Healing Divination in Burkina Faso Ghana-gctid41037

[KwameD]

(Source: CAHRE - Kmtyw Arts of Healing and Divination)

Kmtyw ARTS OF HEALING AND DIVINATION

Art, Divination and Healing in Burkina Faso and Ghana: researching    the exhibition "Kmtyw Arts of Healing and Divination", Harn Museum    of Art, 2007

Sunited snakesn Cooksey, Curator of Kmtyw Art, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art
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Summary of Research, 2006

   

Figure 1

In spring of 2006, I traveled to Burkina Faso, Mali and Ghana with the assistance    of a CAHRE grant for the purpose of conducting research on the arts of healing    and divination. This research was done as a follow-up to my earlier study in    Burkina Faso of diviners in 1997-1999, which was the catalyst for an exhibition,    "Kmtyw arts of Healing and Divination" at the Harn Museum of Art,    of the University of Florida, open from February 20, 2007 to June 24, 2007 1.    My research in 2006 was done in a period of a little over three weeks. It included    revisiting my former research site, the village Toussiana in southwest Burkina    Faso, as well as visits to Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso, Kumasi    and Accra in Ghana, and Bamako, Mali. The following discussion focuses on research    in Toussiana and in Kumasi. In Toussiana, I was a participant-observer in divination    and healing ceremonies and in a ceremony honoring a deceased diviner. Also in    Toussiana, I observed and interviewed Dafing weavers who produce sacred textiles    for divination, and acquired examples of their work, and other comparative examples    from other sources. In Kumasi, I interviewed the artist, Kwame Akoto in his    workshop, and commissioned two paintings about current health issues, one of    which is included in the Harn exhibition.
 

Description of Primary Research Site: Toussiana

Toussiana is a village in southwestern Burkina Faso, with roughly 20,000 inhabitants. (Figure 1)   It is close to the borders of Cote d'Ivoire and Mali, and located on the    Falaise de Banfora, a rocky plateau. The plateau is forested near Toussiana,    and rivers traverse the area, which also boasts a manmade lake or barrage. The    area is mainly agricultural and pastoral, with many farming hamlets within a    20 mile radius of the village centers. Toussiana is approximately 20 miles from    the nearest town, Banfora, and about 40 miles from Bobo-Dioulasso, the second    largest city in Burkina Faso. Toussiana is comprised of three villages, Toussianba,    Yorokofasso, and Nianhaba. Each has its own local chiefs, although the provincial    government office is located in Toussianba. In the wake of French colonization    in the early 20th century, the Père Blancs, founded a mission and a school    in Toussianba, which is thriving today as one of the premier educational institutions    in the country. While Catholicism is strong in Toussianba, religious affiliations    in the three village area include protestant Christian sects, as well as Muslims    and local or indigenous religions, with much syncretization. Important local    religions include the worship of the deity, Do, an earth spirit, and several    spirits, with lively cults devoted to the spirits Boro and Kuruba. Ethnically,    there are no longer clear divisions of groups, however the main population self-identifies    as Win (also called the southern Toussian or Tusyan). The nearest related group,    the Pentobe, are known as the northern Toussian. Both are culturally related    to the Senufo peoples, and the Toussian groups have been referred to as the    northern Senufo, due to cutural and linguistic similarities. Other neighboring    peoples, the Turka, KaAmworo, Tiefo, Dafing, Fulani and Gouin, are only a few    that live in the southwestern region of Burkina Faso but have had the most significant    cultural impact on the Win. Many peoples from the north, such as the Mossi and    Bwa, as well as the Lobi from the east have settled in Toussiana recently, due    to reversal of a long trend of migrations to urban areas.
 

