ESAN MAIN
CULTURAL FEATURES
By DR.CHRISTOPHER.G. OKOJIE, OFR, DSc (Hon)
1.
A MAN TAKES A WIFE:
Strictly in Esan custom there were three ways
by which a man could come to have a wife: by betrothal, by the dowry
system and by inheritance.
(a) BETROTHAL
(EBEE):
This was the commonest, the surest, the
supposed cheapest and the cause of all our ills and confusions in the Native
and Customary Courts today. A man could 'beg' for the hand of a girl from
conception to the age of five. Seeing a woman pregnant the man would send her a
log of firewood (for night heating since the mud houses with thatched roofs
were very cold), and say, 'may the departed spirits deliver you safely, but if
the child should be a girl,
I beg for her hand in
marriage'. The man might be anything up to sixty years in age.
Should the pregnant woman have a baby girl, he renewed his request with more presents like logs of wood,
yams etc. There might be two, three or
more prospective suitors asking for THIS FOETUS'S hand! The mother and father
at this time usually were quite non-committal. In places like Ebelle, on the
hair-washing day that is when the baby is three to four months old, the man
invited to help pound the foufou for the ceremony knew he had been accepted,
and he could afterwards come to ask for the girl's hand formally. In most other
places, by the time the girl was five, it was time to get serious with the
request, and one took a calabash of palm wine, passed
through a middleman, usually the girl's uncle or cousin or
godfather and came up to 'salute the father'. A discrete man said nothing on
that day, he was merely on a reconnaissance greeting. A few market days after, he
repeated his visit, with perhaps, a bigger keg of palm wine. Then with much head-scratching and much speaking in parables and
ancient idioms, the 'go-between' informed the father of the object of their mission!
Once a year during the community festival
special presents were made to the father (a bundle of seven yams and a calabash
of palm wine), to the mother,
yams and a calabash of
oil, and to the girl, beads, cloth etc. By the time
the girl wasten to fifteen, when the intended husband must have been nearly
bald from carrying loads to his future father-in-law's house, he must have
spent well-over Ebo Isen, a hellish lot of cowries numbering about 94,000 equivalent today to some N3.90! He could then start a gentle agitation
for his wife to be sent to him.
On the long run this method of marriage was
more expensive but it commended itself to everybody because of easier payments,
spread over five to fifteen years, and an Ebee was a tamer, more lovable, more
trustworthy and more manageable wife than any other type.
(b)
THE DOWRY SYSTEM:
The system of paying bride price was rarer,
but was more lucrative system for the father; ' however
only the well-to-do could leave their daughters to grow before marrying them
out. The patient father asked and got a heavy sum of money cash down, for his
grown up daughter. This was between EBO EA and EBO ISEN, although some shylocks
asked for astronomical figure of EBO IHINLON, which was about 130, 666 cowries weighing
some 11.6cwt requiring some ten hefty men to carry.
 |
An Esan bride ready to go to her husband.
|
Although this system gave the father an avenue
for money, it had its drawbacks. The girl who by then was between ten to
fifteen years old, had got to the age when, despite her sex, she could express
her likes and dis-likes. She could refuse a man despite his bags of
cowries because of his ugly one eye, or a limp, habitual drunkenness etc. In
practice however, the girl
was forced and carried on men's shoulders with fruitless wailing, to the husband's
house, and for the next three months the unhappy husband and his relatives had
to stand guard over their bride, lest she bolted away! In Ugboha
the dreaded juju masquerade was the effective messenger who led
the protesting damsel to her unwanted husband.
Instances were many when the confounded
husband after trying all methods of bribes and appeasements in vain,
resorted to a bestial mode of cohabitation: the strong men of the family
gathered, held the girl down and a grotesquely unnatural husband and wife
relation was effected. The idea was to consummate the marriage and get the
stubborn girl pregnant at all costs. Once so, she would be afraid of
offending the departed spirits, as she would surely do, if while carrying a
man's child she was thinking of deserting him, which was equivalent to thinking
evil of him. Then when she had the baby the chances, in Esan expression, were
ELO OLE KI DERE - her eyes would come down! What else could she do?
