How Water Makes Us Human by Attala Luci.;

How Water Makes Us Human by Attala Luci.;

Author:Attala, Luci.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786834133
Publisher: Book Network Int'l Limited trading as NBN International (NBNi)
Published: 2013-09-15T00:00:00+00:00


Identity solutions: blending place, power and water

Of central interest here are the political implications of the intricate relationship between water, memory and landscape. In these senses, the variety of practices and languages associated with water often appear not so much as responses to a scarce ‘natural’ resource but rather as cultural and political resources in themselves; a kind of ‘symbolic capital’.

(Fontein 2008: 746)

Discussion reveals that water plays a quiet but key role in local narratives of the Giriama flight into Kenya. According to those with whom I have spoken, prior to departure, group leaders (elders and ritual practitioners) were concerned that the journey could dilute the purity of the group’s identity in transit as a result of the new influences that they might encounter. Seemingly to avoid a scattering of people and the possibility of losing a sense of collectivity, the group leaders created a magic potion or medicine from local plants and water held in a clay pot (nyungu), which is called the fingo (Mutoro 1985).

Multiple accounts describe the fingo (Parkin 1991; Zeleza 1995). In some, it is a stone talisman (e.g. Parkin 1991), while in others it is simply described as a medicine (e.g. Mutoro 1985; Zeleza 1995). For the locals of Boré Koromi, the fingo was liquid, not stone. Its purpose was to contain, protect and preserve the essence and authenticity of Giriama-ness both in transit and on arrival (Parkin 1991). I have not found a text that offers comprehensive details of the recipes used to produce Giriama medicines, but conversations affirm that medicines typically use river water as the base, which is then mixed with other materials (such as hair, blood, leaves and ash) that together transmit the required communication and produce the necessary outcome. Brantley talks of the Giriama using ‘ritual water’ (1979: 126) so as to broadcast cultural messages to wider spheres. Referring to the burial of water medicines specifically, Brantley notes that water-based medicines are able to affect everyone within the radius of their influence simultaneously. The potency of water materials is of significance, as locals maintain that watery medicines accumulate strength over time (see Attala 2016a) as a result of the manner by which the materials are able to relate. Thus, the potency and agency of the medicines are due to three things: the activities of the spirits that the medicines are designed to attract (Alex Katana Mare 2015 and 2016 (pers. comm.)); the ability of practitioners to permeate items with power through making oaths or uttering into the materials that are blending (Theophrastus 2016 (pers. comm.)); and because, as the ingredients blend or dissolve into each other, the remaining liquid concentrates and intensifies (Freddy 2013 and 2016 (pers. comm.)).

Carried throughout their flight, the potent liquid also came with a terrible price. The medicine, while able to keep misfortune away, also exerted a destructive power, which endangered those who physically handled it. Consequently, transportation of the potion was an act of sacrifice: each individual who volunteered to carry the potion died at the end of the day.



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