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Title: Some Nigerian fertility cults
Author: P. Amaury Talbot
Release date: May 14, 2026 [eBook #78684]
Language: English
Original publication: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78684
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME NIGERIAN FERTILITY CULTS ***
[Illustration: Omone, son of Chief Benebo of Buguma, in the costume of
the Peri play]
SOME NIGERIAN
FERTILITY CULTS
BY
P. AMAURY TALBOT
RESIDENT, NIGERIA
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
1927
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW.
PREFACE
The facts collected here are almost exclusively such as came to my
notice in the course of the ordinary administrative work in Degama
Division, to which I was posted in June, 1914.
The region is mainly inhabited by sections of the two great tribes of
Ibo and Ijaw. A full description of these will be given later, but it
appeared best to issue without further delay this little monograph,
dealing with a certain aspect of their religion, the publication of
which has already been long postponed owing in the first place to the
war and then to pressure of other work.
As regards the remaining tribes, the subject will be found discussed
in other books, especially the _Ethnological Sketch_, comprising
the second and third volumes of _The Peoples of Southern Nigeria_,
published by the Clarendon Press. The descriptive parts in the
following pages were written by my first wife.
P. A. T.
_June, 1925._
CONTENTS
PREFACE v
I. THE GREAT DRUM 1
II. MBARI HOUSES 10
III. MBARI HOUSES (_continued_) 26
IV. MBARI HOUSES (_continued_) 40
V. SKY GOD AND EARTH GODDESS 52
VI. IBUDU 65
VII. EKU 82
VIII. THE YAM CULT 99
IX. ALE AND THE ANCESTORS 120
INDEX 138
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Frontispiece_ Omone, son of Chief Benebo of Buguma, in the costume of
the Peri play
1. Ikuru drum at Ihie
2. Phallic serpent (Eke) and tortoise (Naba), Okpala
3. Chief juju at Tema
4. Outside the Mbari House, Omo Dim
5. Clay figure of Ale in an Ibo Mbari house
6. Abara, the messenger of Ale and Amad’ongha or Otaminni
7. Girl ’Mgbe, Otaminni house, Opioro
8. Humorous figures
9. Shrine of Otaminni, Opioro
10. The chief of Opioro, head priest of Otaminni
11. Figure of Mbafor in the Njokku Mbari at Omo Dim
12. ‘Little Moon-face’, Omo Dim
13. Group in Obogwe Mbari house
14. Obukere Club head-dresses
15. Sacred drum used to call together the Obukere Club, Oduaha
16. Figure in Mbari house, Umoyo
17. Wrestling scene (’Mba) in shrine of Amade Onhia and Ale. Shrine
drummers on the right
18. Clay figure of Amade Onhia in an Ibo Mbari house
19. The Guardians of the Shrine, Omogwa and Otamelli
20. Burial scene in Amade Onhia shrine, Okehin
21. The Aroid which grows round about the great Amad’ongha shrine at
Ozozo
22. The shape, surrounded by skulls and draped with blood-stained
linen, which represents the earth goddess Ale in the shrine at Ewawfe
23. Obelli Oduaha Ibudu juju for granting many piccans
24. Ibudu in compound next to Chief Ababua’s, Omo Chuku
25. Headless Ibudu in Omo Alipo compound, Omo Chuku
26. Ibudu at Ogaminni, near Ndelle
27. Ite Uru Ibudu
28. Charm
29. Ibudu Nwa
30. Ibudu Nwa at Ale-Barada
31. Ibudu at Digiriga
32. Ibudu placed before the entrance to Omu Dara quarter of Akpani
33. Ibudu at Akpani
34. Eku at Umo Abale quarter of Omo Dioga
35. Pillars, carved tusks, and bronze torques. Kalabari shrine of
Awome-Ka-So
36. Patterns of the low Eki
37. Group of Eku, near ’Ndelle
38. The Wekwe Eruru
39. The ‘Servants of Ezum Mezum’
40. Clay figures at the base of a cotton tree near Elele
41. Figures at the base of a cotton tree, near Elele
42. The Eni Awsoku
43. Ife Ja Okko or Ife Ajokko at Ogu
44. Chief Eleche with his head wife, standing by the memorial pillar of
the late Head Priest of Aya-Eke
45. Wrestling to make the yams grow. Chief Eleche’s place, Elele
46. Ancestral tablet
47. Shrine of Ojuku juju at Woji
I
THE GREAT DRUM
The outbreak of war seemed a favourable opportunity for discontented
natives to throw off the restraints imposed by Government and return
to old customs, and disturbances occurred in various parts of Nigeria.
One of these took place in Aba District to the north-east of Degama.
We have since learned that the native name for this region is Aba-Ala,
_i.e._ Aba of the Earth Goddess Ale or Ala. Here two messengers
employed by the Native Courts were seized and dragged before the great
drum, described as from 18 to 20 feet in length, which stood in one of
the Juju houses. Later, reliable testimony declared this to have been
one of the principal shrines of the Earth Mother herself.
According to the account given us, the unfortunate victims were forced
to kneel at the end of the long, trough-like base, from the centre
of which the rounded portion of the drum was carved, and their heads
struck off so that they fell forward into the cavity. The drum was then
splashed with blood and the heads, still bearing the uniform caps,
were placed thereon amid the skulls of former victims as a defiance
to British rule, which, the insurgents hoped, was no longer powerful
enough to protect its servants.
Shortly afterwards, a policeman passing through the region with a
prisoner, whom he was bringing down to Degama, was also seized and
done to death. Vengeance, swift and sure, followed these crimes. By
order of the Resident, the blood-stained drum was burnt to ashes and
justice meted out to the guilty persons. The destruction of this fetish
was an act of necessity, since no other measures would have produced
the same effect upon its worshippers; yet the step was taken with great
regret, for the drum was of an interesting type and most elaborately
carved.
Some weeks later our road led us through the town of Ihie, where we
came upon a similar drum, of a kind then new to us. Cleft from an even
larger trunk than the Ibibio big drum at Jamestown, to which it showed
some points of resemblance, the giant bole extended at both ends in a
Noah’s Ark-like base, on which were seated, at either extremity, a male
and female figure--the latter holding a babe in her extended arms. (See
fig. 1.)
[Illustration: FIG. 1. Ikuru drum at Ihie]
We were informed that the name of the drum, and of the cult, was Ikoro
(or Ikuru). One of the chief towns devoted to its worship was Ohambele
nearby. ‘This town,’ in the words of Mr. B. M. Pepple,
has a big Ikoro drum which is highly respected. Before
Government came, they gave it human sacrifices, but now only
goats and fowls. They beat this drum during war time. Any human
head cut off in war is brought and placed on the drum with
blood. No man can see the big Ikoro drum unless he has cut
off a human head and presented it to this. It does not matter
whether the head was got by war or not. The Ikoro play falls
twice a year. The first is called Mkpukpu-Chi (thanksgiving)
and falls at harvest time. The second is carried out in the
farming season, and is called Omehie Ogugu (remembrance of
the Juju Ogugu). Any man in the town has the right to dance the
Ikoro. The big Ikoro is beaten in the house, while the dancers
keep outside. Those men, who had cut off a human head, would
come to the front of the big Ikoro house and play their motion
by raising the sword and telling of the brave deeds they have
done; then they would begin to dance again. The Ikoro drum was
never carried to another town. Before the time of Government
small towns did not make an Ikoro drum. If any small town
ventured to do so, the big towns fought them and seized the
drum.
Detailed examination of the drum at Ihie showed that the ornamentation
carved in relief was of exceptional interest. In the middle, between
the figures of a man and woman rudely enough represented and probably
depicting the carver and his wife, who were usually sacrificed on
the completion of the work, was the carefully chiselled shape of a
great serpent folded round on round. On either side of this, various
symbols were to be seen, several of which were easily enough recognised
as the crescent moon, the sacred crocodile, a Juju horn, and, what
seemed to our eager imagination, a fresh example of the double-headed
axe, but which was explained by the natives as a musical instrument
called, in Ibo, Igilla. The reason why, on closer investigation,
our interpretation rather than theirs seemed to be the right one,
will be stated later. For the moment our attention was caught by
an object quite new to us, the meaning of which we could not even
conjecture. On asking its significance we were told simultaneously and
with like positiveness from two different sides, one that it was a
representation of the familiar tortoise, while the other volunteered
the unexpected statement that it pictured the labia majora, with the
clitoris showing between.
Those who voiced the opinion first given asked contemptuously whether
it was not a matter of common knowledge that tortoise played an
important part in the greater number of Jujus. On this, the second
party subsided for the moment as if abashed by their opponents, but
later one came in private to point out that tortoise is depicted with
the crossed lines which indicate the cracks in her shell, whereas in
this case the small vertical dashes are the conventional representation
of hair. He further explained that the opposition party was right to
a certain extent, in that tortoise herself symbolises the feminine
generative organs, just as the serpent is well known to typify the
phallus.
Till then, the presence of the impaled tortoise before most Jujus,
even remotely concerned with the granting of fertility, had been
more or less of a puzzle; for, although the snake is recognised by
anthropologists as the phallic emblem, no widespread feminine symbol of
like significance appears to have been known here hitherto.
The supremacy of tortoise in most tales of African origin has often
proved puzzling to folklorists. The subject is mentioned in _The Times
Literary Supplement_ of 10th December, 1914:
There is one very curious point which these and other stories
of the kind have in common--that though these professional
jokers, so to call them, have the better of all the animals
with whom they ordinarily enter into a contest of wits, there
is one ... who always has the better of them all, even of the
jokers themselves--the tortoise. He appears under that name
in the translation of the bushman’s tales; he is, of course,
Uncle Remus’s Brer Tarrypin and he has no less credit in South
American stories. Why is the tortoise credited with such
wisdom? One wonders.... Is it just this--that the bright little
up-looking head and eyes, when put forth, suggested the idea of
intelligence? It is something of a serpentine head and we have
read a piece of folklore which tells us that the serpent was
the most subtle of all the beasts of the field.
Surely the meaning of the tortoise symbol, stumbled upon thus
unexpectedly, goes far to explain the difficulty. To the native
mind the ‘serpentine head,’ appearing between the walls of shell,
as naturally pictures the clitoris as does the serpent its male
counterpart. By a train of thought not difficult to follow, this
particular part of the body has grown to symbolise femininity in
general. For Africans, therefore, tortoise stands for the feminine
qualities of persuasion--sometimes, perhaps, not untinged by guile--as
opposed to the more forceful male attributes. It may be remembered
that, in Pliny’s day, a powder made of a whole tortoise shell was
thought to be an aphrodisiac.
A few days later, in an Mbari house close to Okpala market-place, the
two emblems, snake and tortoise, were found modelled side by side in
the very centre of the first row of symbolic figures. Further on at
Obogwe, where the Mbari house is built in two separate sections--the
first, dedicated to the Thunder God Amade Onhia, usually contracted
into Amad-ongha, and the second to his spouse, the Earth Goddess Ale or
Ala--the phallic serpent was found in a position of great prominence in
the shrine of the male deity, while tortoise was seen, modelled alone,
in that of the goddess. Another example in which the two symbols were
found, this time again in juxtaposition, was upon the main post of the
shrine of the Juju Ogboloma at Tema near Degama--one of the principal
Kalabari Jujus. Here, as so often, the two are combined with the figure
of the sacred crocodile.[1]
[Illustration: FIG. 2. Phallic serpent (Eke) and tortoise (Naba),
Okpala.]
[Illustration: FIG. 3. Chief juju at Tema.]
With the new suggestion in mind, the detailed drawing of the sacred
drum was examined, with the result that the emblems carved thereon
seemed to take upon themselves a deeper significance. As already
mentioned, at either end of the trough-like base, sits a male or female
figure carved from the solid wood and distinct from the drum. To the
left, the male, bearing the symbols of manly strength, the sword in
the one hand and the horn, typifying plenty and masculine virility,
in the other. To the right the Mother--her head adorned with the high
coiffure which, among Ibo, designates pride in offspring--a babe in
her outstretched arms. In the centre of the drum itself, in the place
of honour, carved in bold relief, is shown the phallic serpent. To
the left of its pointed head rises the crescent moon--the world-wide
symbol of growth--especially connected with childbirth, since expectant
mothers count their time by its waxing and waning.
On either side, in the one case above and on the other below, are seen,
twice repeated, the disputed signs, in both cases in conjunction with
the old Cretan symbol of the union of the sexes--the double-headed
axe. That the native explanation of the last-named figure was given
in good faith, there is no reason to doubt. It is only another case
of the way in which a symbol has survived long after the loss of its
meaning. Indeed, a certain similarity exists; but, to those acquainted
with native ways, I venture to think that the sharpness of angle marked
in the joining of haft to head, instead of the easy curves called
for by a representation of the musical instrument, is clear enough
indication that the carver was following faithfully, though blindly,
in the footsteps of long dead craftsmen whose work once bore another
significance. A considerable number of examples of the old Minoan
double-headed axe cult were found in other parts of West and Central
Africa.
Besides those already discussed, only three other symbols are shown
on the front of the great drum: viz. (1) the sacred crocodile--the
terrible emblem of West Coast cults such as the Human Alligator Society
and the great Ekoi women’s secret cult of the Nature Goddess Nimm.
Possibly the crocodile sometimes symbolises another plane of being or
the future life; it is a common belief here that many souls live in
crocodile form both during the life, and after the death, of the human
body. There may also be some connection with the Egyptian worship of
this creature. (2) The horn placed beneath the double-headed axe, as
the so-called tortoise symbol is above--considered so powerful an
emblem of virility that even its representation in bronze is supposed
to excite desire, and, held in the hand of a pregnant woman, to assist
delivery; and (3) the figure of a dog--regarded among Ibo and Kalabari
as the means of first bringing fire to earth--possibly typifying
the brute creation in general, or at least that part of it which is
friendly to man.
Among some tribes, especially the Ekkett Ibibio, the tortoise shell is
looked upon as the symbol of the Earth Deity, the goddess of fertility.
The snake is the chief phallic symbol, not only on account of its shape
but also because many species live underground and are therefore taken
to represent the dead, to whose influence the fruitfulness of the crops
is in many places considered mainly due.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. Outside the Mbari house, Omo Dim]
II
MBARI HOUSES
From Aba, we passed through Omo Dim, in Owerri District, to visit the
Mbari house there.
According to Ababua, priest of Amade Onhia at Ibo near Okomoko, the
meaning of the word Mbari is ‘fine’ or ‘decorated.’
The central part of the strange structure at Omo Dim proved to be a
rectangular building with steeply pointed roof and overhanging eaves,
the latter so wide as to make a broad verandah. The walls, forming the
central chamber, were painted with elaborate frescoes, mostly in red
and white upon yellow, or red and yellow upon white. On either side of
the main entrance to the inner, sacred apartment were here, and in most
Mbari houses subsequently visited, figures so strikingly like those
of Omogwa and Otamelli, the two strangely elongated guardians of the
Thunderer’s shrine at Ibodo (fig. 19), as to make it probable that all
had a common origin and were set there for the same purpose, namely to
warn trespassers from approaching the shrine.
To others the people had only answered vaguely in reply to questions as
to the purpose of the building: ‘We make it for nothing, only to please
ourselves.’ The identity of the white figure at the top of the ladder
was explained, as a portrait of the District Commissioner!
We were more fortunate, mostly on account of the energy displayed by
the interpreter, Chief G. A. Yellow, a man of unusual intelligence,
to whom the reason of our enquiries had been explained and who was
far-sighted enough to wish to aid them by every means in his power.
By his persuasion an old chief was induced to come forward and give
somewhat more information. According to his account the name of the
structure was Njokku Mbari, and it was erected in honour of a great
ancestor, long dead, named Njokku and his wife Mbafor. The white figure
at the top of the ladder on the right of the building represented
Njokku himself and, as the chief artlessly pointed out, the birds upon
the rungs of the ladder showed that this was the road by which the
spirit of the dead man had climbed to his place in the sky, whence
he now ruled as a great chief. The fact that he was painted white
signified that he was no longer an earth child but had passed to the
ghost realm, from whence he watched over his descendants who brought
offerings at certain times of the year in order that he might be gently
disposed towards them and grant plentiful harvests. As mentioned
elsewhere, there is little doubt that the word Njokku is the same
as that in use on the Nile, where Jok is the Dinka appellation for
ancestral spirits and the Lango name for God.
On the testimony of a considerable number of Ibo we learned that no
Mbari house is built save at the orders of, and in honour of, one of
the great deities worshipped throughout the Etche country and Owerri
District, namely Ala, Amade Onhia, Otaminni (the genius of the Otaminni
River) called, by the priest of his principal shrine at the Etche town
of Opioro, ‘The Lover of Ale,’ and Oloba, a spirit living in the Owerri
bush. So far as we could hear, the cult of the latter is quite local.
[Illustration: FIG. 5. Clay figure of Ale in an Ibo Mbari house]
The more than life-sized figure, facing the principal entrance to the
enclosure, was explained by the same chief as that of the ancestress
Mbafor, with her small girl-piccan on her knee. It was, he said, the
head priest of Ale, the Earth Goddess, whose shrine is close to the
Mbari house, who ordered the erection of the building, chose out those
who were to raise it and himself directed every detail of decoration.
There seemed, however, reason to believe that the figures of the
so-called ancestors Mbafor and Njokku really represented Ale and Amade
Onhia, regarded, in many parts, as consorts and jointly responsible
for the crops. The resemblance between the figures of the deities, as
here shown, and those admittedly meant to depict the Earth Goddess and
Thunder God in other Mbari houses, is so striking as surely to be more
than a mere matter of coincidence.
It is indicative of the position of Ale that only the head chief of
a town can aspire to become her priest. This is the case with all
dominant Jujus; for instance, Otaminni at Opioro and Amade Onhia at
Ozozo, the parent shrine of the Thunder God’s worship, from which all
other centres of the cult derive their power. The following was the
account given by the Omo Dim chief as to the erection of the Mbari
house:
‘At the time of the new yam harvest the building is begun and,
throughout the first part of the dry season, men and women, chosen for
the purpose by the priest of Ale, work hard at beautifying and adorning
it.’ Only those specially designated for this purpose may take part.
Should anyone not called thereto by the priest attempt to share in the
work, death would fall upon such unauthorised intruders as surely as
that which overtook him who, of old, stretched forth a presumptuous
hand to the Ark.
Before the making of new farms the house must be finished and ready
for the celebration of its strange rites. Later, when the germs of
the new season’s crop--corn-grains, sections of yam-tubers and seeds
of pumpkins, great and small--have been confided to the dark bosom of
Mother Earth, men and maids of the region gather together bringing
gifts, ‘rack upon rack of dried fish, goats, sheep and fowls without
stint, palm-wine in plenty and all else needed for a great feast.’ Of
the maids, who have undergone initiatory ceremonies, a certain number
are chosen by the Ezale (head priest of Ale) to act as priestesses for
the rites about to be held in and around the Mbari shrine.
As to the nature of the ceremonies, the natives were naturally
reluctant to speak; but Mr. Whitehouse, a former District Commissioner,
in a short account published in the _Journal of the African
Society_,[2] declares them to have been of licentious character.
Subsequent enquiries confirmed this, and the nature of the rites is
borne out by the groups of clay figures set both round the central
shrine and beneath the roof depending from the inner side of the
wall, which encircles the whole erection cloister-wise. These images
represent, with remarkable fidelity, the life-cycle of bird, beast and
human being, from the act of procreation--depicted with astounding
naïveté--to the lying down, when life is done, for a last long rest in
the arms of the Earth Mother.
It is noticeable that, though beasts of prey play a great part in the
series, as is only natural under the conditions here prevalent--such,
for instance, as leopard or hippopotamus devouring human beings--these
fierce beasts are shown either as destroyers or as falling beneath
the weapons of the hunters, never in the propagation of their kind.
Harmless or useful creatures, on the other hand, such as fowls, both
wild and domesticated, dogs, sheep,[3] etc., together with human
beings, are depicted first in the act of procreation, secondly that
of giving birth, thirdly suckling their young and later in every
conceivable scene of life. Men are modelled as engaged in hunting,
fishing, canoeing--as police, court messengers, clerks or musicians.
Women are shown grinding cam-wood, arranging elaborate coiffures,
undergoing operations of extreme delicacy from native doctors--every
act of life indeed from cradle to grave, and even beyond, here finds
itself reproduced.
The following account of the raising of an Mbari shrine was given by
Amuneke of Umo Yekki quarter, Owerri:
There are many such houses in our part, and they are starting
to make a new one, in honour of Ala, this month (October 1915)
in my own quarter. First of all, when she, Amad’ongha or
Otaminni, wish for a new house, they send a messenger called
Abara.[4] This is a sort of devil, very dreadful to see! In his
hand he carries a sword, because he is not only the messenger
but also the executioner of Ala. The image at Omo Dim is made
with birds perched upon the four horns on his head to show that
he is of the Sky People and is often sent by Amad’ongha. The
grasses in his hand show that he is also a servant of Ala.
He goes straight to the compound of the head chief (who
is always priest of one of the four great cults already
mentioned). Ordinary people are not able to see him; only
Juju people can do this, but all hear the place shake as he
enters. So soon as the chief knows, from this shaking, that the
messenger has come, he sends to a native doctor who goes into
the little shrine, where he talks to the spirits, and starts
to beat drum. This is a sign to Abara that he is ready to hear
the message. When the devil appears, the Juju man sees him
clearly, listens to the commands he brings and reports them to
the people, saying: ‘The Juju asks for an Mbari house to be
begun on such and such a day.’ Then the head chief chooses out
those who are to do the work, four men and three women from
each compound. These go out secretly at night time so that no
man may see them. If a strong Juju orders an Mbari house to be
built and the people do not obey at once, then at least twenty
men from that quarter will die.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. Abara, the Messenger of Ale and
Amad’ongha or Otaminni]
Before beginning to build, they make a high fence round the
place so as to hide up the work they are going to do. Then they
start to make a long house, called Eki-Wari,[5] in which to
sleep. Across the middle of this a line is drawn. Men sleep on
the one side and women on the other. It would be regarded as a
very bad thing should a woman permit a man to approach her at
this time.
