By
C.E. Ukhun
Department of Philosophy Edo State University, Ekpoma
INTRODUCTION
Ancestral worship is the appeasement of the departed or dead by the living members of the society. The appeasement could come in the form of animal sacrifice of various kinds or the cooking of special delicacies for the dead parents. The common animals used for ancestral worship were goat 1 fowls 1 etc. while food like pounded yam was also offered. The sacrifice is performed to ask for favour from the ·departed ancestors. Ancestral worship is vital because it is thought that ancestors play intermediary role t between. the Supreme Being and the living. For instance, in time of need, the living could seek help or favour from God, but this has to be done through the ancestors who have to be appeased. Ancestral worship is governed by. the belief that the dead have the capability to observe and control~ affairs of men. Though dead; ancestors are still regarded as part and parcel of the family.
Apparently Mike I. Isokun opines that ancestral worship is a recognition and veneration of dead descendants of a lineage or kinship which are considered structurally important in relation to the living members of the family lineage, or kinship system. There is also a stream of thought. which aligns with the above impression. The view is that which has been. raised by E.B. Idowu. lie- says that it is a manifestation of an unbroken family relationship between the parent who has departed from this world and the offspring’s who are still here. For a reason that ancestors play social and secular roles, and for the reason that they are sacred, and are no longer in the flesh on earth the way they are approached must be different from the ordinary approach to them during the time of their earthly life. central to ancestral worship is the view that there is sacrifice, worship or appeasement to dead parents for help in terms of unexplainable or unaccountable manifestations on the earthly plane.
The
reason Esan people have a strong belief in after-life or life after-death. In
other words, the Esan believe that a person can still survive after he or she
had departed this physical world. As with all Africans, Esan do not trivialize
the concept of reincarnation, and this validates the assertion that the believe
in after life is part of Esan cosmology. Apparently, from the cultural
perspective, it is hard for traditional Esan to believe- that when his or her
father dies for instance, that would amount to the end of the father. In a
sense, it could amount to a distortion of Esan conception of life if there is
any suggestion to effect that the death of one's own parents amount to their
complete annihilation. Instead death is a continuation of relationship between
the dead or departed with those that are living or are physically present in
this world. There is an implication in this contention. It is that from some perspective,
the dead or ancestors enjoys a social relationship in his or her present abode
as much or more than the social relationship which the living enjoys.
Also flowing from this argument is the view that though the ancestors occupy a spiritual realm, they have the capacity or power to observe direct or influence activities in this physical world. Sustaining this assertion is the claim that when Esan speak of ancestors; they are not talking metaphorically. They are real in Esan cosmology. Given Esan belief in ancestors and their power to influence events or activities, the Esan try as much as possible to avoid transgressions; or else they could attract wrath of the ancestors as much as they could get their blessings if they behaved. From this stand point, one can intact say that good behaviour may be one of the cardinal reasons for ancestral worship in traditional Esan.
An insight into the concept of "worship" could help explain the significance of · ancestral worship. worship is defined as a man’s response to what he considers to be the revelation or presence of the divine. On the basis of this belief, the pre-colonial Esan confesses his complete submission to divine beings including the ancestors. Lending credence to the above, Nabofa perceives worship as the way beliefs are put into actions; the method of response to revelation or divine presence; a means of honouring spiritual beings of an act of veneration paid by man to spiritual beings.
Consequent upon the above insights and given what we have indicated earlier, Esan people do not doubt the existence or presence of spiritual entities or beings including their ancestors who they worship with seriousness. From the vector of worship, the Esan people are able to demonstrate or show their respect, "render some services and pa homage" to the spiritual being of the ancestors. The reed to worship is informed by their conscious or unconscious "recognition11 of the nature and importance of the ancestors and spiritual being in their environment. Being that Esan people are aware of the immediate presence of ancestors, the need to worship automatically arises. Infect, the compulsion to worship is partly motivated by the need to open up COrnrnui1ication link between them and their ancestors. To be able to do this, sacrifices, offerings and libations are made. If not for any other reason, traditional Esan people are convinced that sacrifices, offerings and libation are honourable and a fast means of "inspiring” the ancestors to take part in their activities.
By
the above assertions, Esan people believe that the living descendants of the
ancestors just as a matter of fact, pay due respect to the ancestors to prevent
any form of disaster and attract to themselves, some good fortunes or
blessings. This explains the reason why elders and members of various lineages
and families converge or meet at identified ancestral shrines to worship the
deified ancestors. Again, it is not enough ordinary approach to them during the
time of their earthly life. Central to ancestral worship is the view that there
is sacrifice, worship or appeasement to dead parents for help in terms of
unexplainable or unaccountable manifestations on the earthly plane.
