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Colors and Body Painting in Black Africa: the Problem of the “Half-Man”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Dominique Zahan
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Accustomed as we are to wearing clothes and to using colors in artistic and utilitarian ways, we often forget that the first “monument” offered to color is the human body and that the first “canvas” for the artist was his own skin. Man has created a distance between skin and colors by introducing clothes, which have a meaning that works to the detriment of both skin and colors. Clothes are a kind of second skin which is far more versatile than the first one and with which tailors and fashion designers may cheat to the full extent of their fantasy and in accordance with how we wish to appear. Colors play an infinite game of combinations which enhance and transform clothes. No skin lends itself to such a range of aesthetic manipulations as cloth does.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 23 , Issue 90 , March 1975 , pp. 100 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 Cf. D. Zahan, " Les Couleurs chez les Bambara du Soudan Français," Notes Africaines, Dakar, I.F.A.N., No. 50, April 1951, pp. 52-56.

2 Cf. V. W. Turner "La classification des couleurs dans le rituel Ndembu," Essai d'anthropologie religieuse, Paris, Gallimard, 1972, pp. 67-107.

3 We are using "race" here in its commonly accepted form, if not in that of Buffon, without any prejudices as to color and recognizing the imprecision of the term.

"Yellow, the color of the center, is the dominant color and not the synthesis of the four cardinal colors (green, red, white, and black)," M. Granet, Danses et Légendes de la Chine ancienne, Paris, Librairie Felix Alcan, 1926, T. I, p. 234, n. 1.

5 V. W. Turner, op. cit., pp. 84 and 85.

6 In other words one could say that suffering, maturity, and black are linked to each other in the same way as the realities to which they are attributed are linked to each other. These realities are: the body of the initiate, the ages of man, and the body of the black man.

7 Ibid., p. 85.

8 Ibid., p. 84.

9 Ibid., p. 85.

10 In Les Tambours d'affliction, Paris, Gallimard, 1972, p. 277, the same author notes that the woman who executes the operation blackens the vulva of the novice "with the soot which covers the outside layer of the bark of the mudyi (tree) which has reached maturity…" (our italics).

11 C. Lévi-Strauss has stressed the importance of both metaphor and me tonymy in primitive thought (as well as in certain realms of our own culture), cf. Le Totémisme aujourd'hui, Paris, P.U.F., 1962; and above all, La Pensée Sauvage, Plon, 1962.

12 In all metaphorising systems it is of the utmost importance to the analyst to recognise this first link. Expressed either clearly, or in a veiled way, or implied, this first link is determining if one is to seize the range and meaning of the other metaphors of a given system.

13 It should be mentioned that during the first hours of its existence the African baby is very light in colour.

14 Cf. H. A. Junod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-ronga, Lausanne, Geor ges Bridel et Cie., 1897, p. 237.

15 Cf. H. A. Junod, Moeurs et coutumes des Bantous, T. I, p. 49.

16 Cf. Ibid., p. 50.

17 Cf. A. van Gennep, Manuel de Folklore Français, Paris, A. and J. Picard et Cie., 1946, T. I, 2° partie, "Du berceau à la tombe," pp. 632 and 633. The interpretation that we give here is not to be found in the above mentioned volume; it was first formulated by Claude Levi-Strauss who places this, quite justly so, in a wider context, cf. Le Cru et le Cuit, Paris, Plon, 1964, pp. 340-344.

18 Cf. H. A. Junod, op. cit., T. II, p. 106. The kwangoula (or hangula) is also found among the Lemba and Venda, cf. A. C. Lawton, Bantu Pottery of Southern Africa, in Annals of the South African Museum, Cape Town, Sept. 1967, vol. 49, Part 1, pp. 83, 203, and 215. This author does not attribute a religious character to the rite described by Junod for the Baronga. We think that this is an impoverishment of the content and meaning of the ancient practice.

19 Cf. among others: Hugh A. Stayt, The Bavenda, in New Impression, London, Frank Cass & Co., 1968, pp. 109, 112, 123, 135, and 141; Edwin M. Loeb, In Feudal Africa, Indiana University Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics, Bloomington, Mouton & Co., 1962, pp. 245 and 249; G. Parrinder, La Religion en Afrique Occidentale, Paris, Payot, 1950, p. 130; I. Schapera, The Khoisan People of South Africa, Third Impression, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1960, p. 281.

20 We have personally observed such ritual procedures in what is the present day Republic of Mali and in the Republic of Upper-Volta. A. J. N. Tremearne draws attention to this practice in Northern Nigeria (cf. The Tailed Head-hunters of Nigeria, London, Seeley, Service & Co., 1912, pp. 112-113, 186, and 192); Clement M. Doke in Northern Rhodesia (cf. The Lambas of Northern Rhodesia, London, George G. Harrap & Co., 1931, pp. 186 and 187); Celestin Obi for the Izzi, Ikwo, and the Izaa of the Abakaliki region of Nigeria (Personal report).

21 Ruth Fisher, Twilight Tales of the Black Baganda, 2nd Ed., London, Frank Cass and Co., 1970, p. 114; M. Vaneste, "Nyabongo, de Erste Bito-Koning, Werkeligkheid en Legende," Kongo-Overzee, XVI, 1950, p. 152. The story of Mpuga Rukidi has made much ink flow but the problem of this hero's symbolism of laterality has not yet been broached in a satisfactory manner, cf. Needham R., "Right and Left in Nyoro Symbolic Classification," Africa, XXXVII, 4, Oct. 1967, pp. 425 to 452; J. Beattie, "Aspects of Nyoro Sym bolism," The Story of Rukidi, Africa, XLIII, 3, July 1973, pp. 219 to 235. To our way of thinking the last of the above mentioned authors is the one who expresses the most correct point of view.