Divination and Healing in Toussiana
 
In the pluralistic society of Toussiana, there is a great diversity of practitioners    of divination and healing. The two professions are complementary and overlap    although some broad distinctions may be made between them. Diviners are sometimes    differentiated from healers in that the former are considered to have spiritually    endowed insight that allows them to solve many problems, and the latter concentrate    on remedies for purely physical ailments. In a sense, diviners are all healers    if one considers that they diagnose and treat the cause of physical and psychological    disorders, which is generally thought to be spiritual. Diviners do know the    difference between a purely physiological problem that requires immediate medical    attention and one that is caused by god or a spirit, and will refer a client    to the appropriate health professional—a traditional healer or physician    in an urban clinic. The diviners can be divided into five major groups: the    hierarchical diviners comprising the great diviners, or sanpu gbe,    the lesser diviners, the sanpu or gbintalesanpu; blacksmith    diviners of the Kwen people; idiosyncratic diviners; Muslim diviners; and outsider    diviners, or those who have come from distant areas and settled in Toussiana.    Each of these groups has distinctive practices, although there is some overlap    in use of materials, objects and techniques. For example, various diviners have    mutual knowledge of certain oracular techniques and materials, or of herbal    remedies. This sharing of knowledge is most evident among the hierarchical diviners,    however, small diviners are closely linked by their oracular techniques with    the blacksmith diviners. Idiosyncratic and outsider diviners have appropriated    some of these techniques, and have also borrowed techniques and materials from    Muslim diviners. In addition, many attend the same religious ceremonies, such    as Do initiations, Boro and Kuruba ritual dances, diviner initiations and divinatory    funerary rites. Although more study on the subject is called for, it seems that    the exchange of ideas and information among diviners, and other interactions    enhances their visibility and status among other practitioners and among members    of the larger community.
 

Hierarchical Divination: Sanpu Gbe and Sanpu
 
The oldest type of diviners in Toussiana are probably the great diviners, or    sanpu gbe (sanwo gbe, singular). Their calling as diviners    is mandated by each family's tutelary nature spirit, which usually identifies    a successor to the current family diviner as a younger family member, usually    male, but women may be named as well.
 
The spiritual link to the local terrain, in the form of spirits of the rivers,    forest and mountains, is of great importance to these diviners, and presumably    is founded on deep historical roots in the area. Great diviners distinguish    themselves from small diviners by this strong connection to the land and the    spirits that inhabit it, by saying that the lesser diviners are so named because    they do not inherit the ability to divine but are called at random by the spirits.    It may be that the sanpu gbe consider themselves the original landowners,    the first diviners, and that the sanpu are either latecomers to the    area, or imported divination techniques from elsewhere. In either case, the    great diviners are allied with the lesser diviners, but are considered superior.    The elected chief diviner of the sanpu gbe is the leader of the sanpu,    who have their own chiefs, usually a highly experienced elder. The alliance    of these two types of diviners is a mystery, made more pronounced by the great    differences in their practices. Divination may be considered a two part process,    consisting of a consultation, in which a problem is identified and a solution    is prescribed, and, a cure or therapeutic part that is undertaken by the client.    Sanpu gbe are consulted for many everyday problems, but their most    important role is determining a cause of death, whereas sanpu divinations    are exclusively for everyday problems. The sanpu gbe's post-mortem    oracular pronouncement is part of a large public funerary ceremony, attended    by scores of people. The sanpu consultations are only held in small,    private rooms. While both utilize techniques that involve interlocution and    may be described as oracular and mediumistic, there are few other evident parallels.
 

Aesthetic Space and Divination
 
Divination systems worldwide share a common denominator of involving both performance    and objects to find solutions to problems. Insight into a problem is credited    as transmitted by a spirit being to the diviner, who may then pronounce a solution,    usually an offering to a displeased spirit. Western scholars, including myself    (2004, also see Peek, 1992; Pemberton, 2000) have argued it is the presentation    and manipulation of objects in a highly aestheticized setting that enables an    alteration in cognition, and results in new insights to old problems. Construction    of such an aestheticized space is evident in many phases of the divination process,    but among the Toussiana diviners, it was most effective in the consultation    with the diviner, inside his or her chamber. In the case of the sanpu gbe    funerary divination ceremony, this aesthetic space was expanded or at least    transformed.
 For everyday problems, a sanpu or sanpu gbe consultation    occurs within a small specially designed house, separated from other living    quarters. For the sanpu gbe, the house is generally a large round house    with two opposing doors and no windows.

Figure 2

(Figure 2) A client enters the sanpu gbe house after removing her shoes,  and is directed to sit on a smooth stone on the opposite side of a small stone  table from the diviner. The house is empty except for the presence of a leather  bag hanging on the wall, and remnants of sacrificial substances.
   