From the moment of starting the work till it is quite finished,
even if it lasts for a year, no one may go home again, save the
one man chosen from each compound to fetch food every day. That
is why four men are always chosen to every three women; because
one is needed to go backwards and forwards on ‘chop palaver.’
During all the time that the workers live inside the fence,
they are forbidden to eat coconut, palm-nuts or cassava. Only
cooked yams and soup may be eaten. Also, they may never sleep
at night time, only by day. This rule is made because no one
must see them when they go out to get the clay from which the
figures are formed. This must be taken from the centre of a
white ant hill, softened with water and carefully kneaded. No
other clay is permitted to be used. So soon as darkness falls,
they must begin to work and keep on till just after sunrise.
When the building is finished, on a day appointed by the Juju,
all people, whose sons or daughters have been working, make
ready for a great feast. After nightfall, they go to the Mbari
house bearing a new-made pot. This must be one never before
used, filled to the brim with clear water. Also they carry
a cock for every son and a hen for each daughter. All their
kinsfolk follow them up to the fence which hides the workers.
Only the fathers and mothers may go inside, while the rest
of the people wait without. Each couple steps, one after the
other, in order of rank, together with the priest, before the
big Juju set in front of the main doors. There the Juju priest
kills a fowl and mixes its blood with water in the new bowl.
Then, with a small wooden spoon, he throws some upon the head
of son or daughter and pours the rest upon the great image to
whom manillas are also offered. At this point the father says:
‘Ubu anyi abiala. Bia ikpe ogu. Anyi
‘Now we are coming. Come judge matter. We (_i.e._ between us)
agi oku awsaw ade pa. Anyi emena nhie icheri.
you words again are no(t). We have done things thought your.
Ubu anyi abiala bia ekpaw nwa anyi. Oku
Now we are coming come to take son our. Words
awsaw adr pa.’
again are no(t) (_i.e._ all is finished).’
After this the mother says (for a son):
‘Ubu-laka nhie oma ka ega enyi anyi na nwam
‘Now things good you are going to give us and son my
makana ihie oma onu oma onu nagi. Nam na
because (he has done) things good work good work for you. I and
dim na ji unwenne na omu umonu na ewu
husband (my) and yam I have and children I born and goats
mwenne nhie oma ka anyi ega anhu afor anhua.’
I have things good make (for) us go see year this coming.’
For a daughter the mother says:
‘Aborolam nwam obi oma. Mejiea na mejieadia
‘I am taking my child (with) mind good. Give gifts to her and gifts to her
husband (for)
onu-ma ka. Aronona ge anyi. Mfu ga ezi ubu-laka
work good your. Have worked for you we. If (I) go out now
afu na nam nhie ojo.’
finished for me things bad.’
So soon as the last word ‘ojo’ has been spoken, the priest
seizes son or daughter and pushes him, or her, towards the
parents who at once catch hold on either hand. All three _walk
backwards_ towards the gate. As the first foot strikes the
threshold, they face round and the relatives waiting outside
catch up the worker without an instant’s delay and bear him
back to his home. No foot of any such may be set to ground,
lest Ala should be vexed.
When they reach the house all join in a great feast, with fish
of every kind, plenty beef and tombo too much! That night the
people tear down the fences, which were put up to hide the
work, and burn them in a very great fire.
Those years, in which a new house is built, the yams grow
bigger in our farms, goats and sheep have more piccans, while
nearly always the girls chosen by the Juju for her work bear
babes fine past those of other mothers. Usually they conceive
soon after the work is finished--often within one or two moons
of the play.
About every five or six years a new Mbari house is raised to
Ala. She has more than any other god. Next in number come
those built for Amade Onhia and still less for Otaminni and
Oloba. I have never heard of any such house being made for the
ancestors, as was said to be the case at Omo Dim. This may be
true for that part; only I know nothing of it.
It is in the little inner room that the god lives. In each of
these a tall stone, shaped like an Ibudu, is set. After making
its face smooth and clean all about, they cover it with a piece
of white cloth. It is into this stone that the spirit enters.
Suppose one man charges another with doing bad things. Then
they bring the accused for night time and lock him up alone in
the small inner room. Next morning, if he be innocent, he walks
forth unharmed; suppose he be guilty, then Juju kills him and
his dead body is carried out at dawn. Perhaps Juju beat him to
death, perhaps kill him other way; but always he die. No help
for such man.
When a big pointed stone is found in our bush, an Mbari house
is always built for it. In places where such things are, the
knives, with which the old people made them, may be dug up out
of the earth. I myself found one such knife at Baro. It was of
very strong stone, hard past iron and curved over in a sharp
point.
At Olakwaw near Owerri one very big stone was found. They
carved it into an Ala figure and built a house for it. This
they put in the place of honour, facing the big door. Also at
Ne-Ewu and Ihuara in Owerri District there are stone figures
of Ala, Amad’ongha, Okpara Ala (the first born son of the Earth
Goddess) and Eke, the great snake. This is the kind of big
snake which lives for bush and always has a shining stone in
its head, such as white people call diamond. It is because of
these serpents that Eke day is said to take its name.
[Illustration: FIG. 7. Girl ’Mgbe, Otaminni house, Opioro]
[Illustration: FIG. 8. Humorous figures]
Images of Ale and Amad’ongha may be carved out of stone or
moulded in clay, but must never be cut from wood like the Agu
Isi (_i.e._ wooden images consulted by native doctors): for so
the Juju orders. Ala has other sons beside Okpara Ala.[6] Among
Etche Ibos and those of Owerri the younger sons are worshipped
every month, four days after the coming of the new moon. They
are represented under the shape of small cut stones such as
were taken from the bad Onye Dibia (medicine man) at Awka.
These stones are always kept in one of the round box stools,
rubbed with cam-wood. The medicine man sits upon the box, then
rises and shows the stones to the people who throw themselves
upon the ground before these, praying for piccans, kids, lambs
and yams. These sons are never represented in any other shape.
No figures of them are to be found in Mbari houses.
Sometimes we call these buildings Mbari, sometimes ’Mgbe. This
last word means a small boy or girl orphan. There are two kinds
of ’Mgbe--those who have relatives to look after them and those
who have none. We call the latter Osu ’Mgbe, _i.e._ the worst
’Mgbe. He is so very poor he can only get food by searching
round the bush for palm-nuts. For this reason his image is
nearly always made with palm-nuts in hand.
In olden days such a boy was always bought by one or other of
the quarters and presented as a slave to the Juju. Afterwards
he might never enter the compound which bought him, but could
go to beg food from others. Sometimes, when he has grown big
enough, he makes himself a little house in one of the corners
of the Mbari. Then people bring yams to him. Sometimes too the
Juju asks for chop for him. If the Juju loves him very much, it
will also ask one of the chiefs to give him a slave wife; but
such a boy may never marry any free-born girl of the town. The
same rule holds for girl orphans bought with money and given
to the Juju. They may take slave husbands, but never marry a
free-born man.
Another figure to be seen in every Mbari house is that of the
ape Ogbango. This is the kind into which the souls of bad Ibo
go after death.
In the Western Etche country these temples are generally called ’Mgbe
houses. Umoyo, the principal place hereabouts, is a queer little
town--or rather two towns--through which runs a single long street,
fenced in on either side by a palisade of posts and palm-leaves. The
houses lie well back, often out of sight from the main road, in gardens
which bear luxuriant crops. At the end of the street stretches a line
of cacti to keep out evil influences.
[Illustration: FIG. 9. Shrine of Otaminni, Opioro]
The head chief Wobilo was friendly to Government, and we had hoped to
gain from him a considerable amount of information regarding the origin
and rites of this singular cult. By an unfortunate accident, however,
some of the principal men of the town had lately been drowned in the
Juju water formed by the sacred Otaminni River just below its junction
with the Ogochi. No sooner were the sad tidings made known to relatives
and friends than the whole town turned against the head chief, saying
that the deaths lay at his door, because he had induced them to
undertake the journey which resulted in their untimely end. In
consequence, Wobilo found himself outcast in his own town and, when
on our next visit we asked a few questions concerning the figures in
the local ’Mgbe house, the chief refused to run the risk of increasing
his unpopularity by giving away information, and we were everywhere
met by the answer: ‘I do not know. We did it for no reason. Perhaps
our ancestors may have had knowledge of these things; but, as for us,
we have long since forgotten, and only copy the customs taught by our
fathers because we believe that by so doing we shall draw prosperity
upon our town.’
The only information we could get ran as follows:
Mbari or ’Mgbe is our Chineke, also our Juju. People from Orata
built the house. At certain seasons girls dress themselves and
come before the shrine, there to dance, eat and drink.
Amad’ongha is a great Juju, but our people do not worship him
much. His proper country is over the other side of the Otaminni
River.
When an Mbari house was to be erected in Etche country, a medicine man
was consulted as to time and place of building. Thereupon he brought
out a human skull--in the old days that of a slaughtered victim,
but since the coming of white rule one sought amid the ‘bad bush’
near his town. Round this were set out the Agu images--always, be it
remembered those typifying fatherhood and motherhood, together with
representatives of the animal kingdom, including ‘dog’ who brought fire
to earth. A cock was killed and its blood sprinkled over the skull and
the little images. Then the magician gave utterance to the supposed
wish of the Earth Mother or Sky Father with regard to the building
to be erected in their honour, by means of which, it was thought,
prosperity of farm, byre and marriage bed might be secured to the town.
At Opioro stands an Mbari house built in honour of the spirit of the
Otaminni River--the only one known to us throughout the Division. The
image of Otaminni is set in the centre of the front side, with his ‘big
relation’ Ala to his right and his three wives Ogori, Ocham and Wujere
in a row on his left.
On the opposite side of the house, in the seat of honour, sits the
Earth Mother again; while, near her, groups of women are engaged in
pursuits set apart by custom as purely feminine. For instance, a
midwife ushers a babe into the world; cam-wood is ground, etc. All the
characters, with which one had grown familiar in other houses of this
type, were here reproduced with one exception, that of ape. An enquiry
into the cause of his absence brought the surprised reply: ‘Ogbango is
here, sir! He stand for middle place at other side of house.’
A visit to the spot indicated revealed no sign of what we were
seeking--only an unseemly group such as is to be found in nearly
all such buildings, the woman bending forward at right angles from
the waist, her head resting upon the square base of one of the roof
pillars, while the male figure behind her was unmistakably engaged
in the Geschlechts Akt. The present head priest of Otaminni, Amade
Onyeche, was at the moment anxious to be appointed to the post of
warrant chief in the place of his late brother. This made him not
only willing but eager to impart information. His disclosures were,
indeed, on certain points rather embarrassingly full. He stated, and
his account was afterwards borne out by those of other Ibo, that the
male figure was not that of a man but of the very Ogbango whom we had
thought absent. In proof of this statement the priest pointed out that,
in its right hand, on the left shoulder and beneath the left arm, the
ape held a round ball, representing those hard fruits which, according
to widespread native testimony, it is his habit to fling at passers-by,
thereby stunning, or even killing, them. This we had already heard from
many parts of the country. At Obogwe it was added that so heavy were
the fruits and so great the strength of this ape that it was thought
he might even succeed in stunning an elephant therewith! Amade Onyeche
continued:
It is customary among our people to take up the position of
this couple for such a purpose, when there is no bed near at
hand. It is forbidden to lie upon the ground, lest Ale should
be defiled thereby. There are many of these great apes in our
bush who, if they meet a woman alone, force her to bear a child
to them.
The same belief, according to Amuneke of Umo Yekki, is held in the
neighbourhood of Owerri. It is probably connected with the idea that
the souls of bad men pass into ape form at death. It appears that the
evil human spirit, confined in the animal body, is thought to take this
means of providing a new form in which to re-incarnate.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. The Chief of Opioro, head priest of Otaminni]
[Illustration: FIG. 11. Figure of Mbafor in the Njokku Mbari at Omo Dim]
III
MBARI HOUSES (_continued_)
In Mbari houses built in honour of Amade Onhia it is made perfectly
clear, as is natural, that the Thunderer himself holds first place,
while his consort is of secondary importance. In the shrine at Omo Dim,
as previously mentioned, the place of honour, facing the entrance, was
occupied by the figure of the so-called deified ancestress Mbafor--a
bowl for offerings sunk into the ground at her feet and her daughter
upon her knee. The face and form of the mother are bright yellow, the
colour of the clay from which she is modelled as are those of Ala in
all shrines yet visited; while the whole body of the child is dead
white, like that of the Thunderer himself, the deified ancestor Njokku
seated above his sky ladder, or indeed ghosts and ‘sky people’ in
general.
On the white of her body five coal-black crescent moons had been
painted; one just above the shoulder, one on the top of the arm and
three down the flank. All, save that on the arm, showed a protuberance
in the centre, exactly in the place where the nose would come when
children draw the face of the man in the moon. The point would not
have been worth mentioning but for the fact that in each Mbari house
visited a peculiar decoration was noticeable, only to be described as
a screen of lattice-work, formed of interlacing human figures. This
was explained as representing the slaves sacrificed and flung into
the grave--or laid there still living, but with broken arms and thigh
bones--to form carpet and bier for the body of the dead chief. It may
well have borne some such interpretation, but this would hardly explain
the fact that, in each case which we came across, one row of figures,
usually the centre one, bore faces the shape of a crescent moon, mostly
dead white and outlined by a deep black rim. At Omo Dim, Okpala and
Obogwe too there is a figure--which is duplicated with more or less
fidelity in several other shrines and which for obvious enough reasons
was named, by my companions, ‘little moon-face’--of the same type as
those in the human trellis work.
[Illustration: FIG. 12. “Little Moon-face,” Omo Dim]
Now the crescent moon is a sign of growth the world over. Ekoi women
come together, beneath her faint beams, to carry out the rites which,
according to their belief, will ensure fruitfulness. Ibibio and Ibo
also hold that her rays are endued with fecundative powers, while
pregnant women count the time to their delivery by her waxing and
waning.
Some few weeks later, in passing through the town of Ebubu in the
extreme east of Degama District inhabited by that strange and hitherto
unstudied tribe, the Mbolli, we came across a shrine of a type such
as we had never before seen. It is carved from a solid block of wood
some four feet high, set in a carefully smoothed clay base, swathed
round the bottom by folds of white cloth and surmounted by an inverted
crescent. The name of this Juju is Obo Esa, _i.e._ in Mbolli dialect
four hundred yams. The reason given for this name is that only full
chiefs have the right to erect such a fetish, to which they must
sacrifice each harvest time baskets containing the given number of
yams. It was explained that Obo Esa is a male Juju--a statement borne
out by the appearance of the symbolic pillar--and to him, at the
cutting of new farms and digging of fresh yams, living sacrifices must
be brought and slain so that their blood is shed upon the clay base,
whence it trickles down over the seven little moon-shaped depressions
to the thirsty earth beneath. These small half moons may well typify
the period during which the yams are confided to the bosom of Mother
Ale--called Nkike by the Mbolli--while the great crescent, surmounting
the pillar, probably represents that of the month of September during
which the harvest festival is usually held.
Considering the close connection between the waxing moon and the
powers of fertility, it is not without significance that personified
representations of the crescent are to be found in each Mbari house,
especially when it is remembered that the shrine of the Earth Goddess
is always close by and that only after consultation with her priest is
the building begun and carried through.
Again, although we were expressly told, as already related, that the
chief figure at Omo Dim did not represent either of the principal
deities, but only a deified ancestress, yet a man present volunteered
the information--it is true, in a highly superior manner--that some old
and very ignorant people held them to be those of Amad’ongha and Ale.
So stupid, however, were such that they even believed the white child,
on the knee of the Earth Mother, to be the moon! As if any but the most
foolish could look upon the moon as a daughter of Earth!
In the Obogwe Mbari house--the only one which we have yet found
built in two separate edifices--the first building was dedicated to
Amad’ongha and the second to Ale, locally called Ala. Our informant,
Omere Madu, was the son of the late head chief who therefore, _ipso
facto_, was priest of Ale. He told us that this goddess was the
dominant power in the town, and that she ordered her priest to have the
two houses built in that place and form--one for herself and one for
her spouse Amad’ongha. In both buildings he sits in the seat of honour,
but in the first alone, while in the second she is seen on his left, in
the same position as that of the figure at Obodo to which her name was
first given, but which was later called Omu Ngwaw, the fruitful mother
(see p. 40).
[Illustration: FIG. 13. Group in Obogwe Mbari house]
In the temple dedicated to the Thunderer, on the left of the central
figure is seen one, the name of which was said to be Eku Nechi--_i.e._
‘the big woman who cooks,’ or more fully ‘who gathers the children of
others around her and cooks for them.’ The figure is seated, supporting
a boy and a girl against her sides; while another pair sits, one upon
each of her outstretched legs. The most singular thing about this group
is that each of the male children bears a crescent moon for face, while
from the necks of the two girls is painted a cloth thickly covered with
white dots. On the wall of the Ale shrine, a fresco may be seen on
which a moon-faced boy is depicted climbing up the right hand side of a
rainbow, painted in black, yellow and red stripes. In such a position
he is supposed to be an envoy from the Earth Goddess, climbing the sky
with a message from Amade Onhia, or, when descending, bringing word
from the latter to the children of men. Beneath, on a black ground, a
crescent moon and stars are shown--the stars represented by white dots
exactly like those painted round the necks of the girl piccans of Eku
Nechi. It is not impossible therefore that here again, in ‘the big
woman who feeds the children of others,’ we have another forgotten
picturing of Ale, the Earth Mother, with her starry progeny.
A singular fact about all the Mbari shrines hitherto visited is that,
in each, figures may be seen, obviously modelled with the express
intention of depicting licence in its most blatant form. Primitive
peoples the world over, however frank in picturing or mentioning facts
treated with the greatest reticence by civilised races, are usually
ignorant of real vulgarity or indecency, since the very simplicity of
manner and treatment robs their statements of offence. The Ibo of this
region, especially, have a code with regard to sexual matters which,
however lax according to our ideas, is yet strangely strict in some
directions. According to them four of the most evil things are:
(1) For man and woman to lie together on the earth, since this is
thought to defile Ale. Among Kalabari indeed the idea is carried so
far that no woman is allowed, under any circumstances, to seat herself
upon the ground. In the absence of stool or convenient tree-trunk she
must stand. As already mentioned, according to chief Amade Onyeche, the
position adopted by Etche Ibo, when no bed, mat or cloth is available,
is for the woman to stand bending forward at right angles from the
waist, while her lover stands immediately behind.
(2) Connection is absolutely forbidden during the hours of daylight, or
even at night time when a light is burning in the room; also at any
time in the bush or in a farm, where there is no house.
(3) It is the height of impropriety for a man to have relations with a
woman who is not clothed in the prescribed custom.
(4) For a husband to attempt to view the genital organs of his wife is
regarded as so serious an offence as to be considered valid ground for
divorce. In a case brought before me in the Degama Native Court, the
claim ran: ‘To demand freedom of marriage on account of peeping.’
In every Mbari house yet visited, however, figures were seen modelled
with the obvious purpose of expressing a breach of one or other of
these rules. In most of the buildings groups were found in which the
feminine figure was shown partially lying on the ground--in a position
impossible to any human anatomy and therefore, it would seem, so posed
as intentionally to express direct rebellion against the generally
accepted rules of decency.
An official of high rank, who was the first Government representative
to visit this region, described to me a shrine which he saw about
twelve years ago, near Ingaw in Owerri District, where certain points
were even more naïvely depicted than by those erected in the present
day. Among the more noticeable groups were men in the act of copulating
with a sheep and antelope respectively. As regards the latter animal,
it is not without interest to recall that, according to several
accounts from well-informed sources, ancient Yoruba custom ordained
that, after the kill of his first antelope, a young hunter must have
connection with the still warm form. Possibly some such rule obtained,
or maybe even yet exists, in these regions.
The group of men and sheep seems to point to the existence of a like
custom among Ibo as one learns, on good authority, prevails among the
neighbouring Ijaw, with whom the chief feature of male initiatory rites
consists in each boy proving his manhood, before a circle of elders,
upon a specially selected sheep. Should he be unsuccessful, he must
wait until the following year and is prevented from marriage until
after having passed the test. From certain information it would appear
that one of the principal centres, where this rite is carried out, may
be found on a southern creek in the neighbourhood of Kula.[7] It was
naïvely added that the sheep ‘never go ’gree to this and always vex
too much’ when the rite was carried out. Later, a similar custom was
reported from among the Ekkpahians of Ahoada District.
It is true that every Ibo or Kalabari who mentioned the subject was
eager to state that Ekkpahians perform this rite ‘merely out of
badness; for no proper reason at all.’ Yet, though it is unfortunately
not permitted me to give a single name as authority, it would appear,
after very careful weighing of evidence, that the practice has been
exacted from time immemorial as a test of manhood. Both Ibo and
Kalabari also asserted that unnatural vice is extensively practised
among this people, though rare with other races of the Division; but it
is only just to state that the practice appears to be carried on not
for the purpose of sensual indulgence, but, in some cases at least,
from the idea, held among certain Australian tribes, that such customs
increase the race by magical means.
