Divine Fertility

The Continuity in Transformation of an Ideology of Sacred Kinship in Northeast Africa

Sada Mire

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781032174853
• eBook ISBN: 9780429769245
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book uniquely explores the impact of indigenous ideology and thought on everyday life in Northeast Africa. Furthermore, in highlighting the diversity in pre-Christian, pre-Islamic regional beliefs and practices that extend beyond the simplistic political arguments of the current dominant narratives, the study shows that for millennia complex indigenous institutions have bound people together beyond the labels of Christianity and Islam; they have sustained peace through cultural exchange and tolerance (if not always complete acceptance).

Through recent archaeological and ethnographic research, the concepts, landscapes, materials and rituals believed to be associated with the indigenous and shared culture of the Sky-God belief are examined. The author makes sense, for the first time, of the relationship between the notion of sacred fertility and a number of regional archaeological features and on-going ancient practices including FGM, spirit possessions, and other physically invasive practices and the ritual hunt. The book explores one of the most important pilgrimage centres in Somaliland and Somalia, the sacred landscape of Saint Aw-Barkhadle, founded ca. 12th century AD. It is believed to be the burial place of the rulers of the first Muslim Ifat and Awdal dynasties in this region, and potentially the lost first capital of Awdal kingdom before Harar. This ritual centre is seen as a 'microcosm' of the ancient Horn of Africa with its exceptional multi-religious heritage, through which the author lays out a locally appropriate archaeological interpretational framework, the "Ritual Set, " also applied here to the Ethiopian sites of Tiya, Sheikh Hussein Bale, Aksum and Lalibela, setting these places against a wider historical background of indigenous Sky-God belief.

This archaeological study of sacred landscapes, stelae traditions, ancient Christian and medieval Muslim centres of Northeast Africa is the first to put forward a theoretical and analytical framework for the interpretation of the shared regional heritage and the indigenous archaeology of the region. It will be invaluable to archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and policymakers interested in Africa and beyond.

1 Introduction

Aims, structure, concepts, terminology, the movement of peoples and ideas

Aims

I use both theoretical and methodological approaches to explore the material culture, rituals and sacred landscapes of the Horn of Africa. I ask many questions, for example, what religions were practised before the arrival of Christianity and Islam? What are fertility rituals and what can they tell us about the archaeology of medieval kingdoms, historical figures and religious practice in the Horn of Africa? What evidence is there for the existence of Christianity in the Somali region? How can the recent destruction of many high-profile Sufi Saint Shrines in Africa be explained? What can research reveal to us about the original purpose of Gudniin/female circumcision? These are but a few of the questions I explore in this book in an attempt to shed light on the complexity of the history and prehistory of the Horn of Africa and its relevant past and present.

I advance a new theoretical framework based on a multidisciplinary approach which includes oral history, religion, ethnographic methods, medical anthropology, historical-linguistics, archaeology, history and the history of art. My aim is to inspire scholars and students alike and to give the general reader ideas for further research topics and reading. As such, I hope that this book will benefit anthropologists, archaeologists and historians studying similar ritually complex sites and societies. I am also targeting policy makers dealing with medical anthropology (including FGM) and the protection and management of Sufi Saint Shrines and other politically threatened multireligious heritage sites as well as the aftermath of their destruction. Many of the topics – such as female genital mutilation and the destruction of World Heritage Sufi Saint Shrines Sites – have a strong contemporary relevance and I want to put these issues into context for the general reader. I also want to fill in a gap in current research with the use of anthropological and archaeological perspectives.

