Dorhosie Zorhogo, the iron that hunts sorcerers

Zorhogo

Source term: Zorhogo (fetisher: Zorhodaria)

The Zorhogo is not the voice of a god; it is the god - 'in itself a flat piece of iron' whirled on a string, living in a little sacred wood outside the village. Its society hunts the disturbers of order: murderers, thieves, adulterers, and above all the sorcerers who eat souls. When the iron screams in the night the sorcerers bolt for their huts, while the Zorhodaria, its keeper, strolls his round of the village unmasked, in everyday dress. The uninitiated may never see it, but girls as well as boys could be initiated. Each December or January the chief of Loti summoned the surrounding villages to send their boys and girls, who arrived at dusk carrying a chicken apiece. After sacrifices and sacred water, a little iron roarer no more than twelve centimetres long was sounded to terrify them, and then shown to them. They danced all night, and at dawn each was scarred with a double chevron: men on the right arm, women on the left.

Le Zorhogo réside dans un petit bois sacré en dehors du village et est en lui-même un morceau de fer plat qu'on fait tournoyer au bout d'une ficelle. Quand les sorciers malfaisants entendent ce bruit strident, terrible pour eux, ils se réfugient dans leurs cases.

The Zorhogo resides in a small sacred wood outside the village and is in itself a flat piece of iron that is whirled at the end of a string. When the evil sorcerers hear this strident noise, terrible for them, they take refuge in their huts.

Louis Tauxier, 'Les Dorhosié et Dorhosié-Finng du cercle de Bobo-Dioulasso,' Journal de la Société des Africanistes 1 (1931), p. 84

Particulars

Object

A flat plaque of forged iron whirled on a string. Tauxier's grammar is exact: the Zorhogo 'est en lui-même un morceau de fer plat' - the instrument is not the god's voice, it is the god. It resides in a small sacred wood outside the village. At the annual initiation at Loti it is a small iron bullroarer no more than about twelve centimetres long.

Function

Instrument of an anti-witchcraft society that pursues the disturbers of public order - murderers, thieves, adulterers, and the sorcerers who eat souls. Its strident sound, terrible to sorcerers, drives them into their huts while the Zorhodaria walks a night circuit of the village unmasked and in ordinary dress. Forbidden to the uninitiated; at the yearly December-January initiation at Loti, boys and girls are frightened with it, then shown it, and marked with a double chevron.