The diviner begins the session by chanting, and removing his equipment from    a leather bag—a cowhorn filled with cowrie shells, metal rings, and bits    of other materials. He spills the contents of the horn on the table, then taps    the horn on the stone slab top of the table, which that has air pockets inside    so that various tones are produced by striking it in different spots. This sounding    stone is thought to have magical properties, which make it useful for conveying    spiritual messages. The spilled contents of the horn are examined, and the configuration    of shells, metal rings and other individualized contents (e.g. a knucklebone    and a bit of red glass), and interpreted as a spirit's responses to the    diviner's queries about the client's problem. The contents are gathered    into the horn and recast until the diviner identifies the cause of the problem.    After pronouncing the cause, he then queries the spirits to find a solution.    A solution may take the form of a series of actions the client must take, such    as acquiring specific types of objects, and performing certain tasks with them.
  Within the sanpu gbe personal consultation, it is the sound of the    horn tapping the stone and the visually arresting sight of the contents of the    horn that are the salient aesthetic experiences, but other objects in the chamber,    hidden from the client's view, play a major role in mediation with the    spirit world. Tasie, small carved wood male and female paired figures    are among the more interesting of these objects that are made for interlocution.    According to an earlier study, these figures assisted the diviner with consultations,    and actually seemed to speak with the voice of a deceased child. The child oracle    was in fact a diviner acting as a ventriloquist. During my research, however,    the tasie remained hidden within a large leather bag. Hiding the tasie    was probably the result of earlier colonial persecution of diviners, who were    identified by their possession and use of such figures, which were wrongly associated    with sorcery.
 

A Sanpu Gbe Funerary Oracle

 

Figure 3

After the death of an individual, a sanpu gbe is called in to perform    a public ceremony to determine the cause of death. This determination is critical    to the deceased's family and it is also of great interest to them and    to the community, because they will know whether the person died from either    good or evil causes. Good causes include natural aging process, and one's    personal spirit calling her to join him in the spirit world. If a person is    killed by a witch or sorcerer, or from any evil spirit force, activated by human    agents or otherwise, (referred to as poisoning) then it is considered an unnatural    death. In such cases, the malicious agent must be identified, and brought to    justice if the deceased's spirit is ever to rest in peace.

Figure 4

It is of course, essential to the family's peace of mind as well, and the  family is morally and ethically obliged to act on the deceased's behalf.  The ceremony is held in the courtyard of the family of the deceased.(Figure 3)  In the ceremonies I attended, there were as many as a hundred people assembled.  Many are women preparing food for the feast that will follow the consultation,  and they continue to work on the periphery as the ceremony progresses. (Figure  4)

chief diviner

The consultation requires the participation of the chief diviner, and the other  sanpu gbe in the community. However, sanpu and other diviners  may be in attendance as well as observers. The ceremonies I observed began in  the late morning, and lasted for about an hour. To begin, the elder sanpu  gbe gather on a porch with their equipment.(Figure 5) The family stands nearby,  looking on anxiously and providing assistance and the mandatory

Figure 5

sacrificial offerings of fowl, millet beer, water and foodstuffs. The diviners  each bring a konkare, the stool-staff that marks their status as diviners,  and seat themselves on them.(Figure 6) The consultation begins with the placement  of several power objects (k'degue) on the ground in front of the  diviner who conducts the ceremony. The power objects are tarry, black, horn-shaped  objects with an animal tail protruding from one end. A

Figure 6

secret formulation of medicines are encased in the "horn" that give  the diviner his power to divine.(Figure 7) He begins by invoking the spirits who  will help him determining the cause of death, and also addresses  

Figure 7

the spirit of the deceased.
  In the course of the ceremony, the objects on the ground are manipulated and    sacrifices are offered to activate them.(Figure As in regular divination sessions, the diviner taps the horn on the edge of his stone tablet, and spills its contents of cowries,  metal rings and idiosyncratic objects on it, then read the configuration. The  process is repeated, until he determines a clear answer about the cause of

Figure 8

death has been revealed by the spirits. The diviner verifies his interpretation  by sacrificing a chicken. If the chicken dies with its belly up, then the sacrifice  has been accepted and the interpretation is considered to be correct. If it dies  on its side or with its back up, it is a negative sign that calls for another  reading and another sacrifice.

 

Figure 9

If the outcome is that the person died of good causes (has either been called    to the afterlife by the guiding spirit, or simply passed away from an illness    with no malice on the part of the spiritworld) then the family is elated and    offers the diviners a pot of millet beer (dolo), which they pass around.(Figure    9) They offer the diviners dolo and corn as appreciation for their services.    The feast may begin once the diviners have ritually consumed the dolo. The two    interpretations I received from the readings were that the deceased had indeed    been called to the world of their spirits from the water, and thus the families    could rejoice.
 