The Esan people have a strong belief in afterlife or life after death. In other words, the Esan believe that a person can still survive after he or she had departed this physical world. As with Africans, Esan do not trivialize the concepts of reincarnation, and this validates the assertion that the belief in after life is part of Esan cosmology. Apparently, from the cultural perspective, it’s hard for the traditional Esan to believe that when his or her father dies for instance, that would amount to the end of the father. In a sense, it could amount to a distortion of Esan conception of life if there is any suggestion to the effect that the death of one’s own parents amount to their annihilation. Instead death is a continuation of a relationship between the dead or departed that are living or physically present in this world. There is an implication in this contention. It is that from some perspective, the dead of ancestors enjoys a social relationship in his or her present abode as much or more than the social relationship which the living enjoys.
Also flowing from this argument is the view that though that the ancestors occupied spiritual realm, they have the capacity or power to observe, direct or influence or activities in this physical world. Sustaining this assertion is the claim that when Esan speak of ancestors, they’re not talking metaphorically. They are real in Esan cosmology. Given Esan belief in ancestors and their power to influence events or activities, the Esan try as much as possible to avoid transgressions or else they could attract the wrath of the ancestors as much as they could get their blessings if they behaved. From this stand point, one can infect say that good behaviour maybe one of the cardinal reason for ancestral worship in traditional Esan.
An insight into the concept of "worship" could help explain the significance or ancestral worship. Worship is defined as a man’s responds to what he considers to be the revelation or presence of the divine. On the basic of this belief, the pre-colonial Esan confesses his complete submission to divine being including the ancestors. Lending Credence to the above, Nabofa perceive worship as the way beliefs are put into actions. The method of response revelation or divine presence; a means of honouring spiritual beings or an act of veneration paid by man to spiritual beings.
Consequent
upon the above insights and given what we have indicated earlier, Esan people
do not doubt the existence or presence of spiritual entities or beings
including their ancestors who they worship with seriousness. From the vector of worship, the Esan people
are able to demonstrate or show their respect, "render some services and
pa homage" to the spiritual being of the ancestors. The reed to worship is
informed by their conscious or Unconscious “recognition" of the nature and
importance of the ancestors and spiritual being in their environment. Being
that Esan people are aware of the immediate presence of ancestors, the need to
worship arises automatically. In fact, the compulsion to worship is partly
motivated by the need to open up communication link between them and their
ancestors. To be able to do this, sacrifices, offerings and libation are made.
If not any reason, traditional Esan people are convinced that sacrifices,
offerings and libation are honourable and a fast means of “inspiring” the
ancestors to take part in their activities.
By the above assertions Esan people believe that tile living descendants of the ancestors as a matter of fact, pay due respect to the ancestors to prevent any form of disaster and attract to themselves, some good fortunes or blessings. This explains. the reason why elders and members of various lineages and families converge or meet at identified ancestral shrines to worship the deified ancestors. Again, it is not enough to worship the ancestor at the shrine. The worship has to be. properly done or else there would be no result at all or if there be any result, it could be unpalatable.
Another significant phenomenon often rears its head in ancestral worship in Esan. In ancestral worship or the worship of a departed father, it is only the first son who has the authority to perform any rite or ceremony. The first son too, was the only one to keep or be in custody of the family staff known as Ukhure which represents the spirit of the departed father. The staff was used to clean and bless the whole family by the first son. Usually, prior to being in possession of the Ukhure, the first son should have undergone some training or apprenticeship under the father who was then alive. Recognition of the first son's authority over " the Ukhure for ancestral worship is manifested by reference or appeal to the first son by his brothers and sisters for blessings.
Corroborating
this view, G. C. Okojie admitted that all children worship their father when
dead, through the most senior brother who was the man's first surviving son. He
had the custody of the family. UKHURE, the short stick of about 2 feet in length
with cowries tied round it, and presenting the spirit of the dead father. The
first son alone could touch this Ukhure and
used it to bless the family as he had always watched his father do. 'Thus, if
any of his junior brothers or sisters had to appease the spirit of their dead
father, they asked their senior brother or the eldest male child of the deg1d
to perform the worship for them. The goat or fowl or whatever the priest had
told them would turn their father's spirit to their direction, would be brought
to the first son.
What is the importance of ancestral worship to the pre-colonial Esan people?
