PANGOLIN ORACLES 95 village, and the people gather together with a sense of excitement and anticipation. Some of them bring musical instruments3 and containers full of beer. The following song in Kimakonde is still sung today at the beginning of the divination ceremony (personal communication from Uta Reuster-Jahn, 2010). Ng’aka yoo, ng’aka yoo akatepea kumayembe akatepea kumundu unahwa. Oh Pangolin, oh Pangolin, Bow down before the hoe, If you bow down before the sickle, you will die! During the subsequent ceremony, the leader asks the pangolin about the community’s prospects for the near future. When it is over, the animal is carried back to where it was found and released. The consultation of the oracle in the Mwera area is described by Bishop Ammann as follows: “Before the planting season, the whole clan comes together and the people arrange themselves in two lines, men and women separately (probably facing each other). Different crops are laid in the middle in the shape of a triangle. At the same time, a spear is stuck in the ground at one corner of the triangle, a bow and arrow are laid in another corner, and a gun in the third corner. Then they fetch a pangolin and put it down near the third corner. The clan elder then asks the pangolin: ‘What will we harvest this year?’ The animal moves in the direction of the crop that should be planted and will be harvested. Then it is asked whether there will be suffering due to confl ict or even war. If the pangolin moves towards the bow and arrow, this means confl ict within the clan; the gun means war with the white man; the spear means war with other clans. Finally, the pangolin is asked about sorcerers. If one is present, the animal will go towards him and then he is brought to trial” (Ammann (1933) 1955: 45). Among the Ngindo in Liwale, it seems that the people expected the oracle to predict only disasters—drought, famine, sick children, strife—without reference to the harvest. Notes by C. J. P. Ionides, a former British Army offi cer employed by the Game Department of Tanganyika in the 1930s, which were published in 1950 but are much older, testify to this pessimism. With regard to the pangolin, its mere appearance was regarded by the Ngindo as a bad omen. It is reported that both before the Maji-Maji revolt and before the outbreak of the First World War, a pangolin was seen in the German military fort in Liwale. The method of the Ngindo oracle is sketched in a few lines: “The pangolin is caught and held facing the following articles placed in a line: an arrow, a dish of water, a dish of food, and an mbebeo (cloth in which women carry their children). The beast is then released. If he passes over the arrow, there will be war; if over the water, there will be drought; if over the food, there will be famine; and if over the mbebeo, there will be child sickness” (Ionides 1950: 67). This oracle ceremony has been recorded in a number of paintings by contemporary Tanzanian artists, clearly demonstrating that the tradition recorded in the 1930s remains relevant generations later. They also reveal more precise details than appear in the fi eld reports. Henry Likonde was twenty-two years old when he learned church painting in the Benedictine mission in Ndanda. He produces paintings and drawings on commission and for sale. According to the artist (2007), he was the fi rst to paint this subject in 1984. In this picture (fi g. 4) one man is performing a dance movement while holding three gourd rattles in his hands (he is the diviner or healer), and another is a musician beating a drum. The man on the right of the drummer is the respected elder who leads the ritual. The artist explained to me that the missing front teeth of the latter are a sign of advanced age. In front of the pangolin are three piles of objects: foodstuffs (maize, cassava), agricultural implements (hoe, bush knife), and weapons (bow and arrow, club, and spear). The child and goat are associated with propagation magic. Max Kamundi and Ahmadi Omari together created an oil painting (2004) showing the middle part of the pangolin ritual (fi g. 5). The animal is standing in the center of a large white cloth and is rubbing its nose against a container full of rice. On the ground is a bush knife, together with a number of containers, each with a special content. Next to the pangolin is a drummer in a bent position. The picture skillfully shows that his rhythmical beating is intended to have an effect not on the people but on the animal. The main fi gure, with white hair and a white beard, is the clan leader who is presiding over the ceremony. This fi gure is unnaturally large and carries the insignia of his offi ce. An oil painting by Meinhard Manoli from 2001 (fi g. 6) shows the scene immediately preceding the actual consultation of the oracle. The pangolin is standing in the middle, and the objects to be presented to it (foodstuffs, agricultural implements, weapons) are lying jumbled up on the ground. The picture is dominated by the large white cloth that is to be placed under the animal. Behind FIG. 5 (below): Max Kamundi and Ahmadi Omari, Pangolin oracles: Chief gazing at the Future, Makonde, Tanzania, 2004. Oil painting. 70 x 70 cm. Miss. Cortey, Missio-Internationales Katholisches Missionswerk e.V., Aachen. FIG. 6 (below): Meinhard Manoli, Pangolin oracles, Mwera, Tanzania, 2001. Oil painting. 70 x 60 cm. Museum Fünf Kontinente, Munich, inv. 02-324 347. Photo: Maria Kecskési.
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