Azande Baby ‘Rites of Passage’: Personhood by Degrees

Stephen David Siemens (California State University, Northridge) Azande Baby ‘Rites of Passage’: Personhood by Degrees Presented at the Third Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association Childhood and Youth Interest Group February 23, 2012 2:15PM Royal Pavilion, Riviera Hotel Las Vegas, Nevada Symposium: The Cultural Construction of Identity: How Children Become Persons, Part I David Lancy, Organizer and Chair Abstract: Azande babies receive indicators of personhood from the midwives that delivered them in a gradual process that has public rituals at key points. My fieldwork in Southern Sudan included 19 months of participant observation in a rural community during 1984-‐85. Azande seclude mothers and babies until a public ‘rite of passage’ that identifies the baby’s minimal attributes of personhood. Azande ‘rites of passage’ intervene to bring helpless babies into society as minimal persons. Azande babies receive gender, kinship and ranking among peers in the first ‘rite of passage.’ Azande babies then enter a stage that is less liminal than seclusion but is still restricted. At first the baby is referred to with the animal pronoun as less than a real person. A human pronoun comes from the baby’s recognized resemblance to a particular person in the baby’s ancestry. About four months after the first ritual, the midwife makes the baby presentable in public and identifies the baby as transportable, in a second ritual. An Azande midwife compared a baby ritual to mourning. Both intervene to instill personhood and both are controlled by old women. Azande in Kampala still perform baby rituals, modifying them for urban dwellings and medical midwives.

[Show Title Slide}

Throughout their lives Azande vary in degrees of personhood (cf. Fortes 1973:295) as

expressed by their presentations of themselves to others. Personhood combines relations

to kin, to peers, to the opposite sex, to affines and to the land. Personhood is evident in an

individual’s appearance, terms by which a person is referred, territorial locations,

individual and social abilities, and mortuary rituals. Some of the attributes of personhood

are conferred and demonstrated in ‘rites of passage’ while others happen at less public

transitions. Old Azande women are the most concerned with conferring abilities of social

interaction on babies as well as re-‐conferring them on bereaved mourners, gradually

restoring their personhood.

[Show Slide 2]

The midwife that delivers a baby bestows the first essential attributes of Azande

personhood in a ritual called ‘bringing out a child’ (ka kusa gude). The ritual ends the

baby’s seclusion period in a hut with its mother. The midwife will later confer more

abilities on the baby at a ritual called ‘decorating the child’ (ka fonga gude) making the baby

socially presentable.1 I consider gradual interventions helping a powerless person, to be a

theme of Azande culture transmitted by women.

[Show Slide 3 Map of Zandeland]

I observed Azande baby rituals in South Sudan2 in 1984 and 1985 during nineteen

months of participant observation in a rural community that I call Ringbi, near the border

with Democratic Republic of Congo3.

Midwives were expert informants for my field research since they directed the

proceedings for babies. Azande in diaspora use the baby rituals to maintain Azande identity

in an urban setting (Siemens 2010), adding another layer of meaning to Azande

personhood.4

[Show Slide 4 Burials]

Funerals of Azande babies demonstrate a range of low degrees of personhood. 5 Not

all births are successful. Even though a birth may not result in a live baby it still results in a

burial. A still-‐born child has even less recognition as a person than one that was born alive

and was secluded in a hut.6 The funeral of a still-‐born fetus demonstrates the non-‐person

condition. The funeral lacks the features of adult funerals. Awaiting burial, the corpse is

kept in a house instead of displayed under a granary. There is no drumming announcing

the funeral. There are few people in attendance. Attendees do not sing or cry. The funeral

lacks a meal. The parents do not mourn formally. Affines are not required to bury the

corpse.

[Show Slide 5 baby grave construction]

Quite unlike adult funerals, the dead baby is encouraged to return to the mother by

a strand of grass attached to the wrist and left emergent from the top of the grave. The

mother expresses milk on the strand to bring the baby back.

Upon live birth, the baby is washed.7 The midwife ties strings of cloth on the neck,

waist, wrists and ankles.

