igqira, noun2
- Forms:
-
Show more singular agika, gqira, gqirha, igqira, igqirha, igqiya, igquira, inqira, iqika, iquira; singular and plural amaqira; plural amagqigha, amagqiha, amagqira, amagqirha.
Also with initial capital.
- Plurals:
- usually amagqira.
- Origin:
- IsiXhosa, KhoikhoiShow more IsiXhosa igqira (plural amagqira) healer, diviner, smeller-out of witches, from a Khoikhoi word (see quotation 1966).
A traditional Xhosa healer or priest-diviner who, through seances and the interpretation of dreams sent to him by the ancestral spirits, may ‘smell out’ enchantment, and both diagnose and treat disease. Also attributive. Occasionally in the feminine form igqirakazi [IsiXhosa, feminine suffix -kazi]. See also witchdoctor.
- Note:
- Sometimes confused with igqwira.
1833 Graham’s Town Jrnl 8 Aug. 3At the kraal where I belong, a man..was very ill with a pain in his head, when the people of the place sent for an ‘Iqika’ (witchfinder)..to come and see the man.
1990 M. Oettle in Weekend Post 16 June (Leisure) 7All amagqirha believe in God the Creator, uThixo — the name also given in the Church to God the Father — but hold that He has little interest in the affairs of men, and that a family’s ancestral spirits are more directly involved with that family’s day-to-day life.
A traditional Xhosa healer or priest-diviner who, through seances and the interpretation of dreams sent to him by the ancestral spirits, may ‘smell out’ enchantment, and both diagnose and treat disease. Also attributive. Occasionally in the feminine form igqirakazi [IsiXhosa, feminine suffix -kazi].
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