  The Small Diviners , Sanpu

 

Figure 10

The Sanpu diviners are distinguished by their small round chambers, and  their technique of holding the client's hand during a consultation.(Figure  10) In many respects, their practices are more open than the sanpu gbe.  The altar areas of the sanpu are against a wall, and the diviner sits  in the chamber facing the client so that their outstretched legs are parallel.  During the consultation the diviner rings a bifurcated iron handgong, and shakes  a gourd rattle to arouse the spirits, and queries them about the purpose of the  client's visit.(Figure 11)

Figure 11

The diviner then takes the hand of the client, and gently guides it up and down  according to the answer provided by the spirits to an ongoing query by the diviner.(Figure  12) After several minutes, the diviner then releases the client's hand,  and throws a group of cowries on the floor between them. The configuration is  interpreted as a sign of the spirits that suggests further information about the  client's problem, and a remedy such as a sacrifice. During the consultation,  the diviner is assisted by the mediation of her tasie, who serve as temporary  embodiments and mouthpieces for the spirits. They are the means through which  the diviner's personal spirits can communicate with the client's personal  spirits, or setan, to determine the source of a problem. The small wood  figures vary in style, from highly abstract forms with no articulation to naturalistic  forms with carefully

 

Figure 12

detailed features. The figures may be standing on small stones and clearly visible  to the client, or the diviner may wrap them in cloth, and partially hide them  in the back of the altar.(Figure 13)

Figure 13

Over time, they may be completely covered with encrustations of sacrificial substances  (beer, water, blood, and saliva), added to activate and appease them. They may  also be adorned with beads. Other implements in the diviner's kit include  the k'degue, a specially formulated power object made when she  is initiated by the chief diviner, that contains a portion of the roots that she  gathered during her intiation rites in the bush. The pots or sepine that  contain her sacred roots, line the walls of her chamber, and a sepine  with tisanes from medicinal plants may rest outside the chamber for clients.(Figure  14) Iron staffs with sharpened points on one end are insignia of the diviner and  indicate her power to fight evil forces. Together these implements, gathered in  the intimate space of the diviner's room, are the visible and tangible signs  of spiritual and invisible powers.

   

Figure 14

In my visit to Toussiana in 2006, I was able to revisit a diviner, Serge Ouattara  whose mother, Yabil Traoré, had worked closely with me before. I consulted  with Serge, and noticed that he had double the number of tasie and power  objects on his altar. His mother had allowed him to take her objects and use them,  although normally power objects would have been destroyed and tasie would  be given to another diviner who could not afford to have them made, as they are  quite expensive to commission. This and the fact that Serge carried his cell phone  even in the divination chamber,(Figure 12) signaled his quest for greater spiritual  power just as it indicated his desire for material and globalized connections.
 
 
  Textiles in Divination

Figure 15

Diviners use a variety of handwoven textiles in consultations and for prescribed  sacrifices. The cloth I saw in diviner's chambers is made by local Dafing  weavers but can also be acquired in the market, as the types used are widely produced  in southwestern Burkina Faso and beyond. Some patterns, such as "Guinea  fowl" are now factory made, or handwoven from factory spun thread. These  types may be purchased in the great markets of Ouagadougou, proving it is far  from a localized product 2. The most prevalent  material used is cotton, but Dafing weavers in Toussiana also incorporate wild  silk and kapok into their cloth.(Figure 15) In the past, they used only handspun  thread brought to them by local people's who commissioned special cloth.  Now they make their own thread, or can buy factory made thread.

 

Figure 16

Divination interlocutor figures, or tasie, used by the small diviners    are covered in cloth, usually with a dark blue and white pattern. The two most    commonly seen patterns are stripes, which has many variations and names, and    small checks or houndstooth, known as "Guinea fowl" or Kamifani    ("Guinea fowl cloth") in Jula, and vé fwo ("Guinea    fowl cloth") in Winwey.(Figure 16) The checked pattern mimicks the black    and white speckled feathers of the guinea fowl. The male tasie is wrapped    from the neck down but the female may either be wrapped from the waist down    or from the neck down.(Figure 13 and 17) In some cases the male is wrapped in    stripes and the female in "guinea fowl".