The baby is also equipped with a designated cloth, sura. Sura may be derived from the verb

‘to cover.’ The strings and cloth items signify a liminal condition and they are removed

months later at the second baby ritual of ‘decorating the child.’ The strings are symbolic of

the umbilical cord and disposed of in the same special way. While the umbilical cord is

attached, the baby and mother are secluded in a hut, which they entered soon after birth.

The umbilical cord is an attribute of the baby that is not consistent with personhood.8

[Show Slide 6 Baby Strings]

The strings are like ropes which indicate mourning condition in adults. A mourning

adult may wear a rope around the waist but may not wear jewelry.9 The word for mourning

giro may derive from gire which means ‘rope’ or ‘string.’10 Both babies and mourners are

subject to rules and restrictions that limit their personhood.11

[Show Slide 7 Hut Seclusion]

After washing the newborn and applying strings midwives take the baby into the

mother’s hut. The baby and mother should remain inside together for about a week. The

hut represents the womb.12 The hut is marked as a seclusion hut by an arch of elephant

grass13 as a warning to possible visitors. People who have had sex the previous night and

menstruating women would endanger the child and mother by entering the hut. When a

baby is born it is a ‘fragile child’ (kpedakpeda gude). It remains fragile for about a month,

which is longer than the time in the hut. During my fieldwork the animal pronoun (ru) was

used on babies for at least the first month.14

[Show Slide 8 Baby Attributes]

Azande thwart birth symbolically only to re-‐enact birth, under greater control by

the midwife, in a social context. Upon birth the Azande supply the baby with a symbolic

womb, the seclusion hut, and a symbolic umbilical cord, the strings, and a symbolic

placenta, the cloth. These are not indicative of personhood. A baby becomes a person by

losing the umbilical cord, hut, and strings & cloth, in that order. See Figure 1.

The period of hut seclusion for the baby has two markers, the seclusion hut and the

umbilical cord. The baby is ‘unripe’ (iwo) while the umbilical cord attached. The umbilical

cord is washed daily with water, which has special plants in it.15 The treatment probably

makes the cord fall off sooner.

When the umbilical cord falls off, the greatest danger is over and the father can

prepare for the ritual of ‘bringing the child out of the hut.’ The umbilical cord of a boy

should be placed in the hole of a predatory species of ant to make the boy a fierce warrior.

The umbilical cord of a girl should be placed in a swampy place to cool her temperament

and thus become a submissive wife. Later the parents will dispose of the strings the same

way, after they are removed in the second ritual. Ferocity and docility are gendered

aspects of personhood being conferred by the disposal of the cords. Azande in Kampala

send umbilical cords of their babies to Zandeland in Sudan for proper disposal. The cord

establishes Azande identity of the child and links it to Azande territory (cf. Aijmer

1992:6).1617

The baby’s unpredictable physical birth was not a social birth. Social birth is enacted

by the ritual when the midwife ‘brings out the child.’ The ritual of ‘bringing out a child’

requires preparation of food to feed attendees (mainly relatives and neighbors) and time to

gather special woods to make medicinal smoke.

[Show Slide 9 Natika-‐Mary holding baby over leaves]

‘Bringing out the child’ happens at about 9AM. In the past the ritual was much

earlier, just before dawn, the hour when ancestor spirits are around.18 The midwife and the

assistant midwife make a smoky fire in front of the threshold of the seclusion hut.

The smoke is effective because it comes from special medicinal/magical species.19

The midwife goes into the hut and carries the baby out through the door head first,

reenacting the birth.

[Show Slide 10 Holding Baby in Smoke]

The midwife holds the baby in the smoke keeping her hands under the baby to

monitor the temperature. Meanwhile the mother squats at the threshold facing out of the

house and directs the smoke to her crotch for its healing properties. The mother does not

touch the baby while it is held in the smoke. The ritual separates mother and baby but does

not establish a relationship between them.

[Show Slide 11 Magical Wood]

The smoke conveys properties of strength, good smell and self-‐defense to the baby.