(c)
BY INHERITANCE (EGBASE: OF FSAN ‘A’, IZO OF ESAN ‘B’):
This was marriage by chance, and was relished
only by the poor and primitive, particularly when the woman to be
inherited was old or evil looking.
When a man died, the wife, if she was not an
Onojie's daughter, was inheritable after due burial of the father by the son. If she
was the father's only wife and the heir's mother, then an uncle or
Omijiogbe or the nearest patrikin, inherited her. If there were many wives, an heir who might not
have been able to marry a single wife of his own, would suddenly find himself
the owner of several wives. He could pick the younger and more
beautiful ones, ‘dash’ some to his junior brothers and ask those he did not want
in the family to refund the dowries on them. Sometimes some of the women who
were asked to go and refund dowry;
were unwilling to leave their
children; in that case if there was no one to inherit them, the Egbele gave
them an open license at the ancestral shrine. Such women were free to do
whatever they liked as long as they did not bring open dishonour to their children's
family.
Until more recently, this system of marriage
was not practiced in Ekpoma. As soon as a man died the wives, particularly the
childless ones, went to their homes. This Ekpoma custom arose in an attempt to
curb the true behaviour of next-of-kin, who used
to be more anxious for what was likely to be inherited, rather than do all in
their power to save the sick man. I have already described what happened to a
wife a man inherited, not from his father but from a brother or other
relatives. When the inheritor died, his son and heir was debarred from
inheriting this woman; the widow passed to the next senior brother of the
deceased.
2.
METHOD OF INHERITANCE (UHANMIN):
Although active mourning in Esan custom was over
by the fourteenth day, it was against tradition to inherit a woman before the
third month. After the woman had ended mourning for her husband, she might go and stay with her parents or may stay in her husband’s place, with her children; however she had to be in her husband's
place on the day of inheritance. The Edion of the Egbele were invited by the
heir and told he wanted to inherit his father's wife or wives. A goat was
slaughtered at the ancestral shrine to formally inform the long line of dead
ancestors that from that day on, the woman in question had become his wife. He
then stepped across the woman's extended legs, a thing
that is adulterous if done to a woman not one's wife. Whether
there were two or more wives, it required just one goat to inherit all of them.
Before the formal inheritance, the intending
inheritor must have gone to the woman's parents or guardian for ITEKPEN -
arrangements to smoothen the way. He went to them with a calabash of palm wine
and cash - ELANMEN EA or 2,800 Cowries now equivalent to –N11.70k.
A woman who lost her husband must be inherited
in this way within three months or she became a free woman. If there was no one to inherit her and she insisted on staying
to look after her children,
the freedom from Egbele
had to be given on the day the other wives were inherited. Any sharing of the
wives for the other brothers also had to be done on the same day.
Princesses, whether daughters of ruling or
dead Enijie, were not inheritable. The reasons for this were that they were
married without any payment of bride price and, secondly, their noble birth
made them marry as far as
possible, for love. They could not be forced to marry the heirs to their late
husband's. Such heirs might be unbefitting. It will be seen later that the
Onojie, not taking bride price for his daughters was not particularly magnanimous:
he married their mothers without paying a cowrie!
3.
PAWNING OR PLEDGING:
Marriage sometimes followed this system which
in the main, was disguised slavery. A person could pawn himself, his son or
more often, his daughter to raise funds either when he was in trouble or needed
money badly to pay a troublesome creditor. The pawn had to perform any given duties,
the services being considered as interest for the Creditor. The person pawned
could not be released until the capital had been paid fully. Where a man pawned his daughter for a big amount, he might never
be able to redeem her before she came of age. The Creditor might then take the
girl as his wife, making appropriate deduction in lieu of
this. The poor girl just had no choice in the matter!
4.
