TAUXIER1931-002 - ethnographic attestation
Dorhosie-Finng and Dorhosie du nord (Dogose)
Burkina Faso - Cercle de Bobo-Dioulasso, former Haute-Volta - French Sudan - West Africa
Restricted
Zorhogo fr
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. Women, children and the uninitiated may never see it.
Le Zorhogo reside dans un petit bois sacre en dehors du village et est en lui-meme 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 refugient 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 Dorhosie et Dorhosie-Finng du cercle de Bobo-Dioulasso,' Journal de la Societe des Africanistes 1 (1931), printed p. 84
- Object
- A flat plaque of forged iron whirled on a string. Tauxier's grammar is exact: the Zorhogo 'est en lui-meme 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.
- 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 women, children and the uninitiated.
- Map confidence
- medium - Cercle de Bobo-Dioulasso anchor; no separate locality is derivable for the northern group, so one dot carries both peoples.
- Source location
Page references
printed p. 84 (folio '84' and running head verified on the rendered Persee page)
- Spirit voice
- Initiation rite
- Forbidden to women