Morokodo medicine-man

103 x 75 mm | Negative film nitrate

There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.345.16.2 - Print gelatin silver , (103 x 75 mm)
1998.345.16.3 - Print gelatin silver , (103 x 75 mm)

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.M.16

Previous Other Number:

VII 11; handlist no. 275

Accession Number:

1998.345.16.1

Description:

A full length portrait of two men dressed in European shirts. The one to the left holding a spear and stick is identified as a Morokodo medicine-man or odraba whose activities had been suppressed by the local mission or administration, presumably at Amadi. The other man, holding a bow and some arrows, is identified as a Moro man. The identification and description of medicine-men and rain-makers among different groups was an explicit direction given to Evans-Pritchard by C. G. Seligman in compiling the ethnographic survey of the southern Sudan.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1927

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Amadi District

Group:

Morokodo Moro

NamedPerson:

Morokodo odraba

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Weapon , Religion , Physical Anthropology

Keyword:

Bow , Arrow , Spear

Documentation:

Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]

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.

Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Moro"] - 275. rain-maker

Note on negative ms ink - "VII 11"

Other Information:

Although the print reverse for the second print of this image identifies it as 275 on the handlist which states 'rain-maker', I am inclined to go with the information on the reverse of older print which identifies this man as a Morokodo medicine-man. Since the Morokodo did not have rain-makers of the Mbori (or Moro Bori) clan, but odraba (medicine-men), this information seems to tally. Further confirmation comes on page 485 of C.G. and B.Z. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (Routledge 1932) where they state that '[t]he odraba seen by Professor Evans-Pritchard owed his power to medicine which had come into the family five generations ago, since when it had been passed from father to son until the last generation, when a sister's son, who would otherwise have died, was cured and learned to become an odraba ... information was however hard to obtain, owing to the usual difficulties between medicine men and Government.' This last piece of information also matches E-P's note that this medicine-man had been 'squashed' by the mission. [Chris Morton 3/3/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton 3/3/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]