That the practice is not held in as great detestation throughout
Ekkpahian and neighbouring territory as among other tribes is proved
by the more or less casual manner in which the matter was mentioned as
well as from one or two Court cases. It will be enough to quote that
heard at Omokku on January 20th, 1913, in which Atoma of Erema charged
Okereke of Idu with indecent assault. In the course of her evidence
plaintiff stated on oath:
About three months ago accused came to my father’s house to
have connection with him. At that time I went to bed....
_Question by Court._ When he came to your house, where did he
stay with your father to have connection?
_Answer._ Outside the house.
_Question by Accused._ What date did I come to your house?
_Answer._ Orie day.
_Question by Court_ (_to father_). Was accused your friend?
_Answer._ No.
_Question by Court._ Did accused ever come to your house and
have connection with you at night?
_Answer._ Yes. He always come to my house and prosecutor saw
him.
Among Ekkpahians and the Abuan, as well as with the Western Ikwerri,
elaborate, two-storied buildings may be seen, upon which the wealth and
utmost resources of the town have been lavished, even to stained- and
patterned-glass for all the windows. My attention was drawn to these
buildings by a man high in the medical service of the Protectorate,
with the information that they were erected for the practice of
unnatural vices. This was later confirmed from native sources with
the addition that they were the homes of the Obukere Club and that
the customs were of religious significance. The fact that such habits
exist is, unfortunately, too well known to be worth mentioning, were
it not for a few words dropped by one of the chiefs and intended in
extenuation of the practice. ‘It is true,’ he said, ‘that the custom is
a very bad one; yet aged men tell us that it was taught in olden days
as a very great magic _whereby our flocks and herds might be multiplied
and made strong. Even, it is said, the crops in the farms are increased
thereby._’
The idea was confirmed by another chief who however insisted that it
was only a tradition from the olden time--held by dead men, very far
away--and he did not think that any such belief was prevalent nowadays.
He also added, cautiously, that this form of vice was far less indulged
in at present than was formerly the case.
The information fitted in with that already gleaned concerning the
supposed efficacy of phallic shrines set up amid the fields in order to
secure plentiful crops.
As a result, further information was sought concerning the cult of
Obukere, one of the most interesting of whose lodges was discovered at
Obelle Oduaha. An avenue, half a mile in length, every trunk of which
bore a sinister-looking smear of cam-wood dye, led to the house. At
the entrance to this grove it opens out into a cleared space, from the
centre of which springs a clump of trees smeared with deep bands of
red and hung round with white cloth. Behind these rises a giant ant
hill, while round their roots a mound of earth about five feet high
was piled. Amid the rich mould and fallen leaves stood votive pots and
bowls, among which bundles of young tombo palms just bursting from the
parent kernels, were to be seen, mostly enclosed in wrappings of broad
green leaves bound round with tie-tie. This clump of trees is regarded
as the abode of Obukere himself. Here members of his cult assemble to
carry out the rites. Before his dwelling-place the worshippers cover
their faces and, thus veiled or masked, go in procession through the
sacred grove--the tree trunks of which, down to the smallest sapling,
have been fresh smeared with the symbolic blood-red cam-wood. In these
regions Obukere is regarded as the great giver of fertility to all in
air, water or upon earth--fish, animals, plants or men.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. Obukere Club head-dresses]
[Illustration: FIG. 15. Sacred drum used to call together the Obukere
Club, Oduaha]
All lodges of this club as yet visited show a peculiar development in
the highly conventionalised animal head-dresses which are worn for
plays. In the Otu Obukele (house of Obukele or Obukere) a big shed made
of solid wooden posts, at the Abuan town of Okobaw, some head-dresses
of unusual type were found; among them representations of antelopes,
porcupines and the ‘increase of the Sky people,’ typifying the sky
world above that of men.
Round the lodge at Obelle Oduaha were seven phallic shrines six of
which were of the usual pillar type, while the seventh showed a
featureless head, arms and legs indicated in the roughest manner,
and only the distinctly feminine organs modelled with any care. The
position of these shrines in close proximity to the house of Obukere
worshipped with the avowed purpose of increasing fertility in man,
animals and crops, can hardly be regarded as without significance.
Within the house were two objects of interest--a xylophone in the shape
of a canoe manned by eight figures, stated by the chief to have been
specially designed to express ‘joy’ and raise feelings of pleasure
in those who behold them; and an object which strongly resembled the
Ajokko-Ji or king yam shown to us at Oppe, separated by the sacred
crocodile swamp from Alessa, and which will be more fully described
later on page 99.
The drum used at Oduaha to call together the members of the Obukere
Club was said to have been brought from Abua and to have been made
for the Sekapu Club, connected with the spirits of fish, crocodiles
and--in this part of the world--land beasts. It may be only a whim of
the carver that the figure of the woman, depicted with rounded body as
a sign of pregnancy, should be joined to that of the sacred crocodile.
Drums of similar type were later found among Abaw Ibo.
[Illustration: FIG. 16. Figure in Mbari House, Umoyo]
[Illustration: FIG. 18. Clay figure of Amade Onhia in an Ibo Mbari
house]
[Illustration: FIG. 17. Wrestling scene (’Mba) in shrine of Amade Onhia
and Ale. Shrine drummers on the right]
IV
MBARI HOUSES (_continued_)
In nearly all towns of importance in the Etche country, elaborate Mbari
shrines are to be found, built in honour of the Thunder God. In most,
just within the principal entrance, may be seen the seated figure of
the deity, white from head to foot, and bearing in the right hand a
sword, spear or bayonet, and in the left an imitation of one of the
old stone axe-heads, thought by natives to be thunder bolts, or one of
the long iron sceptre-rattles, or possibly another sword or dagger. By
his side sits his consort, to whom various names are given, most of
them apparently synonyms for the Earth Goddess Ale, Ala, Ana or Aja.
At Ibodo we were told by one informant that the figure represented
Ala--Bride of the Bladed Thunder. The more general Ibo idea as to her
identity was confided by the head priest, Achongwa by name, to chief G.
A. Yellow: ‘That,’ said he, ‘is Omu Ngwaw, wife of Amad’ongha.’
Omu Ngwaw is literally ‘the children (or young leaves) of the tombo
palm tree,’ _raphia vinifera_. Now, when a woman has given birth to a
first or second babe, the days which she spends in seclusion are often
called by the same name, while the word for fruitfulness itself, or
giving birth, is Omumu. The connection thought to exist in primitive
minds is the probable reason why young palm-leaves are in such evidence
before the shrines of all beneficent Jujus; the half-unfolded frond
stands as type and symbol of fruitful motherhood.
On floor and walls, serpents twine and twist; hippopotami hold men
half devoured in their mouths, leopards stand over new-slain goats,
elephants wave long trunks or fall to the guns of hunters, apes climb
or swing, and fabulous creatures disport themselves on every hand. A
clerk counts his money on a little table. Two wrestlers may be seen
locked in one another’s arms[8] and a native doctor anoints the womb
of a woman patient with a feather dipped in oil. In short, so far as
in them lies, the whole life-history of the people is here reproduced
with infinite pains and care. As in the Owerri Mbari houses, the
head-dresses of the women are most elaborately rendered, while the
modelling of a ram’s head and of one small monkey which sat devouring
a corn-cob were extraordinary samples of artistic skill. Again, a
peculiar feature of several of these were figures obviously modelled
with the intention of expressing the feeling of joy. It is probably
only a coincidence that so many of the figures of Ale show much
enlarged navels--the ὀμφάλος of the Earth Goddess.
In all these shrines the mural decoration is not painted, but applied
to the walls like a gigantic piece of Cloisonné--clay, tinted with
various dyes, being filled in between strips of raphia palm which serve
to outline the design exactly as does the brass edging the enamelled
leaves and flowers of the above-mentioned ware.
One of the most interesting of the temples visited lay some two and a
half miles off the main road near Ibodo and was approached first by a
narrow bush-path and later by a broad way over-arched by great trees,
the branches of which interlaced overhead to form a clear translucent
twilight even at noonday. As we passed beneath the fern-fringed,
orchid-decked boles, the sky was overcast and the sun already low in
the west, while the voice of the Thunder God might be heard in the
distance--a low, threatening note in the twilight.
When the village of Omako was reached and we approached the shrine, the
sun was just setting. Blue smoke rose from amid the strange figures,
over which flames flickered and danced from a little fire tended by an
old, old woman, who among such uncanny surroundings was quietly cooking
her evening meal. She was the ‘slave of the Juju’ who had sought his
protection as a refuge from oppression untold moons ago. Her whole life
is spent amid the weird figures which she guards and serves, lighting
fires during the rains that the soft clay may not be melted nor the
roof and wood-work rotted by damp and mould--though, strangely enough,
it is strictly forbidden to make the slightest attempt at repairing
when cracks appear in figure or wall, however much care was expended on
the building of the shrine.
So near to one another are the figures that the little sleeping mat
of the attendant could hardly find space to be stretched out in
between. Their eyes were set with fragments of looking-glass, which
twinkled and gleamed in the most life-like way, as the flames rose and
fell. How many years the gentle old slave, with her soft voice and
deprecatory gestures, had served the Juju, none could tell. She herself
seemed to have lost all memory of any other life; but the dim eyes
brightened at the gift of tobacco leaves and the gentle voice followed
us, still calling Ndeawo--the common word both for ‘thanks’ and for
‘greeting’--as we went away.
In every case which we have seen as yet, the Thunder God wears a
sharply pointed black beard. In many instances little rattles hang from
his neck or are attached to a spear or staff held in his hand, while a
cluster of bells is slung from a rope usually passing over the right
shoulder and resting on the left hip. In one place his feet were set
upon a curved bar of iron which had once been gaily painted and was
said to represent the rainbow. It is with the rattles that he produces
the roll of his thunder, while the bells strike together to form the
clash and bang of each separate peal. The type of figure was identical
with that of the so-called deified ancestor Njokko, seated at the top
of his sky ladder upon each rung of which ‘air people,’ _i.e._ birds,
were perched.
It is perhaps not without significance that, upon either hand of his
throne, two slender pillars the shape of an elongated torch and each
bearing a bird, are set.[9] These are small and vaguely modelled, but
it is possible that they once represented the eagles of Zeus--which,
among Ibibio, are still sacred to Obumo, the Thunderer.[10]
At Ibodo, on either side of the door of the central shrine--the ‘holy
of holies’ which only the priest can enter unscathed--we first noticed
the two strangely-shaped figures which are also to be seen guarding the
inner sanctuary of the Owerri Mbari houses. They were thus explained to
us:
‘These are the servants of Amad’ongha. Their names are Omogwa and
Otamelli. The first’--with spread tresses--‘is calling up the tempest
by striking on her mouth.’ (This action was later described, at another
shrine, as ‘cleaning her teeth with a bush stick!’) ‘The second is
about to loosen her hair which floats around her in the storm-wind
darkening all the earth’--a possible picturing of the rain-bearing
clouds.
Omogwa’s left hand is stretched out to warn intruders from
entering the chamber which she and her sister Alose are set to
guard, lest thereby the wrath of Amade Onhia should be drawn
down upon the trespasser.
In former days, when men had offended against the law of the
Juju, they were brought by the priests and shut up within the
shrine. Then, in the night time, came some fearful thing to
torture them to death, perhaps by beating, perhaps in other
ways. At any rate the body of the offender was always borne
forth at dawn and shown to the trembling people as a sign of
the fate which would overtake any who dared disobey the law of
the Thunder God or the commands of his priests.
[Illustration: FIG. 19. The Guardians of the Shrine, Omogwa and
Otamelli]
As already mentioned on page 20, this custom also prevailed among
the people of Owerri. Near the two Alose, on each side of the inner
entrance, are small holes in which offerings of kola are placed when
people come to ‘bless the shrine’ or ask for special favours.
In the neighbourhood of Ibodo and indeed all over the Etche country,
according to the testimony of chief Achongwa, it is customary before
cutting palm-nuts to offer sacrifice to some specially tall trees, one
of which will be found in every compound. These are named Amad’ongha’s
palms, because the people say that those, which reach very high,
are nearer to the deity. Men who neglect this rite find that their
palm-nuts do not produce much oil. Later, we found that the custom was
also practised by Aro and a row of the trees--here known as the palms
of Kamalo, the name given by this people to Amad’ongha--was shown us
in the compound of chief Ogunda at Azu-Miri near Nkarahia. In an Aro
compound at Ozoaba each tree had a tall palm-leaf tied against its
base, the top leaflets cut off straight and surmounted by a scarlet
parrot’s feather, an egg, etc.
At Ibodo, from the Thunderer’s shrine to the corner of the rest-house,
stretches a sacred grove beneath the shade of which native pots and
other offerings may be found. Here, during the dry season, a number
of small mats of plaited palm were seen, each bearing an offering
of goat’s flesh. It is perhaps worth mentioning that, among Ibibio,
curtains of plaited palm-leaf are hung before holy pools and groves
or round the trunks of sacred trees. The plaited part is said to
represent the rainbow, while the long fringe from the lower edge
typifies the rain itself.
In the grove at Ibodo beneath one of the trees, peeled, short-branched
wands--the symbol of lightning--were still standing, and we were told
that formerly many such had been set up in other spots. When these rods
decay, the power of the Thunder God is said to pass from them into the
nearest tree. Once drawn within the many-forked branches, the ‘mana’ of
Amad’ongha fades not with the fading of its first frail tenement, but
is drawn into the vegetation around, growing and spreading with each
new season’s boughs.
At the far end of the sacred grove stands a tree such as we had never
seen elsewhere, of which the crowded panicles of single petaled
flowers, deepest crimson in colour, swayed to and fro in the breeze
amid dark quivering leaves, or fell earthward in showers, like drops of
new drawn blood.
One night, at the beginning of the tornado season, we were sleeping
in the neighbouring rest-house, when a storm arose with the appalling
suddenness usual at this time of year. The wind tore at the frail
palm-leaf roofs, while rain lashed in through open window- and
door-frames, flash after flash was followed, with scarce an interval,
by crash and roar so deafening that for a long time all other sounds
were drowned in the awful tumult. As the storm began to pass away,
another sound made itself heard in the lengthening intervals. Each
lightning gleam was followed by a burst of trumpeting, as though the
followers of the storm god had come together undaunted by the force
of the tempest to hold a play in honour of their great deity. It
is impossible to give any idea of the impressiveness of this act of
worship. From out the impenetrable darkness, between long lines of
rain, like a sword from its scabbard leapt the dazzling flash. The
branches of the sacred grove moaned and swayed, bitumen dark against
this more than daylight brilliance; while, from beneath their shade or
from the neighbourhood of the shrine, each burst of flame was answered
by a blare of savage trumpets, the sound of which merged into the roll
of the sequent thunder.
So long as the storm lasted the strange music continued, broken now and
again by the cries of the terrified cattle, which rose in chorus from
countless byres and were hardly distinguishable at times from the rude
horns blown by their owners.
Save for the fact that the outer colonnade, which gives accommodation
to further groups of figures in Owerri Mbari houses, is absent,
wholly or in part, from many of the Etche shrines, the buildings are
practically identical in type. Many groups are to be found, save for
the smallest of details, exactly reproduced in each, and it is owned
that freedom of intercourse between the sexes is allowed in the cults
of both Ale and Amade Onhia at certain seasons, with the idea that this
will have the effect of increasing fruitfulness not only among the
human inhabitants of the town but also in farm and byre.
The connection between the two cults was indicated by a practice which
still obtains at Omo Chuku, a quarter of the town of Ibo near Okomoko
inhabited by Etche Ibo. The principal chief of the place, Ababua by
name, is also head priest of the Thunder God and, by the local law of
the cult, is only permitted to eat in a hut which stands by itself in
the middle of his compound. In this, all the dried yams and seed corn
are stored and there too is his Ajokko-Ji or king yam, here represented
by a basket filled with yams and skulls.
Each wife cooks in turn, and the one who has prepared the meal serves
it and is permitted to partake. Should the priest so will, son or
daughter may be invited to join in the repast; but none may do so
without special permission. The chief himself sits upon an elaborately
carved stool, but the others place themselves humbly upon the ground
or on small logs. The doorway is curtained by a fringe of young
palm-leaves which are never allowed to wither.
The son of chief Ababua, who accompanied us for some distance, stated
that his father might never eat of the new season’s yams for at least
two months after this was permitted to ordinary men. As chief priest of
Amad’ongha, Ababua was also obliged by ancient law to perform certain
ceremonies to his personal god as well as to the special protectors
among his ancestors--the shrines of which are placed just within the
threshold of his Obiri (reception room)--before allowing any portion of
the new season’s yams or corn to pass his lips. It was explained that,
by taking his food amid the seed set apart for planting, the priest
was thought to endow these with special fertility by the power of the
Thunderer whom he served.
Not far from the little dining hut, a small, highly decorated mud house
was to be seen, consisting of a dark inner chamber opening from an
outer porch-like one. The chief explained that this was the local Mbari
house and that they built it each year--making the mud walls gay with
shells and brightly coloured plates because their fathers had bidden
them do this in order to draw down prosperity upon their people. He
added, somewhat hastily, that no special rites were carried out and
that the structure got its name only because the word means ‘fine’
or ‘decorated’--probably from its decorations or, perhaps, from the
gay robes, beads and brass ornaments worn by the women when gathered
together there.
All round the compound the much-branched, peeled wands sacred to
Amad’ongha are to be seen. Beneath one of these, two pottery drums were
placed, one half embedded in the ground and one above. By the principal
shrine before the main entrance a curious adjunct was noticed. From a
sapling, cut so as to form a fork, hangs a large oval calabash. Between
the prongs a farm hoe is held, while beneath it two tortoises are
impaled. The explanation of this given by the chief was that one night
his god ordered them to be placed beside the shrine. The combination
of objects, taken in conjunction with the fact that this priest of the
Thunderer may only eat amid the seed corn and yams, suggests that this
is another of the many Jujus for augmenting the fertility of the farm.
It is not without significance that, beside that of Amade Onhia, the
only other shrine of importance in Omo Chuku is dedicated to Ale.
At Okehin, the Thunderer, instead of occupying a whole building, is
only given the front verandah of a house. At one end was to be seen the
figure of a mother with a new-born babe in her arms; at the other, a
group representing a corpse laid in the grave with a pot of offerings
beside it and a pet monkey watching at the foot by the seated figure of
a woman. The pot of offerings usually contains a small plate, knife,
pipe, tobacco, snuff and bottle of gin, rum or palm-wine. Between these
two groups representing birth and death stands the figure of a medicine
man, a magic horn in his right hand and a Juju knife in his left.
In niches cunningly contrived in the rear wall, or upon the low clay
ridge which separates the verandah from the road, carefully modelled
birds sit upon nests of interwoven twigs, containing eggs, tinted or
speckled in close imitation of nature. Small monkeys climb the pillars,
dogs mount guard, while the phallic serpent twines and twists between
all.
[Illustration: FIG. 20. Burial scene in Amade Onhia shrine, Okehin]
V
SKY GOD AND EARTH GODDESS
Among Etche Ibo, especially those to the west of the Otaminni River,
Amade Onhia has practically usurped the place of Chi, the Creatrix,
and reigns as supreme deity. For months after our arrival, we were
invariably told by natives of all parts of the Division that the
Thunderer was distinct from his brother Igwe, Lord of the Bright Sky.
Later on, while collecting information concerning rain-making by
magical means, it transpired from the words of the invocation used
that the two originally symbolised different aspects of the same
personality--Zeus of the thunder, lightning and storm cloud, Lord of
the dark sky as well as the bright. Now, though most people regard them
as separate deities, the old idea has not yet died out, especially
among rain-makers.
Formerly, it is said, Igwe was more generally worshipped than at
present. This was explained as due to the fact that the God of the
Bright Sky only gives advice by his oracles and does not ensure wealth,
health or special good fortune to his votaries; while these additional
gifts may be obtained through prayer to Amade Onhia.
In January 1915 good fortune led us to Ozozo, where stands the greatest
of all shrines of the Thunder God--a temple not made with hands--the
sanctity of which is so great that pilgrims come thither from hundreds
of miles. Until now its existence had been carefully guarded from
the knowledge of Europeans, and the chief priest had so far avoided
coming into contact with any white man of the few who had visited the
neighbourhood.
Early next morning we set out to seek the place of pilgrimage. The
way led through a part of the bush set aside for the reception of the
corpses of the unburied dead. At intervals the road was strewn with
cowries, while ghost-offerings such as pots, broken that their astral
forms might be set free for the use of the shades, and lengths of
cloth, faded by sun and rain, were to be seen in the bush on either
hand. Here and there, too, a long, narrow crate formed of palm stems
was passed, half covered by the dense undergrowth. In these the bodies
of the unblest dead had been borne to their last resting-place,
thence to be flung forth for vultures, ants and other carrion-feeding
creatures to work their will upon--leaving but a handful of bleached
bones for the luxuriant vegetation to cover with its charitable mantle.
Through these ill-omened shades we hurried, only stopping to pluck
a new flower, the white cups of which together with masses of their
strangely flattened calices had been found strewing the pathways of
the beautiful Oban District, but hitherto it had been impossible to
secure any leaves owing to the height of the trails, which had eluded
discovery amid the network of giant branches to which they clung. Here,
in the glade of the unburied dead, the path was festooned from side to
side with spray upon spray, rich in flower, fruit and leaf.
