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04. My spiritual leader MmaShakayile, with her two
granddaughters, Molly (the elder one) and Kwani (the
younger one) in sangoma dress, performing a divination
with the sacred tablets, October 1989 |
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05. idem |
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06. idem |
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07. idem |
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08. MmaShakayile |
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09. idem |
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12. My main teacher of the use of the divining
tablets was not MmaShakayile but a herbalist, Mr Smarts
Gumede, whose 'surgery' (treatment room) is shown here,
October 1989 |
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13. entrance Gumede surgery |
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14. Mr Gumede mainly depended for his livelihood on
the sale of vegetables and fat cakes |
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15. Mr Gumede |
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16. Kwani |
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17. Kwani putting the drums in the sun in preparation
of a sangoma session with song and dance |
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18. Not all inhabitants of MmaShakayile's yard in the
Monarch township of Francistown were sangomas |
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19. Kwani |
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20. looking out towards the street, from
MmaShakayile's yard; left of centre a shrine which was
considered the grave of Johannes, a brother/cousin of
MmaShakayile's whose reincarnation I was considered to be |
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21. drums |
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22. same as 20, other side of entrace, shows the
yard's main shrine, on which my 1990 initiation as twaza
(trainee-sangoma) centred |
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23. entrance of MmaShakayile's yard as seen from the
street -- one of Monarch township's main throughroads,
and tarred |
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58. the female ancestors' shrine in the eastern
outskirts of MmaShakayile's homestead in the village of
Mashelagabedi, 25 km northeast of Francistown, 1991 |
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59. the homestead, with my spiritual leader
MmaShakayile, and other sangomas |
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60. the male ancestors' shrine at the homestead, west
of the dwellings |
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61. idem |
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63. a goat is sacrificed as one of the highlights of
my graduation ceremony as a sangoma at the homestead,
1991; one of the few photographs which I did nnot take
myself -- I am squatting left |
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64. a junior sangoma with her baby, at the homestead |
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65. Molly, a senior sangoma, at the homestead |
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66. inspecting the food and other necessities bought
for my graduation ceremony |
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67. MmaTeddy, a senior sangoma preparing her clothes
for my graduation ceremony |
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68. Jeannette, a senior sangoma, feeds me the first
complete meal, with 'inside meat', after my graduation
has lifted the food prohibitions to which I was subjected
as a twaza trainee sangoma, 1991 |
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69. out in the Botswana wilderness near the
Zimbabwean border, learning to recognise and dig out
medicinal plants, with Kwani and her little brother |
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70. the house of the Vice Chairman of the
Kwame/Lengwame Traditional Association of Botswana, the
official organisation representing the sangomas in that
part of the country; after my graduation as sangoma in
1991 the owner conducted us to the High God shrine of
Mwali at Nata, 200 km northwest of Francistown, but
despite his high position in the professional
organisation he was denied entrance there because he was
known to kill little boys in order to prepare, for the
benefit of his high-ranking clients, success medicine out
of their genitals. This piece of information, coupled
with the aggression with which I was met at the lodge
when I returned from Nata with the leopard skin which
Mwali had ordered me to wear (the other sangomas only
wore goat skins as signs of their graduation), made me
decide overnight to make a total break with the lodge,
although I saw no raison to give up the sangoma status
for which I had attained at such great costs, and which
had been confirmed by the highest Authority, at Nata |
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71. MmaShakayile, in the main shrine at her Monarch
plot, casts her divining tablets in order to seek
approval from the ancestors at the beginning of my
initiation as a twaza, 1990 |
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72. the special shrine erected on the occasion of my
twaza initiation |
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73. Amandhlozi, a senior sangoma, at the homestead |
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74. Masala, a 34-old twaza, unmarried father of five,
who had recently joined MmaShakayile's 'lodge' (group of
sangomas), here threading beads in preparation for my
graduation ceremony |
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