The Dogon People

The Dogon are a West African ethnic group who live in the central plateau area of Mali, south of the Niger bend, near the city of Bandiagara, and in Burkina Faso. The population ranges between 400,000 and 800,000 people. They speak Dogon languages, which are considered an isolated branch of the Niger-Congo language family, meaning they are not connected to any other languages.

The Dogon People are famous for their religious practices, mask dances, wooden sculpting, and architecture. The Dogon’s social organization, material culture, and beliefs have changed dramatically over the last century, in part because Dogon territory is one of Mali’s most popular tourist destinations.

History Of The Dogon People

The Bandiagara Escarpment is a 500-meter (1,640.42-foot) tall sandstone cliff that stretches for approximately 150 kilometers (90 miles) into the heart of the Dogon region.The Bandiagara Mountains may be found to the northwest of the cliff, while the sandy Séno-Gondo Plains can be found to the southeast. Bandiagara is home to Dogon settlements because, a thousand years ago, the Dogon people refused to convert to Islam as a whole.

The Dogon felt threatened by these historical forces, therefore, they settled in strategically defensive areas along the escarpment’s walls. Water availability is another consideration in their site selection process. In the sandstone rock, a rivulet runs at the base of the cliff during the rainy season, and the Niger River is not far away.

The Dogon people have a number of recorded oral histories that detail their ancestry. One relates to the fact that they originated in the Mande region, which is southwest of the Bandiagara escarpment and quite close to Bamako.

It is said that the original Dogon hamlet was located in the southwest corner of the escarpment, in a place called Kani-Na. Studies of the Dogon region’s archeological and ethnoarcheological past have revealed many interesting facts about the area’s settlement and environmental histories, as well as its people’s social behaviors and technology over the course of several thousand years.

In the 15th century, the Dogon moved to the Sanga area by following the escarpment to the north.Some oral tales say the Dogon came from the east, while others say they originated in the west, beyond the Niger River. Most likely, the Dogon of today are made up of people from different ethnic groups who moved away from the spread of Islam.

Islamic law classified them and many other ethnicities of the region (Mossi, Gurma, Bobo, Busa, and Yoruba) as being within the non-canonical dar al-harb and, thus, fair game for slave raids organized by merchants, though it is often difficult to distinguish between pre-Muslim practices and later practices.

Slavery became more important in West Africa as urbanization boosted demand for labor. Historically, invaders have targeted indigenous males for death and taken women and children as slaves.

Art Of The Dogon People

Sculpture is the primary medium of Dogon art. The major themes of Dogon art are faith, independence, and the goals of society (Laude, 19). Dogon sculptures are not meant for public display, and instead are typically maintained in private homes, temples, or with the Hogon (Laude, 20). The symbolic significance of the pieces and the method by which they are created make concealment crucial.

Women grinding pearl millet, women carrying vessels on their heads, donkeys carrying cups, musicians, dogs, quadruped-shaped troughs or benches, bending figures from the waist, mirror images, aproned figures, and standing figures are all common motifs in Dogon sculpture.

Dogon art clearly demonstrates cultural influences and connections. Before the Dogon arrived, several cultures called the Bandiagara cliffs home. Dogon art owes much to Tellem art, particularly in its rectilinear patterns.

Culture And Religion Of The Dogon People

In October 1946, Ogotemmêli, a blind Dogon elder, taught the French anthropologist Marcel Griaule about the most important symbols of the Dogon religion.Prior to his meeting with Ogotemmêli, Griaule had already spent fifteen years among the Dogon people.

During the period of twenty years, Ogotemmêli learned the holy stories from his father and grandpa, and he passed that knowledge on to Griaule. Due to the fact that the Dogon people were still practicing their religion orally at the time of its recording, this document is extremely valuable from a historical standpoint. They were among the last in West Africa to hand over power to the French.

In the 1930s and 1940s, French anthropologists Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen worked with the Dogon people. They said that the Dogon had “their own systems of astronomy and calendrical measurements, methods of calculation, and extensive knowledge of anatomy and physiology, as well as a systematic pharmacopoeia.”The religion had common ground with other traditional African faiths in its emphasis on nature in many forms.

Nummo and Nommo, who were twins, were very important to the spiritual life of the religion.Ogotemmêli described the Nummo, whom he called the Serpent, as amphibians who were variously likened to snakes, lizards, chameleons, and even sloths (because of their slow movement and shapeless neck).

The Nummo were also said to be able to walk on land, and when they did so, they stood erect on their tails. The Nummos, like the chameleon, had mostly green skin that would shift to other hues at will. At various eras, it was believed to display every color of the rainbow.

The Nummo were also known as “Water Ghosts” in other accounts. Marcel Griaule called the Nummo “Dieu d’eau” (gods of water), but Ogotemmêli recognized them as hermaphrodites since they were located on the Dogon women’s side of the sanctuary.

The sun, which was considered a feminine emblem in their faith, was their primary symbol Nummo “Dieu d’eau” (gods of water), but Ogotemmêli recognized them as hermaphrodites since they were located on the Dogon women’s side of the sanctuary. The sun, which was considered a feminine emblem in their faith, was their primary symbol.

The Dogon word for sun, “nay,” came from the same linguistic origin as the words for “mother” (na) and “cow” (n). As a group, they were represented by the traditionally feminine color red.