[Illustration: FIG. 21. The Aroid which grows round about the great
Amad’ongha shrine at Ozozo]
Thence we crossed the market-place and, by a network of many mazy paths
made apparently for no other purpose than to mislead chance-comers,
reached an open space shaded by giant cotton trees and heavy-scented
Monodoras. In the low bush round about sprang great aroids, said to
be connected with the worship of the Thunder God’s children. It is
possible that the idea is due to the phallic-like appearance of the
central spike, the long, thin, basal flowers of which give it somewhat
the look of the Schlange im Schilf--the Pangwe description of the
phallus.
At the further end of the space lay the compound of the head priest,
its open sheds full of cult objects but deserted; for the priest and
all his family had fled at our approach.
Towards the near end of the cleared space two paths branched off, one
on either side of a great clump of trees, the gnarled roots of which
stretched right across as though barring the way. These two paths
join later by a second group of no great size, which has sprung up
round the riven base of a forest giant, the remains of whose trunk,
lightning-scarred, may still be seen stretching far out into the bush
beyond. Some few yards away a palm-leaf screen is placed across,
shutting off the cleared space from the priest’s compound. In the midst
of the screen a little erection like the door-frame to a miniature
house may be seen thickly plastered with the blood and feathers of
sacrificed fowls. For about seven feet before this the ground is broken
as though continually disturbed, and here and there in the soft sand
depressions may be found as though round-bottomed water-jars had been
set therein. This was explained as follows:
When pilgrims come hither bringing the appointed gifts, the
priest first makes sacrifice and afterwards calls aloud the
special favour which the worshipper has come to ask. Should
Amad’ongha be favourably inclined, so soon as the prayer is
finished, the roll of his thunder begins to sound, no matter
how clear the sky. Then, with a great crash, a ball of stone
about seven inches across falls from the blue overhead. This
is the sign of the god himself, come down from his home in the
clouds to bless the earth-folk.
In vain we looked upwards, expecting to see branches which might serve
to hide these mysterious missiles. Nothing was to be seen above but
slender twigs tossing a delicate tracery of scarce open leaves against
the blue. On the far side of the fence, however, stretched part of the
high priest’s compound; so, if the means by which the seeming miracle
was worked baffled discovery, the probable agency, at least, was not
far to seek.
Later we learned that the name of the priest was Chioma Madume, and
after some difficulty we succeeded in overcoming his dread of meeting
a white man--a matter which had hitherto been considered as tabu. He
was even persuaded to come with his two assistant priests to visit us.
He proved to be a strange and somewhat pathetic figure, borne on a
rude litter, thin, pale and with only one foot; the other, according
to his own account, had ‘rotted away and dropped off.’ The skin of his
two attendants was of that peculiarly vivid red occasionally met with
in these regions. This appears to bear out Sir Harry Johnston’s theory
of an original red stock, but is explained by Ibo as showing that
man or woman so marked out is a child of Amade Onhia. Both among the
last-named people and the Kalahari the law of the Thunder God ordains
that all such shall be devoted to his service and become ‘slaves of
the Juju’ unless ransomed by their family for a heavy sum. A sister of
chief G. A. Yellow was thus chosen on account of the redness of her
skin but was afterwards ransomed.
Chioma Madume gave the following account:
I myself have been priest of Amade Onhia for seven years.[11]
Before me my father, Madume, held the office for about the
same time and before him my grandfather, Odu Kerin, ruled--I
cannot tell for how long.
Our god is a very great god and is the only one throughout this
region who gives a visible sign of his presence. When he wishes
us to sacrifice or perform ceremonies for him, we ask a sign
whereby we may know that this is really his will. In answer he
sets a rainbow in the sky. When he descends into the shrine
before the screen of plaited palm, the rainbow comes down also
and hangs just above the place, thereby showing his presence.
Many thunder stones fall there and the holes in the ground
before the shrine are caused by something which falls from the
sky, denting the earth; but it is invisible. No man has looked
upon its shape.
(This assertion is in direct contradiction to the statements of
pilgrims, who declared, as above related, that the holes were caused
by stone balls, roughly speaking, seven inches in diameter, which
fell down from above. It was, however, explained by one of the chiefs
present that it was probably unlawful for the priest to describe the
mysterious missiles--the outward, visible sign of the Thunder God’s
power.)
Chioma continued:
Amade Onhia, like Ale and the Aro Chuku Juju, is against all
those who act contrary to native custom. The Thunder God sends
down his bolt to strike such sinners; so, when a man is killed
by lightning, people always know that he has done some bad
thing. Witches and wizards specially dread his power and never
dare to go out during a storm.
It was explained, in all seriousness, that the reason Amade Onhia so
often sends his lightning to strike tall trees or hill tops is because
he is jealous of all things which seek to raise themselves near to his
kingdom. Only the birds may venture safely into the sky realm. The
children of earth should keep close to the breast of their mother. The
idea seems contradictory to that held among some Etche Ibo and Aro
as to the efficacy of sacrifices made to the so-called ‘palms of the
Thunder God’ mentioned on p. 46.
With Amafa Ibo this jealousy is thought to be developed along curious
lines. Among this people it is forbidden for a woman to climb to any
height, up a tree-trunk or even over the top of a wall or fence. So
strictly is the tabu enforced that ‘civil war’ actually broke out
among this people because the late chief Oosi, father of the present
head chief of Amafa, built himself a ‘story-house,’ _i.e._ a two-floor
building raised above the ground upon a foundation of piles--and
allowed his women to go up and down the stairs. That this superstition
obtains also among Isokpo Ibo is shown by a complaint brought before
me by two men of Nkarahia as to the treatment accorded them by the
chiefs of their town who were enraged because they had ventured to
build themselves a ‘story-house,’ to the top rooms of which they
allowed their women to climb. The chiefs declared that this endangered
the safety of the town; for, should Amade Onhia hurl his bolt at the
offending structure, peradventure he might punish the whole people for
this disregard of his laws by two of their number.[12]
[Illustration: FIG. 22. The shape, surrounded by skulls and draped with
blood-stained linen, which represents the earth goddess Ale in the
shrine at Ewawfe]
At sacred places, such as the shrine at Ozozo, the grove at Young Town
or the sacred bush at Ngeri-Baw-Ama, no leaf may be picked nor branch
broken.
To every one of the great Jujus slaves can run throughout the
Ibo country and become its servants, after which no man has
power to take them back without paying a great sum of money
to the priest. In some cases even this is forbidden. In many
parts of the interior such slaves can go into the market-place
and take anything they want without payment; for no one dares
touch them. After living for a long time with the Juju, they
might sometimes go free; but could only go back to their native
town at their own risk, for there their masters could recapture
them. Amad’ongha and Ale have special power and their shrines
are often placed near to one another, because this is pleasing
to both, since they work together.
Perhaps the central part of Degama District may be looked upon as
that where the worship of Ale holds chief sway. One of the strangest
of her shrines lies at Ewawfe, in friendly nearness to church and
school. Between them, more to the rear is a great, open shed, with
elaborately fringed, corrugated iron roof. Beneath this are several
clay pillars of the Ibudu type, before one of which some beautifully
wrought torque-like bronze manillas lie amid a heap of smaller ones.
A few yards off stands a small mud hut containing a figure of Ale
indescribably gruesome with its strangely-shaped skull, its folds
upon folds of blood-stained linen and the streams of blood poured and
splashed over the supporting logs and the skulls and clumps of feathers
thickly strewn around.
At this town it is customary to store all seed yams, etc., in the huts
built for carrying out the rites of the ancestors--to whose care the
germs of the new season’s crops are thus entrusted.
Indeed, amongst many peoples here, the dead are thought to be more
powerful even than Ale for the granting of fertility, especially as
regards the crops, which is not surprising since they are supposed to
live under the ground between incarnations on earth. In most parts,
however, the fertility of the marriage bed, of the byre and of the
crops is deemed to be chiefly due to the great Mother Goddess of the
Earth. The duty is usually delegated to some of her subordinate tribes
of Jujus and it is the members of one of these who are responsible for
placing in the womb of the mother the spirit of the being about to be
born on the earth plane. There is no ignorance here as to the necessary
part played by the human father and mother, but their action would be
fruitless and conception impossible without the help of the gods or
jujus.
At the neighbouring village of Ogbokoro the chiefs were anxiously
waiting to speak of a serious trouble which had befallen them. One of
the schoolboys had broken the fence round the principal Ale shrine and
stolen therefrom a quantity of manillas out of the mass of such which
were to be seen, half smothered in feathers and congealed blood, upon
the mud altar. On being assured that such desecration would be severely
punished, the head chief answered:
This is a good word for us. We feel this thing very much. Ale
is our mother and our god; all that we have comes from her, and
without her gifts we must indeed be lost.
As already mentioned, it is indicative of the reverence in which the
Earth Goddess is held, that only the head chief of a town can aspire
to be her priest. It is not without significance that the same rule
holds with regard to the principal shrines of Amade Onhia. Only after
pilgrimage to Ozozo may subsidiary lodges be erected, while the shrine
of Ale is usually found nearby.
Where Amad’ongha is paramount, he appears to arrogate to himself the
functions of Igwe, the Ibo sky god proper (cf. p. 52), thus following
in the footsteps of his Grecian prototype, ‘Zeus, God of the bright
sky,’ who is also ‘Zeus, God of the dark sky’; and it is in this
capacity, as Lord of the drenching rain-storm, that he fertilises his
consort the Earth Goddess.[13]
Of these mystic spousals of Earth and Sky perhaps the most beautiful
picturing of all is to be found among the Ekoi of the South Cameroons
and of Oban, Southern Nigeria.[14]
A curious link between the worship of Ale and the bearing of babes came
to light one morning just as we were leaving Isokpo waterside, a market
town of some importance on the banks of the upper New Calabar River.
A long, shadeless march, by roads as yet practically unknown to white
men, lay before us. We had risen at earliest dawn in order to place
the first miles behind before the sun should add to the burdens of the
carriers, when, just as we were setting forth after seeing the last
load safely started, a complainant arrived with a letter appealingly
held out in both hands. It was entitled ‘To his Majesty the District
Commissioner. _Re_ Wansumu _v_. Egeom. 17th February, 1915,’ and ran
as follows:
Sir,
I have the honour, most respectfully, to lodge this my humble
complaint before your kind worship....
I am living in the defendant’s town because it is my mother’s
city. Deceased is my brother.... His death took place in that
month during which it is forbidden to die. By our native
custom, should any one disobey this law, heavy expenses used to
be paid before that person might be buried. Defendant knew that
the place I am residing in is a mother city, yet he allowed me
to perform all the ceremonies on behalf of the deceased Wawesi
without assistance....
Leaving this for your discretion
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
WANSUMU (his X mark).
On reading this document, it struck an ignorant white man as somewhat
strange that there should be any month ‘in which it is forbidden to
die.’ On this point the complainant stated:
The man died in the seventh month of the year. Now according to
our native law and custom no unmarried man may be buried during
the seventh moon of the year. Should any die at that time, none
may take notice of his passing and no relative may show sign
that a death has taken place; for the seventh moon is the month
of our mother Ale and by her law it is forbidden for anyone
to die during this holy time. Most of all does she forbid the
death of the unfruitful, whether man or woman. The bodies
of such must be thrown away with all secrecy and may not be
buried. The only exception to this rule is in the case of a man
belonging to a very rich family. Then, in consideration of the
property left, some of the relatives may undertake the expense
necessary for carrying out his funeral rites. Should a man die
during the holy month of Ale many purificatory ceremonies must
be gone through. This law extends over the whole of our country
lying round Isokpo part.
When questioned on the subject, chief G. Yellow owned that a similar
‘rule’ exists among Kalabari, but is only enforced during the day on
which an Owu play is given. He added that the prohibition as to burial
applied also to those who die of certain diseases. ‘When such people
die,’ he said,
a certain mark is visible upon the body. The flesh of such an
one looks decomposed, whereon people say ‘Ale has forsaken
him!’ Such bodies must be carried far from the town and, if
buried at all, it must be a long way from the haunts of men.
When a woman dies in childbirth, her death is concealed for
the same reason, since to pass away before bearing a babe is
displeasing to Ale. In such a case, a corpse must be carried
forth at night secretly through the back door of the house.
Young maids and pregnant women may never see the body of one so
accursed. By native law all the property of the dead must be
destroyed by fire, lest the ban of sterility should pass to any
who might afterwards make use of such things.
Among Okrikans, during the seven days on which the feast of the Earth
Goddess, called by this tribe Elechu, is held, a similar rule obtains.
Should a man die, he may not be buried but must be flung away into the
‘bad bush’ set apart for such outcasts. Only if the family be rich
enough to support the cost of the purificatory ceremonies necessary
before the goddess can be appeased, may the dead be laid to rest in
the breast of the Earth Mother--thence, like sown seed, to spring forth
to new life. The spirits of the accursed corpses flung into the place
of ‘bad bush’ on the other hand become Akalagoli or Ekwensu and on
such the gate of reincarnation is closed for ever. They haunt waste
places and lonely creeks, seeking to harm those who still dwell in the
sunshine. Specially at noon or midnight is their evil power most to be
dreaded.
Should pot or bowl be let fall, or wooden implement broken, during the
feast of Elechu, the sherds must be piled in a heap upon which is flung
the body of any animal which should die during the festival. So large
had these mounds grown in many cases that they formed a serious menace
to the health of the town and proved no inconsiderable difficulty in
the way of an official with leanings towards sanitation. It is to a
mixture of good fortune on the one hand and reasonableness on the part
of the Okrikans that the trouble is now, for practical purposes, a
matter of past history.
Among Ibibio the burial of women dying in childbirth is also forbidden.
These were borne forth, through a hole purposely broken in the house
wall, to be flung away in the bush, lest their barrenness might have
ill effect upon the fruitfulness of the Earth Mother.
VI
IBUDU
To those who pass through the country with open eyes it is obvious
that the phallic cult is very strong among Ibo. Where the Ibibio had
contented themselves with a plain mud pillar, set as emblem amid the
farm, Ibo take special pains in modelling not only a personification of
the symbol, but in showing unmistakably that the circumcised phallus is
intended to be represented.
Among Ibo, as with the ancient Egyptians also, the feminine, as well as
the male, genital organs are worshipped. Both are rudely depicted under
the title Ibudu--a name which embraces the chief protective Jujus[15]
erected in town or compound, the primary purpose of which appears to be
the granting of piccans, though most also act as protector in general
to the family or village of which they are the fetish, and bestow
fertility on farm and byre. The feminine part of the Juju is usually
in bell shape, instead of the pot or calabash form found among Ekoi
and Ibibio. It generally shows the high coiffure only permitted to Ibo
women after the birth of a babe. The nose is often joined to the base
of the hair ridge and the impaled tortoise, already explained as a
feminine symbol, is as a rule seen in the foreground.
Perhaps the most convincing testimony to the efficacy attributed to
the feminine genital organ is a carefully carved representation of
the labia, which was explained as having been one of the most sacred
objects in a great Andoni Juju house, whence it was taken by a man who
had no idea of its significance. In course of time it came to my notice
and was subsequently added to our collection.
An example of the simplest form of phallic pillar may be found in a
compound next door to that of Ababua, head chief of Omo Chuku. Save for
two roughly modelled feet at the base, no attempt was made to add limbs
to the column, down either side of which a row of rough wooden pegs had
been driven. It was explained that each man of the compound inserted
one of these on taking a wife, so that the Juju might have a constant
reminder of the need to send ‘plenty of piccans’ to their hearth.
[Illustration: FIG. 23. Obelli Oduaha Ibudu juju for granting many
piccans]
[Illustration: FIG. 24. Ibudu in compound next to Chief Ababua’s, Omo
Chuku]
[Illustration: FIG. 25. Headless Ibudu in Omo Alipo compound, Omo Chuku]
In another quarter of the same town, in front of Omo Alipo compound, an
Ibudu may be seen of which the pillar represents a body from the loins
upward--the hands, so roughly modelled as more nearly to resemble feet,
resting upon the circular base as though in the act of lifting the
upper part through from the earth beneath. The figure is headless; only
the end of the central pole and the twigs and tie-tie forming the core,
round which such images are modelled, protrude from the broken rim. It
is perhaps worth remarking that this pillar, like some to be mentioned
later, combines both male and female attributes, somewhat in the
style of the Indian Linga.
Perhaps the most highly conventionalised of all such images is one to
be found in a shrine built in a prominent position on the main road,
just outside the Omo-Ofo quarter of Ndelle. This represents the male
part of the Juju. At the other end of the shed a smaller figure is to
be seen, bell-shaped and showing feminine symbols. This is typical of
most of those intended to represent the feminine creative power, though
one of a type more nearly approaching the male form of Ibudu was found,
later on, in Chief Wokogg’s compound at Omo Akani, Owerri District.
Just beyond the shed containing the two phallic pillars, a couple of
shrines may be seen, one on either side of the main road. That on the
right is built in honour of the Juju Onru-Ji (farm yam). This was
explained as ‘one very big woman spirit, all same Ala.’ In the ground
were many knives and pieces of iron, said to have been placed there by
order of the priest who declared that the Juju needed them.
[Illustration: FIG. 26. Ibudu at Ogaminni, near Ndelle]
A little further, on the opposite side of the road beneath an
arbour-like cutting made in the thick bush, was a piece of white baft
stretched between two posts. This is set up in honour of Onru Ka’n Ala,
stated to be the husband of Onru-Ji. The chief of the quarter explained:
Both of these Jujus are strong too much. Therefore we never
swear a man on their name, because, should he even hesitate
to tell the truth when brought before them, the spirit of one
or other would strike him dead at once, giving no time for
repentance! It is a very strong rule for our part that both
Jujus must be dressed by the people of Omo-Ofo before they may
eat new yams.
[Illustration: FIG. 27. Ite Uru Ibudu
_See page 71_]
At Aloa, a town in the centre of the Division, a shrine is to be seen
containing a fetish, the like of which is not, to the best of my
belief, to be found elsewhere in these parts. It is in the corner of a
room set apart as sacred to Chineke, the Creatrix, in the compound of
Chief Wegu, and consists of an oblong block, terminating in a carefully
modelled representation of the male genital organs, raised upon three
steps. To this the owner makes sacrifice every month, usually at the
time of the new moon, in order that ‘plenty piccans’ may be born to
those of his house.
[Illustration: FIG. 28. Charm
_See page 71_]
A somewhat similar fetish was found among the Ale Nsaw Ibo in the
shrine of Chief Idu of Oborotta raised upon a clay step in the angle of
the wall at the right hand corner. This consisted of two small round
pots fixed neck-downward into the clay, while between them protruded a
piece of wood, roughly phallic in form, on the upper surface of which
two miniature Offor sticks were bound lengthwise and side by side.
The object of this fetish was to bring prosperity in general and, in
particular, many children to the compound.
A Juju, intended to represent a woman’s body from the waist downward,
was found among the same people. This was called Ite Uru, _i.e._ pot
of gain, and was supported at the rear by the wall and in front upon
two roughly modelled legs. It formed the principal cult object in the
shrine of Chief Okuroji of Obokoffia and was set up by the grandfather
of the present head of the house, but had been freshly decorated (fig.
27).
[Illustration: FIG. 29. Ibudu Nwa]
Another Juju for bringing ‘plenty piccans’ to the house and for making
them grow up fine, strong and tall--also for giving long life to its
owner--was hung up to the roof over the main door of the head chief’s
house at Ndelle (fig. 28). The arrows were planted so thickly that one
could not see of what the oval groundwork was made.
At Ale-Barada, a charming town to the west of the Upper New Calabar
River, never before visited by a white man, and which, as its name
denotes, is under the special protection of the Earth Goddess, a Juju
is to be found, called Ibudu Nwa, _i.e._ Ibudu for children. This
occupies the centre of a rectangular shrine and is set beneath a canopy
of tie-tie, attached to the roof, from which depend inverted pots,
the shape of a shallow bell, each with a twist of gay-coloured cloth
swinging, clapper-wise, from its centre. Beneath these hang fringes of
palm-leaf, so long, in places, as almost to sweep the market-basket
placed upon the neck of the strange, headless figure beneath (fig. 29).
On marriage, before going to the bridegroom’s house, each maiden of the
town is brought by her friends to this shrine and, bending before the
image, dips her hand into an earthen pot filled with ‘medicine’ which
is placed there in readiness. Then she rubs her hands over the Juju,
after which she laves them in a small bowl filled with pure water.
Again she passes her left fingers over the image and afterwards over
her own body; ‘for’ as the head chief explained, ‘Ibudu Nwa is a very
strong Juju in our town and will surely grant fruitfulness to all those
who carry out these rites. So we were taught by our forefathers and
this we believe even to-day. Should any man doubt, he has but to look
round and see the many piccans which are born to our town.’
[Illustration: FIG. 30. Ibudu Nwa at Ale-Barada]
Between the upraised arms, resting upon the place where the head should
be, is a market-basket, full of dried roots, seed yams, etc. Outside
the shrine, each protected by a small shed, were two unusually large
phallic pillars, to which bridegrooms bring offerings. Across all,
from post to post, rising like Venetian masts, were long chains made
from linked rings of creeper, from which hung, at intervals, inverted
bowls with gay-coloured strips of cloth waving to and fro in the
breeze, like those decorating the canopy of Ibudu Nwa. To the left
stood a great tree, its trunk hung round with white cloth, the reputed
home of a powerful and beneficent nature spirit. Before the principal
shrine sprang little saplings of the bush which Ale first brought when
she came swimming through the wide waste of waters to form the first
abiding place for her children--men, beasts, trees and flowers.
Altogether Ale-Barada is a charming spot and the manners of the sons of
the soil were unusually gentle and friendly. They willingly answered
every question, in striking contrast to the inhabitants of the next
town, Oduaha, where a Juju of somewhat different type is to be found.
