An Ethiopian Argot of People Possessed by a Spirit

Wolf Leslau

doi:10.2307/1156970

An Ethiopian Argot of People Possessed by a Spirit

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2012

Wolf Leslau

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The official religion in Ethiopia is Christianity, a part of the Ethiopian population are Moslems, others, called Falasha, are of Jewish faith, still others are pagans. Whatever their religious beliefs, Ethiopians have in common a belief in the spirit called zar. The name is of non-Semitic origin, probably derived from the name of the supreme divinity of the pagan Cushites, the God-Heaven called in Agau ğar, and in Sidamo languages: Kaffa yarō, Buoro darō. This ancient pagan god is regarded in christianized Abyssinia as a malevolent genius. Although the official church, Christian or Moslem, condemns the belief in zar and the practices connected with it, the current opinion is that everyone ‘has a zar’.

Résumé

UN ARGOT ÉTHIOPIEN DE PERSONNES POSSÉDÉES PAR UN ESPRIT

Cet article analyse le langage employé par les personnes dites possédées d'un esprit nommé Zar. Il y a plusieurs légendes au sujet de l'origine de Zar, mais d'après une explication offerte par un Éthiopien éduqué en France le Zar est une maladie inventée par des femmes pour forcer leurs maris ou leurs parents à leur permettre la liberté de satisfaire leur désir de jouissance. Une personne possédée par un Zar va à la maison d'un guérisseur appelé ‘le maître des Zars’, qui a le pouvoir de contrôler les esprits. L'auteur de cet article décrit une réunion où plusieurs femmes possédées par des Zar participent à la cérémonie par laquelle le Zar est forcé de révéler son identité. Au cours de la cérémonie les femmes parlaient un langage qui, quoique les mots soient amhariques, semblait incompréhensible à l'auteur. Plus tard, en interrogeant une des femmes en question, il apprit les mots de l'argot. Quoique les mots soient amhariques, des expressions paraphrastiques et des métaphores sont employées, et des idées abstraites exprimées par des noms concrets, l'entier par le mot pour une partie, etc.…Dans certains mots la racine est déformée en la rallongeant ou en changeant ses consonnes. Quelques mots sont empruntés, surtout de l'arabe. Des exemples de toutes ces particularités sont cités et expliqués.

Type: Research Article
Information: Africa , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , July 1949 , pp. 204 - 212

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1156970 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © International African Institute 1949

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^{page 204 note 1} Cerulli, , ‘Zār’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1934, p. 1217.Google Scholar

^{page 204 note 2} Reigned 514-42; he fought with Dhu-Nuwās of South Arabia. There are several legends connected with Kaleb, one of which says that the earth split when he was waging war against Dhu Nuwās. According to another legend there is a place near Aksum said to be the entrance into the earth miraculously made for Kaleb, and known as tomb of Kaleb.

^{page 204 note 3} Most of the information on the zars is taken from Leiris, ‘Le culte des zars à Gondar (Éthiopie septentrionale)’, Aethiopica, vol. iv, 1934, pp. 96–103Google Scholar, 125-36. ‘La croyance aux génies zar en Éthiopie du nord’, J. de Psychologie, 1938, pp. 108–25Google Scholar.

^{page 204 note 4} End of September.

^{page 204 note 5} Leslau, , Documents Tigrigna (Éthiopien septentrional), Paris, 1941, p. 205.Google Scholar

^{page 204 note 6} The dry season lasts from October to June-July; the rainy season lasts from June-July to October.

^{page 205 note 1} The belief in zar also passed into some of the Arabic countries, such as Egypt, Yemen; for a bibliography on the subject see Cerulli, op. cit., p. 1217.

^{page 205 note 2} Leslau, op. cit., pp. 202–10.

^{page 205 note 3} Curiously enough, there is no resident priest in the agglomeration where the zar gathering took place. Apparently the people possessed by the zar have chosen a place where they could meet without being disturbed by the priests.

^{page 205 note 4} The balä zar can also be a man. I was once shown a balä zar passing on the road; he had a red headdress and seemed absent-minded.

^{page 206 note 1} The Ethiopians and the Falashas of the region of Gondar speak Amharic.

^{page 206 note 2} 1934, p. 129; 1938, pp. 120-1.

^{page 207 note 1} A bar of salt, amolye, was used as money-value in some parts of Ethiopia.

^{page 207 note 2} Leiris, 1934, p. 134.

^{page 207 note 3} ayfäri would be an adjective; the -B of ayfäre seems to be a caritative expression.

^{page 207 note 4} The Amharic expression would be yäqänd sala. The expression of the argot might be a pun with the Amharic yäsala qänd which means ‘the horn of the animal sala’ (Guidi, , Vocabolario amarico-italiano, Roma, 1901, p. 142)Google Scholar.

^{page 207 note 5} murṭ is considered an unmannerly expression; it seems to be an expression of Gondar.