RE-MARRIAGE AFTER DIVORCE:
Legal decree of annulment of marriage scarcely
had a place in pure Esan custom. A woman once married tended to live in that
family until death. No one else in a community of same patrilineage could take
a wife from another. In fact it was adulterous even to touch the cloth of a
married woman. Neighbouring villages were likely to be under
the Okoven system. Therefore if a woman wanted to leave her husband she might
run to her parents, but anyone who married her had virtually declared war on
the family of the former husband, in particular, and the whole village in general.
A head or two might drop for this careless act of love! No, the consequences
were such that a wise woman would think seriously before deserting her lawful
husband. For instance, once she left that village it was goodbye for her and
her children! She was sure of being seized if she succumbed to the torments of
returning to see them, let alone, that it would be tantamount to adultery for
her to return to her former husband's compound. To crown the episode that was
bound to follow careless switching of husbands, if a life was lost as a result
of her desertion, custom decreed that she herself automatically became the
Onojie's wife!
The truth then was that divorce was unknown. If
a woman bolted and the husband was a weakling or without a
family, she was a total loss. If he was bold but without a family, he sought
out the whereabouts of his ex-wife and went head-hunting in that village. For
example, round about 1890,
Iyinbo, the beloved wife of Akhimie, heir to the renowned Ikhunmun of
Imule, Illeh, Ekpoma, deserted her husband and went to marry
Eroanga, the brother of Okougbo of Akho, Irrua. Okougbo himself was an equally valiant man and an Okakulo of his
village. One day while the Illeh Inotu were in a
meeting, Okougbo bluffingly walked in with a loaded gun and fired it aside. Someone
in the gathering told Ikhunmun that what Okougbo implied was that they had
seized his son's wife,
and so what! This very much
wounded the pride of the great Ikhunmun, and that
night he and a few dare-devils of Imule went head-hunting in Okougbo's village
of Akho. They cut their way into Okougbo's compound and a bloody free-shooting followed.
Eroanga, the man who seduced Iyinbo, was shot by a man called Ikpefua, who then
fled for his life since he had accomplished the major aim of the expedition; in
the excitement, he collided head-on with a palm tree, and passed out, but he
recovered in time before he was discovered by the enemies; he then made his way
home, but died seven days after, and I can safely say, from cerebral haemorrhage!
The avenging Ikhunmun, now satisfied, also ran
for his life but running at night in a strange village infested with gun-toting
enemies equally thirsty for -his head; fell into
a pond and was picked up next morning
drowned! Thus, for the
reckless action of one woman, two villages, Illeh and Akho, lost some of their
finest head-hunters! The author grew up to find Akhimien, heir of the great Ikhunmun, Odionwele
of Imule, Illeh. That was
not all; Eromosele's long arm stretched out to fish in troubled
waters. Iyinbo, for whose sake a life had been lost in
his domain, automatically, according to Esan custom became the Onojie's
property. Such a frivolous woman was not fit as a wife for the great Eromosele
and so Iyinbo in trying to have a change of husbands got sold as a slave!
What followed attempt to leave a husband could
be more sweeping depending upon the standing of the first husband. Where he was
a man of a great affluence, it was war between his people and the village that
gave refuge to his wife. The case of OMANMOJE, the
mother of the great Eromosele's heir - Momodu or Osobase (Akpakpa Ayonbe) which
led to the great Irrua - Uromi war of 1892 makes this point clear.