This was sullenly explained to us as without name and only used for
protection--‘not to give piccans.’ The canoe upon its head was likewise
stated to have been put there ‘only to look fine. Not for any purpose.’
At Omo Hume, a quarter of Omo Dioga, another Ibudu was found, which
was said to be intended as a representation of the Earth Goddess, here
called Aja. In a little clearing to the right of the main road stood a
shrine of unusual size, sheltering two phallic pillars. The smaller of
these, placed in front and a little to the left, was obviously female
and smeared with blood from the breast downward. The rear figure bore
no name save ‘Husband of Aja,’ or at least none other was confided
to us. So tall was this that it filled the whole space from floor to
roof, looming, colossal and with a certain impressiveness, from out the
shadows at the back of the shrine. Between the two, on either side, lay
a piece of plaited palm-cloth, black and white, such as widows wear in
some parts; while two deep fringes of palm-leaf were hung before the
entrance, screening the strange, rude deities within from the glances
of passers-by.
It was explained that the cloths were those of barren women, and had
been laid at the feet of Aja and her spouse in the hope that, when
resumed by their owners, the ban of sterility, imposed through the hate
of some rival, might be broken by the power of the fertility-bestowing
Earth Gods.
[Illustration: FIG. 31. Ibudu at Digiriga]
[Illustration: FIG. 32. Ibudu placed before the entrance to Omu Dara
quarter of Akpani]
At Bush Digiriga again, a small town to the east of the Sombreiro River
inhabited by Abuan people and never before visited by Europeans--a
Juju ‘for the obtaining of piccans’ is to be found, which in many ways
resembles the Ibo Ibudu. About this particular fetish, however, there
are certain points which we never met elsewhere. In addition to the
high coiffure--a recognised symbol of femininity--the head is provided
with a square beard in shape like those false ones worn during certain
dynasties by Egyptian rulers, especially queens reigning in their own
right. It is perhaps worth noting that, while the arms of the figure
are mere stumps, without any attempt to reproduce hands, and the feet
are so rude as to be almost shapeless, the phallus is modelled with the
utmost care, showing that in the minds of its makers this detail was
of very special significance.
Outside the entrance to the Omo Dara quarter of Akpani, an Ibudu of
unique type may be seen, one looking-glass eye twinkling in the middle
of its head beneath a ring of feathers set crown-wise in the clay.
Before it, to a four-branched post, a medicine-pot was bound.
In the midst of the quarter, beneath a little palm-leaf hut, stands a
group of Ibudu. The largest of the pillars represents the female, the
smaller the male, attributes. They are modelled seated back to back--a
prostrate leopard lying to the left and a crater-like mound, containing
a pot for Juju medicine, to the right. Chief Woke Abara, head of the
quarter, gave the following explanation:
‘Formerly it was very hard for us to get children. Nearly all our women
were barren, so we raised the two Ibudu, one male and the other female.
Since then we got plenty piccans in our town.’ He added that the
‘leopard spirit’ helps the Juju to prevent the deaths of children. The
small cone in the foreground and the headless animal lying in front of
this were the work of the few children then existing.
[Illustration: FIG. 33. Ibudu at Akpani]
With regard to the figure of a leopard, it is perhaps worth remarking
that the ancient kings of Benin were wedded, in mystic spousals, with
a leopard bride. Also, among those Ibo dwelling in the group of towns
round Igrita, the spirits of the righteous dead often take up their
abode in leopard form while awaiting a new term of earth life, but
those who enter into crocodile, ape, or bush cat, are regarded as for
ever accursed.
Amid a branch of Kalahari settled at Oguta in Owerri District, a type
of Ibudu is to be found, not, so far as our knowledge goes, to be met
with in other parts. Each of these emblems consists of two sphinx-like
figures, one male and the other female, facing different ways but
joined together by a ridge of clay, which forms, as it were, the back
of the sphinx.
At the Ibo town on the far side of the beautiful Oguta lake, we came
across another phallic pillar combining the figures of the dual
personality, male and female, of the Ibudu Ezum Mezum. As in the case
of the Ale shrine, described on page 74, the consort was nameless,
bearing no designation save that of husband of Ezum Mezum. The figure
representing him held the place of honour at the base of the column
which symbolises the joint attributes of the Juju; while, at a height
almost double that of the husband, towers the face of the wife. On
either side of the pillar, out-topping the male figure from the neck
upwards, climb two great crocodiles; while placed here and there, at
irregular intervals, human heads stand out in high relief.
Chief Onomonu, the owner of the shrine, told us:
The Ibudu Ezum Mezum is mostly worshipped at Amaii in Abaw
District and priests came thence to build this shrine for us.
It was made at a time when a great sickness was raging in our
town, in the hope of staying this scourge, granting protection
and prosperity in general and especially to help our people in
the bearing of piccans.
At its installation, about twelve years ago, the Abaw doctors held a
great ‘smelling out,’ and, in consequence, decreed that the epidemic
was caused by the witchcraft of the six _richest_ women of the town,
who must therefore be put to death and their property be made over to
the medicine men! When informed of their doom, the victims refused to
acquiesce and were therefore beaten to death in the market-place.
The number of heads, modelled at irregular intervals over the pillar,
corresponds to that of the victims thus slaughtered at the inauguration
ceremonies--four at the back and two in front, between the sacred
crocodiles. All are liberally smeared with blood poured upon the heads
and trickling downward. This is the only example known to us at the
time in which an Ibudu is so represented as to show the dual creative
forces, male and female, combined so as to form a single pillar. Many
Ibudu were later seen among the Abaw Ibo of Kwale District, where this
particular type of symbol would seem to have reached its greatest
development.
The phallic figures, above-mentioned, are, however, by no means the
only examples met with in West Africa of the mingling, in one object,
of male and female symbols. For instance, the emblem of the greatest of
all Ekoi Jujus, Eja, unmistakably combines the two. Here, the phallus,
represented with the uttermost pains and fidelity, is the sign of the
harvest god himself, while the bowl-like object to which it is attached
represents the womb of his wife Ekumoke. The united symbol stands upon
a base formed of wide-open human jaws.[16]
Among the Ekoi, both in the South Cameroons and Southern Nigeria, as
indeed throughout the greater part of the West Coast generally, a pot
or calabash is regarded as a feminine symbol, and it is of considerable
significance that traces of male semen have been found in no
inconsiderable number of the pots set before Ibudu images and in other
Juju shrines throughout the Ibo country. This fact is vouched for by a
medical officer.
In the ritual chant sung by Ekoi at the festival of Eja, which is also
the feast of the first fruits, the names of the combined deities are
always invoked:
Man Eja! I am staying with you.
O, I am staying with you!
Ekumoke! I am staying with you.
O, I am staying with you!
Of these two deities it was expressly stated: ‘Eja is male and the most
strong. Ekumoke is less strong than Eja; nevertheless without her help
he can do nothing.’
During the annual rites a woman was formerly sacrificed and the
genital organs cut out and laid in the sacred pot, which contains the
‘medicine’ of the cult. Since the coming of Government it has naturally
become increasingly difficult to obtain this necessary ingredient, and
it was a matter of grave anxiety on the part of the priest lest the
power of the Juju should decrease in consequence.
Amidst some of the eastern Ibo sub-tribes and the northern Semi-Bantu,
the ancestors are represented by small clay pillars or mounds, clay
balls or round or pointed stones, before which sacrifices are made and
prayers offered for the granting of fertility, especially at the two
great festivals of the year, the planting of farms and the harvest.
In those parts of the country where rock is available, _i.e._ among
the northern Yoruba and Semi-Bantu, many stone monoliths may be found,
some of which are unmistakably phallic, while others are used not only
for this worship but also as ancestral memorials. In fact, the two
cults are inexplicably mixed, as is natural when it is remembered that
amongst these peoples fruitfulness is, to a large extent, attributed
to the forefathers. Some of these memorials date back many hundreds of
years; a fuller description will be found in Chapter XVII, vol. ii, of
_The Peoples of Southern Nigeria_.
In the club-houses of the great Ekkpe secret society the sacrifices
are made before a phallic monolith, which represents the former
members of the club as also the tutelary deity, while in, or near, its
base are generally placed rounded pebbles, the symbol of the Earth
Goddess. A similar monolith is worshipped amongst many of the Bantu and
Bafumbum-Bansaw as a representation of the supreme deity.
[Illustration: FIG. 34. Eku at Umo Abale quarter of Omo Dioga]
VII
EKU
All over the western part of the District a strange rite still obtains
which is obviously only another manifestation of the phallic cult. As
there are local differences it will be necessary to describe separately
the peculiarities of each centre.
By the roadside near Umo Abale, a quarter of Omo Dioga, half hidden
amid grass and creepers, we came across a crowd of figures formed of
sun-baked clay, cone-shaped and painted black. Further on, in front of
almost each compound, smaller groups were to be seen, usually arranged
at the base of some Juju tree, or round a sapling of the sacred Ogrisi
(_Dolichandrone_ sp.). In several cases circular moulds of baked clay,
much like an old-fashioned spittoon in shape, lay nearby. It was
explained that upon these the girls of each compound, after undergoing
the initiatory ceremonies preparatory to marriage, set the food cooked
as an offering to the Eku, as the phallic figures are called. This
word is also used to designate the cones of baked clay used to support
cooking-pots. Should any girl, after arriving at the age of puberty and
being inducted into the feminine mysteries, neglect to set up such an
image each year, about the time of making new farms, until she becomes
a member of her husband’s house, no babes would bless their union.
In one or two cases a slight amount of decoration, formed by lines
drawn with the fingers in the soft clay, has been added; while here and
there an attempt was made to surmount the cone by what was explained as
a representation of the high head-dress only allowed to Ibo women after
the birth of a babe. Mostly, however, the images showed nothing more or
less than a simple attempt at depicting the phallus.
About a month later, at the house of Chief Ugwa in the Oturu quarter
of Akpani, Eku of a still simpler type were found, together with clay
pot-rests of much the same shape as those already described; while
just outside, in the bush by the roadside, we came upon some thirty or
more phallic figures, the tallest and frankest yet seen. Some stood on
circular, some on rectangular, bases; but on each the membrum virile
was modelled with especial care.
It was explained that every year, when making the more elaborate
pillars, each betrothed girl fashions several of the plainer type,
a foot to a foot and a half in height. These are said to be used as
‘strong Juju on which to swear people.’[17] Three of these are borne by
each maid to her bridegroom’s compound, there to be presented to the
chief woman of the family, by whom they are set together to support
the pot in which food is cooked for the future husband. When ready,
this is poured into a native bowl and placed upon the clay ring.
After marriage, the bride comes to the new home and herself cooks her
husband’s meals upon the same three pillars prepared by her own hands.
It is not without significance that the trinity of cone-shaped pillars,
with cup-like depressions, raised before the Kalahari Nduen Fobara
(ancestral shrines), into which libations to the forefathers are poured
every eighth day, are of almost identical type. At Oru-Sangama, an
ancient town on a creek leading into the San Bartholomeo River, we came
across two of these small cones modelled within a circle, also of clay,
beneath the palm-leaf roof of a tiny hut. So like were these to the Eku
emblems that we took for granted that the little shrine was but another
dwelling-place of one of the manifold representations of Ibudu Omumu,
_i.e._ the Ibudu of fertility. Long sojourn in Africa should, however,
teach caution even to the most careless enquirer, and we therefore, as
always, took the precaution to keep our ideas to ourselves and asked
the significance of the symbol. As a result we were told that they
represented the Nduen Fobara of a neighbouring house. Our informant
added:
Some men make three, some two, small pillars for the pouring
out of libations to the spirits of their dead. Some again make
only one such emblem for the reception of drink offerings. Here
no carved images are shown as is usual in rich Kalahari towns;
the cones themselves represent the ancestors, except in the
case of men of distinction.
Considering the peculiar powers thought by many tribes to attach to
the phalli of the dead, especially those of warriors or others who
excelled in strength or power, as also the Egyptian legend of the birth
of Horus--that seed of life, snatched by the widowed Isis from Death
himself--it is perhaps not too far fetched an idea to imagine that the
likeness of symbol was intended to signify a connection between the
physical body of the new-born and the astral shape or ethereal mould,
supplied in most cases according to general belief from the ghost
realm, where the ancestral shades await reincarnation--by preference
in the bodies of those about to be born to the family to which they
themselves formerly belonged.
[Illustration: FIG. 35. Pillars, carved tusks, and bronze torques.
Kalabari Shrine of Awome-Ka-So]
Sir James Frazer, in his wonderful _Golden Bough_, tells of sacrificial
victims whose phalli were beaten with twigs--not out of cruelty, but
with the idea of increasing the powers of virility. Among the Ekkett
Ibibio sacred boughs are drawn over the pudenda of warriors while
parts are even cut off and buried secretly by the marriage bed, in the
byre or on the farm. In this connection it is perhaps worth mentioning
that one of the most dreaded of West African tortures, employed upon
captives of distinction, was the continued flagellation of the phalli.
Chief Igo, of Omo Nelu, gave the following information:
We start to make the Eki--as they are locally called--at the
time of cutting the undergrowth for the new farms. Then, when
we have carried out the images and set them up by the roadside,
we begin clearing away the top branches. The ornamented
pot-rests are used for cooking chop for the Eki.
Chief Chuku’s quarter cooks for two weeks (_i.e._ sixteen
days). Amadi’s and my quarter cook for thirty days. It is the
young girls who make these things--both the cooking ones and
the others. For twenty-five days we hold the first festival,
that of the low round Eki, which we call Eki Mother. Every
evening at about five o’clock time the girls cook. On the
twenty-fifth day each girl starts making one of the high Eki,
Ada Eki (eldest daughter of Eki), which is worshipped for
five days before carrying it out. When my father was alive,
the ceremony always started in his compound; for he was the
head chief. After he had made festival for eight days, all the
other compounds joined in and continued till thirty days were
finished. Then all men took notice and said: ‘It is now time to
start the new farms.’
[Illustration: FIG. 36. Patterns of the low Eki]
With us also the young girls go and get ant hill earth before
they make the Eki, but they do not use it for these, only keep
it in their houses for three months and afterwards take it with
them to the market-place, where they dance and play round it
and then finally throw it away.
Egu ’Nde ’Nwayin is a woman’s festival held at the time of
digging new yams. It was my father, the priest of Ale, who set
the time for this ceremony also. At this time the women dress
very finely, wearing many beads round their ankles.
On another occasion, just after leaving Ndelle en route for Rumoji,
we found, by the side of a bush-path beneath the spreading branches
of a Berlinia, a hut, the long, low, palm-leaf roof of which was
covered with the fragrant white-petalled flowers showered down from
above. Under this shelter was a platform of clay some twenty feet
in length, carefully smoothed and with gaily coloured plates set at
intervals along its edge. Upon this a double row of strangely-shaped
finely-decorated figures were to be seen, formed of sun-dried
clay, much in the style of the Eku already mentioned, but far more
elaborately modelled and painted. On the bright yellow clay, ridges and
lines of shining black, vivid blue and white were to be seen, while
each was surmounted with an attempt to represent the elaborate styles
of coiffure affected by girls of marriageable age.
Each had been brought thither by a maiden of the neighbourhood after
undergoing initiatory rites in company with her ‘age class.’ The
ceremonies are conducted in places set apart, under the leadership of
elderly women of the town. The time chosen is after the planting of new
farms when the seeds first germinate. At this season all little maids
who have reached, or are approaching, the age of puberty--for the ‘age
class’ includes those born within three years of one another--come
together to be instructed, by matrons chosen for the purpose, in all
that it is thought necessary for them to know as a preparation for
marriage. Later, the neophytes return to their parents’ house and there
model the figures shown in the photograph. When all are ready they go,
together with their instructress and a band of relatives, each bearing
one of the Eku upon her head in procession to the spot chosen by
priest or instructress. Here a platform of clay, decorated with insets
of plates, pieces of looking-glass, etc., has already been prepared.
The celebrants in turn place thereon the queerly shaped image which
is supposed to be necessary in order to draw down upon the girl, who
offers it, the blessing of fertility.
Beside those newly initiated, older maidens, to whom the mysteries have
formerly been revealed but who are as yet unwedded, also take part in
the rite, bearing a fresh Eku in the procession, year after year until
the whole, or at any rate the main part, of the dowry has been paid,
and they leave their parents’ house for that of a husband. The elder
girls offer images often over a yard in height, while the new initiates
bring smaller ones, proportionate to their size.
At a little distance from the places set apart for the principal
images, fish racks may occasionally be seen by the roadside and on, or
between them, the smallest figures of all are to be found. These are
said to represent ‘the slaves of the Eku.’ Each girl, after modelling
her own symbol, makes at least one such little attendant, so that her
image may be well served.
[Illustration: FIG. 37. Group of Eku, near ’Ndelle]
Near Ndelle waterside a somewhat different arrangement obtains. In
front of the long line of Eku, a separate group may usually be found
set round a sapling of the sacred Ogrisi tree. The central figure is
dedicated to the principal girl of the town, while the smaller ones
grouped round her represent her attendants. Near the centre, springing
out of the clay base, was a small sprig of the bush which Ale brought
with her when she first formed the earth.
At the same time of year, when the seed corn and yams lie awaiting
rebirth in the womb of the Earth Mother, the unmarried girls of Elele
carry out a ritual similar in many respects but with certain points
of difference. Here the images are modelled from clay supplied not by
the parents, as is usual in other parts, but by the bridegroom. These
must be rubbed and smoothed for seven days and each is surmounted by a
head, the coiffure of which is carefully copied from that of the girl
herself. Every evening, food offerings are carried to the place where
the Eki are set up, while the girls dance and sing before them. The
bridegroom must provide from sixty to a hundred Awarawu manillas during
this time, which are accepted by the parents as part of the dowry.
Often these strange images are modelled with breasts in addition to
the male emblem. Is it an unwarrantable assumption to think that this
may possibly be intended as a primitive attempt at picturing the ideal
marriage, in which male and female attributes play equal parts? This
peculiarity is not confined to the Eku but is even more marked in many
Ibudu, as for instance the one already mentioned at the Umo Alipo
compound, Omo Chuku (see p. 66).
Some time after all the Eki have been set up in the farms, compounds
and bush round Elele, preparations are made for the carrying out of a
further ceremony, called Nwan Aja, _i.e._ Child of the Earth, which is
said to be closely related to the festival already described. For this,
the unmarried girls of Elele go out to the bush and search round until
each has found one of the great mounds thrown up by termites. ‘With
the help of relatives she digs down into this until she comes to the
heart of the cave, named in our speech Wekwe Eruru.’ The floor of this
looks like a mountain range in miniature. Breathless with excitement,
the little maid counts the number of peaks; for just as many as there
are of these, so many babes she will bear. With infinite pains, that
not one may be broken off, she cuts round, then lifts the flat, roughly
circular mass to her head and carries it home. This is a time of great
anxiety; for, should any part break away during the process, the number
of fallen points denotes--alas!--the still-born babes which fate will
send her.
[Illustration: FIG. 38. The Wekwe Eruru]
In some places all the girls of the quarter join together to seek out
an ant hill and dig up the part in which dwells the queen ant. ‘One
of their number is appointed to carry this thing, which is then borne
back to the town and set down on the road near some of the principal
compounds. All stand watching to see in what direction the ants will
go; for the way they take points out the compound in which the girls
are to live until the time of the new yam harvest. There they must
stay in seclusion, grinding cam-wood and preparing for the approaching
festival. Thither their future husbands come bringing palm-wine, yams
and fish, together with six Awarawu manillas as dash for the owner of
the compound.’
From many indications we had long suspected that the magic powers of
the ant hill proceeded, in part at least, from its phallic resemblance.
This was borne out by the number of Ibudu shrines, avowedly raised for
the increase of children, before which these curious structures, known
in these parts as ‘Bush-men,’ were found. In several, one of these
lesser ant hills had been set up amid the special ‘servants of the
Juju’ modelled on either hand of the principal image. Such an one is to
be seen in the shrine of Ezum Mezum, erected within the compound of the
Aro chief Ogunda of Azu-Miri near Nkarahia. On each side of the pillar
stand her ‘servants.’ The nearest, a conventionalised phallic pillar
surmounted by a head and with a little doorway in its tower-like base,
through which one of the small elongated chalk cones--offered by every
woman of the compound after conception--is seen, half in and half out,
so as to appear in the act of entering. Next to this, but further from
the image, is a natural ant hill, daubed with paint, against which
leaned several of the lesser symbols.
These chalk cones or images, though more roughly moulded, bear
considerable resemblance to those carefully modelled in clay and
suspended over their father’s shrine by each ‘true daughter’ of an
Ibibio chief in the Mkpokk region to show that they were the legitimate
offspring of the dead man, not of slaves, or of ‘widows’ born to the
house, of whom he was only titular parent.
[Illustration: FIG. 39. The ‘Servants of Ezum Mezum’]
At the end of their period of seclusion in Nwan Aja’s compound, the
girls of Elele put on new cloths and gay ornaments, then sally forth to
market (Eke Oma). This is a sign that the play is ended for the time.
Every other year a special play is given. According to Mr. D. Braid:
‘This cannot be carried out more often, on account of the great
expense incurred therein by the bridegroom. The name of this
play is Ajiji’--in some places Adidi or Adadi--‘and it is one
of the best of all plays for girls and ladies. It looks grand
whenever they start same. They dress with brass ornaments,
corals, etc., on their feet, all which expenses are run by
the husbands, with the exception of the anklets for one foot
which the parents are expected to provide. The brass ornaments
are prepared by the blacksmiths, from nine Awarawu manillas
for growing up ladies and four to five for younger girls. All
go in procession round the town until they come to a place in
the Omuneta quarter called Ebu, where there is a great tree in
which dwells a certain powerful Juju. Here fowls are sacrificed
and cut in such a manner that blood falls upon the feet of each
girl. After this has been done, they sing all kinds of songs,
dancing with great gladness for some hours.’