Figure 17

The spirits are said to prefer the dark and light patterns in general, but are  particularly fond of the guinea fowl pattern. It is spectacular and expensive,  as is the dark speckled guinea fowl used for important sacrifices such as those  for initiation. I was also told that spirits, like humans have individual preferences  in color and pattern choices as everything else 3.
 

Figure 18

Kamifani is also recommended by diviners as a cloth to be worn by    clients to appease spirits. Women clients are usually told to wear a kamifani    wrapper (about 1 x 2 yards), and men are told to wear a white cotton strip woven    tunic with a central strip of kamifani.(Figure 18) I was told by an    elderly weaver in the village Soubakaniedougou, that the number of strips is    significant, as it reveals a male and female reference through the numbers 3    and 4 respectively, and various combinations, such as 7, 11 and so forth. In    1999, a group of Dafing weavers in Toussiana, the Kini family, told me a similar    story about the striped patterns in their cloth.

Figure 19

In 2006, I revisited the Kini family and commissioned them to make a woman's    wrapper of kamifani.(Figures 15 and 19) This cloth, now included in    the exhibition in the Harn Museum, is an important example of an art medium    that is less well-documented than wood or metal objects in the divination process,    simply because it is rarely accepted as a permanent and significant art form    by many western collectors. Unfortunately, this handmade cloth will likely disappear,    as only a few people in the village areas are still willing to pay the weavers    to produce it, and many versions of factory-made kamifani are now available    at a much lower cost.
 

An Immigrant Diviner and Healer in Toussiana
 
The practices of divination and healing are often convergent practices, and    some individuals are skilled in both. In 1998, I met Alexis Kambiré,    an immigrant to Toussiana who had come from his Lobi village of Tindjera to    practice both healing and divination. (Figure 20) By 1998, he had a thriving    practice, with many clients coming to him for cures for a range of illnesses,    or solutions to problems related to domestic life, travel and work. I had several    consultations with Kambiré, but only after he accepted me and felt that    he

Figure 20

could be sure his guiding spirits approved of my study. I suspected that one reason  for his reluctance was his earlier interaction with a team of researchers from  an American pharmaceutical company who had asked him for information about local  botanical medicines. It may be that he considered this team to have exploited  him and was wary of yet another American asking for his carefully guarded secrets.  Kambiré said he had sold them cures for headaches and other remedies, although  he professed to have cures for almost everything. This knowledge of herbal medicines  was passed on to him by his father who was a renown diviner and healer, but it  is also empowered by the spirit Tuolo. Through his American employers Kambiré  is obviously well acquainted with Westerners, having adopted Western dress and  tastes, and yet retains much of his own identity as a Lobi person. While such  a position could result in self-marginalization, he has married a Win woman and  has several children, and thus appears to be well assimilated into the community.  However, I never saw him at any events for diviners, such as initiations or funerals  or those for local spirits, such as Boro or Kuruba which are frequented by diviners,  healers and many other local people. He is still very much tied to his home village  where he must make pilgrimages yearly to retrieve sacred plants, water and other  substances to renew his powers as a diviner.
 