Answers to this question can be found from two broad orientations. The first orientation aligns with the simplistic generalization that African thought system lacks the ingredients of rationality, logicality and therefore ore of no importance. This orientation is heavily dosed with Levy-Bruhlianism. Levy Bruhl and his school were more inclined to categorize human societies into two broad senses namely, those with "primitive mentality'' and those with "civilized mentality''. According to him, those with "primitive mentality" are characterized by pre-logical mode of thought while the latter is marked by logical thought. In referring to Levy Bruhl, Sogolo incucates that he, Levy-Bruhl, describes a pre-logical thought as one that is unscientific, uncritical and contains evident contradictions. More to this, Levy-Bruhl asserts that Africans fall into this group. Therefore, the strongest grip of his contention is that African thought system falls off the mark of scientific and philosophical analysis. In other words, when the Nuer people say for instance that "twins are birds·'' or "crocodiles are spirits" they are not conveying any meaning because the assertion cannot be proved on the basis of empirical and logical canon, or fall within the concept of "cause, and effect. The central force of Levy Bruhl’s claim is that the mind of Africans is malstructured and does not accord with some presumed universal principle of reasoning. Flowing from Levy Bruhl and his associates the claim that when pre-colonial Esan people believe for instance in the influences of ancestors, and consequently their worship of the ancestors nothing substantial or important can be attached to such a belief. The reason for this claim is simply that a belief has to be relevantly what it is only if there is a way to prove it or its worth. This is not correct.
It seems that not much · insight can be gained into ancestral worship in pre-colonial Esan if we look at i t from the Levy-Bruhlian perspective of assessing traditional African world-view as illogical, irrational a11d meaningless.
Apparently
disturbed by the pervading assertions that African world-view or thought-system
has nothing to contribute to universal knowledge Evans Pritchard preferred to
assess the Nuer culture to invalidate the Levy orientation and therefore
reinstated the elements of logicality rationality and utility in African
thought-system. Evans-Pritchard's discovery and assessment' of the Nuer culture
shows that, that culture is rational in reference for instance, to the
statement "twins are birds" or "crocodile are spirits."
Evans Pritchard's discovery is that this statement, like many others . . . is
only logically faulty when taken out of the context of the people’s culture,
Godwin Sogolo shed more light on Evans-Pritchard's view by indicating that
"The Nuer do not make or take the statement that "twins are
birds" in any ordinary sense in addition to being men and
women". Twin-bird, to the Nuer
constitutes a special character which the statement expresses. Twins and birds
are believed to be associated with spirits. They are the "people of the
above" and "the children of God."
Admittedly, according to Sogolo, the Nuer statement in Evans-Pritchard's explanation, reduces to a mere symbolic representation, a meaning carried in the Nuer language but absent in its English equivalent. Thus Evans-Pritchard and Peter Winch have argued that there can be no consensus on a universal paradigm of assessing whether a particular world-view is rational, logical or meaningful. What Winch asserts here is relativistic for, he states that criteria of logic are not direct gift of God, but arise out of, and are only intelligible in the context of ways of living or modes of social life. It follows that one cannot apply criteria of logic to modes of social life as such. For instance, science is one of such modes and religion is another, and each has criteria of intelligibility peculiar to itself so within science or religion actions can be logical or illogical in science, for example, it would be illogical to refuse to be bound by the results of properly carried out experiments, but in religion it would be illogical to suppose that one could pit one's strength against God ' s and so on. But we cannot sensibly say that either the practice of science itself or that of religion is either illogical or logical, both are non-logical. Two dichotomies - the worlds of sciences and of religion or traditional thought according to Winch have their language and structures and can only be assessed or evaluated by their own different paradigms. The implication of Winch' s argument is that it would not make much sense asking a traditional man to demonstrate his belief using empirical procedure.
CONCLUSION
None
of the issues raised by Evans-Pritchard, Winch, and others seem helpful in
understanding or appreciating the importance of ancestral worship in
pre-colonial Esan. The belief that ancestors can influence lives has helped to
sustain the cosmology of the Esan people. The shared religious belief or
ancestral worship tended to bring people together, generating feelings of
sympathy, brotherliness ·and altruism. During worship prayers are said
together. Feelings among members are consciously motivated and accentuated and
feelings of hatred discarded and or suppressed. ~ The core of this contention
is that ancestral worship provided a solid foundation for the moral and
spiritual status of the pre-colonial. Esan people. In other words, ancestral
worship helped to eliminate or reduce very considerably, such social vices as
theft, blackmail, murder, adultery etc. In truth, ancestral worship acted as a
cohesive force for the pre-colonial Esan people. It was the core of Esan cosmology.