Both on the way there and back those girls who are about to
marry rich men are carried in decorated chairs, with a canopy
fastened above them. Bearers are hired for this service by the
future husbands. During the Ajiji ceremony many ghosts flock
into the town. In olden days, these would strike the girls as
they were borne by; because spirits are jealous of any mortal
whose feet are not set upon the ground. A bride thus struck
always sickens and usually dies within the year. That is the
reason why, nowadays, each girl holds a picture before her, so
that the ghosts may strike at this and let her go by unharmed.
On reaching home a feast is given by the parents and next
morning all the girls take chop to the husbands’ place. This
food is distributed to all in his compound, together with
rewards of money. The bridegroom is expected to do the same
in return and all the expenses incurred by him at this time
are counted as dowry. The play generally lasts for seven Ekes,
_i.e._ about two months.
In October 1916, just outside Elele, on the Nkarahia road, a group
of specially interesting symbolic images was found. It consisted in
roughly modelled male and female figures, arranged in pairs and lying
outstretched at the base of a great cotton tree (Akpu). The bays,
formed by its buttress-like roots, were separated from one another
by giant snakes moulded in clay, which, arranged in irregular loops,
usually with the tail of one against the tail of the other, served to
fence off the sacred enclosure from the wayside. Within the various
bays thus formed smaller serpents twined and twisted, often placed
between the male and female figures. In one case the phallic serpent
was shown in the act of entering the body of a woman.
Dotted over the slope, forked sticks were seen driven into the ground
or raised on little clay mounds. From these depended strings of great
snail shells (_Acatina marginata_) or empty fish racks, in shape much
like the head of a Badminton racquet.
This group, the name of which was given as Akpu Ogbe Ajiji, had been
modelled by maidens of marriageable age belonging to Chief Woyike’s
compound as an additional means of increasing fertility.
[Illustration: FIG. 40. Clay figures at base of cotton tree near Elele]
[Illustration: FIG. 41. Figures at base of cotton tree near Elele
_See p. 94_]
Just beyond Elele Aliminni, on the Ndelle road, a great tree may be
found to the Genius of which the unmarried girls of the neighbourhood
go and pray during the Ajiji--locally called Adidi--ceremony. Three
circular clay steps are built, one above the other, round the
base of the tree and reaching about four feet up its trunk, forming
a rough altar upon which piles of _Acatina marginata_ shells and
empty fish racks (Paka Eji) were laid. A few yards further, in front
of the compound of Chief Ofonda, a large terminal bud of the banana
flower-spike, pierced with four slivers of wood was set up on a tall
palm stalk. This bud is called Eni Awsoku, _i.e._ navel of plantain or
banana. It is natural enough that these two trees should bear special
significance in the fertility rites. The combination of phallic-shaped
fruit and terminal bud with its oval form offers an obvious symbol of
the male and female reproductive organs.
[Illustration: FIG. 42. The Eni Awsoku]
After building the Adidi altar and setting up Eni Awsoku, the
celebrants go in procession round the town, their faces rubbed with
chalk of a pale café au lait shade and their hair covered with bright
yellow paste. From a distance this colouring gives them a curiously
European look. At the back, hanging round the waist, they wear a kind
of apron of large glass beads, arranged in alternate squares, usually
green and brown in colour, the whole fringed with little brass balls.
After a girl has been given in marriage and has gone to live with her
husband, she may never again take part in the Ajiji play. At the end of
the series of Eku ceremonies, which last, roughly speaking, from the
ending of farm planting to harvest time, the whole town of Elele goes
to Chief Eleche’s compound for the feast of new yams which is held in
honour of the great Juju Aya-Eke. On this occasion every man, woman
and child bears a gift to the priest. Even little babes, too small to
stand alone, are borne before him. The mothers press a gift into the
tiny hands and then hold them out towards the chief that not even the
smallest should fail to make offering.
The name Ajiji, given by Ibo to the greatest play in the series, would
seem to be derived from Aja (sacrifice), which is also in some parts
the name of the Earth Goddess herself, and Ji (yam).
VIII
THE YAM CULT
At the cutting of new farms most Ibo chiefs make sacrifice to Ale and
again before harvest. Beside offerings to her, some should also be made
to the Ajokko-Ji[18] or Njokkoji--the king (or Juju) yam, the biggest
one of all the crop in which the yam spirit is thought to take up its
abode. This is always set aside from one season to another, and when
bird or beast is slain in sacrifice to the Genius of the farm, the
blood is thrown upon the Ajokko-Ji.
Should a man find that he has more yams one year than in the
seasons before, he brings the richest sacrifice in his power
and offers it in thanks to the Farm Spirit for giving increase
and doing good to him. The word Ajokko means Juju, but it is
also used with the signification of ‘great’ and ‘mighty.’ This
king yam, as it is sometimes called, is kept throughout the
whole year until next harvest comes round. Either fowls’ or
goats’ blood should be poured out in libation upon it. Formerly
a spirit dwelt within, which protected all the yam racks in the
farm. Now, owing to the dying out of such beliefs, people are
not afraid to steal from these. In olden days they never dared
to do such a thing for dread of the yam Juju.
While visiting Oppe, a farm settlement just outside Alessa, we were
shown a ‘strong Juju’ connected with the worship of Nkike, the Mbolli
Earth Goddess. This was formed from a collection of skulls, yams and
other roots, bound round with tie-tie into the form of a gigantic
yam and then attached to a stout stake, the end of which was sharply
pointed for driving into the ground. This symbol was said to take,
for the Mbolli, the place of the giant Ajokko-Ji to which Ibo offer
sacrifice.
[Illustration: FIG. 43. Ife Ja Okko or Ife Ajokko at Ogu]
A more elaborate substitute was found at Ogu on the Niger--a town
occupied by a sub-tribe of Ibo, allied to those of Onitsha. There,
in the house of one of the secondary chiefs, a row of small pots was
seen, set in the clay floor, along one side of the verandah. These were
explained as the Ife Ajokko--called Ife Ja Okko by some--which for
this tribe take the place of the Ajokko-Ji. There were nine pots of
different shape; the number was explained by saying that, as each chief
succeeded to the headship of the house, a new Ife Ajokko was made.
Eight, therefore, were those belonging to the ancestors.
Among Mbolli the phallic pillars are of a peculiar type mostly carved
from wooden blocks instead of being built in clay. Of these, the one
in the Juju house at Obudu may be taken as typical. Such bear the name
Obo Esa--the four hundred yams--and are specially raised as a means of
increasing the crops.
When a fresh farm is cut, a special ceremony is carried out to induce
the yam spirit to transfer its abode from the old farm to the new.
The basket in which the great yam is contained, or post to which it
is bound, is usually kept near a sapling of the tree which over the
greater part of the West Coast is regarded as most sacred of all.
This is a variety of Dolichandrone--strangely named considering the
functions ascribed to it by natives--called by Kalahari Odumdum and by
Ibo Ogrisi.
Among Ekoi, Efik and Ibibio, this beautiful tree with its glossy
imparipinnate leaves and great clusters of pinkish-mauve flowers, is
known as ‘The Mother of the Town,’ and a sapling of it is planted in
nearly every compound. The finest specimen ever seen by us was found in
one of the town playgrounds at Ikotobo in the Eket District.
Within the hollow trunk stood native pots filled with
offerings, for to it come wives, young and old, to pray that
‘plenty piccans’ may be sent to bless their hearths. Hither,
too, come ancient women to beg a like boon for their children
and grandchildren. Should lightning shiver the ancient trunk
or tornado strike it down, loud would be the wailing of those
who had grown up beneath its shadow.[19]
It is unusual that trees of this species grow to such a size; yet very
few compounds in the Ibo country are without a sturdy sapling, for not
only its fertility-bestowing but also its purificatory powers are held
in the utmost reverence. Should a Kalabari woman meet with vexation
which causes her to shed tears while cooking her husband’s food, it is
thought that this will have ill results upon him unless, before serving
it, she plucks some of the sacred leaves, draws them over her body and
then strikes them upon the ground round about, that the evil effect of
her tears may be negatived and her husband not suffer therefrom.
Not only is the Ajokko-Ji usually kept beneath the shelter of these
sacred boughs, unless confided to the care of the ghosts in some
ancestral shrine, but the Ogrisi itself becomes a symbol of the yam
spirit. It was principally in this capacity, as emblem of the chief
crop of the year, that at the death of each chief important enough
to own an Obiri (reception room)--_i.e._ every head of a family of
standing--a slave was killed as a sacrifice to the sacred tree.
Such unfortunate members of the community were well fed for several
days, during which everything was done to cause them to be of good
cheer and in perfect condition. Then they were robed in gay apparel and
led forth to the sacred tree, where their throats were cut in such a
manner that the blood flowed to the ground, fertilising the earth about
its roots. No portion of such victims was ever eaten; their bodies
were buried near by that thus Mother Ale might be enriched and induced
to grant plentiful crops to those who brought her the offering.
The following information concerning the great Elele yam cult, Aya-Eke,
was gleaned from Mr. D. Braid, for several years Native Court clerk of
this town:
The compound where the Juju is kept is called Omo-Kpurukpu and there,
from election until death--at most seven years later, even should the
full term of office be completed--the priest dwells, carefully guarded
by all his people and never crossing the threshold unless called forth
by some grave emergency. The reason for this restriction is that up to
a few years ago any man who succeeded in killing the holder of this
office would reign in his stead.
The whole prosperity of the town, especially the fruitfulness of farm,
byre and marriage bed, was linked with his life. Should he fall sick,
it entailed famine and grave disaster upon the inhabitants, and there
is reason to believe that, in such a case, facilities were offered to
a successor. Under no circumstances did the term of office last for
more than seven full years. This prohibition still holds; but since
the coming of Government it is said that another of the same family,
who must always be a strong man, may be chosen to take up the position
in his stead. No sooner is a successor appointed, however, than the
former priest is reported to ‘die for himself.’ It was frankly owned
that, before Government came--_i.e._ some dozen years ago--things were
arranged differently in that, at any time during his seven years’ term,
the priest might be put to death by one strong and resourceful enough
to overcome him.
In answer to the question as to whether, in view of the fate known
to follow after so short a period, it was not difficult to find men
willing to succeed to the office on such terms, Mr. Braid answered in
a somewhat surprised tone: ‘Oh, no! Many wish for the post, because so
much wealth is brought them at the annual festival that they become
very rich--past all others in the town.’
Our informant also stated that, during his own term of office, Chief
Eleche has only once been known to pass beyond the compound walls. The
occasion was as follows:
A fellow townsman accused him of making a Juju to kill the complainant.
The case came into court and, all unconscious of the excitement which
such a proceeding must cause, the chief was bidden to attend and answer
the charge. He arrived, accompanied by nearly all the townsfolk, who
not only filled the courtyard, which is a very large enclosed space,
but thronged the market-place outside. They came, in a state of great
anxiety, to watch over the sacred priest and guard him, so far as in
them lay, from any misfortune the effects of which, it was believed,
would at once react on all the countryside.
Doubtless Mr. Braid would have been less ready to impart information
of this nature, had it not been that he was about to leave the place,
in all probability never to return, and had therefore nothing to
fear from the townspeople. So soon as other official work allowed,
I returned to Elele to adjust some difficulties which had meantime
arisen, and also with the hope of gleaning further knowledge concerning
Aya-Eke and its priest.
First I looked up the case in the course of which Eleche was summoned
to appear. This was recorded under No. 353 and was heard on 7th
December, 1914. It runs, in substance, as follows:
Yenanu, the plaintiff, stated on oath:
About two years ago I fell sick and the native doctors told me
that people of my compound were trying to kill me. I therefore
called a family meeting, in which the big men decided that Juju
should be sworn for me. Eleche performed the ceremony, calling
upon the Juju to slay anyone guilty of trying to bring about
my death before new corn time. If this happened, they agreed
to pay me four hundred manillas, four demi-johns of tombo, a
basket of yams and a bottle of gin. Should no one die, it would
prove that the accusation was untrue and I myself must pay the
like amount in compensation for bringing a false charge. The
time fixed upon had not expired when one of the men died, but I
did not ask for payment.
Nine months after swearing Juju, the accused called me at Oka’s
compound and informed me that it was now young corn time; yet
no one had died, therefore I must pay the amount agreed upon.
This I refused to do since one of them had been slain by the
Juju. Then they conspired together and gave orders that I
should be killed; also they put Juju in my well to prevent me
and my people from getting water. Certain Jujus were also hung
on the road to my farm by Eleche and Okuku. On this I went to
Chief Chioma and related the whole matter. He advised me not
to eat any yams from the farm near which the Juju was placed.
After this they ordered me to clean a portion of the road, but
seeing that they were seeking to kill me I refused and went to
work with Chief Chioma’s people. After the road was finished, I
was called before a meeting at Woda’s house, where they ordered
me to break down my compound and take all my properties to
Chioma’s quarter.
Oluene, witness for plaintiff, stated on oath:
I was present at the family meeting when the accused consulted
together and made a rule that anyone who saw Yenanu should kill
him; nor did any of our people allow him to take fire, etc.,
from their houses.
The case was dismissed, but the complainant died soon after. Next Eke
day, Eleche, wearing his Juju hat trimmed with seven eagle’s feathers
and the tail of a parrot, sallied forth, followed by all his people, to
hold a progress throughout the town, while his attendants triumphantly
proclaimed that Aya-Eke had slain the man who dared to summon her
priest before mortal tribune.
On arrival at Elele our next step was to seek further information from
the head men of the town, when these came to salute us. At first, the
result was distinctly disappointing. No one had ever heard of the
Juju or its priest! In fact, on the authority of all the principal
inhabitants, no institution even remotely resembling Aya-Eke existed in
the neighbourhood. Only after the case above quoted was shown to them
did a light dawn upon the chiefs. Ah yes, they said, in very ancient
days they believed there was some such Juju in their town, but the
memory of it had long since died away. As for Eleche, now they came to
think of it, the priesthood had been in his family and possibly even he
might hold that the office had descended to him. Since Government came
to their country however--this with the most ingratiating smile--people
had no use for such old superstitions, which had therefore fallen into
utter neglect and forgetfulness. It was eagerly stated that there were
other customs in their town much more worthy of the notice of the
District Commissioner--for instance, Odo’s Juju, the head priest of
which was immediately found and brought forward. It would indeed be a
pity, they added deferentially, should our time be wasted in enquiries
into matters of so little account as those with which Eleche was
concerned.
It was quite obvious that one and all were anxious to prevent further
investigations and the result of the interview was naturally to send us
hot-foot to the Omo-Kpurukpu quarter of the town, which is separated
from the main section by some half mile of road. Here, in a house
formed of elaborately carved wooden panels--to the best of my belief
the only dwelling of its kind throughout the whole Division--lived
the priest-king Eleche. Before the house stood a rude figure, formed
of a stout post bound round with cloth, crowned with a cap and with
two sticks extending arm-wise at right angles from near the top. This
represented the late priest Eyinda, a brother of the present holder of
the dignity, said to have died about two years ago.
Eleche himself wore a similar hat of office, its crown bound with a
strip of white cloth, into which the seven emblematic eagle’s feathers
and the parrot’s tail were fastened. He explained that he could not yet
wear the full Juju dress of white baft, because he was not entitled to
don this until after the third year of his priesthood, which period
would not be ended before next harvest. His predecessors in the office,
so far as his personal recollection went, had been named Eyinda,
Omeneyin, Wana and Azunda. He himself had been a small boy when Azunda
died. ‘These,’ said he, ‘were great men of our house. Now of them all I
alone am left to carry out the rites of the Juju, which is so powerful
that death falls upon every man who offends against its laws.’
The rule of this Juju is very good, much like the law of
the white men. By it, it is decreed, that no fighting or
quarrelling, no seizure of property--above all, no shedding of
blood--may take place upon Eke day.[20] No priest of Aya-Eke
may eat of the new season’s yams. All the harvest must be
garnered and the festival held. Then, though others may eat,
I may not until all the new farms have been cut and planted.
Only when the last of the seed yams has been laid in the ground
do the people bring me those which yet remain over in the yam
racks. These I eat, calling the first of them ‘my new season’s
yam’ though, in reality, it was garnered at the last harvest
about seven moons before.
Our visit chanced to be paid at the beginning of April, and Eleche told
us that nine days earlier he had eaten his first yam of the year.
‘All the people of Elele bring offerings to me,’ he said. ‘When
the yams finish they bring plantains and I begin to chop those.
Also they bring me much tombo. It is a very strong law of the
Juju that no yams, save such as are old enough to plant, may be
eaten by a priest of Aya-Eke. None has ever broken this rule;
for, should it be disobeyed, the seed yams would die in the
ground, bearing no increase. All the great men of our family
have kept the law faithfully. Now no more big men are left in
our house; but I, though but a small boy in comparison with
those powerful ones, also hold to this rule.’
Hereupon one of our party asked if he himself had power to appoint
a successor, or in what way one was chosen. No sooner was the word
‘successor’ uttered than Eleche raised his arms over his head twice as
though to ward off threatened danger, while his head wife, who kept
close to him throughout, shrugged her shoulders violently over and over
again, repeating in an agitated voice: ‘Mba! Mba! Che! Che!’ (Let it
not be! Let it not be!) Meanwhile the crowd of retainers took up the
cry, low but angry, like the rumble of distant thunder, waving hands
outward as if to drive off the ill-effects of such ominous speech.
Eleche answered excitedly, the words tumbling over one another in his
agitation:
‘No successor is needed; for I shall never die! It is forbidden
even to mention such a word! In the beginning of things, when
I came out of the world, it was arranged that I should not be
as other men but should live very long--looking after my people
and bringing them prosperity. The fate of common men is not for
me!’ Thereupon, like a Greek chorus, came the response of the
crowd: ‘Oda! Oda! (Forbid it! Forbid it!)’
The head wife, who had seated herself so soon as her husband did so,
although all the others remained standing at a respectful distance,
was a youngish woman evidently holding a position of more than usual
importance. Later, we learned that it was customary for this head
wife to die ‘about the same time as her husband’; but all attempts
to extract more definite information were met with professions of
ignorance.
[Illustration: FIG. 44. Chief Eleche with his head wife, standing by
memorial pillar of the late Head Priest of Aya-Eke]
The most important ceremonies of the cult are held at the time of
the new yam harvest, when a great sacrifice is made and, as already
mentioned, every man, woman and child of Elele brings a gift to the
house of the priest. Before leaving, we asked whether no other rites
were observed in honour of Aya-Eke and were told that early in May,
_i.e._ at the beginning of the rainy season, all the inhabitants
gathered to witness a wrestling match held in the open space before
Eleche’s house. This is continued on every big Eke day, _i.e._ each
eighth day, for about three months until the new yam festival, during
which the feast of the ancestral spirits is also celebrated. Later, all
go to Chief Woyike’s compound in the Omopo quarter and there wrestle in
honour of the new corn Juju, Mbara (Lord of the Town), of which he is
priest. After his festival is over, all wrestling finishes for the year.
No sooner had we learned this than we set out for the new shrine.
Here, at the opposite extremity of the town, lies the compound known
as Obakere, inhabited by Woyike, priest of the rival Juju. The chief
received us with simple friendliness and seemed willing for a
visit to his shrine. Nor, after the first shyness had worn off, did
he show any reluctance to speak of the Juju, concerning which a few
carefully-careless questions brought out the following information:
When the wrestling at Eleche’s is finished, all men come here
to witness mine; after which the whole town must cease from
such contests, which may not be held again till the next
season comes round. We think that this ceremony will help the
crops to grow strong, overcoming evil influences and bearing
much increase. The reason why the wrestling is held first at
Eleche’s place and then mine, is that his Juju Aya-Eke is wife
to my Juju ’Mbara. The first is feminine and looks after the
yams; mine is male, the spirit of corn. When the first green
shoot pushes through the soil, I make ready and, on the coming
of the young cobs, my Juju proclaims a four months’ peace.
During this time no one may fight with another nor seize any
person or property. Should a man offend against this rule six
manillas and a goat must be paid to revoke the Juju for him,
otherwise he would die.
When the time comes round, I go forth and announce that if
anyone does anything to annoy the Juju I will not allow him to
take part in my ceremony. To me no gifts are brought like those
borne every year to Eleche; but when the season comes round I
make a great feast for the people, giving them much food and
palm-wine in abundance.
The priest was old and somewhat worn-looking. Round his shrunken ankles
were bound little bones, pierced through at either end and fastened
by black cord in three rows. These, he said, were a powerful medicine
to keep off rheumatics and other ills which beset the aged, but had
nothing to do with his Juju.
‘How indeed could such a thing be possible,’ he queried,
since ’Mbara is a male Juju and the bones are those of
Tortoise, who, as is well known, is proper only to feminine
cults? By the place where I usually sit a tortoise was impaled
years ago for protection; then, when it was decayed enough, I
took the little bones out from the shell and, after they had
been cleaned, strung them into these anklets, as you see. There
are three Ale shrines in our town, by each of which Tortoise
is impaled. Also before the shrine of Aya-Eke a shell may
naturally be seen.