 |
In Esan of old, divorce was quite uncommon. The thoughtless, attempt of a woman to change husband brought the village head hunters into an ominous line! |
THE
GREAT IRRUA- UROMI WAR, 1892 -3:
Omanmoje was a daughter
of a Prince of Uromi who was a brother of the then Onojie of Uromi (OKOLO, 1873
-1901).When she had Osobase, the first son of Eromosele, the Onojie inhumanly
told her that was enough for her, and she was left to pine away, uncared for in
that great harem. Unable to continue suffering in her youth, she fled to her
home, Uromi; and to make matters worse for her home, re-married! That was more
than a cheek for Eromosele, the man who never drank water unless it was
boiling! War broke out between Irrua and Uromi, with Obeidu bearing the brunt
of the free shooting. So too was lvue, Uromi; that land of great warriors, was thoroughly
outraged and she decided to settle these skirmishes once and for all; she
prepared a great army to come and sack Irrua on a certain day. Unfortunately, a
traitor came and hinted war leader Eimuhi (after whom Eko Irrua was named). He
in turn went and informed his overlord Eromosele. All able-bodied men in Irrua
were gathered and before dawn on that day Uromi planned to pay a liquidating
surprise attack on Irrua, the Irrua
army infested all the bush near Obeidu like driver ants. Then came columns
and columns of Uromi warriors sufficient to drop all the heads of Eromosele's
subjects before an OGOGO KHO-O could be cried in Eguare
square! These were allowed to pass and then Irrua attacked from behind. Realising
that it would be foolish to run forwards towards Irrua, Uromi turned backwards
only to be mowed down with Matchets and Dane guns. It was a
blood bath for Uromi. The great AKAIKAWO of Uromi was captured by OJEAGA of
Eidenu and that very evening he died on the stake in Eguare Irrua.
REMINISCENT
OFPRE-WHITEMAN DAYS!
In July, 1954, an EBHOATO man called Appeal residing in Benin City
traced his estranged wife to IDUNSELU-EWATO.
In that Village four heads fell and four others were grievously butchered. Akhuemonkhan,
the father-in-law's
was sacked and burnt.
Realising the gravity of his loss in men and
leaders, Okolo, the then Onojie, sued for peace. Eromosele
agreed to his terms of peace which consisted of a woman to die in place of Princess Omanmoje; one of Okolo's daughters, as a wife in lieu of the deserting
Omanmoje, the return of Omanmoje herself as well as her son from her present
husband-all making four heads in place of one run- away woman!
Eruigbe, the woman
sent to replace the head of Princess Omanmoje at the executioner's stand, was so beautiful that the influential queen Mother Ebuade,
successfully begged for her life to be spared. Unuebholo,
the Princess Ojiuromi Okolo sent,
was of course
appropriated as a wife, while both Omanmoje and the son (name withheld) were
taken back into the harem. Omanmoje was fully forgiven as evidenced by the fact
that she later had a daughter named IKHEILEN (I wouldn't
have known)! I have used real names except the Prince to save embarrassment.
THE
UDO – EWAITO WAR OF 1870:
This also illustrates why divorce was rather
uncommon in Esan. Eiyoko, the wife of the brave EIDENOJIE who became OJIE -UDO
in 1865, deserted her lawful husband and made for home
- Idunsenun in Ewatto. Over confident in himself Eidenojie was reckless though
he was followed by twelve armed men. He walked right into the compound where his
estranged wife was, an affront to the people of Ewatto! For the sake of one
woman the feared Eidenojie escaped with his head, shaken
though still standing on his shoulders, but his stalwarts' heads rolled on the
Ewatto ground, and Eiyoko passed into legend!
5.
THE EVILS OF CHILD MARRIAGE:
Morally, the custom was unjust and humanly
wicked. The girl in many cases was sent to her husband before she had any
sense. In some cases she grew up like the children in the compound, calling her
husband ABA (father)! The psychological shock could well be imagined the day
she learnt that she was different from the other children: this FATHER of hers was her HUSBAND!
Marriage is hard enough with expressed and
sincere love – but in infant marriage there was no question of love. She had to
take what she was given as husband, and that
might be a dumb, a mutilated man, a tyrant, a Metusellah, etc! The man might live with her for sometimes and finding her impossible or as a result of his advanced age, give her in marriage to his son.
Complicated relationship?
Child marriage and the system of wife
inheritance were the causes of unnatural relationships and confused
nomenclatures in Esan. As explained above, a man might have married a girl for
himself and after she had a child or two, he handed her over to his son for
whom she might bear more children. Now here was a woman who had children that
were her husband's brothers or sisters; some were her husband's sons and
nephews to their maternal brothers! It all makes one's head reel!
