the forest of symbols aspects of ndembu ritual

When afflicted, an individual required a complex ritual, the mode of which was determined by the consideration of symptoms and by divination. The spirit 'caught' a living relative in the first place because he or she had not honored the spirit's memory. Wu-bwang ʾu and Ihamba afflictions still exist today.

Thus the spirit might 'come out in Nkula,' the mode of menstrual troubles Wubwang ʾu, the mode of twins Isoma, the miscarriage mode Ihamba, a spirit tooth wandering in the patient's body, needing ritual extraction Wuyang ʾa, the mode for hunters Tukuka, the mode of Western diseases or Chihamba, the mode of the demigod of thunder. Cults of AfflictionĪmong the Ndembu, affliction was seen as having a spiritual cause: the spirit of a dead matrilineal relative (mukishi) afflicted a living descendant, 'coming out' in a range of different modes of spirit visitation. In this conflict-torn society, cult associations formerly had a great unifying power, calling together members from many different kinship groups to cooperate in rituals that gave moments of spiritual revelation, which in turn resolved conflicts and healed illness. Although their descent system is matrilineal, women leave home to marry into their husbands' villages, a system that sets up social tensions and, before the advent of Christianity, used to result in a high divorce rate. The Ndembu, also called the Lunda, number about sixty thousand and inhabit small villages in the district of Mwinilunga in the northwestern province of Zambia.

The forest of symbols aspects of ndembu ritual