“comets importing change of Times and States”: ephemerae and process among the Tabwa of Zaire

The study of spectacular 19th‐century comets, as perceived by the Tabwa of Zaire, provides an opportunity to consider the process of symbolization. Firsthand written accounts discovered in archives are complemented by present‐day informants' exegeses. The comet was felt to augur—perhaps to cause—great misfortune. Its symbolism is one of transition and transformation; the prosopopoeic comet was made the subject of allegory, a story form in which multiplicity of interpretive levels allows narrators and audience to reflect upon social analogies of the “pristine volitility and freedom” and the “pure possibility” the apparition was taken to represent. The discussion leads to an understanding of why, as one very old man had it, the comet was Jesus bringing Europeans the astounding technology and other powers that allowed them to conquer and dominate the Tabwa with such ease. No single interpretation of great changes of Times and States suffices to capture them for the apprehension of all people at all times; so must the symbols marking the advent of transition and transformation be multireferential as the creative impulse is given play. [non‐Western astronomy, symbolic analysis, religious change, cosmology, Tabwa, southeastern Zaire]