Each property comes from a particular kind of tree used to make the smoke. The baby’s

condition changes when the midwife brings it out of the hut. It had been ‘weak’ (rungbura),

it had a bad smell20 (zẽzẽzẽ) and it was vulnerable: conditions not compatible with

personhood, which the ritual aimed to correct. The baby shows it has had enough smoke

by urinating. Azande midwives are sensitive to the actions of the baby as an agent.

[Show Slide 12 Jumping Child]

Next, a child of the same sex as the baby jumps out of the hut, carrying a tray of food

over the baby. As the child runs, people switch the child. The leaping child is the first public

recognition of the sex of the baby. Only older children can do this feat. The child should be

clever. The jumping child gives the baby ‘bravery’ (ngara). ‘Bravery’ is the opposite of

‘laziness’ (mungo) which needs to be prevented. Azande want attentive babies who are

outgoing. The scale from ‘laziness’ to ‘bravery’ is comparable to an APGAR rating. ‘Laziness’

can be deadly.21 ‘Brave’ versus ‘lazy’ is the dichotomy of concern to the Azande caregivers.

The leap of the same-‐sex child establishes the baby as a member of the boy’s or girl’s

cohort at an inferior position.22

[Show Slide 13 Baby on Courtyard Ridge]

The midwife places the baby on a courtyard ridge after the child leaped over the

baby. This is the first time for the baby to see the world.23 The midwife or her assistant

prepares the spot to be gentle for the baby. The midwife confers the ability to be at the

courtyard ridge and no further. The baby is no longer secluded in the hut and can safely be

seen by sexually active people, but the baby is still confined to the homestead until about

fourth months later when the midwife decorates the baby.24

[Show Slide 14 Urban Adjustments]

Azande in Kampala city live in walled compounds so they place the baby next to the

wall. In Yambio town, next to a fence.

Some relative of the parents picks up the baby from the ground within seconds. The

person is someone the baby would call ‘my mother’ (nina) or ‘my father’ (buba).25 The

need to introduce the baby to its mothers and fathers is one goal of ‘bringing out a child.’

[Slide 15 Young women admire baby boy]

Adults of the opposite sex admire the baby and jokingly refer to it as ‘my husband’

for a boy and ‘my wife’ for a girl.26 Adults acknowledge the baby’s sex for the first time.

Sexual identity is a basic attribute of personhood and is demonstrated in the construction

of every grave.27

[Slide 16 Children Eating]

When everyone who wants has used the smoke,28 guests are fed in commensal

groups formed by cohorts. Most honored are the midwife and old women who are served

inside a hut. Young women eat outside as group. Men also eat as a separate group. Children

eat the food carried over the baby while sitting on a path leading from the homestead.29 In

Kampala children ate at the driveway gate. Their food is traditional Azande foods: porridge

(bakinde) and peanut and cassava leaf sauce (gaadia). The Azande identity is being

impressed on the children in addition to the baby in Kampala.

If a baby has been ritually been ‘brought out’ of the house and dies before the ritual

of decoration, then the baby’s funeral is considerably more elaborate than the funeral of a

stillborn child.30 The baby’s corpse is washed. There is a lot of crying. People are fed a meal.

‘In-‐laws’ do the burial. However, the funeral still lacks a public announcement by

drumming and the dead body is not displayed under a granary but in a house and in a

kitchen.

[Slide 17 Homestead Confined Babies]

After a baby is ‘brought out’ it can be around the courtyard but no farther. The

mother does not yet have the power to hold the baby on her hip or in a sling. The mother

may leave the courtyard but she does not take her baby with her. She must arrange for a

babysitter in her absence. Mothers are eager to have the next ritual of ‘decorating the baby’

(fonga gude) which empowers the baby to travel on her hip. Fathers usually seek to delay

the ritual because it involves the largest payment to the midwife.

While the baby is confined to the homestead, the baby’s growth is demonstrated by

the cloth strings tied on the neck, wrists, waist, and ankles.