Sometimes the girl grew, lived and grew up at
her parent's home, particularly if they were wealthy and influential. When
mature, she was kept as a lover by a third party, quite apart from the
intending husband. The issues of this association gave justification for the
existence of the old native courts now replaced with Customary
Courts! Depending upon the mood of the court and the interpretation of
the old District Officers, these children could pass as anybody's children. Sometimes they were adjudged as the children of the man who paid
the dowry; at other times they were the issues of the natural father. This
unfortunately will continue to be the case until the men in charge of our
affairs see the stupidity of working on an incongruous mixture of Esan custom
and Western juris-prudence.
The latest attempt to right things was that
such children were handed over to the man who pregnated the girl, but he had to
pay N10.00 for each son or N20.00 for each daughter - and as every educated
Esan knows, SLAVERY WAS ABOLISHED IN 1900!
Sometimes, it was the husband that was a
child, again commoner in the wealthy families. The supposed wife was allowed to
go with any man she pleased and the off-springs of this association were the
minor's children, and by the time he came of age, there was a long and
entrenched line of bastardy.
There is no mincing words about the system: it
was downright slavery. Unfortunately, up to 1954, it was still practiced in
Esan: a man is tied up with an expensive court case, he is building a house and
he is hard up; his wife is ill and the only thing that could save her life is
an expensive operation or he wants to take a costly title etc. What does he do?
He takes one of his five-year-olds to a man and says: "Here is my
daughter, please lend me N20.00". The man hands him the money and the
innocent girl changed hands in the
opposite direction of the N20 .00.
At first she is a servant,
but when she comes of age, she is elevated to the position of a wife. What really obtains now is that the father has no intention of
marrying out his daughter at all: he goes from house to house with the poor
girl in tow, until he finds a man willing to lend him the money he wants. There
he leaves his child; if he cannot redeem her before she matures,
she goes to take an action FOR DIVORCE; against
HER HUSBAND, who really has been nothing but a SLAVE OWNER. If the divorce is
granted the father can now collect N80.00 to N100.00 over his grown up
daughter, in Bride Price, returns the Creditor's miserable N20.00 and pockets
N60.00 to N80.00 - quite a smart deal - what!
With or without the old British Administration,
the evil, of child marriage over the years had time to
grow deep roots, watering itself on illusions of cheaper marriages and hopes of
getting more faithful wives.
Prohibit child marriage in all its forms in
Esan and the confused and bribe ridden atmosphere of the Native or Customary Courts
would clear like magic! Many of the disputed paternity cases particularly from
girls yet living with their parents, would disappear. It would cut
divorce cases hanging in our Courts like a curse, down to a sane minimum.
No one could very well
blame a child forced to marry a man, deserting when she came to her senses, and
when she did, the avenging husband clinging to his pound of flesh, wanted the
Court to record on his behalf that she was two weeks pregnant! And by Jove, if
she had a baby within a year of that divorce case, there was bound to be
another case of disputed paternity! For the court and court members it was of
course, another source of revenue, generally speaking!
6.
The Laws Of
Marriage As They Affect The ONOJIE:
As I have said under the laws of inheritance,
an Onojie was an institution by himself - a Frankenstein Monster created by the community,
it existed to grow and feed upon. He could neither marry by the Ebee system nor
take a wife by the dowry method; and yet his harem is full to the brim! He
could even marry two sisters, a thing not sanctioned by Esan law and custom.
But his chief method of taking wives were:-
(a)
BY INHERITANCE: -
After due burial ceremonies of his father, he was installed and he inherited
everything in the harem minus his mother! That gave him a flying start in a
long reign of smash and grab or No Cash And Carry!
(b)
BY SEIZURE (BAA IGBEN): - Baa Igben was the privilege that marked him out as the greatest
octopus, whose tentacles could reach any woman, married, single, willing or
unwilling. Once a while he took a regal" walk or a look round his domain. Or favour seekers came to report to him of the presence of a
damsel somewhere in his district.
