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72 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS?
child, she becomes impure; when a man is clawed by a leopard, he becomes
impure. For each of these states the Iraqw have a separate word. When an
individual contracts one of these states of impurity, his well-being, indeed his life,
is in jeopardy. It is the earth-dwelling spirits who are disturbed by these states of
ritual impurity and they are the ones whom an individual fears. A purification
ceremony, which usually involves the sacrifice of a sheep or a goat, must be held.
After this has taken place the individual must remain in seclusion for a period
which may vary from a few days to a year depending upon the type of ritual
impurity involved. The reason for this is that once the purification rite has taken
place, the person constitutes a danger to others, since the ritual impurity which is
leaving him may be contracted by other people if they should come into contact
with him.
Mark Bura’s 1974 paper 31 on concepts of causation, diagnosis, and treatment
of disease among the Iraqw touches on the idea of impurity and its dangers to one’s
wellbeing. Bura’s view is from within, as he is himself Iraqw. His paper written
from the perspective of ethnomedicine or medical anthropology and aetiology is
illuminating and makes very good reading. Bura, who is a medical doctor,
expanded on this earlier paper in his 1984 dissertation for a postgraduate diploma
in tropical child health presented to the University of Liverpool’s School of
Tropical Medicine. 32 This work endeavoured to show how traditional Iraqw taboos
and beliefs impact on individual as well as community health, with a specific focus
on pregnancy and child-rearing.
It is, however, John Ng’aida’s paper “The Concept of Taboo ‘meta’ 33 among
the Iraqw Peoples and Its Hindrances to Christianity” 34 which throws much light on
this problem. John Ng’aida is himself Iraqw and hence focuses on the Iraqw in his
treatment of the problem. His data are based exclusively on the Iraqw and he
naturally draws on his life and experiences in this community. The preface to his
study is striking. He writes:
31
M. W. T. Bura, “The Wairaqw concepts of causation, diagnosis and treatment of
disease,” Dar es Salaam Medical Journal 6 (1974), 55–61.
32
M. W. T. Bura, Pregnancy and Child-Rearing Practices among the Wairaqw of
Tanzania, a thesis presented for a diploma in tropical child health at the University of
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 1984. See also W. D. Kamera, Tales of the
Wairaqw, (Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1976); W. D. Kamera, “Marmo and
Haragasi: Iraqw Folk Theatricals”, African Study Monographs 4 (1983), 107–118; and W. D.
Kamera, “Loo Ammohhuuma—An Iraqw Reconciliation Rite”, Anthropos 81 (1986), 137–
149.
33
The concept of meta (Iraqw) is synonymous with the concept of tsumi (Gorwa),
which is our main concern in this section.
34
J. Ng’aida, “The concept of Taboo - ‘meta’ among the Iraqw peoples and its
hindrances to Christianity”, Unpublished research paper prepared for Makumira Theological
Seminary, Usa River, Arusha, (1975), 1–77.