There was chaos in the beginning of time because of the issue of “twin births” vs “single births,” also known as androgyny versus single-sexed beings. For the Dogon, this idea became a central tenet of their religion. Ogotemmêli observed, “The jackal was isolated from birth, and that’s why he accomplished so much.”

Dogon men celebrated the Sigui festival, which was linked to the afterlife beyond Earth, and the sexless male jackal. It was said to have been held once every sixty years and honored the white dwarf star Sirius B, prompting many to wonder where such information came from. White was the color traditionally associated with men.

Although the male nobles of the Society of the Masks (“awa”) were instructed in the ceremonial language of “Sigi so” or “language of the Sigui,” it was considered a substandard language and included only approximately a fourth of the vocabulary of “Dogo so,” the Dogon word language. At funerals and the “end of sorrow” rites, the “Sigi so” was used to recount the origins of the cosmos, human existence, and the arrival of death on Earth (“dama”).

Once the soulless male Jackal was created, it became necessary to make all humans sterile. The goal was to ensure that no further Jackals or similarly evil beings would ever be able to take root on our planet.” The Nummo predicted that the initial rule of twin births was doomed to extinction, leading to mistakes on par with the jackal’s single-birth occurrence. The first son of God acted as he did because of his isolation.

“The rite of circumcision in the Dogon faith symbolizes the eradication of the second sex and soul from human beings. “Each individual should only have one soul type, and that soul type should be either masculine or female. The old remedies of circumcision and excision are being revived.”

Symbolic of the harmony between humanity and the divine, the birth of human twins was reason for celebration in Griaule’s day Dogon society. Griaule claims that there is a pan-African cult centered upon the birth of multiples. Present-day Islam is practiced by a sizeable population of Dogon. Christians make up another subset of the population.

The patrilineal system is the backbone of the Dogon social order. The male senior of each Dogon village (which may be thought of as an extended family) is responsible for making decisions on behalf of the whole community. This chief is the eldest surviving son of the family’s local patriarch.

Marriage

Even though most marriages in the Dogon society are monogamous, nonsororal polygynous marriages are possible.It is unusual for a guy to have more than two wives, even in polygynous marriages. Each wife in a polygynous marriage has her own home inside the marital complex.

Traditionally, the first wife (known as ya biru) is given more respect and privileges within the household than subsequent spouses. Once the first child is born, the wife officially becomes part of her husband’s family. The parents of the prospective husband do the actual work of choosing a wife. Those who practice endogamy in their marriages only marry within their own clan. As a corollary, intercaste marriage is illegal.

Ladies have been known to leave their spouses before the first child is born. Divorce after having children is a severe and unusual event that usually involves the entire community. Polygamous marriages have double the divorce rate of monogamous ones. A divorce typically results in the wife keeping only the youngest child and leaving the rest with their father. The term “guinna” is used to describe huge families with up to a hundred members.

Several Dogon traditions reflect the people’s deep-seated desire for peace. At one of their most significant ceremonies, for instance, the ladies honor the men, the men express their gratitude to the women, the young show their respect for the elderly, and the elderly acknowledge the achievements of the young. Another example of a cultural custom that the Dogon engage in whenever two people meet is elaborate welcomes.Every day, people in the Dogon community perform this ritual.

During greeting rituals, a long-time member of the group will often ask a new person a series of questions about themselves and their families. The correct response is “sewa,” which indicates that everything is OK. The Dogon, who has made contact with the locals, will next ask the inhabitant how the rest of the family is doing. Neighboring groups have called the Dogon “sewa people” because the term sewa is so ubiquitous in a Dogon community.

Hogon

The Hogon is the village’s political and spiritual head. He is chosen from the eldest males in the village’s most powerful family.

During the first six months after his election, he is not permitted to shave or wash. Everything he wears is white, and he is off-limits to all save the closest of acquaintances. A young woman who has never had her period takes care of him, doing things like cleaning the house and making him meals. At the end of the day, she goes home to rest.

He dons a scarlet fez upon initiation. He wears a pearl armband as a badge of office. One of his wives steps in for the virgin and goes back to her own house for the night. This means that the Hogon is confined to his home by himself. Lébé, the holy snake of the Dogon, is said to visit each man at night to wash him and impart wisdom.

Circumcision

According to Dogon belief, all human beings, male and female alike, are born with both sexes already present. The foreskin is feminine, while the clitoris is masculine. (Historically, Dogon belief said that man has two souls; circumcision served to rid him of one. This is why sex-specific rites of passage like circumcision are so important.

In the United States, males are circumcised in three-year increments, starting at age 9 and continuing until age 12, for example. They’ve officially graduated from the ranks of the uninitiated. The circumcision is done by the blacksmith.

Following that, they isolated themselves from the rest of the tribe for a few days in a hut to let the wound heal. At the end of the ceremony, the newly circumcised guys exchange gifts. They use a rattle-like instrument constructed from a wooden rod and calabashes to create their music.

Men who have recently been circumcised are expected to go around naked for a month so that the rest of the tribe might marvel at their maturity and physical transformation. Even in the dead of winter, this tradition continues as it has for decades.

After the rite of passage of circumcision, a boy is considered an adult and leaves his father’s home. He and the other males in his age group form a “due” and stay there till they get married and start a family.

One type of female genital mutilation done by this and other African ethnic groups is type I circumcision, in which the clitoris is cut off.

