“Hale!” “Halele!”
On Ndzuwani, there are rivers that never run dry, even at the height of the dry season. At the foot of certain cliffs, they form small, dark, cool pools. This is where the sacred eels live, called mwana mroni, “the children of the river”.
No one fishes them. No one harms them. The elders say they are not fish like any others: they are linked to the spirits of the place, and perhaps to the ancestors themselves. Anyone who harmed them, it is said, would bring misfortune upon themselves and their family.
So when people have a favour to ask or thanks to give, they go to the pool. They leave eggs as an offering, say prayers and watch the long shapes glide through the dark water.
At Papani, near Domoni, at Ouani in the sacred well, or at Mamahavuni near Jimilime, people still watch over the children of the river.
What we know about it
The cult of the sacred eels (muhunga or mwana mroni) has survived in several places on Anjouan, notably at Papani (Domoni), at the sacred well of Ouani and at Mamahavuni (Jimilime). Eggs are left there as offerings. These practices, observed mainly in the rural areas of the uplands, take place at ziara, sacred places.
They were described by Abderemane Bourhane in his thesis on the pre-Islamic rites of Anjouan. Cults of sacred eels also exist in Madagascar and on other islands of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. The precise purposes of the prayers vary from place to place and from family to family.
Further reading
- Voices of the archipelago Abderemane Bourhane, Les rites pré-islamiques à Anjouan. Contribution à une étude culturelle des Comores, 2017. doctoral thesis, Inalco.