After a baby is brought out of the house, people continue to refer to it with the

nonhuman animal pronoun (ru-‐ accusative case). During confinement to the home, the

baby becomes a fogogude ‘delicate child’ rather than a ‘fragile child’ (kpedakpeda gude).

The term fogo is also applied to the sets on pumpkin vines.31 Only after the baby shows

some resemblance to a particular relative are human pronouns required rather than

animal pronouns. Azande recognize a resemblance between a baby and a particular relative

after about a month.

A resemblance between the baby and a relative could inspire the child’s name.

Common names identify a child with a relative of a parent. For example Baako ‘his father’

identifies a boy with his father’s father. Naako ‘his mother’ identifies a girl with her

father’s mother.32 The child is not the same person but merely has the same ‘shape’ (kpia).

Once a resemblance is established the baby is considered a ‘perceivable baby’

(ngbaimongbaimogude) (cf. Siemens 1990:403) and not longer receives the animal

pronoun. Each Azande person resembles some other Azande person.

A father has the authority to name a baby but if the name does not catch on, he will

try again (cf. Baxter and Butt 1953:72). Naming happens through several months of social

negotiation and it is not marked in ritual.33

After about four months the midwife will conduct the ceremony of ‘decorating the

baby’ (fonga gude) either at her own homestead or the baby’s home.34 If the ritual is at the

midwife’s home it is the first time for the baby to travel. The gifts for the midwife include

meat, flour, liquor and a cock or hen: another signifier of the baby’s sex.

The event starts with the midwife and her assistant removing the baby’s cloth strings. The

midwife instructs the parents to dispose of the strings just as the umbilical cord was

disposed: promoting warrior qualities in a boy and submissive qualities in a girl.

[Slide 18 Decorated Babies]

After removing the strings, the midwife places a necklace of beads on the baby and

may place a string of beads on the baby’s waist.35 A midwife compared decorating a baby to

when mourners don jewelry to end their mourning. When babies are decorated and

mourners end mourning, they gain the power of attractive self presentation, necessary for

normal personhood. Both make the transition in rituals led by mature women.

The parents give the midwife the baby’s special cloth.36 The midwife holds the baby

on her hip conferring the power to ride on a hip or in a sling.

[Slide 19 Sitting Babies not delicate]

The midwife also encourages the baby to sit up on a prepared spot for the first time

and blesses it saying the baby should walk soon. The babies I saw getting decorated could

not sit. “Once a baby sits it is no longer 'delicate' but rather a 'sitting baby,' sungusungu gude”

(Siemens 1990:366).37

A baby which has been decorated can travel on a woman’s hip or in a sling. The child

can meet a wider range of people. The baby has become attractive with decorations instead

of the cloth strings. The mother can take the baby with her in her activities such as

cultivation. The mother carries the baby on her hip and the baby can meet nonrelatives.

The baby is carried on the hip until it can walk.38

The funeral of a baby that has been decorated is nearly a complete adult funeral. The

death is announced by drums and the baby’s body is displayed under the granary. There is crying

and singing. A decorated baby is more of a person than one that was not decorated.39

The midwife will receive a dress or cloth when the baby walks. At that time the

parents resume sex (cf. Baxter and Butt (1953:72). Parental sex before their baby can walk

is considered to be deadly to the baby, (cf. Gottlieb 1990).

I do not know how much of what I observed is still performed. Azande in Kampala

were glad to receive my dissertation and find out the ‘right way’ to bring out a baby.

Baby rituals have increased; the baby rituals I know of from afar seem larger than in

my time in the field (1984-‐1985). Part of the increased importance of Azande baby rituals

is the result of the inclusion of Azande women in public life.40

[Slide 20 Church is Claiming Role]

The church is interested in officiating at baby rituals. No doubt the church wants to

add additional aspects to Azande personhood. The church had a monopoly on Christian

names during my fieldwork. Christianity is becoming a part of Azande personhood.41

In summary, personhood of an Azande baby must be gendered and ranked, the

results of bringing the baby out of the hut. Personhood of an Azande baby should be one

that can travel and be adorned, the results of decorating the baby.