The circumcision cave in Songho is decorated with black and white rock drawings of animals and flora. A cave not far away is used for storing musical equipment.

Dogon Mask Societies

The masked dancing society known as the Awa performs ritual and socially significant dances. It has a secret language and a stringent set of rules governing behavior (sigi so). Apart for some members of certain castes, all initiated Dogon males take part in Awa. Women are not allowed to participate in sigi so and are not allowed to study the language.

The elaborate masks used by the Awa during ceremonies are a defining feature of their culture. The Awa are known for their performance skills during two main events: the sigi ritual and the dama burial ceremony.

Sigi is a ceremony performed by everyone in a society to remember and respect its founding parents. The’sigi’ includes every member of the Dogon people and is thought to have begun as a way to unify and preserve peace among Dogon communities.

It all kicks out at the most northerly section of Dogon territory, and the villages take turns hosting the celebrations and ceremonies that follow. The fresh masks are carved at this time and presented to the ancestors. Every 60 years, a new’sigi’ is begun, and each town celebrates for about a year before passing the honor on to the next.

There are two sections to a Dogon funeral ceremony. The first is right after a person dies, while the second might take place years afterwards. Second traditional funeral ceremonies, known as “damas,” are becoming extremely rare because of their high cost.

Damas are still performed today, although they are mainly done as entertainment for visitors interested in the Dogon way of life rather than for their original purpose. The Dogon make money off of this spectacle by charging visitors to view whatever masks they like and for the event itself.

During the traditional dama, participants don masks and engage in a series of ritual dances and ceremonies meant to guide the spirits of the dead to their graves. Dogon damas involve a wide variety of objects, such as masks worn by fastening them in the wearer’s teeth and statuettes.

It’s possible that the masks used during the dama ceremony are decorated differently in each of the Dogon villages. The rituals associated with dama may be carried out in a variety of ways depending on the community. Dama is the one-day event that takes place just after a person dies and is known as the Halic.

Shawn R. Davis claims that the yingim and danyim may be seen in this rite. The masks used in the yincomoli ceremony are announced with the smashing of a gourd over the deceased’s wooden bowl, hoe, and bundukamba (burial blanket), while the entrance to the deceased’s dwelling in the family complex is decked with ceremonial components.

Masks such as the Yana Gulay, Satimbe, Sirige, and Kanaga are worn by participants in the yincomoli rite. The Yana Gulay mask is crafted from cotton fabric and cowell shells to represent a Fulani lady.

The women ancestors, symbolized by the Satimbe mask, are credited with discovering the masks’ true function: to usher the souls of the departed into the afterlife. Only men who were still alive when the Sigui ritual (described further below) was performed wear the tall Sirige mask during their burial (Davis, 68). At one point, the Kanaga maskers would sit and dance next to a bundkamba, which symbolizes a loved one who has passed away.

There are several days dedicated to both the yingim and danyim ceremonies. Those who have passed away since the previous Dama are remembered during these celebrations every year. To aid in driving the ghost, known as the nyama, away from the deceased’s corpse and the village, the yingim involves the sacrifice of cows or other valuable animals and enormous pretend battles.

Thereafter, a few months later, the danyim takes place. Each community celebrates the danyim in their own unique way, although typically it lasts from three to six days and consists of daily morning and evening dances performed by masqueraders.

Masqueraders perform elaborate dances on the roofs of homes belonging to the deceased, as well as in the streets of the hamlet and the surrounding fields. According to legend, the dead will continue to be responsible for any misfortune until the masqueraders have finished their dances and all rituals have been done.

Dogon Astronomical Beliefs

Many writers, starting with the French anthropologist Marcel Griaule, have said that the traditional religion of the Dogon includes information about things in the sky that can’t be seen with the naked eye.

This theory has made its way into the New Age and ancient astronaut canons as proof that aliens visited Mali in antiquity. Other authors have questioned Griaule’s account. They say that Europeans who visited the Dogon people in the early 20th century are a much more reliable source of such information.

Throughout the years 1931, 1935, 1937, and 1938, as well as annually from 1946 to 1956, Griaule spent anything from a few days to two months among the Dogon. Griaule and Dieterlen based a great deal of their writing on their chats with the Dogon wiseman Ogotemmêli, which took place over the course of 33 consecutive days in the latter half of 1946.

According to what they heard, the Dogon people consider Sirius (sigi tolo, “star of the Sigui”) to be accompanied by two more stars: p tolo (the Digitaria star) and mm ya tolo (the female Sorghum star). In the Dogon system, Sirius was one of the centers around which a much smaller star, the companion star Digitaria, orbited.

When Digitaria draws closer to Sirius, the brightness of Sirius increases, but as it recedes, the star seems to twinkle, giving the impression that there are several stars in the sky. In orbit, a whole cycle can take up to half a century. In addition, the Dogon people were said to have an apparent familiarity of Jupiter’s moons and Saturn’s rings.

In a prologue to their research of the Sudanese star system, Griaule and Dieterlen said, “The challenge of knowing how, with no tools at their disposal, men might know the motions and certain features of almost invisible stars has not been settled, nor even asked.”

