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Aspects of Nyoro Symbolism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

John Beattie
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Extract

Like other African peoples, Banyoro have a rich and complex symbolism, and there are numerous references to aspects of this in both older and more recent writings about Nyoro traditional culture. But until the publication in a recent issue of this journal of a paper on the significance of right and left in Nyoro symbolic classification by my colleague Dr. Rodney Needham (Needham, 1967), no systematic analysis of Nyoro symbolic categories, or even of the more important of them, had yet been attempted. I hope myself to take up this theme in a forthcoming monograph on Nyoro ritual, though I believe that to do it justice will require some further detailed inquiry through the Runyoro language in Bunyoro itself. In the meantime Needham's interesting essay, based on most of the available written sources, is a significant contribution to the subject. There is certainly much research to be done on the symbolism of right and left and of other complementary oppositions in African cultures, and it is to be hoped that his pioneering efforts will stimulate further researches in these fields.

Résumé

ASPECTS DU SYMBOLISME NYORO

Dans un récent article (Africa, xxxvii. 425–51), le Dr Rodney Needham entreprenait une analyse systématique des catégories symboliques nyoro, d'après les sources déjà publiées. Il en concluait que le symbolisme Nyoro révèle une dualité telle qu'un grand nombre des termes de la classification symbolique nyoro peuvent être répartis selon un schéma d'opposition complémentaire. Selon ce schéma, entre autres éléments et qualités, les devins, les femmes, les nombres impairs, la naissance de jumeaux et la couleur noire se trouvaient classés à gauche, soit du côté néfaste; les princesses, les hommes, les nombres pairs, les naissances normales et la couleur blanche se trouvaient à droite, soit du côté faste.

La présente analyse suggère que, à de nombreux égards, la complexité de la pensée symbolique nyoro est telle qu'elle ne peut pas être représentée avec précision en termes d'une simple dichotomie. Elle démontre ensuite, suivant l'ordre des thèmes de Needham, que l'ethnographie ne confirme pas la thèse selon laquelle, en particulier, les devins sont nécessairement considérés comme néfastes et la divination spécifiquement associée au principe femelle. De plus, tandis que, dans certains contextes, blanc et noir sont vraiment opposés comme respectivement faste et néfaste, pair et impair ne sont pas dans la même opposition; en fait, le nombre impair 9 est considéré comme rituellement favorable dans de nombreuses circonstances.

Le mythe de l'origine de la récente dynastie Bito est ensuite reconsidéré. Le mythe exprime certainement l'opposition entre la ‘noirceur’, l'état sauvage et les sombres auspices de la ligne maternelle (nilotique) de Rukidi Mpuga, et les qualités ‘blanches’, civilisées et fastes de sa ligne paternelle (Cwezi). Mais l'ethnographie démontre clairement que la prétention de Rukidi de descendre des premiers chefs Cwezi ‘fastes’ lui fournit aussi mythiquement un argument de poids pour prétendre à la royauté Nyoro.

Finalement, un examen plus attentif, à la lumière de l'ethnographie, du schéma des 41 paires d' ‘ oppositions ’ suggérées par Needham, montre que, si certaines oppositions sont reconnues indubitablement comme valables par les Banyoro, beaucoup d'autres ne le sont pas. L'ethnographie ne peut done prouver le caractère dualiste de la pensée symbolique Nyoro, tel que le suggère le schéma de l'analyse de Needham.

A contribution by the author towards the printing costs of this long paper is gratefully acknowledged.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , October 1968 , pp. 413 - 442
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1968

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