Roots and Healing
 
Kambiré's healing practice not only complements his divination,    but is integral to finding cures for clients. Roots are essential medications,    considered to be both bio-medically effective but spiritually efficacious. For    this reason, one sees bundles of roots freshly harvested, before they are sent    to a client in the divination chamber from time to time. But there are roots    in pots and bundles that are never revealed. Concealed in these vessels and    wrappings, they are working for the healer and his client. Kambiré's    account of finding roots characterizes them as not only life giving but alive    and actively responsive to those who have deep knowledge of them. In this sense,    roots actually become symbols of a diviner's knowledge, of a healer's    power. Kept hidden in his chamber, they act as batteries, regenerating power    when needed. When their power is exhausted they have to be replenished, and    he is forced to find them in his homeland, the original source of his power    and wisdom. In digging up the roots of his homeland, earth , wisdom, healing,    divination and identity are thus clearly and closely linked. His description    of the search is as follows:   When you search for roots at night it is the genies      [nature spirits] who guide you. They are the ones who do this. You kill a      chicken under a tree and then return and the roots are there and the chicken      is gone; you merely gather them and leave. Roots speak under the tree, One      can cure 10 illnesses from one tree. You have to listen to the roots speak      - which is really the genies who tell you which root growing in which direction      can cure something. After your incantation you listen to what the genies say,      that you must search the east ,west, north or south to find the one that provides      the cure you need.[ In order to find it you have to say]" I want to find      the cure for..." If you cut the wrong root it's like killing someone.[      I ask for an explanation of the orientation]... it may change according to      each time you approach the same tree; only the genies can tell you. You invoke      the genies of the bush and the king of the trees. You must replace the earth      if you do not you cannot re-enter your house. You might approach it but you      are barred from going inside. Only after the invocation can you get the root      you need. Real healers only know that you must replace the earth- the ones      [false healers] who work in the market selling leaves no not replace the earth      properly 4.      
 Kambiré thus has a complex and diverse identity as a healer that was    beneficial to him. Although further comparative study is needed it appears that    his techniques and implements are similar in some ways to two other Lobi diviners    I visited in Tindjera. However, these diviners' practices varied, as one    was a female diviner who was guided by an ancestral spirit who possessed her,    and the other was a male diviner who was guided by spirit beings from the bush.    Kambiré's guiding spirit was Lewa, a female bush spirit and his paraphernalia    and techniques were fairly close to those of the male diviner. He employed a    vast array of objects in his divinatory consultations, including clay sculptures    of spirit beings, magical gourds dedicated to each spirit, sugi, or    power objects with secret ingredients packed around an animal tail (similar    to the k'degue of sanpu diviners) , a notebook filled    with illegible "script", Muslim prayer beads, animal pelts and skulls    and vessels containing roots, water and other medicinal substances. The floor    of his rectangular chamber was covered with fragments of objects collected over    a long time, and seemed to form a museum for his personal history. I saw a color    print of a political map of Kmt, a blue glass bottle, a pair of scissors.    These objects were assembled as an altar, and encrusted with sacrificial offerings,    including beer, water, blood, and feathers.

Figure 21

(Figure21) The effect of the assemblage of this dizzying array of objects and  materials, some hidden some exposed, was overwhelming. This sensorially opulent  arrangement, designed to pull the mind to another cognitive plane, through a hyperaesthetic  space, I have labeled an "aesthetiscape." The aesthetiscape is a perfect  strategy for engaging the senses and derailing rational, linear thinking in favor  of more inclusive cognitive process. Textures, colors, shapes, odors, and sounds,  all contribute to the desired effect of forcing new thinking and hence new solutions  to old problems.
   
Kambiré has a large clientele made up predominantly of people from    Toussiana. He claims that one reason he moved away from Tindjera was the competitiveness    of diviners. He explained that there are so many diviners in his home village    compared to Toussiana and he felt he had more opportunity to make a living with    his practice by moving there. He had lived in several other villages in Burkina    Faso. He also noted that his clients are from diverse backgrounds. In order    to accommodate those with religious or other affiliations that may conflict    with beliefs associated with his practices, he changed his location. He once    had a divination house adjacent to the market, but he has since moved in order    to allow his clients to see him more discretely.

Figure 22

(Figure 22) Indeed, his house is now at the edge of a large field far to the west  of the market perimeter. It is also convenient for having visitors on market day,  which is normally the busiest day for local diviners, and thus, he seems to have  found an ideal location. His relocation was but one mark of his business savy,  a key feature he shared with other diviners.
   I was thrilled to see that Kambiré was still in the same location when    I returned in 2006, and still had a thriving practice. As I waited for his return    to his chamber one day, several clients appeared in rapid succession. One woman    was seeking advice about a business venture. Another had been treated for a    gastric disorder. Both were repeat clients who were happy with their treatments    and praised Kambiré's skills as a diviner and healer. When consulting    with Kambiré, and observing the consultations of colleagues, I was once    again impressed by the complexity of his process of divination and of the treatments    he recommended.
 