According to Griaule and Dieterlen’s account, the Dogon people appear to know that Sirius is part of a binary star system, whose second star, Sirius B, a white dwarf, is completely invisible to the human eye (just as Digitaria has the smallest grain known to the Dogon), Robert K. G. Temple wrote a book titled The Sirius Mystery in 1976, arguing that the Dogon’s system reveals precise knowledge of cosmological facts known only to FriedrichAfter that, Temple contended that the Dogon’s knowledge of the constellations suggests an alien transmission if it can be traced back to ancient Egyptian texts and folklore. Neither Griaule nor Dieterlen ever suggested such a fantastical origin for the Dogon’s wisdom.

In more recent times, however, Griaule and Dieterlein’s findings have been questioned. In a 1991 article in Current Anthropology, anthropologist Walter van Beek concluded after his research among the Dogon people that, “Though they do speak about sigu tolo [which is what Griaule claimed the Dogon called Sirius] they disagree completely with each other as to which star is meant; for some it is an invisible star that should rise to announce the sigu [festival], for another it is Venus that, through a different position, appears as sigu tolo. Nonetheless, everyone agrees that Griaule was the one who first told them about the star.

Geneviève Calame-Griaule, Griaule’s daughter, replied in a later issue that Van Beek didn’t “take the right steps to learn” and that van Beek’s Dogon sources may have thought he was sent by the political and administrative authorities to test the Dogon’s Muslim orthodoxy.University of California, Berkeley, professor Andrew Apter offers an impartial evaluation.

Ian Ridpath, a skeptic who wrote in 1978, said, “There are many ways the Dogon could have learned about the West before Griaule and Dieterlen came to visit.”During a five-week mission conducted by Henri-Alexandre Deslandres to research the solar eclipse of April 16, 1893, Noah Brosch speculates in his book Sirius Matters that the Dogon people may have made contact with astronomers living in Dogon territory.

Robert Todd Carroll adds that it is more likely that interested tribal members learned about the Sirius star system via contemporaneous, terrestrial sources. In referencing these theories, James Oberg emphasizes how hypothetical they are by asking, “The clearly sophisticated astronomical knowledge must have come from someplace, but is it an ancient legacy or a recent graft?”

Notwithstanding Temple’s inability to disprove its supposed antiquity, the proof for the information’s recent acquisition remains purely circumstantial. James Clifford adds that Griaule distrusted Christians, Muslims, and anybody with too much contact with Europeans, and actively sought out informants who were best suited to speak of traditional lore.

Oberg identifies other misconceptions held by the Dogon people, such as the number of moons Jupiter has, Saturn’s position as the furthest planet from the sun, and the fact that it is the only planet with rings. His interest in other seemingly implausible statements (such as the existence of a red dwarf star around Sirius, which was not postulated until the 1950s) prompted him to consider Temple’s earlier challenge, with Temple claiming that he “gave another line of argument.” ”

To examine the Dogon data’s prediction mechanisms, we must do it without bias. If a Sirius-C is located and confirmed to be a red dwarf, for instance, I will accept the Dogon data as definitive.

Another star in the Sirius system, mm Ya, was supposedly known to the Dogon People. It was “bigger than Sirius B but lighter and lower in magnitude,” according to the stories. The existence of a brown dwarf star (a Sirius-C) in a six-year orbit around Sirius was first suggested by gravitational studies in 1995.

Although the likelihood of a triple star system for Sirius is “now low,” it cannot be ruled out entirely, according to more recent research that used sophisticated infrared photography to reach that conclusion. This area, which is within 5 AU of Sirius A, has not been explored.

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The Adivasi People

People from India’s indigenous communities are referred to as Adivasis. The word “Adivasi” was first used in the 1930s, largely as a result of a political movement to forge a sense of identity among the various indigenous peoples of India, and it is derived from the Hindi words ‘adi’, meaning from the earliest times or from the beginning, and ‘vasi,’ meaning inhabitant or resident. The Adivasis have a legal and constitutional designation as “scheduled tribes,” but this word does not apply to all indigenous peoples because it varies from state to state and region to region.

The Adivasi people are not a unified entity. There are about 200 different Adivasi groups, each with its own language and culture. But they share the same subjugated status in Indian culture and a similar manner of existence.

In the most recent count, taken in 2011, Adivasis made up 8.6% of the overall population of India, or around 104.3 million people. The true proportion of India’s population is likely to be far larger than the official estimates suggest. Although Adivasis may be found in all parts of India, they are concentrated in the country’s most inaccessible mountainous and hilly regions.

History Of The Adivasi People

Adivasis, whose name means “indigenous people,” are the earliest known residents of the Indian subcontinent and historically occupied far more land than they do today. It appears that many of them were forced into the hill areas during the invasions of the Indo-Aryan tribes around 3,000 years ago, but beyond that, very little is known about their history. While indigenous communities were not fully accepted into Hindu caste society, there were many opportunities for interaction.

Adivasis traded with established villages on the plains and often paid homage to Hindu monarchs, therefore, their religion has many Hindu elements (and vice versa). Some Adivasi kings and queens reigned over non-Adivasi peoples, while others settled down and became part of caste society.

In the late eighteenth century, when the British established unified political control, the government finally began to make deep inroads into Adivasi society. The invasion of non-indigenous peoples onto Adivasi territories may be traced back to the advent of money, government officials, and moneylenders during British administration. From the middle of the nineteenth century forward, the Adivasi population rose up in numerous regions of eastern India, forcing the government to acknowledge the people’s precarious condition and enact legislation to save their lands from encroachment.