My purpose is to examine fundamental practices and ideas within the society and culture of the Horn of Africa. I therefore analyse both the contemporary and the historical significance of what I term ‘divine fertility’ in ritual practices. I hope that the book will represent an important contribution to the understanding of Islamic shrines and kinship ideology in northeast Africa and is of considerable relevance to the wider debate about indigenous institutions. I analyse the relationship between the spread of orthodox Christianity and aspects of the Islamic movement in many parts of the world, both of which involve notions of saint worship or veneration and both of which have been strongly influenced by the indigenous notion of ancestral worship or veneration. I also explore the multiple layers of rituals and meaning with which the living heritage of Aw-Barkhadle is associated (something I call ‘sacred landscapes’). I also hope to offer an innovative approach to the study of the indigenous institutions of the Horn of Africa, a topic currently very little understood in either anthropology or archaeology. I use a multidisciplinary approach to give a holistic perspective on the material culture, rituals and the landscapes of these beliefs. Some of the discoveries I present in this book can directly benefit the practice of both archaeology and anthropology by providing a new methodology, that of the Ritual Set. Other findings have implications for scientific and medical research, for example that about the butterfly bush (rotheca myricoides).

I hope that this book will also promote peace and security in the Horn of Africa because by understanding our past and common shared heritage we can learn to better understand each other. In other words, if we can accept that our ancestors were different from us then we may also be able to accept that our present-day neighbours are different from us. Hence by exploring the history and cultures of the Horn of Africa and by identifying sacred fertility and the common ideas of peace (nagi), this work can help bring people together in a region that in the past four decades has been beset by so many nationalist and religious inspired wars. Also, by exploring the multireligious past of any society it becomes possible to discover ideological connections that existed in the past but which have now disappeared. In short, this book will hopefully be of great interest not just to academics, intellectuals, students, local communities and health professionals but to cultural diplomacy and policy as well.

African Archaeology appears, currently, to make little use of any anthropological research into the issue of rituals in the past and carries out even less of its own anthropological research into this topic in contemporary society. Often anthropologists do not speak the local languages, and this limits their understanding of how rituals are described and enacted. Archaeology in the Horn of Africa is no different, as there is presently no study that explores either the complicated relationship between the ritual systems and practices of Sufi Islam and local traditional religions or how these relate to, and impact, the local archaeological heritage. The Knowledge-Centred Approach looks at the transmission of the non-material part of knowledge and in this way can reveal that the material object is often not nearly as significant as the steps associated with the ritual and its performance. The relationship between fertility, ideology, kinship and the widespread belief in the Sky-God has much to say about the indigenous practices and ritual systems of religions. It is my hope that this work will assist others by acting as a springboard for further research.

Structure

This first chapter discusses the topics, concepts, terminology and historical and geographical scope of this book. It presents the theoretical problems raised by this study and introduces some of the arguments relevant to the cultural traditions out of which grew some of the prominent archaeological sites of the Horn of Africa and demonstrates how they may be potentially linked ideologically. It explores the perceptions, practices and problems inherent in the approaches so often adopted by those who study these topics. It emphasises the need to study the historical significance and the symbolism of pre-Islamic religious heritage, indigenous religious systems in this region and the relevance of a transdisciplinary approach which combines the archaeological data with case-specific oral history and ethnographic participant observation, history and historical linguistic material. It advances the need for a new theoretical framework within which to study pre-Islamic and pre-Christian ritual material culture in the Horn of Africa.

Chapter Two introduces notions of sacred landscapes and fertility rituals to the archaeology of the Somali region. It describes the site of Aw-Barkhadle with its complex political and historical characteristics. It sets out the site’s challenges: narratives, contestations, kinship, outcasts, myths and gender issues. The chapter builds a theoretical framework within which the archaeology of the Horn of Africa in general, and the site of Aw-Barkhadle in particular, become central to the understanding of these challenges.