A Consultation with Kambiré
 
[This account of my research assistant, Madeleine Traoré's consultation    with Kambiré occurred in 1999. It is one of the only consultations I    was allowed to videotape, although I witnessed and participated in others. The    divination session lasted about 15 minutes. I included segments from this video    in my exhibition, Kmtyw Arts of Healing and Divination.]
 Kambiré began the consultation seated on his wooden stool in front of    his altar. Madeleine was to his right facing him but several feet away. He sat    quietly facing the altar then spoke in Lobiri to the spirits. He raised the    gourd on the string to the top, then it descended. He looked bemused, placed    his hand on his head, then meditated silently a moment. He then opened a large    gourd bowl with a lid coated in feathers and sacrificial accretions, then quickly    replaced the lid. He removed a large sugi beside it and held it in    his left hand, then opened another small gourd and peered inside it for a moment.    He then placed the large sugi beside the gourds. He took two small    sugi and placed them on the ground. One sugi studded with    cowries remained next to the figure of wathil. He placed a metal bracelet    on the ground near his feet and placed a gourd bowl over it, then slid the gourd    to his right and stood on it with one foot. He stood thus, one foot on the gourd    and one on the ground, leaning against the wall, facing down at his altar. He    sat again, with his right foot still on the gourd, and made gestures on the    ground. He spoke to the gourd on the string and then raised it again, and it    came down sporadically, as he addressed questions to it. He then held it in    his hands and spoke to it further, then replaced it in its normal position next    to the gourds on the altar. He explained the thil's response    to Madeleine, and said the spirits required a sacrifice. He enumerated the items    she had to offer and the context, time and place, of the offering, and elaborated    on the type of objects needed, the type of kola nuts, for example. He then picked    up the notebook from the ground by his right foot and began to peruse it, speaking    intermittently to Madeleine. He held the book in his hand for some time as he    spoke to her, continuing to explain the nature of the sacrifice and listen to    her response. He remained seated, book in hand and foot on the gourd for some    minutes, then the session was finished.
 

Visual Culture and Health in Ghana

Figure 23

My experience with diviners and healers in Toussiana and throughout southern    Burkina Faso was contrasted with an experience of how healing practices and    ideas intersect with contemporary visual culture in Ghana. My limited time in    Ghana was spent primarily in urban areas where sign painting is a well-cultivated    art form which encompasses a range of styles and

 

Figure 24

skill levels. In recent years, eureurasiaan and American art historians, curators  and gallerists have recognized the talents of sign painters, featuring them in  exhibitions and publications. One of the most acclaimed is a painter in Kumasi,  Kwame Akoto. Akoto is the founder of the Almighty God Artworks, a workshop on  a main thoroughfare in the urban center.(Figure 23) The workshop is impressive,  with a large fenced in workspace taking up about a half of a city block. The 15  foot high fencing is covered with paintings, on canvases and boards, mainly executed  with housepaint.(Figure 24) They range from photorealist portraits of Asante chiefs  to abstract expressionist assemblages. Some are works of the master himself, whereas  others are by his apprentices.(Figure 25) Works are rarely signed and yet there  are identifiable hands, as a comparison of works on identical themes reveals.  Recurrent themes that seem to attract

Figure 25

Akoto, and his assistants, more than others, are those of social and physiological  disorders. Many of his works propose remedies, others admonish those responsible  for the affliction. Among the most striking were those warning against smoking,  drunk driving, and negligent parents.

Figure 26

A particularly effective and expressive image was a clear reminder of the tragedy    of AIDS, designed in response to an awareness campaign launched by the Ghanaian    government in 2002.(Figure 26) The slogan of the campaign, "Stop AIDS,    Love Life" is inscribed on the left of the canvas, with "AIDS is    a Killer" running across the bottom. The central panel bears the image    of a seated couple, partially clothed to expose their emaciated bodies. Their    stark forms contrast with the lush greenery of the forest foliage in the background.    Compelled by this image, and seeing that it was reproduced a number of times    in the workshop by different hands, I commissioned Akoto to paint yet another    one for my exhibition, specifying only the size and similarity to a certain    example in the front of the workshop facing the street. The painting was delivered    after several months. While the painting faithfully reproduces the prototype,    it exaggerates the emaciated limbs and features of the couple, adding frightening    photorealist detail. Another painting I commissioned of a healer's sign,    illustrating various maladies, is entirely the work of a photorealist. Although    such signs may exist in Ghana, they are generally much more schematic. Both    works serve to inform and educate about health and social responsibility for    the public, and bridge a gap between a world with "traditional'    medicines and well-known diseases to the contemporary world, riddled with massive    pandemics.
 