22 Ruth Fisher, op. cit., p. 111; P. Bikunya, Ky'Abakama ba Bunyoro, Lon don, Sheldon Press, 1927, p. 37. Wrigley's psychological interpretation of this animal does not seem to us to be the correct one. The author writes: "It (the animal) was a creature of nightmare, the product of an abnormal state of mind (of the initiates)," op. cit., p. 223.

23 Haussa Superstitions and Customs, London, Frank Cass & Co., 1970, pp. 90 and 91. As if to confirm the truth of this story the author tells us more about this child born from a "dead" woman: "The boy under the name of Dan Marinna (Dan Marinna means Son of the Dye-pit) survived to old age at Katsena, where until recently (1909) he was still living."

24 We found stories, mentioning such creatures, among the Bambara.

25 Nursery tales, traditions and histories of the Zulu, in their own words, with a translation into English and notes, J. A. Blair, Springvale (Nutal), 1868, pp. 199 and 202.

26 Primitive Culture (1st edition 1872), New York, Brentano's, 7th edition, 1924, T. I, pp. 390 to 392.

27 "Moslem legend tells of the Shikk and the Nesnas, creatures like one half of a split man, with one arm, leg and eye. Possibly it was thence that the Zulu got their idea of a tribe of half-men," op. cit., pp. 390-391.

28 Ibid. E. B. Tylor draws attention, in a note, to various references to the subject of the half-man and invites the reader to refer to the "Persian metaphor" of Nimchas as well as to the tribes of one-legged men talked about in Pliny and other authors.

29 Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef. West African Folktales, New York, E. P. Dutton and Co., 1903, p. 22.

30 On the Backwaters of the Nile, London - Leipzig, 1912, p. 141.

31 Op. cit., pp. 212 to 214, 401 to 407, 454 to 455.

32 The Lambas of Northern Rhodesia, London, G. G. Harrap and Co., 1931, pp. 251 to 256.

33 The Bavenda, London, Frank Cass and Co., 1968 (New impression), p. 239.

34 Moeurs et Coutumes des Bantous, T. II, 214 to 218.

35 G. Dumezil has pointed out that the centaurs "were not pure figments of the imagination" because the oldest representatione of these beings are "(…) monster masks, more or less poorly made, of a human being and appurtenances" whereas "Centaur-horses, with four horse legs and an elongated chest which becomes the torso of a man" did not appear until much later, cf. Le Problème des Centaures, Etude de mythologie comparée indo-européenne, Paris, Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1929, p. 167. In any case the problem we are raising here is still an open question, if not for the centaurs, then at least for the other "monsters."

36 In the following part we intentionally deal with only black and white color symbolism which is more or less constant in many African cultures. Furthermore, it will not be possible to enter into the details concerning the rites that have some connection with the symmetry of the left and right side of the body. However, we would like to draw attention to the fact that certain purification ceremonies are held taking into account the oppositions of the parts of the body as a function of laterality. On the other hand, among many African peoples the position of the corpse in its grave respects this notion of symmetry. Finally, left-handed people, who represent a case of inverse symmetry compared to the norm, enjoy a particular status during their lives and at their death are buried according to a special rite.

37 Here we mention only some of the corresponding terms which testify to laterality.

38 The bibliography on laterality in Africa is rather short. Amongst the more important works one may consult: E. E., Evans-Pritchard, "Spear Sym bolism," in Anthropological Quarterly, XXVI, 1953, pp. 1 to 19; Idem, Nuer Religion, Oxford, Clarendon Press, pass.; R. Needham, "The Left Hand of the Mugwe. An Analytical Note on the Structure of Meru Symbolism," Africa, XXX, 1, 1960, pp. 20 to 33; T. Beidelman, "Right and Left Hand among the Kanguru," Africa, XXXI, 3, 1961, pp. 250 to 257. The works of Beattie, Needham, and Wrigley, mentioned above, also contain some interesting material concerning right and left.

39 B. Maupoil, La Géomancie à l'ancienne C6te des Esclaves, ser. Travaux et Mémoires de l'Institut d'Ethnologie, XLII, Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris, 1943, p. 71, n. 3. The author believes that this dance, in which only half of the dancer's body moves, is not without relation to the principle of duality in the unity of the Divine Being.

40 Marcel Granet, La Pensée chinoise, ser. Bibliothèque de Synthèse Histor ique, L'Evolution de l'Humanité, Paris, Albin Michel, 1950, p. 362. Cf. also, idem, Danses et Légendes de la Chine ancienne, op. cit., T. II, pp. 455, 467, and 551 to 554. The last few pages of the latter reference concern themselves with "La Danse sur un pied" (The Dance on One Foot) of Yu the Great and certain young men who, in the past, danced on one foot and made their shoulders move in order to make the rains come.

41 Certain real or mythical physical punishments such as quartering and the vertical division of the body should be seen as being part of the half-man phenomenon. We do not know of any such practices in Africa.

42 There is no lack of references to the left and right in the Ancient Greek texts that are left but these referencs are often complicated and imprecise. Cf., Joseph Cuillandre, La Droite et la Gauche dans les Poèmes Homérique, en concordance avec la doctrine pythagoricienne et avec la tradition celtique, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1944 for this subject in the Homeric poems.

43 " Another category of people who have a special relation with heaven are the albinos. Although albinism is quite rare among the indigenous South-Africans one does at times encounter them. Albinos are called, in the Thonga language, Khalandlati which means quite literally lightning-coal. It is believed that they have been burned (hisa) by lightning inside their mothers (before birth). (It is said of them): "They are incomplete beings, they are not yet mature, they were hated by heaven," H. A. Junod, Moeurs et Coutumes des Bantous, T. II, p. 391, n. 1.