Dorobo Objects: The Ethnographic Perspective

African Arts, Winter 1996 Maasai/Dorobo Objects: The Ethnographic Perspective Roderic H. Blackburn The crux of the controversy over the collection o...
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African Arts, Winter 1996

Maasai/Dorobo Objects: The Ethnographic Perspective Roderic H. Blackburn

The crux of the controversy over the collection of Maasai objects assembled by Gillies Turle is whether these objects are authentically Maasai— that is, made by or for the Maasai for traditional Maasai uses—or whether they are creations made recently by other people for other purposes, such as selling to tourist or art collectors. There are two ways to test these issues. The first is by laboratory test of the specimens to see if they are genuine or spurious in the way they were made, whether the surface color and molecular content are consistent with traditional practice and use, and—if the technology is available—by dating them. Only partial testing has yet been done (and on only a few objects) by the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin, which so far has found these objects consistent with the tests on Maasai objects belonging to the Museum and collected before 1908. The second type of evidence is ethnographic: what do the Maasai have to say about these objects? Better than any outsiders, they are the experts on their own culture, and statements by Maasai with no connection to the Turle collection should be enlightening. My own interest in the material culture of East Africa derives from my initial fieldwork in 1968-70 among the Okiek, a Kalenjin-speaking hunter-gatherer people living adjacent to the Maasai in Narok District, Kenya. I had made an extensive and nearly complete collection, fully documented, of their objects for the National Museums of Kenya, and another which is now at the American Museum of Natural History. Returning to Kenya in 1990 to continue ethnographic work with the Okiek, I was introduced to Gillies Turle and his collection. Turle told me that the Maasai had said some or many of these objects were made by Dorobo for Maasai loibons (medicine men, ritual experts; from ol- oiboni [sing.], il-oibonok [pi.], ref. Moll, Maa: A Dictionary of the Maasai Language and Folklore). The name Dorobo refers to hunter-gatherers, and the Okiek are often called Dorobo. I had never seen or heard of such objects among the Okiek. If Turle's statement was true, this was a whole new area of Okiek-Maasai

relations I knew nothing about. I decided to find out from both sides, questioning Okiek about this knowledge of Maasai practice and vice versa. First I showed photos of 130 different forms of objects in the Turle collection to Okiek, who identified some commonly used forms (clubs, sheep collar ornaments, rings, bracelets, etc.). However, they knew nothing of the remaining objects—those used by the loibons. I then interviewed Maasai loibons. With varying degrees of knowledge they did identify most object forms, including nearly all those of which Turle had collected multiple examples. What they also confirmed was that many of these forms were reputed to have been made by Dorobo for Maasai loibons. They mentioned specifically two Dorobo groups, the Saleita and the Digiri of Narok District. I made trips to both groups. Of the elders I interviewed, none could confirm that such objects were now or in the past made by their people. They could identify most of them as made from bones of wild animals, and they specifically stated that possession of such objects (and therefore the killing of these animals) had been illegal since 1976, when hunting was outlawed in Kenya. The mystery of this contradiction was solved on a second field trip in late 1990, when I met a young Saleita man who, despite his young age (he was in his twenties), knew a good deal about these objects and their uses. He introduced me to his father, Shilalo Ole Longongosho [Loonkushu], who years ago had seen his own father, a loibon named Legishon Ole Longongosho, make, use, and sell these objects to Maasai loibons in the Loita Hills. Shilalo proved to be a fount of information on how objects were made, from what animals the bones came, how the items were sold to the loibons, and how the latter used them. From my field notes, here is an example of his comments: These I have seen [ol-moti, a form of pipe which I designate as form Bl, in Turle's collection though not illustrated in his book], and they were made by [Saleita] Dorobo at Nosubukia. They used to make it the same as the other type [see Turle, pp. 35, 83, form B8]. The difference is just the style. A loibon used to give them [Dorobo] the order of the style they wanted it in. The difference between these two types can be important if the loibon may need to blow medicine silently, then this one [B8] is quiet so you can witch someone with it and they will not hear you do it. While the other type is not quiet. They were being made long ago when I was a boy, before I became a moran [i.e., ca. 1920s]. They were made for loibons of Naikara [in the Loita Hills], for the real loibons, not the pretenders. [Those at] Narosura, Loita, Morijo Loita [all places in the Loita Hills]. Legemurrwai [a