Towards the middle of May we found ourselves back again in Elele and
enquiries brought out the fact that the first wrestling of Aya-Eke was
to be held about noon on the morrow. The hour seemed a strange one to
choose for such a purpose, under a tropical sun; but before mid-day
drums began to beat in the distance, summoning the people with the
unmistakable rhythm only used for such occasions. So soon therefore as
court was over, we set out to follow the call.
It was 15th May and a day of blazing sunshine; yet crowds had already
collected and sat, the elect in a circle many deep round the compound,
while the rest almost blocked the road along its front. Three sets
of drums were playing; first Eleche’s household band, secondly one
supplied by a neighbouring quarter, and thirdly, just before the
shrine, that which bore the proud name of ‘The Juju’s Own.’ This
consisted of six drums, three tall and upright, three long and oval.
Opposite the door of the principal shrine a little group of offerings
was to be seen, backed by the branched sticks of the Thunder God.
Questioned as to this, Eleche said:
Amade Onhia is kin to my Juju. In many towns the biggest Jujus
have the habit of sending to request him to come and stay by
them. Aya-Eke did this and ordered that his shrine should be
placed opposite to her own, saying that when ceremonies were
made in her honour they should be performed for him also.
On being asked as to when the wrestling would begin, Eleche
answered, with true African placidity, that this depended upon
the arrival of the combatants, who would probably not appear
until the sun sank lower in the heavens. He explained that
he had told us the play began at mid-day, because by ancient
custom the summoning drums must start at that time.
Now, according to widespread West Coast belief, noon and midnight are
the special times at which ghosts walk abroad. Among Ibo and Kalahari
little children are warned never to throw sticks or stones when the sun
is high overhead, lest they should inadvertently injure one of these
wandering spirits and thus draw down its wrath upon themselves. With
Mbolli and Etche Ibo--as usually in the Ikwerri country--seed yams and
corn are stored in the shrine of the ancestors, _i.e._ beneath the
guardianship of these beneficent friends, much as was the seed-grain
of ancient Rome within the sacred Mundus. Chief Eleche also told us
that the Egu Nda Madu, the festival of the forefathers, is always
held at the same time as that of the new yams and, were these rites
neglected, the ghosts would cease to exert a protective influence upon
the next season’s crops. It is probable, therefore, that the reason
the drums must start to play at noonday is to call the attention of
the ancestral shades to the fact that the ritual wrestling is about to
begin.
First, one or two youths stepped out, at long intervals, from the ranks
of patient spectators, to dance round in wide circles, always from left
to right--in the contrary direction to the hands of a clock. Later, as
the shadows lengthened, more and more joined in the pastime, till from
twenty to thirty were dancing almost continuously. Nearly all raised
eyes and hands to heaven at a point, roughly speaking, halfway round
the circle. Most of the performers wore necklets of knotted palm, while
a considerable number bore in addition a single vivid bloom of the
scarlet Akpane Besin--the old Ekoi wrestlers’ challenge--stuck in their
black locks.
In the midst of the circle danced a strange figure, wearing a tail of
skin behind and a long strip of blue native cloth falling before. Round
his waist was a girdle of brass bells; a band of cowries, three deep,
was fastened beneath the knee, while a cloth of leaf-green silk was
tightly bound round the loins. In his right hand he bore a horn, black
and twisted like that of a bushbuck, the open end filled with a tassel
of long fur. This, when stationary, he sometimes drove point downwards
into the earth or, while circling round with the other dancers, bore
it raised over his head. Chief Yellow explained that such was the
traditional wrestlers’ costume.
During the dances several ‘masters of ceremonies,’ bearing bunches of
palm-leaves, went up and down, keeping a clear space--driving back the
circle of spectators by striking these on legs and feet. Suddenly
the performers scattered, leaving two of their number alone in the
centre. These bent and touched the ground with their fingers, then
almost immediately gripped and after a struggle, which caused the
wildest excitement among the spectators, the taller and slighter of
the two flung the other to earth and seated himself firmly astride the
prostrate form--to be lifted upon the shoulders of a friend and thus
borne round amid the plaudits of the multitude.
[Illustration: FIG. 45. Wrestling to make the yams grow. Chief Eleche’s
place, Elele]
So it went on, couple after couple struggling till one was overthrown.
Occasionally, if they were deemed ill matched or thought to be growing
angry, friends rushed in, as is usual in such contests, to separate the
combatants. What struck us as unusual was the short time allowed to
each pair. Should one not succeed in throwing the other after the first
few minutes the spectators flung themselves between and bore them apart
by force. This was explained to be ‘lest they should become exhausted,’
and was possibly done with the idea that such a result might, by
sympathetic magic, have an ill effect upon the crops.
These wrestling rites are carried out amongst nearly all the Ibo in the
Division, though held in greatest importance among the Ikwerri. The
same ceremony is customary with the Mbolli, whose head chief told us:
‘When the season comes round for the festival of Mbiencha,[21] we make
sacrifice to her of fowls and goats. After the sacrifice has been made,
we start wrestling. We do this for children, farms and health.’
One evening, during our stay at Elele, we heard the sound of a far-off
tom-tom, beaten with a queer insistent call. The method of playing was
new to us, so without a word to any one we set out to investigate.
There was no need to ask the way, since it was easy enough to follow
the beat of the drum. This led through the market-place along the Omo
Dioga road; then, after a sharp turn to the right, we found ourselves
in an open space, upon one side of which trees tossed dark branches
against a sky of scuttling cloud.
The moon, nearing her third quarter, was climbing up the heavens,
shedding a cloud of misty silver radiance upon the scene beneath. By a
fortunate chance our shoes fell soundlessly upon the soft sand; so we
stole in unnoticed, shadows amid a multitude of shadows which flitted
to and fro ‘now in glimmer and now in gloom’--in swaying, everchanging
lines of a dance impossible to describe.
My companions were wearing white, as was nearly every woman and
most of the men present. The latter mostly wore long flowing Hausa
robes, bought or imitated from the fashion set by Chief Ododo,
the enterprising Hausa who, following in the steps of a mighty
elephant-hunter of his race, settled here and made himself chief of the
town.
At once, on realising what was going forward, we slipped into a pool of
shadow, cast, it seemed, expressly for our convenience in a spot where
we could see everything but ourselves passed for a while unnoticed.
Men and women danced in separate lines, approaching and retreating.
To our surprise we saw that many of the latter wore not only white
robes but white coiffures as well; for their crisp, dark wool was
covered with a dressing of native chalk or pale-tinted clay, while the
faces were often streaked with white lines, giving them an appearance
indescribably ghost-like. To and fro, backward and forward, co-mingling
at one moment and the next in clearly defined lines, moved the dancers
to the monotonous tom-toming of their strange orchestra, which somehow
managed to suggest things beyond the power of words--the fall of the
first rains upon the parched earth; the enfolding of soft mists, from
whose gentle embrace springs a stirring and quickening, changing her
barrenness into fruition; the swelling of grain and root crops in the
dark ground; the first feeble upward striving of young shoots, later
to spring into radiant verdure in the free air above; the passion of
pride, of life and strength and love--all that is poignantly felt but
can seldom be expressed save perhaps by the monotonous beat of the
tom-tom, the strange soughing of elephant horns and thrumming of savage
lyres on such a night as this.
Only one air evolved by a northern musician gives any idea of the
effect of these weird African melodies--that is the Braut March in
_Lohengrin_, which, written on so few notes, yet beats with a strange
persistence on certain fibres of the human instrument. In this, too,
the theme is much the same--the bringing of the Earth Bride to the arms
of her mystic bridegroom. Each thema, monotonous in itself, changed
imperceptibly into another equally monotonous but built on different
notes and shadowing forth a very infinitude of meaning.
In and out among the dancers crept strange shapes, elaborately
coiffured and with whitened faces, much in the style of some Ibo masks,
at the time of unknown origin, which wandered into our collection
several years ago. These have since been explained as typifying the
moon, much after the manner of the so-called Isis masks of the Pangwe
Moon Goddess So; or again as representing those strange wanderers from
the ghost realm, the spirits of beneficent ancestors who watch over the
harvests of their descendants.
Hardly daring to breathe, we watched the strange phantasmagoric figures
pass to and fro in the intricate mazes of the dance--the lines merging
and separating in oozy triangles, squares and circles such as those
woven by Ka for the perdition of the Banda Log.
Suddenly a change came over the scene. The tom-toms sounded a series
of sharp insistent strokes. The moon, emerging from friendly clouds,
shed a brilliant light upon the place where we had hitherto remained
hidden in shadow, and the crowd, grown aware of our presence, began
to scatter. We withdrew with all possible speed since nothing further
was to be learnt by delay. After our departure the mystic dance began
once more and continued, as could be heard from the far-away drumming,
almost till the first rays of dawn.
On 26th July chance led us to pass by Chief Eleche’s compound while a
ceremony connected with the Aya-Eke cult was in progress. Under the
Obiri shed, a band of various drums, together with a particularly
sweet-toned xylophone formed of cork-wood slabs laid upon fresh-cut
plantain stems, was playing. To the sound of this music danced the
chief of Elele Aliminni (Ale by the water) with his three principal
wives. Two points were specially noticeable in the performance; first,
the intense solemnity of the dancers, and, secondly, the way in which
their oneness of purpose was emphasised by gesture. This is the only
West African dance witnessed by us in which the performers continually
linked arms, or twined these round one another’s shoulders and waists.
When Chief Eleche was questioned as to the meaning of the ceremony,
he said that it was performed in order to draw down the blessing of
the great Juju Aya-Eke on the chief of Elele Aliminni, his family and
crops, before beginning to dig the first yams of the year.
A few weeks later came one of the greatest disappointments of our
tour. By means of much planning it had been made possible, though with
considerable difficulty, to arrive at Elele on the day before that
fixed for the great yam festival, which we were anxious to witness.
As ill fortune would have it, however, a runner came in in the late
afternoon to bring tidings of trouble which was thought likely to break
out in a far-off corner and to prevent which the presence of the white
man was needed. To hesitate under such circumstances was of course
naturally impossible. So the crowning ceremony of the year, the Aya-Eke
harvest festival, was perforce missed.
IX
ALE AND THE ANCESTORS
Another link between Ale and her human children may be found at Ogu, a
town inhabited by Okrikans, in the extreme east of the District. Here
marriage is only solemnised once a year, immediately before the making
of new farms. The Earth Goddess, locally called Amakiri (Earth of the
town) is the principal deity, and not far to the rear of her shrine
stands that of Ababa, the protectress of marriage. The spot sacred to
the latter is an oval enclosure, fenced round by a wall of rough logs.
Within this grow many Odumdum--the tree which, as previously mentioned,
is looked upon almost all over the West Coast as bestower of babes,
protector against evil influences and purifying agent, as well as in
some cases the symbol of the yam spirit and that of the Earth Goddess
herself.
Thither, before the cutting of new farms, go all the brides of the year
to take the vow of faithfulness to their new-made lords. Libations of
rum and palm-wine are poured out, while the blessing of the indwelling
Genius, Tenye Te’en, is invoked upon the faithful and her vengeance
called down upon any woman who should prove false to her wedded vows.
In the local shrine of Obaji (or Obazi) the god of the sea, we came
across a representation of multiplied, or limitless, birth--eight
frogs carved from a solid strip of wood. Several other slabs showed
designs of the sacred crocodile with human beings laid out before it in
sacrifice.
[Illustration: FIG. 46. Ancestral Tablet]
A frog is often depicted--with probably the same reason--in the carved
tablets known as Nyama Ahia or sometimes Ahia Osimiri (the river
market), which are hung up as ghost-offerings in Ikwerri Ibo houses in
order to remind the ancestral spirits of the need for constant activity
in increasing the prosperity of their descendants. In one found at
Elele, the sacred crocodile and the phallic serpent are shown together
with the hoe, the symbol of fruitful Ale. Again, the central figure has
its tail joined to another hoe, while the tail of the serpent touches
that of the crocodile and is thereby linked with the hoe.
During the making and planting of farms among Mbolli and Abuan--both
tribes of particular interest and distinct type--the rule of strict
chastity must be observed. No man may approach his wife until his share
of the work is over. The labour apportioned to the males of the tribe
at this season consists, first, in cutting and firing bush, after
which women clear away the charred branches. Men again usually dig
the holes into which it is the task of maids and matrons to lay the
yam-tubers. Nowadays, however, both the last mentioned duties fall to
the lot of women. Till every ‘seed of Proserpine’ has been laid in the
dark ground, however, neither wife nor maid may yield to the prayer
of husband or lover; for should the strictest chastity fail to be
practised during this period, the farm of the frail one would yield but
scanty increase.
Among Mbolli, in the words of the Chief Igwe of Ogali:
We worship our ancestors (Okwenji). We sacrifice to them fowl
and fish. Rich men give goats at such times. The sacrifices are
made three times a year--at the harvests; first at the new corn
month, next one month later again and then five months later,
when we start digging yams. We hold this festival in the tenth
month (November) and go to cut farm again two months later. We
start to count months from putting the crops in the ground till
we begin to dig--_i.e._ ten moons.
At the feast of the ancestors we pour out drink, saying:
‘Ebe atena ’mgbom ami, ami ’mgbo nan mwi.’
‘As (my) father got me, (let) me get other child.’
We have already lived two moons in the farm--October and
November. We shall stop another five. While we stay in the
farms, we may not have connection with our wives; for such a
thing we must come back to the town, sleep for a night and then
go back. Otherwise we should offend ’Nkike, who would not let
our crops grow well or send plenty children.
Among the Ale Nsaw Ibo a strict rule as to chastity was imposed by the
direct command of the Earth Goddess. On this point Chief Osu of Obiakpo
stated:
Our people are generally known by the name of Ale ’Nsaw (Ale’s
tabu or the land of the tabu) because in our ancestors’ time
there were many forbidden things in our part. All our women
were sacred to Ale, therefore in olden days no man might reach
out a hand to touch a woman’s leg or foot. Should a man meet a
woman going to bush, he must at once hide his eyes or pass by
another way. In those days it was a very terrible sin for any
man to commit adultery. Should one fall into this crime, he was
not only heavily fined but at once made outcast. Never again
was he permitted to join any ‘company.’ Never again might he
drink or eat with others. As regarded his own family, because
he was of their kin they would help to collect the fine, but
after this was paid off they would have nothing further to do
with him.
Among the Abuan, who live to the west of the Sombreiro River, the law
of the Earth Mother as to chastity is even more strictly enforced. Like
the Mbolli, this people on starting the new season’s farms early in
January, take up their abode in little huts built on their plantations.
There they spend the space of three months, after which they return to
their town for about four weeks, and then go back for another three
months, weeding the crops and tending them till they grow strong for
harvest.
During all that time strict continence obtains. It is absolutely
forbidden for any man to approach a woman, _even his own wife_. Should
desire prove too strong, the pair must leave their farm and seek their
town dwelling for the purpose. Any breach of this law is thought to
have disastrous effect upon the crops.
Again, while, as already mentioned, it is regarded throughout the whole
of the region as a grave sin against the Earth Mother for a woman to
yield to the embraces of any man, whether lover or husband, while lying
upon the ground, the crime is of yet deeper dye if committed upon farm
land than in the depth of the bush. In olden days a couple convicted
of such an offence would have little chance of surviving the wrath of
their outraged townsfolk. Even now such a charge would bring down upon
the accused the invocation of some reputedly fatal Juju. For instance,
in a case heard at Abua Court (No. 116/14), a woman named Ugenni stated
as follows:
All our townspeople laughed at me, saying that I was having
connections with men under plantains. So I said, whoever
accused me of having connections under plantains, the Juju
Obuku of Amingbokko must kill that person.
The same law against intercourse in the bush--and in some parts in a
canoe--prevails throughout almost the entire Niger Delta. Among the
Jekri it is so strong that in a recent murder case (Rex versus Iyeabor)
it came out that the dead woman had such belief in the strength of
this tabu--and an additional one which enjoined chastity during
pregnancy--that she had no hesitation in going into the bush with her
murderer, a man whom she knew to be desirous of her.
Case No. 297 tried in the Ijaw Native Court of Nembe in January, 1925,
gives the procedure which was adopted in order to convert a ‘bush’
place, where cohabitation was not allowed, into a village, where this
could take place with impunity.
Igoin and his people sometimes stayed at this newly discovered
place for two months, but no cohabitation was to be conducted
there. One of the main reasons why they used to return to Nembe
was because no husband was allowed to use his wife as regards
sexual intercourse there.
Finally an envoy was sent to the Long Juju (that of Aro Chuku)--a
journey which would have taken at least several weeks--to ask for the
necessary ceremony to be performed on the village, so that one can
have connection with his own wife. Alegi returned from the Long Juju
and told Ogede the rites which should be carried out. Ogede performed
the necessary ceremony. The ceremony he performed was first he let a
cock and hen cohabit at Ewelesuo. He brought one thing called ‘Ovo’
(Covenant) from Long Juju, one ‘Odo’ (a red round stuff) and a round
white lime and gave these to the juju to appease the jujus and prayed
that the village should become an inhabitable town and that one can
have connection with his wife. Before this ceremony was performed it
was forbidden for a woman to urinate in the village (Ewelesuo). On this
account one place was chosen and called ‘Sanpogu’ _i.e._ (Waterside for
urine).
Egula and Ogede were friends. After the ceremony had been performed
Egula went after his friend and settled at Ewelesuo. Egula was dancing
a juju called ‘Akpana.’ This juju Akpana and those at Ewelesuo made a
covenant and Egula then ‘danced’ juju at Ewelesuo. Eugla is a native
doctor. Ogede asked the juju, when Egula was dancing it, why they are
not allowed to remain at Ewelesuo in November month. The juju asked
whether he will be able to do so. He said ‘Yes.’ The juju then told
him that, if people wanted to remain at Ewelesuo in November month,
the people should keep a watch-night in the town and when the water
ebb, they (the people) should take all jujus to the water edge and let
the water soak them--which signifies that all the juju has gone out of
the town (Oru iderimo). Then when December came the whole inhabitants
should man one canoe, beat the tom-tom and sing a song and go to a
creek called ‘Orumokolo.’ A prophet native doctor was to be in the
canoe who will say to the people in the canoe that the jujus had come
in. Then the canoe is to return to the town (Oru iwomo) and a juju
called Ogoni is to be danced. Ogede agreed to perform all these. They
(the people) were then to dance on three consecutive days after these
jujus have been performed.
In many parts of the country there is likewise a strong tabu against
the commission of adultery, particularly in the husband’s or
adulterer’s house, and against a woman cooking food for her husband
when she has just returned from her lover.
No sooner is farm work finished, however, than, as already stated,
scenes of licence are not only permitted over the greater portion
of this region, but even enforced in certain parts; for, just as
the priestesses of some temples of old Greece were obliged to offer
themselves to strangers, so excesses, regarded as most reprehensible
at other periods, are encouraged at this.
Among certain of the Brass Ijaw adultery is openly condoned under
certain conditions. It is the custom, for some towns that are friendly
together, to make an agreement that no man will take an action in Court
against any other of their inhabitants and claim damages or punishment
for adultery.
This plea was raised in case No. 253/25 before Amassama Native Court
and an action for damages was dismissed in view of a covenant to this
effect between the towns of Amassama and Agoro.
The cult, in which religious prostitution was perhaps most openly and
extensively practised throughout the Ibo country, was that of Ife-Ala
(literally ‘thing of Ala’ or ‘that which concerns Ala’).
To those few Europeans, who have hitherto had knowledge of this
cult, it appears to have been known as the Ifallum Juju. All natives
questioned on the subject, however, including Chief Gabriel Yellow,
stated that the real name was as above given. The headquarters of this
particular cult of the Earth Goddess were at Nguru, a town to the North
of Okpala in Owerri Division:
All people from neighbouring lands went there and lodges were
also set up in nearly all important towns throughout Degama
District. Many men and women, who could not be cured from
trouble by native doctors, went there to pray for help, but
the priest refused to invoke the aid of the Juju unless the
suppliant brought him a virgin as gift. The priest then took
her as handmaid and she was kept in the temple and hired out by
him to worshippers--especially to sterile men who came to pray
for increased virility. Such ‘slaves of the Juju’ were marked
out by a shaven patch at the top of the head.
There were about three hundred of these girls at Nguru but to none of
them was it permitted to rear a babe, because by native custom they
would have been obliged to refrain from the company of men for the two
years during which they were suckling their offspring--and this would
naturally have greatly diminished their earnings. So soon as a babe was
born, therefore, the law of the Juju ordained that it must be disposed
of in one of two ways; either must it be clubbed on the head and flung
away, or laid in one of the big earthen jars and deposited in the bush
beyond the town.
The Nguru lodge was suppressed about 1913 by Mr. J. M. Binny, District
Commissioner. Great was the joy of the three hundred women thus set
free to rear the babes born to them, instead of being forced to slay
these at the harsh behest of the covetous priest of Ale.
A belief in the efficacy of sacrificial blood in order to purchase the
favour of the powers of fertility is world-wide; but perhaps nowhere
in past days did this dread libation flow in such streams as in West
Africa. It is true that now the vigilance of Government and missionary
effort have succeeded, to a great extent, in substituting that of
slaughtered fowls, sheep and goats, for the costly ichor drawn from
mortal veins; but in many a hidden shrine on the banks of unexplored
creeks or in the depths of the silent bush--wherever indeed a chance
occurred to do so in secret--human victims were till lately offered
up. Especially was this practised at the season when the yam vines
first send forth tender shoots to clothe the poles with green--as a
means towards strengthening the new crops--and at harvest, in gratitude
to Ale for her bountiful gifts of garnered grain. At such times it
was dangerous for any unprotected wayfarer to venture forth beyond
the borders of his own country, since strangers were very liable to
seizure for such a purpose. Kula, the centre of many strange and
terrible cults, bore an ominous reputation in this respect, until its
evil practices drew the attention of Government and, as a result, the
principal shrines were destroyed.