Stephen David Siemens (California State University, Northridge) Azande Baby ‘Rites of Passage’: Personhood by Degrees 2-23-2012 Figure 1

Animal pronoun kpedakpedagude

Umbilical Cord

Inside Hut

Bravery

Gendered

Hut Secluded Baby Homestead Confined Baby

Ride on Hip

Jewelry

BRING OUT BBbBabyBABY

DECORATE BABY BIRTH

Strings

Decorated Baby

Inside Courtyard

Child

Inside Mother

In Womb

Funeral No Food Distribution

No Drum Announcement Corpse not Under Granary

Name fogogude

Outside Hut

Funeral Food Distribution

Drum Announcement Corpse Under Granary





1 Further developments, such as teething and walking, have social significance without a corresponding ritual. 2 Then Southern Sudan. 3 Then Zaïre. 4 Many years after my field research, I learned that Azande in Kampala, Uganda recruit non-‐Azande midwives to enact baby rituals if the midwife has delivered the baby of an Azande woman. 5 Elsewhere I showed that the funeral clowning of Azande ‘daughters in-‐law’ (adiagude) demonstrates a high degree of personhood for a deceased adult (Siemens 1994). 6 I observed funerals for babies who had progressed to four different stages of the ‘rites of passage’ for babies before dying. 7 The midwife disposes the placenta by burying it outside the courtyard. “The midwife (or anyone she designates) then buries the placenta. According to the midwives I asked, this is not buried in an "ant hill" as Evans-Pritchard reports (Seligman and Seligman 1932:517). It is rather merely buried somewhere outside the courtyard ridge” (Siemens 1990:341). 8 The dangerous liminal period is one of contradiction rather than lack of definition (Siemens 1987; cf. Turner 1967). 9 Mourners like babies lack normal abilities to interact socially. Like young babies mourners do not wear jewelry demonstrating a lack of personhood. 10 In a curious parallel. The term “religion” may originate in Latin “ligare” which means “binding” indicating a person subject to rules. Mourning is inherently religious. Strings and cords (gire) are Azande signifiers of people in contact with the afterlife. 11 The midwife comparison of babies to mourners shows that mourners are powerlessness like a baby, rather than being under external control. 12 Evans-‐Pritchard (1962:44) identifies the term for womb as bambu gude but does not mention that this means ‘child’s hut.’ 13 Elephant grass had another traditional use, making a funeral bier. Kampala Azande make an arch of elephant grass over the door of their house. 14 I am told that the animal pronoun is not used by Azande in Kampala on their babies. 15 The solution is poured on the umbilical cord through a snail shell funnel that has the tip removed. 16 The meanings of ethnic and territorial identity may have been tacit in the practice in Zandeland or they may be new meanings given by the diasporic identity. 17 A baby who dies after receiving the strings and being placed in the hut has more of a funeral than a stillborn. There is no drum announcement but, in contrast to a stillborn’s funeral, an ‘in-‐law’ buries the body and there is a meal for attendees. 18Natika-Mary: I a ma mbu gu pai mbata i a ni kusi gude ti kina gbegbere wiso. `They stopped the practice of bringing out the baby at just before sunrise (literally "bad morning").’ Gu tihe re i a mbue. I na kusa gude atoro kuru wa ti ni du re. ‘This, they stopped. They bring out a baby when the spirits leave like this morning.' (2-11-85) The change in time is a concession to Christianity, which is enthusiastically practiced by both rural and urban Azande.

