At the heart of African rainmaking

Abstract

This paper reports on findings regarding one African community that has practiced rainmaking until the early 1960s. Rainmaking among Africans was recorded in 19th century travel writing by imperialist Europeans such as Rider Haggard in his books Ayesha: the Return of She (1905) and King Solomon’s Mines (1985). In keeping with the agenda of imperialism and colonisation, the art of rainmaking among Africans was reduced to writing in a distorted, Eurocentric manner. Therefore, an Afrocentric investigation of the religiouscultural practice of African communities to bring about rain is warranted. It is hoped that the resulting balanced view of African rainmaking rituals will, among others, discourage Eurocentric tendencies of seeing its exponents such as The Rain Queen Modjadji as inscrutable exotica. Rain Queen Modjadji has been immortalised with the same attitude regretted by writers such as Caitlin Davies (2003). Davies (2003) remarks how subaltern victims such as Sara Baartman and El Negro were removed to museums in places like Spain and London as curious exotica to be studied by the “naturalists” of the 1830s. Research into the disappearing phenomenon of rainmaking among Africans should preserve the indigenous knowledge as well as purge it of Eurocentric distortions. A sample of 10 informants was used, determined by the role categories historically known to have been a feature of rainmaking among the African community under the spotlight