Religion and Divination of the Logbara Tribe of North-Uganda. 
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Religion and Divination 
of the Logbara Tribe of North-Uganda. 
By Fr. Egidio Ramponi, F. S. C. 
(Conclusion.) 
Part II. Diviners and divination. 
For reasons above mentioned, here is a general description of divination. 
The word itself means either the implicit or explicit invocation of a spirit, in 
order to have knowledge concerning occult things. 
Atzife ndripi means ‘‘diviner”; one also says Ojogo which means “magi 
cian”. Purposely, I avoid using this latter word, for the former is far more 
specific. 
Koyo yapi is another kind of diviner. 
Buro is a medium of divination. 
Gbagba is an instrument for divination. 
1 will describe these two diviners, and the just how they are initiated into 
their work. A few words will be devoted to an explanation of Buro and Gbagba. 
1. At zif e ndripi. 
The most common diviner is the Atzife ndri-pi and he may be found 
nearly always in a large village. As yet, I have not found a woman using the 
atzife, and I am told that this sort of divination cannot be performed by women. 
When one is restless, melancholy or downcast; if one’s wife fails to give 
birth; or if the cattle no longer give milk; if one is persecuted by another; 
or, if one is under the spell of a witch, then in such cases and in countless 
others, one tries various remedies, and, when these do not satisfy, then, as 
a last resort, one goes to the diviner. 
I would like to say from the outstart, that the diviner in the Logbara 
tribe has nothing to do at the moment of sacrifice; he has no ministerial 
functions whatsoever. Generally, the Logbara diviners are not interpreters of 
this or that spirit, but every diviner can find out by means of his instrument, 
every spirit and his placita. This seems quite different from the Acholi and 
Lango customs, where the Ajwaka is the diviner and the minister of his 
own spirit. 
The Logbara make a clean breast of everything to the diviner. To him 
they reveal their most secret thoughts. They will tell him, for example, whether 
or not they offered sacrifice at the shrine of their ancestors or if some old 
person has been maltreated by them; or if they stole; in a word, they mention 
whatever may produce their sickness or misfortune. The elders have the power 
of the evil eye and so they can make use of this power in punishing those 
who offend or abuse the members of their clan.