Pasanta

Pasanta is the founding ancestor of one of the nine exogamous patriclans (kanta) of the Konso. Konso oral tradition preserves no single long-distance migration but recalls a gradual convergence of clans upon the highland from the surrounding Liban, Borana, Dirashe, Gawwada and Tsamai country over roughly the past four to five centuries; the Pasanta are among the lineages remembered as incomers, an expression of the Konso understanding of themselves as a composite people gathered by ritual and by the sharing of land. The clan is headed by a poqalla whose blessing sustains its members and mediates with Waaqa.

Domains

• ancestry

Powers

• Bless the lineage and its land

Sources

• Pasanta is the founding ancestor of one of the nine Konso patriclans, remembered among the lineages that converged on the Konso highland from surrounding country, reflecting the Konso self-understanding as a composite people.: Hallpike, C. R. (1972). The Konso of Ethiopia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, on the Konso as a composite people. (secondary); Konso oral tradition of clan convergence from Liban, Borana, Dirashe, Gawwada and Tsamai country over the past four to five centuries. (primary)