so on. Finally, in the Nyamulemule rite, among the Batembo and Bashi of the city, Swahili-speaking spirits of Baluba ancestral figures—whose songs are also sung in Lega and Tembo—afflict individuals who are recruited to therapeutic seances.

The Bukavu setting shows an opening up of the "spirit field" to a wide variety of nature, ancestral, and alien spirits in a setting of ethnic pluralism and an expanded scale of social relations characteristic of this eastern Zaire and wider Eastern African setting.

However, the presence of spirits who represent the influences of nature (particularly rivers) and aliens (Baluba, Europeans, Swahili-speakers) in connection with behavioral troubles, alienation, and, in the case of Mitumba, loss of consciousness in visions of Europeans, introduces into the "spirit field" an attempt to deal with behavioral pathology and its contextual causes. Although one may still invoke a Durkheimian correspondence analysis between expanding scale of relations and behavioral pathologies resulting from strained role expectations and fulfillments, the more interesting issue is the possible correspondence between particular types of spirits and an indigenous analysis of psychopathology and the appropriate therapeutic response. Harriet Sibisi's work is suggestive in this regard.

Sibisi (1976) notes that Zulu sangoma, legitimated by a "call" from their direct lineal ancestors, tend to analyze possession by nature spirits and alien spirits as evidence of abnormalities. In their therapeutic interventions in these cases they strive to replace these "spirits of chaos" with a more normative spirit patronage by ancestors, to fill a role in ritual leadership. The sangoma therapist must thus identify the rehabilitative or reintegrative potential of a client before turning that client in the direction of an initiation to the healer role. Indeed, the distinction between pathological possession and ancestral call is made clear in Nguni nosology: mfufunyani possession by chaotic spirits is a sign of madness, whereas ukutwasa is a possession or call that leads to personal strength and leadership in the sangoma or igqira. In the Southern African setting the symbolism of ukutwasa may also frequently be channeled into Christian fulfillment in Zionist prophet-healing churches, or even in mainstream church roles, whereas mfufunyani cases may be taken to a range of Western psychotherapists and African healers for treatment.

Despite the logical elegance of Sibisi's interpretation of Zulu diagnostic categories, and its clear "fit" with the South African ethnographic data from Natal, the Western Cape, and probably other areas

in between, it adheres a little too closely to a sociological correspondence theory to account for all the ethnographic evidence of the entire area across which ngoma-type therapies are found. In particular, it does not seem to explain the cases in which, as in several of the Bukavu rites (Enaama and Mitumba), alien spirits are the principal symbols of therapeutic rehabilitative orders; or, closer to the basis of Sibisi's work, in Swazi ngoma, in which numerous types of alien spirits are used to inspire divination and heating. The Swazi instance is particularly challenging, since Swazi sangoma are considered part of the Nguni-speaking group and share most of the features of the religious and therapeutic tradition with the Zulu and Xhosa.

In addition to patronage by their lineal ancestor shades, the amadloti , Swazi sangoma feature patronage by the Benguni "white" spirits, who are the victims of Swazi wars with Zulu, Tsonga, and Shangani and who inspire divination with bones; the Amanzawe "red" nature spirits who inspire mediumistic divination; and both "red" and "white" Tinzunzu spirits of those who have drowned in rivers. Mediumistic work with Benguni victim spirits seems to be a recent development in Swaziland. Zulu-type sangoma diviner-healers have been in many regions replaced by "red" takoza mediums. In their more powerful forms of divining they put aside their bones and their attentive ear for very dramatic trance-possession dances of Amanzawe and Tinzunzu nature, and Benguni alien spirits.

To take Sibisi's analysis strictly, these Swazi takoza diviner-healers, as well as some of the Bukavu therapists, would be indulging in dissonant, and according to her, "charlatanistic," practice. And yet the appearance of nonancestral spirits and their mediums has become very widespread. Alternatively, to assume that therapists ignore the social forces of alienation and dislocation when they continue to attribute sickness to ancestral calls (particularly those that are considered amenable to integrative leadership roles), is to underestimate the skill of these talented individuals working often in extremely strained social settings such as in the Western Cape.

The anthropological analysis of the relationship of a "spirit field" to the social context of affliction needs one further analytical parameter beyond those of social scale (i.e., localized vs. regional or cosmopolitan) and of normalcy (i.e., role normalcy vs. situations precipitating abnormal response to role expectations) to explain the relevant variables of recourse to spirit nosology. I have in mind the place in affliction diagnosis hinging on the degree of ambiguity versus clarity in the overall

perception of a social situation or a view of reality (Bernstein in Douglas 1970).

Bernstein's major point, taken over by Douglas, is that in the absence of a clear understanding of a phenomenon, in this instance the cause of affliction, one tends to formulate names, configurations, or stereotypes to compensate for the fuzziness. Following this line of thought, an escalation toward alien or chaotic spirit forces would be used in divination or therapy to come to grips with strange and new issues in a social situation. This hypothesis applies directly to the contrasting types of ngoma spirit manifestation in Southern Africa, notably the Western Cape and Swaziland.

In the Western Cape the challenge facing ngoma diviners and therapists is not an analysis of the situation before them; that is clear enough. Families are divided, and there is general anxiety regarding gainful employment. The major challenge is that of building up a cohesive social fabric out of the fragments of families and interpersonal relations. Accordingly, diviner-therapists forge a network of links within their ranks that bring fragmented individual lives and family segments into some more coherent and supportive arrangement. In Swaziland, there is generally greater economic security and much less anxiety about residence, freedom of movement, and one's personal welfare. Swaziland has one of the highest per capita incomes in black Africa—$800 per person in 1982, near that of Gabon and Cameroon. And yet, this very sense of economic development contains the ingredients to dissolve the normative order. Wage labor, urbanization, and education have had a significant impact upon Swazi society, creating enormous opportunities for upward mobility and prestigious jobs, especially for young adults. It has become common for young women to eschew marriage for professional work and to have a child or two out of wedlock along the way. Furthermore, the economic opportunities of Swaziland have inundated the country with outsiders, such as development experts, tourists, teachers, and traders. Thus, although there is not the material insecurity of the Western Cape and the threat to one's domestic living arrangement, economic development has unleashed other threats to the established cognitive order. This may account for the more aggressive spirit field in Swaziland, in which the spirits of bone-throwing divination (the amadloti and Benguni ancestors) have been partially supplanted by the spirits of trance and possession divination (the Emanzawe and Tinzunzu).

It is evident, then, that "spirit fields" provide a set of parameters having to do with worldview, order and chaos, legitimacy, and cultural categories against which to align, and begin to deal with, personal problems.