Some of these rules (which are still in effect) prohibit the transfer of indigenous land to those who are not members of the Adivasi community and provide for the return of land that has been alienated. However, dishonest businesspeople and loan sharks developed methods to ignore these regulations in everyday life. Adivasis still face the same issues today, but instead of tiny merchants and moneylenders, their adversaries are more likely to be multinational corporations and government agencies.

Christian missions began proselytizing in some indigenous communities, where they had some success (in contrast to Hindu and Muslim areas) and where they also launched a process of education and political awareness, especially in the north-east. Only in the northeast did Adivasis have enough political consciousness to demand secession or autonomy in the lead-up to independence.

Constitutional Status Of The Adivasi People

Adivasis, along with other formerly marginalized groups, were granted more legal protections in the 1950 Constitution. Most native communities were placed on a list of “scheduled tribes.” To define “castes, races, or tribes which shall, for the purposes of this Constitution, be regarded as scheduled tribes,” Article 341 gives the President of India the authority to do so.

In 1951, voters approved Amendment 1, allowing the government to prioritize the economic and social development of “scheduled castes” and “scheduled tribes.” The government’s yearly report on the status of the nation’s scheduled castes and tribes may be found in the pages of a report put out by a special commission. These documents detail abuses committed against Adivasis and provide solutions to improve their lot.

Political Representation Of The Adivasi People

Reservations are made for members of the scheduled tribes in both Parliament and the state legislatures. Scheduled tribes have 7 percent of the seats in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha of Parliament designated for them, and they are similarly represented in the state assembly at the rate of their population share. However, favored legislation can be prevented by entrenched interests due to the fact that scheduled tribe voters are always a minority in the reserved seats and in the legislatures as a whole (save in the north-eastern states where they constitute a numerical majority).

Furthermore, the system does not promote scheduled tribal organizing by independent parties but rather restricts such activity to the big parties, particularly the Congress Party. To better manage the needs of scheduled tribes, governments often employ ministers and even cabinet members who are members of those tribes. It was indigenous MPs who initiated the formation of the Bhuria Committee to ensure that Articles 73 and 74 of the Constitution, which devolve jurisdiction to the Scheduled Areas, would be updated to reflect the current political climate. The group released their findings in January 1995.

Reactions to the Bhuria Committee report were not unanimous. Although many people believed the committee’s approach should be supported, it was condemned for excluding numerous indigenous communities from its recommendations and failing to take gender into account.

Except in the northeastern regions, there haven’t been many attempts to create separate political parties for scheduled tribes. Probably the most illustrative case is the Adivasi regionalist Jharkhand movement in eastern and southern Bihar, which has been active since independence.

An early indigenous uprising against land expropriation under British control began among the Santhal peoples in eastern Bihar and western Bengal. Some of this region is home to India’s largest mineral reserves and mining; consequent industrialization and deforestation have added to Adivasi discontent.

In 1950, the Santhal Praganas and Chotanagpur regions of West Bengal, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh became the focus of a new political movement called the Jharkhand Party. A dynamic Santhal leader who worked closely with and subsequently joined the Congress Party resurrected the party in 1973 by forming a new party called the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). This resulted in the JMM’s dissolution into many factions; however, in 1987, a new coordinating body, the Jharkhand Co-ordinating Committee, was founded, with over fifty component organizations.

They attempted to establish a parallel government and organized a series of bandhs (strikes) and large-scale protests in favor of their objectives. Despite an agreement made on September 2, 1992, in which the federal and state governments legally promised to offer some autonomy to the Jharkand area, neither the national nor the state governments ever really considered making any concessions towards the foundation of a Jharkhand state.

The Bihar state assembly enacted the Jharkhand Area Autonomous Council Act in December 1994, which called for the establishment of the Jharkhand Area Autonomous Council (JAAC) and its member districts. Jharkhand, however, emerged as its own state in the year 2000.

More generally, the Adivasis have seen almost little progress toward securing their land rights despite the formation of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (1999) and legislative action in the form of the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights Bill) 2005.

Resources Of The Adivasi People

Over ninety-five percent of scheduled tribes are still concentrated in rural regions, where economic exploitation is a major issue. Ten percent or less are nomadic hunter-gatherers, while the other 90 percent or so rely on forest products, most notably the tendu leaf, which is used to make the alcoholic beverage bidi (cigarettes). Laws governing forest ownership and usage date back to when the country was under British rule. These days, most forested property is virtually nationalized, with significant swaths leased to private economic interests.

This has resulted in the gradual erosion of Adivasi groups’ land rights; now, they face fines or jail time for engaging in activities like harvesting forest products that have historically been theirs. The state has stepped in to try to halt the ongoing degradation of forested areas that has occurred during this century.

Although the Adivasis are sometimes held responsible for deforestation because of their methods of shifting agriculture, deforestation is really the result of a variety of factors, including rising demand for firewood as a fuel source and the effects of commercial (and sometimes illegal) logging. Large dam construction, for irrigation and hydroelectricity, poses a significant risk to the Adivasi people.

Since India’s independence, several hydro projects have been implemented, and a heated constitutional and political debate has raged over whether or not to build the biggest of thirty dams on the Narmada. The dam was built regardless of the protests. The Sardar Sarovar dam, one of the world’s biggest, has reached its full capacity. At least 178 communities were either completely or partially drowned, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes, according to local indigenous activists.