Chapter Three analyses the rituals, archaeological and landscape features, and ritual space, in relation to activities observed at the site of Aw-Barkhadle. The chapter discusses the authority of Saint Aw-Barkhadle (Sheikh Sharif Yusuf Al-Kawnayn) in Sufi Islam in Somali society, as well as the Somali myth of ‘Origin’. It also introduces the legend of Bu‘ur Ba‘ayr and what are considered by some of the people I interviewed to be pre-Islamic practices at Aw-Barkhadle and at the sacred Bu‘ur Ba‘ayr Hill too. It analyses the significance of both the pre-Islamic religious figures and the practices credited to them in terms of the rituals taking place in the surrounding landscape. I focus on fertility rituals and ritually significant archaeological features such as tombs, megalithic burials, stones, shrines and hilltops. I introduce the phallic stones I discovered during my research and discuss their probable link to ideas of fertility and its symbolism. I introduce another discovery, a gravestone standing in situ, which remarkably carries a carving of a Coptic cross that is similar to the ones that appear on fourth–sixth century Aksumite coins and tombs. This stele lends further credence to the multireligious significance of the site. The chapter also explores the potential relationship between these features and non-/pre-Islamic and non-/pre-Christian religion at the site by investigating the historical legends of the alleged pre-Islamic figure, Bu‘ur Ba‘ayr, that are associated with this landscape. A knowledge of the female rituals, I argue, will enhance an understanding of the archaeological landscape at Aw-Barkhadle and of kinship ideology as a whole. Using these rituals as data importantly sheds light on the possible continuity of ritual use within this landscape. In addition, some stelae at this site might link with ancient astrology and the rain-making practices potentially associated with this site, an association that future excavations may elucidate.

Chapter 4 contextualises the female fertility practices noted at Aw-Barkhadle by placing them within the broader fertility practices in Somali society. A number of rituals are explored: infertility treatment or baanashada dumarka, the Siti ceremony, the wagar ritual, the fertility bath, zar (spirit possessions), the istunka (stick fight) and gudniin (female circumcision). Some of these practices have never been studied before while others have not been studied in depth or considered within the wider context of Somali female practices. New anthropological research into these rituals offers a fresh perspective by investigating these practices from the viewpoint of fertility. For example, I examine zar in terms of women’s need for the treatment and how the zar itself is related to the baanashada dumarka (an infertility treatment which involves the use of medicinal plants). This leads into a discussion of zar as part of the pre-Islamic and pre-Christian ritual systems of Northeast Africa and how it may even in ancient times have signified the Sky-God. I also discuss ritual celebrations of womanhood through the Siti commemoration of Eve and Fatima and the female veneration of female religious ancestors. The text explores the relationship between ancestral worship and the notion of sacred fertility. It investigates both the women’s use of the wagar, a wooden anthropomorphic sculpture used for fertility purposes, and its relationship with the site of Aw-Barkhadle and child protection. It suggests that the wagar may be a depiction of the Sky-God, worshiped in this region before Saint Aw-Barkhadle arrived. The Sky-God belief was one of the pre-Islamic beliefs of the Cushitic speaking peoples in this region and it is even today followed by many Eastern Cushitic speaking communities. The origin of the practice of gudniin/female circumcision (also known as Pharaonic circumcision) in the Horn of Africa, where many believe it originated, is discussed and a possible association is drawn between its ritual aspects, fertility rituals and what I call a ‘divine¹ kinship’. I argue that its origin is not to be found in the relationship between men and women, as is so often suggested, but instead with practices originally intended as forms of sacrifice. I suggest that gudniin/female circumcision may have been a medium through which to gain sacred fertility via the sacrifice of the profane for the sacred, in other words, via a sacrificial transaction between the divine and the human, in extension of the righteous blood.