19 Bagbodi, ngorondima, and ngbege confer good smell, self-‐defense and strength respectively. Ngbege is also used in an analogous ritual for widows. 20 The smell of babies (zẽzẽzẽ) is the same as the smell of corpses. Without the ritual the smell would persist lifelong. Removing the baby’s odor differentiates the baby from the afterlife where the baby could return. The actions of the Azande parallel Beng of Ivory Coast (Gottlieb 2004). My colleague, Azande Mangeango, confirmed that babies came from the afterlife (Siemens and Mangeango 2006). The baby’s connection to the afterlife was never made explicit by the Azande of my field site who accepted the Christian view of heaven despite the contradiction to earlier Azande thinking. Slaney (1997) reports that Tarahumara separate the baby from the spirit world with smoldering corn cobs. 21 I suspect ‘laziness’ might include cerebral malaria. 22 Same-‐sex siblings are ranked by age which the language indicates in the kinship terms. A newborn boy outranks a girl since it is thought to take longer to gestate according to my male informants and Evans-‐Pritchard (1962). Relative height of seating and posture expresses relative rank for Azande in social contexts. Elders have higher seats. 23 Rural Azande homesteads have a barren courtyard that is ringed by ridge where sweepings accumulate and a few small food crops grow. 24 Azande in Yambio town do not have courtyard ridges but fences between homes. In Yambio they place the baby next to the fence. 25 Kin of Azande babies in Kampala pick them up from next to the compound wall. 26 Evans-‐Pritchard reported men could request the betrothal of girls at birth (1970:115). Betrothal at birth did not ensure marriage. 27Grave shafts are always oriented East-‐West and the body is placed in a side chamber. Looking East the chamber for a male is on the right and a female is on the left of the grave’s surface opening. 28 After the baby is removed from the smoke, all who entered the house where the baby was secluded will hold their faces in smoke. Meanwhile the mother moves more directly above the smoldering embers and exposes her crotch to the smoke. Those who visited the seclusion hut tear orchid tree leaves in front of their faces as they stick them in the smoke. The midwife holds her face in the smoke more than others. Holding her face in smoke is to prevent her from having bad eyesight in old age ‘blindness’ (vurari). 29 The baby nurses. 30 I witnessed the funeral of Mapidi-‐Eroni’s baby which died a week after being ‘brought out’ of the hut. This baby was sired by a man who was not the husband of the mother. (Baxter and Butt (1955:71) say such a baby would be killed by the woman’s husband in precolonial times (Lagae 1926:170).) Before this funeral, the mother accused her husband of killing the baby by magic or witchcraft. The husband may have made the funeral more elaborate in order to allay suspicions. He could afford the expense since he was the wealthiest trader in the community. Evans-‐Pritchard says a wife does not accuse her husband of witchcraft (1937). 31 Like babies, pumpkins also receive the animal pronouns. The mother of the baby is referred to as ‘its mother’ (naau). 32 Identifying a baby with a dead relative suggests reincarnation like in the case of the Beng of Ivory Coast (Gottlieb 2004).

33 I witnessed just one funeral for a baby who had been brought out and it had not been named. There might be differences in the funeral of a named baby and an unnamed one even if they both died while confined to the homestead. 34 This ritual is not reported in the literature (Baxter and Butt 1953; Evans-‐Pritchard 1962; Lagae 1926; Seligman and Seligman 1932). 35 I saw a girl receive pants and a boy without pants when decorated. 36 The cloth is soiled and tattered by this point. 37 The midwife takes further precautions against poor eyesight by putting white flour around her eyes. 38 I am told that babies may be decorated at large feasts at home. I never heard of that actual event in nineteen months of participant observation in my rural fieldsite. I witnessed and heard about private events at the midwife’s home. 39 The next developmental marker is the eruption of teeth. The eruption of lower incisor’s before the upper is considered potentially bad for crops (Evans-‐Pritchard 1937:57-‐59). In the 1980s baby diarrhea was attributed to ‘teeth of Lugbara.’ Azande had learned a technique for curing diarrhea they attributed to the Lugbara. A specialist gouges the unerupted canines from the baby’s gums and then has the baby wear a key on a necklace. I did my best to tell people about infant diarrhea and oral rehydration salts, which were available but not understood. Diarrhea is a problem for babies that Azande worry about. 40 The personhood of women has increased as evidenced by the clowning at their funerals which was not the case in Evans-‐Pritchard’s time. 41 Protestant and Catholic leaders competed in controlling the singing at the baby funeral I witnessed for a six month old.

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Azande Baby ‘Rites of Passage’: Personhood by Degrees

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