All he did was to send
one of his coral bead necklaces.
On reaching the abode of
the girl, the unsuspecting damsel or woman was called, and before she knew what
was on, the bead was round her neck - she was
then the Onojie's wife,
a marriage as binding as
if it was performed by the Chief Justice of the Federation or the Papal Nuncio
in Nigeria! If the former husband in whose house this drama took place, looked
at the woman or talked to her once the necklace had been placed round her neck,
and she dared not remove it under the pain of death, he had committed
adultery with the 'King's wife by look or spoken word; and as
far as the Onojie was concerned- adultery was adultery, with no half-way
measures, and the method, immaterial. The punishment was death. A wise man,
therefore, deprived of his wife and more often, it is the only wife in his
life, bore his agonizing sorrow in his heart.
In many cases the result was tragic. An
informant came to eulogise a woman he had seen in the village: The insatiable Onojie at once despatched a messenger with beads.
The woman came captive but to Onojie, it was hatred at first sight. Well, she
had been pronounced Onojie's wife, and so she merely went to swell the myriads
of women starving for love, food and freedom in the harem.
The famous story of IHENHENELE which has now gone down in Esan folklore is illustrative.
The proverb is OTUOKPA imun ole bhe enan mun ole bhe enan, khe ukpoko ne
Ihenhenele gbano je Omoaka (No one can be here and there at the same time is
the parcel Ihenhenele sent to Omoaka).
Ihenhenele was the wife of a man in Ibhiolulu,
Irrua. Chief Omoaka, one of the men who got on by saying ISE (AMEN) to
everything the Onojie said, about 1885 reported to Eromosele of the existence
of a stately woman fit only for the King, but at that time, a man was
blaspheming nature by calling
her his wife. Omoaka himself was despatched immediately to go and Baa ole Igben. Within five hours he was back with Ihenhenele, stupified and terrified,
in town. Either because of this or because Omoaka had over exaggerated her looks, she looked a very ordinary woman to Eromosele, who merely hissed in annoyance and sent her to swell the ranks of
the near-slaves in the harem.
After months when this
wretched woman had been starving with no food or husband, she made a small corn
leaf parcel containing a piece of chalk and a piece of charcoal which she sent
through a small girl, Unuizigbe,
to the man who sold her
into her miserable state - Omoaka. Seeing the contents of the small parcel, and
sincerely no one till this day can say exactly what she really meant, Omoaka
cried in self-remorse, “May be the poor woman was hungry" but
unfortunately for him, there were several people who knew how he got on in the
palace and were climbing by the same ladder; his junior brother called Obo saw
the parcel arrive, heard the name of the sender, Ihenhenele, the Onojie's wife!
“O-ho, brother, you are getting high - parcels from the Onojie's wife”! He made
a bee-line dive for the palace and told the Onojie that he had just discovered,
that his maternal brother was in the habit of having secret dealings with some
of his wives, with Ihenhenele in particular. The great
Eromosele was stirred and as usual to fury.
Obo was rewarded with a twist of the comer of
the mouth, by way of a smile, and for Ihenhenele - the
women, there were hundreds in the harem, were quickly assembled in the great
inner palace square. Eromosele went in brought out a white kolanut and handed
it over to Ihenhenele who by now was already on her knees, with her hair
standing on end for fear... Greetings to my father", he said,
“Tell him I am in full
control of ALL this side of heaven. Kha hi!” (Say your last prayers!). In another
minute Ihenhenele's head was on the sand!
(c)
BY PAWNING: - Many of
the Onojie's wives were married in this way, but as the reader would have seen
already, he was a class to himself and so he had his own special way of
pawning. People pawned themselves or property in lieu of money. People pawned themselves or their daughters or both to the
Onojie, FOR FREEDOM!
A man in trouble with the Inotu, a man alleged
to have wronged the Onojie, by look, intention but certainly not by the spoken
word, was heading for the abyss which was Eguare. He sent
his daughter to the Onojie, to "please save me"! There went another inhabitant of the harem!
