Sawdata
Konso · mortal · Konso traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Sawdata is the eponymous founding ancestor of one of the nine exogamous patriclans (kanta) of the Konso. The clan is headed by a poqalla, a hereditary priest-chief descended from the founder, whose blessing sustains its members and whose ritual work connects the living lineage to Waaqa and to the ancestral dead honoured in the sacred groves. As with the other Konso clans, the name appears in variant spellings across the ethnographic record.
Domains
- ancestry
Powers
- Bless the lineage and its land
Sources
- Sawdata is remembered as the founding ancestor of one of the nine exogamous Konso patriclans (kanta).: Hallpike, C. R. (1972). The Konso of Ethiopia. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (secondary); Watson, E. E. (2009). Living Terraces in Ethiopia. Oxford: James Currey. (secondary)