Świat „tych o prześwitujących oczach” widziany przez króla Dadilahy Buta
The World of “Those with Luminescent Eyes” Seen by King Dadilahy Buta

Summary/Abstract: A fragment of notes made in the course of independent on-the-spot studies on the chumba cult in the town of Mahajanga on Madagascar. This is an account of one of many meetings with chumba: the spirit of the mpanyak ruler “living” in the body of a medium, as a rule, a woman. The term chumba refers to four phenomena: a cult of the ancestors, a ceremony comprising its core, an intermediary of the spirit, and the spirit of the ancestor. The chumba ceremony takes place upon the request of so-called clients and consists of an encounter with the spirit of a given ancestor, usually a Sakalava by origin. “Meetings” within the context of the chumba cult refer not only to the spirits and the clients, a man (chumba) and a woman (his medium) but also to the past and the present, daily life and the sphere of the sacrum. The titular people with “luminescent eyes” – grammas in the language of the chumba spirits – are the “white men”, the “strangers” and their world of objects, behaviour, and frequently changing fashions. Alien cultural impact, syncretism, and the category of otherness, present in the very source of the Sakalava culture, are based on respect for the dead, characteristic for the Malagasy people. In reference to the chumba ceremony, the ancestors remain the supreme instance not only in the role of those who sustain and transfer Malagasy traditions (fomba malagasy), but also in reference to changes and innovations introduced within its range, the acquaintance of new, earlier unknown behaviour or props.

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