7
A CHILD IS BORN:
A man having married, he and his wife then
thought of settling down to life. They might remain in the man's Ijiogbe or
move to a new site. If the
latter, then they were making a home on fresh grounds, which
meant the wife must plant an UKHINMIN TREE (Botanical name: Neubodia Leavis) in
the space between her house (at the back) and the husband's, in front. This
plant in this case is called IHIANLOTO - remember the same plant to mark
inter-village boundary constitute the Okoven. When planted in a new farm it
goes by the name of UTUN. When planted in front of the street to a compound it
goes by the name of UGBIODIN.
First it was considered an act against the
departed spirits and a fouling of the fresh grounds to have marital
relationship in a new compound before the growth of the Ihianloto. Secondly every Esan wife knew she was one of a series and
therefore had to make her position secure by doing all that would give her full
claim as the First Wife. She who planted the Ihianloto of the compound owns
that compound and is the first wife. The first reason obviously made her all
the more anxious to fulfil her duty of laying Claim to her first position!
Most wives lived in the back house with the
husband in front. The wife went into her husband's house to greet him first
thing in the morning, to spend some time in the night, to sweep and rub the
house or to pass his meals. The only occasion custom forbade her entering this
house was when she was having her monthly period. As far as possible, during
this period, she was forbidden to touch any food the husband would eat and
entering his apartment. The reason for this was that Esan custom considered a
woman unclean at this period. It was a law difficult for an only wife to obey.
In that case she cooked the food but got somebody to take it to Odugha – the husband's
apartment. She never broke the law of not entering his apartment until she was
again clean, usually after SEVEN DAYS.
It was a law every man had to obey under the
pains of causing annoyance to his departed spirits, to forget any quarrel he
might have got with his wife on the day she 'WASHED', that is, the day
following end of her menstruation. Having taken her bath and made up her hair,
she came to Odugha, knelt down and greeted her husband after the evening meal. That was a very discrete way of letting the husband know that,
that day was the roper day
to think of getting an heir.
It was a big crime viewed seriously not only
by the dead but by the living, to deny a woman that day, irrespective of
whether she and the husband had not been on speaking terms for days.
No matter how anxious a couple might be about
raising a family, it was a sin all over Esan to have marital relationship
during day time, and for his purpose, DAY meant from cockcrow to sunset! It is
true that many people had extra respect for this law as a result of some juju
like) OBIENMEN of
Irrua, OREIMENUN of
Ekpoma, defensive medicines for war etc, but the real aim of the taboo was to
discourage laziness (a newly married man for the next three months would not
see the road to his farm, otherwise!), and to prevent slackers who stayed at
home during the day from committing adultery. This law was particularly strong
in Igueben with its industrious farmers.
Now having understood the rules of life,
should the woman become pregnant, she was treated with great care. No severe
beating and she herself had to avoid unsightly and shocking things like
dead babies, ugly and mutilated people, leopards
etc. The reasons are obvious - to avoid shocks which might be followed by
abortions, and also it was believed that the child in the womb took semblance
to what the pregnant woman saw or ate. Thus, if she ate the flesh of the
ever-sleeping Puff Adder, the child would be fat, sleepy and sluggish; if she
ate the flesh of a monkey, the baby would tum out to be cunning and ugly etc.
So the pregnant woman had to see only good things, though no evil, in fact the
idea was to build up a happy and contented mental outlook.
At about the third month of her pregnancy she
went to a native doctor who made an anti-abortion string which she wore round
her waist more rarely round her neck. Whatever happened, this string was never allowed
to fall to the ground, for the day she did that, the foetus would drop before
the woman was ready to go into normal labour. This string was called EDAI (A
Prop).
Then came the child: as soon as the woman went
into labour, the old women of the family were called. They took the woman to
the back of the house, where squatting on the ground she gave birth to the
child, if she did not die of exhaustion or effects of mis-management. No
greeting was allowed the woman until the delivery of the after-birth, then she was
showered with AMONGHON!