Chapter Five analyses the broader shared foundations of the Horn of Africa in general, and of the modern-day Cushitic speaking society in particular. It does so in the light of the possible continuity of the fertility rituals described in the preceding chapter. It explores the triadic relationship between the symbolism of materials, rituals and landscape as demonstrated through the cultural heritage of Aw-Barkhadle. In doing so, it sheds light on the potential non-/pre-Islamic and non-/pre-Christian religions and beliefs represented at the site. Without losing its critical cultural perspective, it focuses on the relationship between Sufism, the origin of the Somali people and the indigenous institutions of the Horn of Africa. It also compares relevant practices in parts of Southern Arabia (the Red Sea region). Within this context, it examines the idea of continuity of indigenous practices including those relating to the ritual hunt, ancestral worship, saint veneration and sacrifice for fertility. It reveals the amalgamation of Islamic Sufi rituals with pre-existing wider Horn of Africa practices such as the Sky-God belief as well as Christian rituals. The chapter explores, by way of example, different Eastern Cushitic groups and their practices involving fertility as it relates to sacred trees, water sources and stones (including phallic stones) and discovers that the Somali data are best understood when set against their Cushitic background. In maintaining this, I am not saying that any one trait on its own has any fixed correlation to ethnic identity. Instead, I use the term Cushitic in this context because these Eastern Cushitic speaking peoples share many of the characteristics I have identified from my own linguistic and field observations.

Chapter Six discusses what I call a fertility ideology and the notion of divine kinship within the societies of the Horn of Africa and explores the implications of its rituals and practices for the archaeological heritage of this area. It contextualises the case of Aw-Barkhadle within the archaeology of the region as a whole by using anthropological and ethno-historical records to analyse further the data from that site. To do this, I construct a locally contextualised framework which I call a Ritual Set (Chapter 6, Tables 6.1a-c). The Ritual Set is a model consisting of the materials I saw used in the rituals. Its aim is to serve as a springboard for further research into the study of religious symbolism and ritual material heritage in the Northeast Africa. This chapter also demonstrates the use of the Ritual Set by applying its methodology to the decorated cemetery site of Tiya in Ethiopia. I suggest that the Ritual Set be applied to the regional Horn of Africa archaeology of the last 2000 years. I interpret the Aksumite and Lalibela sites from the perspectives of the sacred landscapes and the regional continuities of a wider shared indigenous belief, perspectives that extend beyond Christianity.

In its concluding chapter, the book restates the importance of fertility rituals and their symbolism. Their study can illuminate archaeological and anthropological material culture. It is the underlying indigenous concepts and ideologies that sustain and bind together these societies across geography and religion.

Concepts, terminology and the movement of peoples and ideas

Some of the concepts and terms used in this book need to be explained and placed within the context of the movement of peoples, cultures and religions over time.

The Horn of Africa

The ‘Horn of Africa’ refers not only to the Somali peninsula but also to Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Djibouti. I will focus on Somali and Ethiopian sites (Figure 1.1 and Figure 1.2). However, the Horn of Africa also has historical links with neighboring present-day Sudan, Egypt and the adjacent regions of South Arabia and Hadramaut. These regions were at various points in prehistory and history ruled by local empires which expanded their powers in one direction or the other. I have learnt, however, that certain elements, such as the fertility rituals, are fundamental across the region which, despite certain variations, continue to bind the past to the present.

Christianity, Islam and the Cushitic institutions

The religious concepts identified in this book are Christianity, Islam and Indigenous Institutions, or ‘Cushitic² Institutions’, according to earlier ethnographers. My use of the latter term is based on my understanding of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• About this book
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• A note on transliteration
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: Aims, structure, concepts, terminology, the movement of peoples and ideas
• 2 Sacred landscapes, materiality and fertility rituals
• 3 Material culture, fertility and sacrifice at the sacred landscape of Aw-Barkhadle
• 4 In the name of divine kinship: The fertility bath, Bun Shuruur (Coffee ceremony), Baanashada Dumarka (Nurturing of women), Zar, Sitaat, Wagar, Gudniin Fircooni (FGM), Waqlaal (Child naming ritual) and Istunka (Stick fight)
• 5 In the name of divine fertility: Indigenous institutions and Sufi Islam in the Horn of Africa
• 6 An ideology of fertility in the archaeology of the Horn of Africa: Aw-Barkhadle and beyond
• 7 Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Appendix 1. Saint Aw-Barkhadle’s genealogy
• Appendix 2. The list of sheikhs and sheikhas buried at Aw-Barkhadle
• Appendix 3. Glossary
• Index