Affirmative action measures in the Constitution that reserve spots in school, the civil service, and nationalized businesses for members of scheduled tribes also benefit scheduled castes. The number of Adivasis working for or attending public schools has risen dramatically as a result of affirmative action laws.

However, the benefits of the reservation policy have not been uniformly distributed; while there have been noticeable advancements at the entry level of government services, there is a lack of scheduled caste or scheduled tribe representation in the middle and upper levels of government.

To add insult to injury, the Adivasis’ chances have not improved thanks to the affirmative action rules, which are only applicable to the public sector. Isolation, poverty, and discrimination are just some of the problems that the Adivasi community often faces. Since few Adivasis complete secondary school, most are unable to take advantage of the quotas set aside for them in postsecondary institutions and the federal service.

In an effort to encourage self-governance in rural regions, the Panchayat Raj (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996 was enacted in the late 1990s. Adivasis have been aided by this law in thinking about and acting upon a variety of community concerns, as well as in organizing themselves locally through the establishment of new political institutions. Adivasis in India’s different states want the Act to be enforced more strictly so that their rights and culture can be protected.

Conflict

Naxalites, or left-wing organizations in India, have organized some Adivasis to demand greater salaries and compensation for forest produce. From its roots in a student-led revolt in Bengal in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Naxalite movement eventually extended to parts of Bihar state, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh.

Therefore, Adivasis were vulnerable to attacks from both Naxalite extremists and government counterinsurgency efforts. It is common knowledge that police, forest guards, and other officials habitually swindle, bully, and threaten Adivasis, and that many of them are detained and sent to jail for minor offenses. Many Adivasis chose to bribe authorities to stop the harassment rather than just fleeing to the woods.

Current issues Of The Adivasi People

In today’s India, Adivasis still experience discrimination and even physical threats from non-Adivasi communities. They rank dead last on virtually every measure of social and economic well-being. They are looked down upon by the bulk of society, and government programs work to assimilate them into mainstream culture rather than encouraging them to continue their traditional ways of living.

However, many of the lesser Adivasi peoples may be wiped out culturally due to the devastation of their economic foundation and ecology, even while the bigger tribal groupings and languages would survive due to numbers. Despite being the recipients of India’s vast reservations, the Adivasi community has seen little change as a result of the quota system.

The quotas implemented in technical fields and higher education do not appear to have improved access. For example, Adivasi quotas in higher education have not been met. Most Dalit and Adivasi youths do not complete high school.

Land re-distribution rights, rights of marginal farmers and daily laborers, rights of the tillers of the soil, and rehabilitation rights have all been neglected for the Adivasi population. It’s important to note that, notwithstanding differences in political alignment between state administrations in India, Adivasis consistently make up the poorest segment of society across the country.

Despite a socialist administration being in power in West Bengal for 34 of the previous 43 years, the Adivasi districts of Birbhum, Bankura, and Purulia are among the poorest areas in India. The systematic uprooting of the Adivasi people from their land has been exacerbated by the nationalization movement of the 1970s to construct heavy industries near to the source of raw resources. The Adivasi community in the districts of several of the other non-left states, including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan, shows comparable socioeconomic indices.

The formation of the states of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, and Uttaranchal was a baby step in reviving the Adivasis’ dignity and recognizing their right to exist. In 2000, the state of Jharkhand was established, mostly as a means of recognizing the Adivasi community’s right to political organization through the creation of a distinct state.

There is current discussion on providing state-level reservations for Adivasi people in areas such as employment and access to higher education. However, the extent to which the governments of these states implement changes to safeguard the rights of Adivasi groups remains to be seen.

The progressive removal of the Adivasi people from their traditional lands has been a key contributor to their economic and social hardships. As a result of being denied land ownership rights for the better part of a century and having to relocate, Adivasis are now engaged in a battle to maintain their economic and social identities.

The Adivasis have not only gotten a pitifully little compensation sum, but they have also received compensation for a vanishingly small percentage of their population. The law is not used to achieve justice for Adivasis because of the legal impediments that are constructed to prevent them from receiving compensation.

There is a process problem because compensation is often based on individual title deeds, but Adivasi land is usually owned by a group or in the name of a dead ancestor.

For the protection of Adivasi claims to their traditional woodlands and land, the Forest Rights Act (FRA) was passed in 2006. The Bill acknowledges that the interests of the scheduled Tribes should be taken into account when making decisions on forest management. The bill seeks to protect local communities’ rights to culturally and ecologically significant forest products, grazing lands, dwellings, and traditional knowledge.

However, the FRA’s implementation has been painfully sluggish thus far, with group claims stuck in bureaucratic processes and fewer than 2% of prospective claims apparently handled. In addition, the fate of over a million Adivasis was further threatened by a judgment issued by the Indian Supreme Court in February 2019 over the execution of the FRA 2006. On or before July 24, 2019, the court ordered almost two dozen states to furnish information on claims resolved under the FRA and to remove applicants whose petitions were denied.

Strong opposition led to a brief stay of execution from the court. However, the Adivasi people who live in the forests continue to face a perilous existence as pressure mounts to clear more land for mining and other uses.

These tendencies further alienate the Adivasis from the federal government and point to broader institutional and legal flaws that contribute to the people’s mistrust of an Indian government that claims to protect them but does nothing of the sort in practice.