^{page 207 note 6} For the diminutive and depreciative value of this ending in Amharic see Cohen, , Nouvelles études d'éthiopien meridional, Paris, 1939, p. 105Google Scholar; for the ‘affective’ ending -it in the Amharic proper nouns see ibid., pp. 90-1.

^{page 207 note 7} Amh. č̣ari ‘who scratches’. The form č̣arit for ‘hen’ also exists in Woyto (Cohen, , op. cit., p. 369)Google Scholar.

^{page 207 note 8} Amh. läflaffa or läflafi ‘chatterer’.

^{page 207 note 9} Amh. monana ‘good, excellent’.

^{page 207 note 10} Amh. läslassa ‘soft’

^{page 207 note 11} Amh. läblabi ‘which burns’.

^{page 207 note 12} Amh. däfrassa ‘turbid’.

^{page 207 note 13} Amh. ṭafač̣ ‘of agreeable taste’.

^{page 208 note 1} Amh. qäzqazza ‘cold’.

^{page 208 note 2} Celui qui est pris par le buda, génie mangeur d'hommes, se reconnaît à son amaigrissement, à son teint de cendre et au fait qu'en état de transe il pousse des cris de hyène’ (Leiris, 1934, p. 99). This passage is brought here in order to show that the hyena plays a part in the zar ceremony.

^{page 208 note 3} The language of the Woyto has kulǝč̣č̣o and hulǝč̣č̣o (Cohen, 1939, p. 366); in view of our argot it seems rather to be qulǝč̣č̣o.

^{page 208 note 4} Also in Woyto (Cohen, 1939, p. 366).

^{page 208 note 5} See p. 207, n. 6.

^{page 208 note 6} According to Leiris, 1934, p. 129, addam designates in the language of the zar ‘a man or woman not possessed by the spirit’.

^{page 208 note 7} Baeteman, , Dictionnaire Amarigna-Français, Dire-Daoua, 1929, p. 89Google Scholar, gives for maqa the meaning of ‘who has a long neck’.

^{page 208 note 8} The Amharic dictionaries have only the noun däyn ‘purgatory’.

^{page 209 note 1} The word is not found in the Amharic dictionaries.

^{page 209 note 2} Cf. also ǝnṭǝbṭǝbit ‘rain’ in Woyto (Cohen, 1939, p. 365).

^{page 209 note 3} This expression is also found in An Ethiopian merchants' argot (Leslau, 1949)Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 4} This is the meaning of gända given in the dictionaries. Guidi, , Supplemento al vocabolario amarico-italiano, Roma, 1940, col. 222Google Scholar, gives for it meaning of ‘vaso nel quello si prepara l'idromele (non purificato)’. Leiris, 1934, p. 101Google Scholar, n. 1, has ‘le plateau de bois nommé gända qui sert pour le service rituel du café’; he does not say whether this is the regular Amharic meaning or whether it is the argot that adopted this meaning for gända. According to the dictionaries and from my own investigation it appears that gända does not have in Amharic the meaning of ‘tray for coffee’.

^{page 209 note 5} For the ending -e in Amharic with proper nouns, and occasionally with common nouns, see Cohen, 1939, pp. 92-3.

^{page 209 note 6} For č̣at see Hess, J. J., ‘Kāt’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1925, vol. ii, p. 808Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 7} Cohen, 1939, p. 368.

^{page 209 note 8} The Amharic noun of instrument is formed by the prefix mä and the suffix -ya, the y of which causes prepalatalization of the sibilants, of the dentals, and of l, n.

^{page 210 note 1} The abridged form šanqo is also used in Amharic (Guidi, 1940, p. 71).

^{page 210 note 2} For Galla zar see Baeteman, , op. cit., col. 853.Google Scholar

^{page 210 note 3} Leiris, 1934, p. 99.

^{page 210 note 4} Dauzat, A., Les Argots, Paris, 1929, p. 53Google Scholar; Leslau, 1949.

^{page 210 note 5} This change is reminiscent of the common change into m of many languages; cf. Amharic tǝrqi mǝrqi ‘trifle’: German Techtelmechtel, Kuddelmuddel.

^{page 211 note 1} ‘Mot employé pour désigner certains grands zar ou grands illuminés; par extension, les zars en général’ (Leiris, 1934, p. 101, n. 1).

^{page 211 note 2} Also used in An ‘Ethiopian merchants’ Argot (Leslau, 1949).Google Scholar

^{page 211 note 3} The language of the Woyto also has sädär; for an attempt at an etymological explanation see Cohen, 1939, p. 362.

^{page 211 note 4} The Woyto qǝrs (Cohen, 1939. p. 363) is probably to be corrected into kärs

^{page 211 note 5} Les esclaves ne peuvent être possédés que par de petits zars, non héréditaires’ (Leiris, 1934, p. 135).

^{page 211 note 6} Cohen, 1939, pp. 358-71; Cheesman, R. E., Lake Tana and the Blue Nile, London, 1936Google Scholar, index under ‘Waito’.

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