In May of one year, a chief stated, they chanced to sacrifice
a Brass woman. I do not know how she managed to disappear from
her own town, but the Kula people caught her for their Juju.
Always they made sacrifice when the new yams were coming up
from the ground. Every Juju of every nation demands a victim at
that time of year. News of the sacrifice of this Brass woman
was brought to Mr. Binny when he was D.C. of Degama; so he went
down and destroyed that Juju house. Word went forth that it
was to be burnt to the ground, whereon the people came to him
and said: ‘May we not take the sticks of which it is made to
mend our own compounds?’ Therefore he gave permission and the
townsfolk pulled it down themselves. In the shrine were found
many skulls carved from wood in exact imitation of real human
skulls. There too were human figures, finely painted; some like
those modelled in clay in the ’Mbari houses and others like the
’Nduen Fobara (ancestral images) in Kalahari shrines.
Yet another link between ancestor worship and that of the Earth
Mother Ala is to be found at Omo-Ala (children of Ala)--a town in the
south-eastern part of the Division which proved to be a great centre
both of the cult of the Earth Goddess and of the forefathers.
Here, as in most other Ibo towns, nearly every compound has its sacred
tree which is usually a specimen either of Ojji (_Chlorophora excelsa_)
or Oil Bean (_Pentaclethra macrophylla_). In this the souls of the
departed are thought to dwell while awaiting reincarnation. So long as
the least fragment of the tree lasts, the faithful shades cling to its
ancient trunk or branches or even retire into the furthermost rootlets.
For this reason, when one of these giants falls beneath Time’s axe, the
family to which it belongs marks the place where it formerly stood and
no farm may be made thereon again. Were this not done, it is thought
that the ghosts might be imprisoned for ever since they could not break
through the earth to return to the light of day, lest, by so doing,
they might injure the sown crops of Ale.
Before the last rootlets of the ‘ghost trees’ return to the dust
of Mother Ale, the spirits announce to their family through the
mouth of some medicine man that a new tree must be chosen for their
dwelling-place. The homes of such ancestral shades are obvious, even to
the most careless passer-by, from the earthen pots or bowls and the
freshly-offered plantains, etc., which may always be found amid the
roots.
At the planting of new farms the members of each compound assemble
beneath the family tree and give a great play. At such times they bring
gifts and dance and sing, robed in their best, praying the ancestral
shades to guard the seeds laid in the bosom of Mother Earth and help
them to come to fruition. Again, at harvest time, another play is
held to thank the ghosts for their share of the crops. A part of the
increase is always set aside in gratitude to these beneficent spirits.
There is an interesting point to be noted about such ‘ghost trees.’
In this part of the District only the souls of good men are thought
to await reincarnation in these peaceful dwelling-places, gladdened
by sunshine, quickened by gentle dews or warm fertilising rain and
refreshed by soft breezes. It is a matter of firm belief that, however
fiercely tornados may rage around, these are spared. The branches
of such trees are never rudely torn nor dashed together, while no
thunderbolt has ever been hurled against their sacred trunks.
The ghost of an evil man would in vain seek admittance within the
shelter of the family tree, but would be driven forth by the shades of
his blameless kin to await, in animal form, a new term of earth life.
Young brides, therefore, often linger beneath those trees in which
dwell the souls of gentle ancestors, in the hope that one such may
choose her as his Janua terrae. Among Owerri Ibo, however, a different
belief is held; only the ghosts of those foully slain, whether by
force or witchcraft, are thought to seek refuge in the tree tops, there
to wail and cry throughout the hours of darkness and in time of storms
with a pitiful sound ‘like a small chick or a piccan but a few days
old,’ until the guilty cause of their untimely death has been brought
to justice.
It has already been mentioned that ghosts, who have taken on brute form
while awaiting reincarnation, sometimes fall upon women who chance to
pass through their haunts. By means of the animal body, which they
temporarily inhabit, these evil spirits force their unfortunate victims
to bear a babe, into which the sinful soul may enter--thus procuring an
earlier return to mortal state.
From a case heard in Degama Native Court it also transpired that, among
some Kalabari at least, the belief is held that the spirits of dead
husbands are not altogether cut off from earthly joys but, when bound
by specially ardent affection for the wives they have left behind, may
on occasion return for the purpose of once more embracing the object
of their desire. That such a proceeding is supposed to be not without
danger to the woman thus visited will be seen from the statement of
Ogoloba H. Horsfall, who summoned her brother-in-law, Charlie H.
Horsfall, for accusing her of witchcraft. Complainant stated on oath:
Three months ago the defendant accused me of witchcraft. This
was on the Government beach. He stated that several people
had died in the house owing to my having bewitched them.
My husband was defendant’s brother. He died, and since his
death has appeared to me in the night time and tried to have
connection with me. I had to make medicine to stop this, as
otherwise I might have died.
How deeply the longing for offspring is ingrained in the hearts of
these people may be gauged to a certain extent by the horror of
the means to which they will sometimes resort in order to overcome
sterility or increase fruitfulness. For such an end no crime is too
cruel; no magic rite too dark or revolting. For example, a case was
reported from the Ogoni country on unimpeachable authority but seven
years ago, in which the foetus was removed from a pregnant woman in
order to be shared out among, and devoured by, others who believed this
to be a sure way of increasing fertility.
In a land case, which had arisen between the Okrikans and the Mbolli
tribe and came before me in April 1915, it was stated by Daniel Kalio,
head chief of the former, that the disputed territory had been seized
by his people in punishment for the terrible crime committed by their
opponents.
In the old days, he said, the river formed the boundary between
our land; but our women were in the habit of crossing over to
attend the markets. One day, while thus peacefully buying and
selling, the ’Mbolli rose and slew seventy-two of them at one
time--forty-one at one place and thirty-one at another. Their
heads were struck off and borne before the Juju; while the
bodies of those who had been about to bear babes were slashed
open and the small, small piccans removed and carried away.
It was suggested from another source that this last outrage was
promoted by the same idea as that recorded among their neighbours the
Ogoni and that the Mbolli sought, by this terrible means, to procure
unprecedented fruitfulness to their own women. The suggestion, however,
has never been substantiated.
The story of the coming of Ale was told by an Ibo named Obi Amara. It
differs from the usual southern Ikwerri Ibo idea that Chi, or Chineke,
the creatrix, was the great first cause from which all mortal men have
sprung. He explained seeming contradictions by saying that to Ale the
bodies alone were due, into which Chi sent down souls from the Spirit
Realm.
They make Ale play for this country at the feast of new
yams and also give food to Ale when they want plenty yams,
especially at the sowing of farms. Ale is the mother of all Ibo
people. Her husband is called ’Ndiche.
Perhaps it is worth mentioning here that this was the only occasion on
which any such appellation was given among the many local names for
the spouse of Ale. Ndiche, or Ndichie, itself is the ordinary Ibo word
for the forefathers, and the relationship here mentioned between the
Earth Goddess and these beneficent shades is significant in view of the
co-operation thought to exist between them, not only as regards seed
corn and harvest but also fertility of the hearth. Further it may be
noticed that the primary cause of the coming of Ale, as here given, was
not to provide a home for the living but a resting-place for the dead.
To continue:
There is a big bird in our country named Ogbughu (hornbill).
Its mother died. In those days Ale was not, so that the bird
could find no place to bury his mother. He went round and
round and at last had to bury her on his own head. That is why
he bears upon his head a mound the shape of a grave to the
present day. After a while, as he flew over the water, seeking
a resting-place but finding none, he saw one fine woman and
one man swimming in the water. As he watched, he saw they were
making something and, in a short time, the first land began to
appear. When it had grown quite big, Ale cried: ‘When any man
dies, let him be brought and buried here.’ Her own body she
stretched over the land; she it is who made all, both the earth
and the earth-folk, whom she bore from her womb. When the dead
are buried they turn to earth, so that our people say: ‘We are
of one body with Ale.’ The trees too she brought. Ojji tree was
the first that ever grew upon earth. The second was Agbo (or
Akpu, the silk cotton tree) and the third Odala. Food is still
given to this tree for every child which is born to a house
and, if a woman wants a piccan, she brings a fowl to the Odala
tree.
When a woman wants to become a mother, she lies down to sleep
for night time after prayer to Ale. She dreams that Odala
brings a piccan and lays it upon her breast. At daybreak she
wakes and cries: ‘Where is the piccan that was over my heart?’
Then she takes a long piece of chalk,[22] called ’Nsu by Ibos,
and lays it before the Odala tree, praying: ‘Make my dream come
true.’
The fourth tree which Ale brought was the Kola Ojji, the fruit
of which is often set out in offering to the ghosts. At an
Ale feast the women bring food and the oldest man of the town
offers it up. After a man has eaten of such a feast, should he
do any evil thing that day, Ale would surely kill him.
When a bad sickness comes upon a town, the old priest of Ale,
who is always the head chief, beats upon the long drum to call
all the people together in order to find out the cause of the
trouble. Then Kola nuts are laid upon the place set apart for
offerings. Each man in turn kneels down and picks up the kola
with his lips, eats it and goes away. This is done until the
guilty one comes. When a wizard bends down to take Ale’s kola,
the Earth Spirit catches him and he is forced by her power to
confess how he spread the pestilence. Before all the people he
must speak out, saying: ‘I killed this man. I killed that man.
That woman also I slew!’--until all his crimes are known. When
everything has been told, his belly swells up and he dies. No
man touches him. It is by Ale’s power alone that he is slain.
This aversion to witchcraft is characteristic not only of the Earth
Mother but also of her spouse the Thunder God; for, though certain
magicians can raise a tempest by their spells, it is held to be
extremely dangerous for witch or wizard to practise magic rites during
the time of storms. When a man is struck by lightning, it is thought
that Amade Onhia slew him on account of his crimes. Such men are never
buried, lest the evil within them should defile Ale. The corpses are
therefore flung away into the bush of the unblest dead. Similarly
among Aro and some other Ibo tribes no tree struck by lightning can be
used for firewood; since food cooked upon this would be accursed and
even the light and heat given out by such logs would have a sinister
influence on all whom it might reach.
With these peoples the bed-rock of religious ideas has perhaps been
attained in this direction; and, unless the fascination of the subject
has misled one with will-o’-the-wisp-like glamour, then surely in the
cult of the Earth Mother, of the Sky Father, by whose fecundative
showers her fruition is brought about, of the kindly ancestors, whose
spirits still watch over their descendants and aid in the sending of
rich harvests--lastly, and most intimately of all, by sympathetic magic
through that mysterious link thought to lie between the generative
organs, both male and female, and the fruitfulness of the animal and
vegetable kingdoms--the innermost workings of primitive minds may, in a
measure, be reached at last.
[Illustration: FIG. 47. Shrine of Ojuku juju at Woji]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See also figures on the ancestral tablet described on p. 121.
[2] 1904, pp. 134, 135.
[3] In the Mbari houses of the neighbourhood of Omo Akani, Owerri
District, where the Juju Ogugu holds sway, monkeys also are shown in
the act of procreation.
[4] A different word to Abara ‘Juju.’
[5] Our informant did not know of any link, yet it seems not without
significance that the phallic pillars, raised by maidens before
marriage to ensure plentiful offspring, also bear the name of Eki. See
chapter vii.
[6] At the Etche town of Okudu Mba there was an Mbari house erected in
honour of Ajala (Aja ground or mud), ‘a brother of Ale.’
[7] In this neighbourhood are the principal shrines of Adumu, the head
and father of all the snake cults of the region. The little village of
Adum-Ama is its chief centre, while at ’Ngeri-Baw-Ama it was stated
that ‘only men may talk with him; for with his cult some of the most
important of the male secrets are said to be connected.’
[8] The wrestling scene depicted in every Mbari house generally
represents the ceremonial wrestling ‘to help the crops grow’ described
on p. 112 _et seq._
[9] Cf. The Bird and Pillar Cult of old Crete.
[10] See _Life in Southern Nigeria_.
[11] No information could be obtained as to whether the priest ‘died’
at the end of the seventh year of his office, like the priest of the
Aya-Eke cult at Elele, _vide_ p. 103 _et seq._
[12] The tabu among Okoba and Ale Nsaw Ibo against climbing palm trees
is probably due to the same idea.
[13] _Zeus: A Study of Ancient Religion_, by A. B. Cook.
[14] Vide _In the Shadow of the Bush_, p. 14.
[15] Many of these would now be classified by me as symbols of
‘medicines’ or charms, not ‘jujus.’ Vide _The Peoples of Southern
Nigeria_, vol. ii. p. 153.
[16] _In the Shadow of the Bush_, p. 76.
[17] It is perhaps worth remarking that among Mbolli all fire brick is
used for the same purpose.
[18] The Ajokko-Ji, the Yam Spirit, is further described in _The
Peoples of Southern Nigeria_.
[19] _Woman’s Mysteries of a Primitive People_ (Cassell), p. 81.
[20] Eke day is one of the four days of the Ibo week. It is market day
at Elele. Eke is also the name of the great python. See p. 7.
[21] Mbiencha is the child of Nkike, the Mbolli Earth Goddess.
[22] This offering is of the same shape, though apparently slightly
larger than the small phallic symbols found before the Juju Ezum Mezum
depicted on p. 92.
INDEX
A
Abara, messenger of the Earth Goddess, represented in Mbari Houses,
16-7.
Abaw, clan of Ika sub-tribe of Ibo, 79.
Abuan, Semi-Bantu tribe, 75, 121, 123.
Adultery:
Tabus, 126-7;
condonation of, 127.
Ajiji, ‘play’, 93-4.
Ajokko-ji, or Njokku:
Yam cult, 99 _et seq._;
among Mbolli, 29.
Ala, or Ale, or Ana. _See_ Earth Goddess.
Ale Nsaw, sub-tribe of Ibo, 122-3.
Amade Onhia, or Amad’ongha. _See_ God of Lightning.
Ancestors:
and Fertility, 9, 60, 113, 120;
and Ale, 120 _et seq._ esp. 134;
accursed, 64;
shrines and phallic figures, 84;
symbols, 80-1;
between reincarnations, 77, 130-2.
Ant hill, and phallic cults, 90-2.
Ape, represented in Mbari Houses, 22, 24-5.
Aro, sub-tribe of Ibo; and worship of Thunder God, 46.
Art, clay figures in Mbari Houses, 15, 41.
Axe, double-headed, depicted on Ikoro drum, 4, 8.
B
Binny, Mr. J. M., former District Commissioner, 108-9.
Bird and Pillar worship, 43.
Birth:
representation in Mbari Houses, 15, 24, 51;
due to Jujus, 60.
Blood and Fertility, 102, 128-9.
Burial. _See_ Death.
C
Chief of town, must be priest of Ale, 12.
Child birth, tabus re, 63.
Coiffure, representations in Mbari Houses, 15, 41.
Cooking cones. _See_ Eku, 82 _et seq._
Copulation:
method of, 24-5;
with the dead, 132;
unnatural, 33-6;
tabus re, 32-3, 121 _et seq._;
and cults of Earth Goddess and Thunder God, 15, 48.
Crocodile, depicted on Ikoro drum etc., 4, 7, 9.
Cult, yam, 99 _et seq._ _See_ Fertility.
D
Dance, at Elele, 116 _et seq._
Death, tabus re, 62-4.
Drum, the Great, 1 _et seq._
E
Earth. _See_ Goddess.
Spousals with Sky, 61.
Egyptians, Ancient, 75;
Legend re Horus, 85.
Ekkpahian, sub-tribe of, Ibo, and unnatural copulation, 34-6.
Ekoi, Semi-Bantu tribe, 65, 79.
Eku, phallic figures, 82 _et seq._
Eleche, Priest of Aya-Eke yam cult, 104 _et seq._
Elele, Ikwerri Ibo town, home of Aya-Eke Yam cult, 103.
Etche, sub-tribe of Ibo, builders of Mbari Houses, 12, 20, 23, 40 _et
seq._
Ethnological Sketch by P. Amaury Talbot, v.
F
Farms, 99. _See_ Fertility.
Fertility:
of farms, 50, 99 _et seq._;
of farms and flocks, 36, 113;
and Jujus, _see_ Ibudu, 65 _et seq._;
linked with priest, 103;
desire for, 133;
and blood, 128-9.
_See_ Ancestors, also Earth Goddess, esp. 40-1, 48, 60.
Frazer, Sir James, 85.
Fruitfulness. _See_ Fertility.
G
Genital Organs, 65-6, 70, 5-6.
_See_ Phallic, Symbols.
Ghosts. _See_ Ancestors.
Girls, and initiatory ceremonies, 14, 82 _et seq._
God, of Lightning and Thunder, Amade Onhia or Amad’ongha, 52 _et
seq._;
and Mbari shrine, 12, 20-1, 27, 30-1, 40, 43;
symbols, 47;
signs of, 57;
his ‘Palms’, 46;
his Priest, 49, 56;
and witchcraft, 57, 136.
God, Sky, 52 _et seq._, 61.
Goddess, Earth, 9, 52 _et seq._;
the coming of, 135;
and Mbari shrines, 12, 16, 21, 26, 30, 40;
and Ancestors, 120 _et seq._;
and witchcraft, 136.
H
Head-Dresses:
of Obukere Society, 37-8;
representation in Mbari Houses, _see_ Coiffure.
Horn of Plenty, 9.
I
Ibibio Tribe, 64-5, 85.
Ibo Tribe: v.
Ibodo, Etche Ibo town, 42, 44.
Ibudu, phallic pillars, 65 _et seq._
Ikoro Drum, 2 _et seq._
Initiatory ceremonies, feminine. _See_ Girls.
Intercourse. _See_ Copulation.
J
Jekri, sub-tribe of Yoruba, Tabus re copulation, 124.
Johnston, Sir Harry, 56.
Jujus, and Fertility of human beings, 60, 65.
K
Kalabari, sub-tribe of Ijaw, v, 56;
and double Ibudu, 77-8.
L
Lightning:
and trees, 58;
God of, _see_ God.
M
Marriage:
among Okrikans, 120;
ideal, 89;
betrothed girls, 82 _et seq._
Mbari Houses: Chs. 2, 3 and 4;
at Omo Dim, 10 _et seq._;
at Ibodo, 44;
construction of, 14 _et seq._;
ceremonies at, 14;
in Etche country, 40 _et seq._;
license depicted in, 32-3.
Mbolli, tribe:
and yam cult, 29, 115;
and farms, 121-2.
Medicine man, and construction of Mbari House, 21, 23.
Mgbe, and temples, 21, 23.
Moon:
depicted on Ikoro drum, 4;
on figures in Mbari Houses, 26 _et seq._, 31;
and fertility, 28-30.
N
Njokku, figure in Mbari House, 11.
_See also_ Ajokko-Ji, 99 _et seq._
O
Obogwe, Ibo town, Mbari House at, 30.
Obukere Club: 36-9;
and unnatural copulation, 36.
Ohambele, Ibo town, where Ikoro drum is worshipped, 2.
Okrikans, clan of Kalabari sub-tribe of Ibo, and Death Tabus, 63.
Omo Dim, Ibo town, Mbari House at, 26 _et seq._
Opioro, Etche Ibo town, Mbari House at, 24-5.
Otaminni, River Deity, and Mbari Houses, 12, 20, 24.
P
Peoples of Southern Nigeria, by P. Amaury Talbot, v.
Pepple, Mr. B. M., 2
Phallic Cult, 65 _et seq._, 84-5.
_See_ Procreation, Fertility, Symbols, Genital organs.
Pillar, Bird and Pillar worship, 43-4.
Pliny, 6.
Priest:
of Earth Goddess, 12, 16, 30;
of Yam cult, Fertility linked with his life, 103;
of Thunder God, 49.
Procreation, represented in Mbari Houses, 15, 32.
Prostitution, religious, 127-8.
Puberty, girls’ initiatory ceremonies, 82 _et seq._
R
Rainbow, sign of Lightning God, 57
Romans, and seed-grain, 113.
S
Seed Yams, and corn, 49, 59, 113.
Sekapu Society, 39.
Sex, Male and Female combined, 89.
Sky God. _See_ God.
Slaves:
of Juju, 56, 59;
in Mbari Houses, 42;
sanctuary in shrines, 59.
Snake:
depicted on Ikoro Drum, etc., 4, 6-7;
symbol of male organ, 5 _et seq._;
cults, 34.
Stone, worship of, 80-1.
Symbols: 65, 79-81, 84-5, 94;
on Ikoro drum, 4;
of tortoise and snake, 4-9;
of lightning, 47.
T
Tabus:
re copulation, 25, 32-3, 121, 123-6;
food, 49, 102;
climbing, 58;
picking leaves, etc., 58;
death, 62-4;
revocation of, 125.
Thunder, God of. _See_ God of Lightning.
_Times Literary Supplement_, quotation from, 4-5.
Tortoise:
symbol of female generative organs, 5-9;
and Folklore, 5.
Tree, sacred, 101-2, 130-1.
U
Umoyo, Etche town, 22.
Unnatural copulation, 33-6.
W
Whitehouse, Mr., former District Commissioner, 14.
Witchcraft, and Earth Goddess and Thunder God, 136.
Wobilo, Chief of Umoyo, 22-3.
Wrestling:
depicted in Mbari Houses, 41;
in connection with yam and corn cults, 110 _et seq._
Y
Yam Cult: 99 _et seq._;
among Mbolli, 29;
Aya-Eke cult, 103 _et seq._
Yellow, Mr. G. A., 11.
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