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The Shona Tribe

Originally from southern Africa, particularly Zimbabwe, the Shona tribe are now dispersed throughout the continent (where they form the vast majority). There are five main clans among them, and they live near other communities that have a language and culture quite similar to their own.

Seventy-six percent of the population belongs to the Shona ethnic group, which includes the Manyika, Zezuru, Karanga, Korekore, Rozwi, and Ndau. The Ndebele, which include the Ndebele and Kalanga peoples, are the country’s second-largest ethnic group, making up around 18% of the population.

Only around 30% of the population resides in metropolitan regions like Harare and Bulawayo, with the vast majority of those people residing in the capital city. The Shona live in Mashonaland, which is the eastern two-thirds of the country. The Ndebele live in Matabeleland, which is the western one-third.

The Batonga live in the Zambezi Valley, the Shangaan or Hlengwe live in the low veld, and the Venda live on the South African border; these three ethnic groups account for 1 percent of the total population. There is a small but significant non-African population (2%) that primarily consists of Europeans and Asians.

Three big shifts in population and settlement patterns occurred in the twentieth century. Before and during World War II, white settlers acquired great swaths of land for commercial agriculture, resulting in a scenario in which less than one percent of the population had access to property in rural areas. Second, during the colonial era, males seeking employment were forced to go to metropolitan places like Harare and Bulawayo, while women and children remained in the countryside.

There is less of a gender gap in today’s cities, and more people are moving between rural and urban regions, but in rural communities, women are still frequently the de facto heads of home. Most occupations are still concentrated in cities, so for smallholder families, money earned outside the farm has a much greater impact on their standard of living than does money earned from farming.

Thirdly, there has been a shift in the average age of the population. Since the 1960s, death rates have dropped drastically and life expectancy has increased, allowing over 63% of the population to be between the ages of 16 and 34 by the year 1992.

Shona Tribe Language and identity

When the word “Shona” was developed during the early 19th century under Mfecane (perhaps by the Ndebele monarch Mzilikazi), it was used as a slur for non-Nguni people; there was no understanding of a shared identity among the tribes and peoples that make up the present-day Shona. The Shona people of the Zimbabwe highlands, however, preserved a deep memory of the old kingdom generally associated with the Kingdom of Mutapa. Before the Mfecane, it appears that the Shona were referred to collectively by the names “Karanga,” “Kalanga,” and “Kalaka,” which are now the names of distinct groupings.

The language of the Bakalanga is classified as a Bantu language, however, Ethnologue states that it is mutually intelligible with the primary varieties of Karanga and other Bantu languages spoken in central and eastern Africa. The Kalanga and Karanga are considered to be one clan that created the Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, and Khami, and were assimilated by the Zezuru. Although many Karanga and Kalanga terms are similar, Kalanga is distinct from Zezuru.

Dialect groupings share several commonalities. While “standard” Shona is understood and spoken by most people in Zimbabwe, the many dialects serve to distinguish between towns and villages as well as ethnic groups. Only members of one particular ethnic group speak all of the Shona dialects.

1. The Korekore (or Northern Shona), including Taυara, Shangwe, Korekore, Goυa, Budya, the Korekore of Urungwe, the Korekore of Sipolilo, Tande, Nyongwe of “Darwin”, and Pfungwe of Mrewa
2. The Zezuru group, including Shawasha, Haraυa, another Goυa, Nohwe, Hera, Njanja, Mbire, Nobvu, Vakwachikwakwa, Vakwazvimba, Tsunga
3. The Karanga group, including Duma, Jena, Mari, Goυera, Nogoυa, and Nyubi
4. The Manyika group, including Hungwe, Manyika themselves, Teυe, Unyama, Karombe, Nyamuka, Bunji, Domba, Nyatwe, Guta, Bvumba, Here, Jindwi, and Boca
5. The Ndau group (mostly in Mozambique), including Ndau, Garwe, Danda, and Shanga

Dialects developed during the dispersion of tribes across Zimbabwe over a long period, and the influx of immigrants into the country from bordering countries has contributed to the variety.

History Of The Shona Tribe

Around the 11th century, the Kalanga people established kingdoms on the Zimbabwe plateau. Great Zimbabwe, the capital city of the Zimbabwean empire, underwent construction. The Rozvi Empire (which lasted into the 19th century) came before the Mutapaan kingdom, which was under the rule of the Torwa dynasty in the Butuan kingdom.

Because of the dynastic succession pattern of brothers succeeding brothers, civil conflicts broke out, which the Portuguese took advantage of in the 16th century. Many chiefs, sub-chiefs, and headmen reported to the kings.

New tribes displaced the kings and settled the plateau. After supplying valuable commodities (especially gold) to Swahili, Arab, and East Asian traders in the 1830s, the Ndebele wiped out the Rozvi Empire, and the Portuguese gradually undermined the kingdom of Mutapa, which extended to the Mozambique coast.

As early as 1890, the British overthrew traditional authority and colonized the Rhodesian plateau, while the Portuguese colonial administration in Mozambique fought the last remnants of the Mutapa kingdom until 1902.

Types of Art Of The Shona Tribe

The Shona tribe are famous for the intricate carvings on their wooden headrests. The majority of Shona-related artwork is either highly personal or highly functional. They have a strong history of metal and wood carving but produce little figurative art. In the countryside, everyone pitches in to help out on the farm, as there are no dedicated agricultural professionals.

