Bari rain-maker's grave

82 x 82 mm | Lantern slide glass

MountDimension:

82 x 82 mm

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous Other Number:

V.e.20

Accession Number:

1967.26.170

Description:

An old grind stone containing pieces of quartz and with old cooking stones nearby, marking the grave of the Belinian rain-maker's father. Next to the grave is an ebony post (feiti) which was notched near the top, a common feature of Bari graves. It is noted that the sacrifice for rain was undoubtedly carried out at this grave-shrine, when the rain stones held by the rain-maker were brought here to be anointed as part of a ceremony. The Seligmans carried out investigations among the Bari of Belinian and Ali Bey in Jan 1922, before moving south to the Torit area among the Lotuko-speaking people there.

Photographer:

Charles Gabriel Seligman

Date of Photo:

1922 Jan

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Bahr el Jebel Belinian

Group:

Bari

PRM Source:

London School of Economics and Political Science

Acquired:

Donated 1967

Other Owners:

C. G. Seligman slide collection

Class:

Death , Religion , Tool

Keyword:

Grave , Grave Marker , Grinder

Documentation:

Manual Catalogue in Related Documents File

Primary Documentation:

Accession Book Entry - [1967.26] THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, HOUGHTON STREET, ALDWYCH, LONDON, W.C.E. PER MR ANTHONY FORGE - SUDAN. Box containing 309 lantern slides (3 1/4” x 3 1/4”) made from photographs taken by the late Professor C. G. SELIGMAN in various parts of the SUDAN. All slides numbered and labelled. Catalogue in file (“Seligman Slide Collection”). Additional Accession Book Entry - [in pencil] 18 Parks Rd.

Manual catalogue entry (thermofax catalogue copy in folder '27-06 Seligman Slide Collection') - "V.e.20 Bari grave."

Note on lantern slide ms ink - "V.e.20. Bari grave. CGS."

Other Information:

The same grave (although not from this image) is reproduced as a line drawing (Fig. 19) in C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932), page 284, with the caption "Fig. 19. Belinian, rain-maker's grave". On p.285 they note that 'The sacrifice for rain undoubtedly took place at the grave of the rain-maker's father. Fig. 19 shows the shrine as it appeared early in 1922, with its feiti of unusual height. Round the grindstone is a considerable number of other stones all said to be old cooking stones (salese), and the usual groups of three of these can be made out in the foreground. It was noted that the grass had not been allowed to grow rank in the immediate vicinity of the grave. The quartz fragments in the hollow of the large stone were rough and angular, except for one pebble the size of a small hen's egg. It is to be presumed that the rain-stones from the rain-maker's hut were brought here at the time of the ceremony, which consisted of sacrificing a black goat or other animal and washing and anointing the stones in the manner already described.' [Chris Morton 14/10/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton [14/10/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]