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.g.16

Accession Number:

1967.26.220

Description:

An old grind stone containing a number of rain-making stones, marking the grave of the Bari rain-maker Jada, the great-grandfather of Ali Bey, the rain-maker met by the Seligmans in 1922. The grindstone contained four stones, one perforated, which they arranged on the side of the grindstone to photograph. They note that this grave was at the foot of Belinian hill, and that should rain fail and ceremonies at more recent rain-makers' graves not prove effective, then a ceremony would also be carried out at the grave of Jada.

Photographer:

Charles Gabriel Seligman

Date of Photo:

1922 January

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.g.16 Bari grave."

Note on lantern slide ms ink - "V.g.16 Bari grave. CGS."

Other Information:

In C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932), page 285, they note that 'There was no feiti or gili marking the grave of Jada, but the piece of dried euphorbia stem was said to mark the head of the grave, while near it was the grindstone containing four stones...We were allowed to examine these and arrange them on the edge of the grindstone to be photographed. They consisted of half a bored spheroidal stone of considerable size, resembling a bushman's digging-stick weight, an artificially bored stone, an irregular mass of quartz with crystals springing from the matrix, and a pebble of a material we did not recognize...A good many of the stones round the grave of Jada were no doubt salese, and we were repeatedly assured that it was here at the foot of Belinian hill that the rain ceremony was performed as a last resource.' The genealogy of Belinian rainmakers of the village of Ali Bey or Mögiri, in which Jada is mentioned, is found on page 249 of Pagan Tribes. [Chris Morton 19/10/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton [19/10/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]