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What is sikidy, the seed divination of Madagascar?
Sikidy is a seed divination method of Madagascar, in which an ombiasa (diviner) arranges seeds on a mat or board to form sixteen figures. Its figures are read as named persons and concepts, and the practice is found across the island's regions.
Facts checked on against 5 sources, 3 of them museum, university, archive, library, government or primary texts.
Key facts
Every line comes from a source listed at the bottom of the page. The small numbers point to it.
| 1661 onward | Flacourt's account is the earliest attestation of the term for the configuration Asombola.1 |
|---|---|
| 1886–1909 | Dahle's study Sikidy and Vintana (1886–1888) and Julien's Institutions politiques et sociales de Madagascar (1908–1909) are among the works Kent cites on sikidy.2 |
| 1950s | Diviners Behita, Adanimparay and Mahavaly Daniel were well known in Sambava, Mandritsara and Berenty respectively.3 |
| 1970s | Rabedimy reports being initiated into divinatory practice by ombiasa of the Sakalava-Menabe.1 |
| 1980s | The symbolic reading of the sixteen configurations attributed to Kakay Tsimañadiño of Morondava was collected.1 |
What the practice is
Sikidy is a seed divination practice of Madagascar in which an ombiasa (diviner) works with seeds and a mat or board on which sixteen columns are traced. In Malagasy the word means divination, and it is described as a form of algebraic geomancy based on seeds arranged in a tableau.14
The word sikidy is said to come from the Arabic 'shkil', meaning figure. It names the interpretation of figures formed by arranging kily or fano seeds spread on a mat.3
How the figures are formed
The diviner counts the seeds two by two, and the number used must be even. To form the figures, the ombiasa makes four piles and pulls seeds out two by two until one or two remain, repeating this to build a table of four columns and four lines.3
Anona and Rakotondramavonirina state that the number of possible sikidy arrays is 2^16 = 65536, since each of four columns can take 16 possibilities. The course document reports a simulation counting 15,751 cases of tökan-tsikidy out of 65,536 possible tables.31
A figure is called into when it is the only figure of its orientation group appearing in places P1 to P16, and into are treated as carrying true meaning in interpretation.3
Figures, groups and names
Anona and Rakotondramavonirina report that the sixteen figures of the mother sikidy are named as persons and concepts, such as Talé (consultant), Maly (wealth), Bilady (earth) and Kiba (house), and that combinations follow a rule of two-seed and one-seed addition.3
The course document states that the sixteen configurations are divided into eight princely (mpanjaka) figures with an even number of seeds and eight slave (andevo) figures with an odd number of seeds. It attributes to Zamanisôroño of Antsirabehely the explanation that Alakaosy and Alohôtsy are called migratory configurations because they move with the time of day.1
Ardant du Picq reports that among the Tanala the soul of the dead is represented by the ninth figure, and that pahasivy, meaning ninth, is one of the names given to the soul.5
Regional forms and the diviners
Divination by sikidy is practised in all regions of Madagascar, according to Anona and Rakotondramavonirina. In the north the variant 'Lavatehezana' uses a table of two rows and eight columns read from left to right, while in the South and West Coast it is called 'sikidy dabaray' or 'sikidy be andamaka'.3
Ardant du Picq describes the Tanala ombiasa, also called mpisikidy, as diviners, doctors and sorcerers who hold the sikidy and are the custodians of these beliefs. He describes the sikidy zoria and sikidy polakelatra as combinations made with seeds and nuts of certain forest trees, from which the ombiasa reads the future.5
Anona and Rakotondramavonirina state that in the Sakalava region the tamarind tree that gives the kily seeds is revered as a sacred tree.3
What the tradition holds
How practitioners describe it, in their terms. Described, not endorsed.
Rabedimy and Mangalaza describe sikidy as having an origin in Arabic tradition and as having absorbed contributions from the various ethnic groups of Madagascar over the centuries.1
Ardant du Picq states that the Tanala ombiasa told him the Arabic script, called sora-be, was used for magical formulas and was considered essential for performing the sikidy.5
Ardant du Picq describes the sikidy fasina, in which the diviner spreads a thin layer of sand on a winnowing tray, taps its edges three times to wake the spirits, and traces sixteen marks corresponding to the sixteen figures.5
What the evidence shows
What historians, scientists and controlled tests have found.
Anona and Rakotondramavonirina report that the ombiasa uses sikidy figures combined with plants to make talismans and remedies, and cite Decary (1970) and Rabedimy (1976) as sources on the practice. Kent notes that the ombiasa influenced specific institutions in at least three Malagasy societies.32
A computer simulation by Marc Chemillier and his team found that the Asombola configuration can repeat up to fifteen times on a single sikidy table.1
Worked out from the evidence
Not stated outright by any one source. It is worked out from the sources cited.
- Sikidy is best understood as a rule-governed system of seed tables, in which counting, pairing and figure names are fixed by practice and differ by region.3
Not yet confirmed
- How did the Arabic-derived figure names and the Arabic script come to be combined with the seed tables of the different Malagasy peoples?
- How do the regional variants such as Lavatehezana and sikidy dabaray relate to one another in the history of the practice?
Sources
Museums, universities, archives and primary texts first. Every fact is paraphrased and nothing is copied; Wikipedia is never cited.
- Internet Archive: Cours sikidy N°4 - Anthropologie - Anthropomada. Read on · Primary text
- cambridge.org: Madagascar and Africa III.The Anteimoro: A Theocracy in Southeastern Madagascar | The Journal of African History | Cambridge Core. Read on · Peer-reviewed journal
- redalyc.org: Mathematical Aspects and Beliefs about Divination by Sikidy in Madagascar. Read on · Reference
- en.wiktionary.org: sikidy - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Read on · Reference
- gutenberg.org: The Project Gutenberg e-Book of Le Tour du Monde; Journal des Voyages; 2e sem. 1905; Une peuplade Malgache; Éditeur: Édouard Charton.. Read on · Primary text