loibon], we used to take these things to him. My father used to trade to the loibons but not me....my grandfather used to go to visit Kimuruwai [a leading Maasai loibon], they were friends. When I was very young my father made things and traded them to Kimuruwai.... He traded only to Kimuruwai, though he [Kimuruwai] may have traded to other loibons. Since June of 1990 I have made two additional field trips to Kenya, part of each trip being devoted to recording more information on this material. To date I know of about 130 different kinds of objects, and of these I have been able to get informant statements on about 70; the remaining may be from more distant regions of Maasailand, or they may be idiosyncratic, found by or fashioned for individual loibons but not representative of forms widely known among Maasai loibons. While research was done primarily in Narok district, informants sometimes ascribed the making or use of some forms to other groups in Kenya and Tanzania such as the Samburu, Sonjo, Kisonjo, and Dorobo groups. There are many more loibons who could be interviewed in Narok District and, of course, in other Kenyan districts and in Tanzania. Undoubtedly other forms associated with loibons or with the Maasai in general will turn up. A preliminary search of the extensive anthropological literature on the Maasai yielded no hint of objects used by loibons in their medical practice. Discussions of loibons center on their history and public ritual activities. The absence of information on their specific medical and magical practices suggests that researchers missed these objects because they did not investigate this area. One loibon, Ole Kisio of Rotian, suggested how these objects could go unreported for so long. He told me: "Only two [other] people can touch a loibon's things—the wife who keeps the things and the beloved son, and the loibon himself. You cannot get into the house where they are. They are secret things so you cannot enter the house where they are."

From interviews with over a dozen loibons, I concluded that these objects served to grind medicine, store medicine, produce smoke for curing, and hold medicine for protection against enemies; they were also used in witchcraft or for lessing. While most were said to have been kept in secret by loibons and therefore were not known to most Maasai, other forms were, and still are, used by Maasai warriors or elders as items of adornment, weapons, head rests or seats, and other utilitarian objects. No

forms were exclusively associated with women. Most were made from bones of wild animals, primarily because of the need for their larger bone size, while some were said to be from cattle, sheep, or goats. Of the wild animals, giraffe was mentioned most frequently, then eland, and less frequently buffalo, elephant, and rhino. Informants identified the horns of Thomson's gazelle, rhino, and eland, as well as the tusks of elephants and wart hog. A number of forms are so reworked that visual identification of the species was not possible. Knowledgeable informants generally agreed that most of these forms were made "long ago," which translated into the time when they were young, i.e., at least 60-70 years ago. Some informants indicated that certain forms were still in use by some loibons. None gave any indication that they were currently being produced. Some specifically stated that they were not being made because of fear of violating game regulations. Others indicated that Dorobo no longer made them or there was no longer any use for them. Loibon Kilumet Latoiya hinted at why these objects are now becoming available when he said: "That [pipe] was from the time of Olonana and Mbatiany [father of Olonana, i.e., ca. 1870-90]. They are sold by the sons of loibons." In recent years the roles of Maasai loibons and morans have decreased; as a result many of these objects are no longer used. This may, at least in part, account for why they were available to those Maasai who have been selling them. I soon learned not to ask loibon informants to show me objects they may have possessed. Some were turned off by my assumption that they might have contraband game products. Others stated that it would cost a lot of money for a loibon to reveal his objects. Still others, without prompting, showed me one or two items. I gained the impression that there are still other forms unknown to me which are or were once extant. Some informants described wood versions of the forms that are currently being made and used, indicating that the bone versions have been going out of vogue. Since my last trip, one of my assistants, a Saleita, has been interviewing elders of his own group about these objects, with significant results. His handwritten notes, now numbering hundreds of pages, reveal detailed information about the forms these men (or their fathers or