List of Figures
 
1 Map of Burkina Faso
  2 Interior of a a chief sanwo gbe's divination house, showing one of two    doorways. The sounding stone where the divination is conducted is in the center,    and the two stools on either side are for the diviner and his client. Feathers    on the floor are from many sacrifices of fowl. Toussiana, Burkina Faso. Photograph    by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 1999.
  3 A gathering in the courtyard of the deceased, of family and friends who will    witness the consultation with the great diviners (sanpu gbe) to determine the    cause of death. Yerokofesso, Burkina Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006.
  4 Finely dressed women and children waiting for the funerary divination consultation    of a sanwo gbe in the courtyard of the deceased. Yerokofesso, Burkina Faso.    Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006
  5 A sanwo gbe begins the consultation to determine cause of death, by sounding    his iron handgong and chanting as he speaks to the spirits. The sounding stone    rests on a basket. A relative of the deceased observes the consultation. Yerokofesso,    Burkina Faso.Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006.
  6 Sanpu Gbe diviners holding their staffs (konkarke) that also serve as canes    and stools. They are convening by the home of the deceased before a funerary    consultation. The two men on the left are chief diviners. Yerokofesso, Burkina    Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006
  7 A sanwo gbe begins the consultation to determine cause of death, by tapping    his sounding stone with a horn. The horn serves as a container for the cowries    and other materials that are read after they are spilled onto the stone surface.    The sounding stone rests on a basket, serving as a makeshift, portable pedestal.    Yerokofesso, Burkina Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006.
  8 The chief sawo gbe diviner offers a green leaf favored by the spirits to activate    the k'degue or power object. Yerokofesso, Burkina Faso. Photograph by    Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006
  9 Relatives of the deceased offering millet beer (dolo) to the sanpu gbe after    the funerary consultation. Yerokofesso, Burkina Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey,    2006.
  10 A client waits outside the chamber of a sanpu diviner. Clients must remove    their shoes before entering the chamber through the small doorway. Toussiana,    Burkina Faso. Photograph by Celestin Coulibaly, 2003.
  11 A sanpu diviner, Yabil Traoré, plays an iron hand-gong, gourd rattle    and chants during a consultation to invoke and query the spirits. Toussiana,    Burkina Faso. Photograph by Celestin Coulibaly, 2002.
  12 A divination consultation with the sanpu diviner and healer, Serge Ouattara,    demonstrating the handholding technique of the sanpu or gbintalesanpu diviners.    Toussiana , Burkina Faso Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006
  13 A sanpu altar with tasie figures, ceramic pots, iron staffs, and sacrificial    substances. Toussiana, Burkina Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 1999.
  14 A ceramic pot outside of a diviner's house used as an altar for a guiding    spirit. The forked branch is part of the altar, which has residue from sacrifices    of fowl and other substances.
  15 Pagieni Karim Kini and Fatimata Konate, a Dafing couple with a sample of    cloth they produce from cotton, kapok, wild silk and indigo. Dakaria, Toussiana,    Burkina Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006.
  16 Woven strip of guinea fowl cloth, or kamifani. Photograph by John Knaub,    2004.
  17 A pair of interlocutor figures wrapped with guinea fowl cloth (kamifani)    on a diviner's altar in an area south of Toussiana. Soubakaniedougou,    Burkina Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 1997.
  18 A sanwo's client wearing a guinea fowl cloth, or kamifani, wrapper    over her skirt. She is waiting in the courtyard of diviner Yabil Traoré.    Toussiana, Burkina Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 1998.
  She is waiting in the courtyard of sanwo, Yabil Traoré. Toussiana, Burkina    Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 1998.
  19 Sumana Kini, a Dafing weaver working on a horizontal loom. Dakaria, Toussiana,    Burkina Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006
  20 Alexis Kambiré, a Lobi diviner and healer, consulting his notebook    as part of the interpretation of a spirit message during a consultation. He    sits in front of his altar and the client is seated in the foreground. Photograph    by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006
  21 Close up of Alexis Kambiré's altar, with roots, gourds, sugi,    thil figures, ceramic vessels, glass bottles, animal skulls and pelts, prayer    beads, feathers and other sacrificial encrustations.
  22 Alexis Kambiré's divination chamber (right), and his home (left).Yerokofesso,    Burkina Faso. Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 1998.
  23 Kwame Akoto, founder of the Almighty God Artworks, painting workshop in Kumasi,Ghana.    Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006
  24 The front fence of the Almighty God Artworks painting workshop in Kumasi,    Ghana.
  25 A photorealist painting of the Asantehene, next to abstract works that are    hanging on outer wall of Almighty God Artworks, Kumasi, Ghana. Photograph by    Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006.
  26 Painting on the wall of the Almighty God Artworks with slogans, "Stop    Aids Love Life and "Aids is a Killer."
  Photograph by Sunited snakesn Cooksey, 2006.
 

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