Bongo rain-post

103 x 75 mm | Print gelatin silver

There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.343.31.1 - Negative film nitrate , (103 x 75 mm)

Condition:

Silver sulphide staining/?fading [EE 1989]

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.B.35

Previous Other Number:

66 5

Accession Number:

1998.343.31.2

Description:

A long wooden rain-post (riyak) with maize heads and medicines attached, stuck into the ground under a large nilotic shea-butter tree, Vitellaria paradoxa ssp. nilotica, a slow-growing hardwood fruit tree indigenous to northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. During drought this post was the focus for rain-making rituals involving the sprinkling of durra (Sorghum bicolor) over an assembled crowd by a rain-maker (biriak).

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1929 March

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Warab/Western Bahr El Ghazal Wau-Tonj Road

Group:

Bongo

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Ritual , Ritual Object

Keyword:

Public Space , Shrine

Primary Documentation:

PRM Accession Records - Accession Book Entry [p. 98] 1966.27 [1 - 24] G[ift] PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - 1966.27.19 - S. SUDAN, DARFUNG. VARIOUS TRIBES. Box of negatives in envelopes, [1 - 242] & 1966.27.20 - Box of prints of these negatives [refers to object 1966.27.19] [1 - 242], in envelopes.

Notes on print/mount - "66/5"

Notes on card mount m/s pencil - "SSS overall/fading? 8.89"

Other Information:

In "The Bongo" (Sudan Notes and Records Vol.XII Part I 1929 page 26) E. E. Evans-Pritchard notes that 'there is one of these shrines on the Wau road under a butter-tree, and hanging on it are some maize heads and some fruits of mapiang medicine. The post is called riyak and the officiator in the rain-ceremony is called biriak.' [Chris Morton 16/1/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton 16/1/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]