grandfathers) used to make, the tools and techniques of production, how they were traded to loibons, and how the latter used them. So, in sum, I conclude from informant statements that the identified forms are ethnographic artifacts with a tradition of usage among the Maasai that is at least a century old. During the last fifty years, however, they have been made in diminishing numbers as their use dwindles. Some specific doubts about the attributes of some of these forms have been raised. Here is what Maasai and Dorobo informants have told me or my assistant about these features. Many of the forms have flat bases which, they say, make it convenient for the loibon to set a smoking pipe down on the ground without having it tip over and spill the medicine and/or tobacco. Some flat bases are not horizontal enough to leave a pipe upright, but one informant showed me, demonstrating with an angular stone, how such a form could be slid into the soil slightly to make it stand upright. The cuts on the flat bottoms of pipes have been said to be the kerfs of modern hacksaw cuts. Shown photos of these cuts, informants, without exception, stated that they were made by a knife or one of the other cutting tools the Dorobo used for this purpose. One Dorobo who had made these objects stated that it was laborious to cut a base flat with a knife, but that was the way the loibons wanted it. On the other hand, fresh bones, they said, are much easier to cut than dried bones. Of the 130 objects in photos which I showed to over two dozen informants, none made any statement questioning the age or authenticity of any of the objects, though some snickered at the ivory rungus (clubs). As John Konchella, former Maasai MP, put it: "These ivory ones are recent. They are not an old thing. Anyone can make them because they like the looks of ivory. These can be twenty years or forty. Once the Narok County Council gave out to senior chief Ol Sengali an ivory rungu and the next day he cut off the upper ball end and made it into a ‘bell' for an ox. That is how little interest Maasai have for ivory rungus." One Saleita elder, on examining a photo of a pipe, remarked: "Even me, I am surprised to [see] this object in the picture again, this is because it is a long time [ago] when we were having these things."

While Westerners react to these pieces primarily aesthetically—a reflection of their own culture's involvement with the abstract sculpture of this century—the Maasai and Dorobo evidently judge them differently. While undoubtedly a series of aesthetic choices were made in the loibon's conception and the Dorobo's execution of the piece, informants never commented on any beauty in the pieces, only on their function and material. It is as if the art in these objects is an expression of a subconscious sensibility, not a self-conscious sense. To them the power in the objects primarily derives from what they do, not what they are. To a Maasai or Dorobo, a Westerner's concern about authenticity, age, and visual appeal may seem almost irrelevant: the object is only as good as the practitioner who uses it. This is certainly not to say these people do not make conscious aesthetic judgments. They do; their interest in body ornament and physical beauty is often commented on by others and by themselves. Donna Klumpp Pido's studies of Maasai aesthetics amply demonstrate their awareness of and ability to make sophisticated aesthetic discriminations. But what the average Maasai knows about these bone objects is far more than what he has seen of them, and so what he thinks of them has mostly to do with how they affect him—how they cure him of illness, how they cause or deflect the malevolent magic of others (witchcraft), and how they save him or his cattle from the malevolent actions of enemies. For the Maasai, these are objects not of controversy but of protection and healing. For Westerners, however, these objects appear to elicit the opposite: desire, envy, resentment, suspicion, and repudiation. Such is also the essence of Maasai witchcraft. It induces affliction upon those who possess and then upon those who would possess. The power to bless and to curse flows in the blood of ten generations of Maasai loibons. Are they now conveying something to those who discover their secrets? I am reminded of what Shakespeare had inscribed upon his tomb: "Blest be the man that spares these bones/ Curst be the man that moves my bones." 2016 addenda Since my field work trips ended in 1993, my Saleita field assistant John Loongushu has continued interviews with Saleita elders who used to make these objects. The results of his and my interviews form a forthcoming catalog of these object with complete quotations from all informants and color illustrations.