While there was formerly widespread smelting of iron and gold, today all of the surface gold has been mined, and high-quality iron is produced in state-of-the-art facilities. However, blacksmiths may still be found in many towns and cities. Basket weaving and pottery-making are two common traditional arts practiced by many.

Nowadays, many once undeveloped regions have at least some towns populated by carpenters, builders, tailors, and other semiskilled experts. The traditionally solitary activities of sewing and knitting are now frequently performed by women in collaborative groups.

Religious Belief Of The Shona Tribe

The Shona’s native religion is predicated on a trinitarian understanding of the universe. T. Shoko notes that first and foremost, there is a belief in a ‘world above,’ which is the home of the Supreme Being or a Creator god called various names, including Mwari (“The Great One” or “He who is”), Musikavanhu (“the One who created people”), Nyadenga (“the Great Spirit that lives above in heaven” or Owner of the Heavens”), Dzivaguru (“the Great Pool”), and quite a few others. The Shona do not think of God as having a physical body like a human being, but rather as a spirit who lives in the sky and may also be felt on the ground.

As a second category, we have the “human world,” or our actual planet. Everything in our world—from people to animals to rocks to rivers to woods and beyond—is a part of the natural whole. All things were created by God, and He is thought to play a role in people’s daily activities.

He is responsible for both the good and the terrible in the universe, and his power to bestow joy or deliver instantaneous disaster on a person is absolute. People of the Mwari religion reject the idea of a personal relationship with God, as taught in Christianity and Judaism, since they think that humans cannot rationally debate or reason with Mwari.

Finally, there is a strong belief in a ‘underworld.’ In popular culture, the dead and dark forces are typically linked to this kind of netherworld.

Ancestral Spirits

The vadzimu (ancestral spirits) play a significant role in Shona tribe religion since God is seen as essentially unreachable to the individual. Upon death, people’s souls are said to roam aimlessly until they receive a summons to come home and watch after their heirs. In the kurova guva rite, family members pour beer over the grave and beg the ghost to “return home” and watch over the living.

A mudzimu, however, is only a mudzimu if he is an adult and has children of his own (plural). The vadzimu are said to form a parallel community to that of the living, allowing them to keep a watchful eye on their surviving loved ones and know exactly what’s going on in their daily lives.

A distinction may be made between the mhondoro, who are seen to be the spirits of the clan’s or tribe’s founders, and the vadzimu, who are thought to be the souls of the individual’s deceased patrilineal and matrilineal ancestors. Since the mhonddoro, or tribal spirits, care most about the clan or tribe as a whole, they were historically consulted on issues like drought, war, the succession of leaders, and so forth.

The family vadzimu not only has significant influence over their offspring, but also acts as their go-between with God on all mundane problems. While the vadzimu is there to support and protect the living, they are also highly offended when the living break their traditions and rituals. They used illness or other hardships inflicted on the criminals as a kind of punishment.

Mbira Dzavadzimu

The Shona tribe of Zimbabwe have been playing the mbira dzavadzimu (literally “voice of the ancestors”), the national instrument of Zimbabwe, for thousands of years. The mbira dzavadzimu is a popular instrument played at mabira, a type of religious and social gathering (sing. “bira”).
Between 22 and 28 keys made of hot or cold-forged metal are attached to the hardwood soundboard (gwariva) of a standard mbira dzavadzimu. These keys are divided into three registers: two on the left and one on the right.

The player’s right hand is used to stabilize the instrument by inserting their little finger through a hole in the lower right corner of the soundboard, while their thumb and index finger are free to strike the notes in the correct register from above and below. Most of the left hand’s fingers should extend behind the instrument to support its left side. The thumb and occasionally the forefinger on the left hand play both left-hand registers.

When played, the buzzing sound of bottle caps, shells, and other things (“machachara”) attached to the soundboard may be heard. In traditional settings, this sound is very important because it is said to call the spirits of the dead. An mbira dzavadzimu will often have its sound amplified during a public performance by being put in a deze (calabash resonator).

The mbira dza vadzimu is revered as a holy instrument in traditional Shona religion and culture. Typically, it is used to open lines of communication with ancestor spirits. The mbira is often played in pairs within the Shona tribe tradition, with the kushaura (the caller) taking the lead while the kutsinhira (the responder) “interlocks” the next portion.

Bira is the name given to the ceremony. The shona tribe believe that the changes in notes played on a Mbira piece help the participants enter a trance in which the spirits can take over their bodies and answer the questions being posed during the all-night festivities.

Death and Afterlife

Although the ancestral cult is highly valued, traditional Shona rarely discuss the possibility of an afterlife. Instead, it is assumed, however tenuously, that a person’s fate in the hereafter will be determined by whether or not his or her descendants continue to practice rituals in honor of the deceased. The Shona tribe believe that when a person dies, their soul and body are split apart; although the soul is immortal and continues to exist as a spiritual entity after their physical body has decomposed.

The Shona tribe have more than one ritual they carry out in honor of their ancestors and for the sake of their community. They can add up to seven in total. The kupeta (folding) ceremony, the ritual of burial, the ritual of cleansing, the ritual of bringing back the spirit, the ritual of inheritance, the ritual of honor, and the rituals of appeasement are all examples.

The purpose of funerals is to remove the body of the deceased from public view and ensure that it remains hidden. A subsequent ritual held a year or more later for an adult with descendants welcomes the departed into the company of beneficent ancestors and back into the homestead.

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