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The Awiakay distinguish between two types of sorcery: tumbi ‘poison’ and emay ‘assault sorcery’. Emay, corresponding to Tok Pisin term sanguma, is a specific form of ‘assault sorcery’ (for more on Awiakay notion of emay and the corresponding Tok Pisin term sanguma see Hoenigman 2015: 31). Like tumbi, it can refer both to sorcery itself or to the one who performs it. By chanting a particular spell, chewing ginger and spitting the resulting substance on their own body, a man or a woman who is familiar with this ritual can invoke the spirits who will give him or her superhuman powers. They will use these powers in order to attack and kill another person. If one has a dispute with someone, this person may resent it so much that they go and find an emay from another village, and ask them to kill that person. Sometimes one does not even know where the resentment came from, so even an apparently innocent person can be attacked. However, a fear of sorcery drives people to try to settle resentments so that they do not escalate into murderous episodes. An emay can change into certain animals or into an unrecognizable person. They can travel long distances in a moment in order to come close to their intended victim. Emay attack a person when he or she is alone in the bush, or even in the house if the person is alone. During the attack the emay turns back into a human, cuts open their victim’s abdomen, removes all the bowels, fills the abdomen with leaves, sews up the wound so that nobody can see it, and tells the person when they will die. This person then returns to the village, but is no longer the same, as their mima maŋga ‘the seat of reason, thoughts and emotions’, has been removed during the malicious operation. They have no thoughts of their own; they can only speak through the power of the emay and they die on the day which was foretold.
After the final design of this string figure emerges, the string figure-maker usually says: “Elakay, emay.” ‘That’s it, sorcerers.’ After that, he/she makes another few moves, and the emay run away. Ambiakan ambla, the Awiakay say, ‘They are running away.’
Images:
02: Darja Munbaŋgoapik showing the final design ‘sorcerers’
03: The sorcerers running away
Hoenigman, Darja. 2015. ‘The talk goes many ways’: Registers of language and modes of performance in Kanjimei, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Canberra: The Australian National University. (PhD thesis.)
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