Global Hermeneutics? - International Voices in Biblical Studies ...

70 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS?
paper the focus was mainly on how to deal with the pure and the impure within the
social and cultural frameworks of the Iraqw and Gorwa. Problems relating to how
the holy and the profane are to be understood will need further research. The brief
discussion that follows is therefore only a pointer—or alternatively a mere
fragment—indicative of some of the complex and deep realities of the
Iraqw/Gorwa life-world.
Even though the Iraqw- and Gorwa-speaking peoples are culturally similar in
many ways and speak mutually intelligible dialects, the Gorwa (commonly called
by outsiders Wathiomi) are often distinguished from their Iraqw cousins
(commonly called Wambulu). The research on which this discussion is based draws
mainly on Gorwa data, but it also applies to a great extent to the Iraqw and others in
this family. The Gorwa as well as the Iraqw are among the Cushitic-speaking
peoples of Tanzania. The Cushitic language cluster in Tanzania includes, apart
from the Iraqw and Gorwa, also the Burunge, the Alagwa, the Kw’adza as well as
the Maa or Mbugu of Lushoto in the Usambara Mountains. 27
According to Gorwa folklore, Gorwa country is the very centre of the
universe—“Gorwa aa muruungu Looa” (Gorwa country is the navel of God). It is
said among the Gorwa that it is here in their land that the Creator Looa performed
her great works of creation, and eventually produced the jewel of her creation,
namely the first humans, the Gorwa! In fact according to the Gorwa, God is a
Gorwa, “Looa aa Gortoo”. Homo, i.e. non-Gorwa peoples, are therefore closely or
distantly related to the Gorwa through geographical dispersion, having corrupted or
distorted the original traditions given to the Gorwa at the beginning.
The Gorwa idea of ethnic particularity and uniqueness goes back to creation
itself. However, the Iraqw are considered by the Gorwa to have the same ancestral
roots and hence come from the same stock. The cultural and linguistic affinity of
these two communities as well as their similarity with respect to religious belief
and practice no doubt reinforces this perception. Edward H. Winter probably had
this in mind when he noted: “The Iraqw, who differ sharply from all other peoples,
with one exception, with whom they are in contact in language and in most other
aspects of culture, have a very lively awareness of their distinctiveness and of their
identity as a single people. Furthermore, the individual has a feeling of loyalty
towards the entire people”. 28
In a number of translation-checking sessions Iraqw/Gorwa translators and
reviewers assured me that no suitable or appropriate word existed in the
27 See for example C. Ehret, The Historical Reconstruction of Southern Cushitic
Phonology and Vocabulary (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1980); F. Nordbustad, Iraqw
Grammar. An Analytical Study of the Iraqw Language (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag,
1988). 28 E. H. Winter, “Territorial Groupings and Religion among the Iraqw,”in
Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (ed. M. Banton; London: Tavistock
Publications, 1966), 161.