Decoding Omens from Animal Calls and Sightings: An Ethnozoolinguistic Study among the Iraqw of Tanzania

Understanding the interplay between cultural beliefs, language, and environmental signals is crucial for comprehending how communities engage with their natural surroundings. Despite existing research on cultural interpretations of natural phenomena, little is known about how animal calls and sightings specifically predict omens within the Iraqw community in Tanzania. This study examines the Iraqw ethnozoolinguistics of omens, focusing on their role in forecasting social events, both positive and negative, and on how these signals reflect the community’s cultural understanding. A qualitative research design was employed, with data collected through introspection, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews, grounded in ecosemiotic, ecolinguistic, and African animism frameworks. The findings indicate that animal calls and sightings significantly shape the social landscape of the Iraqw, with specific vocalisations and sightings indicating misfortune, such as illness and bad news, while others signal good fortune, including wealth, happy news, fertility, and successful ventures, reflecting the Iraqw’s values and contributing to community well-being. In conclusion, indigenous knowledge in interpreting these signals is vital, and there is a pressing need to describe and document this knowledge within African languages, which is at risk of being lost due to Western scientific dominance, formal education systems, urbanisation, modernisation, disconnection from the biocultural environment, globalisation, and declining use of indigenous languages. Future research should include comparative analyses across different communities and adopt interdisciplinary approaches to deepen understanding of the interplay between culture, language, and the natural environment.