(Congratulations). Unlike the Yorubas, the child was separated as soon as it
was born: it was not left on the cold ground waiting for the placenta. But old
Esan women had something they insisted upon: the child must cry before they
treated it as one! Sometimes they left it on a cold surface until it cried,
simply because of the discomfort and cold. Then it was picked up with joy and
drummed in with the old women beating some music out of old calabashes and wooden
flat mortars.
A big piece of mud or earth was then put into
the fire and when it was red-hot, it was taken out, allowed to cool before it
was pulverized. The sticky substance covering the body of the new-born (Vernix
Caseosa) was removed thoroughly by rubbing the skin with this fine earth,
before the baby was given its first bath. It is a belief in Esan that unless this was
properly removed the child would stink
for the rest of its life. Every morning, using warm oil in a pad, the cord was
massaged until it withered away on about seventh to the ninth day of birth. The idea of using red hot earth was
commendable but it was all defeated by grinding it on the ground through which
new bacterial organisms were introduced to cause the frequent cord infection that
is responsible for death of an alarming number of babies within the first two
months of birth.
On the day of delivery the husband took a
small she-goat (greed is making people demand big ones in modern times), and one
yam to the parents-in-law to report the good tidings. The goat referred
to as EBHIKPESE, was paid only on the first issue by one's wife. If she
remarried, the new husband had to pay Ebhikpese when she had her first baby in
her new home. Ebhikpese had its important legal value. It came very useful as a
strong evidence in disputed paternity. The man who paid the Ebhikpese was
obviously the rather or guardian of the child. Since the goat was paid on the
very first day the child was born, the answer to, ‘who paid the Ebhikpese?” was
a quick way of knowing who the real father was. To ensure that no father out of
austerity, or frivolity failed to pay this Ebhikpese, custom ruled that without
sending the goat and yam to the father-in-law, no man could see his first born
child!
On the seventh day, particularly if she was
the only wife, and not with her own parents, the woman had to begin to fend for
herself: she could then go to the pond for water or farm for wood - early ambulation
modern doctors preach to quicken involution!
Esan people, happily, had no taboos about
MULTIPLE PREGNANCY. They dreaded twins, because right from
pregnancy to nursing such pregnancies were followed with more dangers and hard
work, than obtained with single births. Apart from this, a woman who had twins and
was able to look after them was a respected woman in Esan Community and she ranked
with those who had done EMIONKHAE (Acts of Valour).
A mother of triplets, of course, was an
individual highly esteemed and if the babies lived, she
received rewards not only from her husband, but from the Onojie to whom such
births are reported and he had to send three maids to help her during the
nursing period.
The only type of baby not liked in Esan
was the ALBINO (AYAIN) No mother prayed for one, but if she gave birth to one
it was God sent, but no particular attention was paid to it and if it died,
mourning was a minimum. In Ugboha, there was a special pond where such
babies were drowned
as evidenced by the Esan proverb - Akha gbe Ayain Ne Uwolo, o kien ede (when an Albino is slaughtered for a pond, it
becomes a stream).
(a)
HAIR - WASHING CEREMONY: (IHOETOA):
After three months the ceremony of
hair-washing was performed. In the olden days this was the ceremony at which
the ETO OMON, plaited fourteen days after delivery, was loosened and washed.
The men and the women at the place where the child was born and where the
mother was still living gathered on the appointed day. They were feasted with
much dancing and rejoicing. An animal like a sheep, a pig or a whole carcass
of an antelope, was used for the cooking. The mother's hair which had been done
up in EKASA - yellow native soap - was ceremoniously washed. The child was
allowed its first adornment. The mother gorgeously dressed and with
all the people gathered, was ready for the naming ceremony.
In Esan it was unusual for a man to think: of
a name before the child was born except in cases where the native doctor had
already warned tile parents that the name of the person the baby was
reincarnating must be given to it. Esan people, being firm believers in
reincarnation, often went to consult the oracle before the actual naming
ceremony, either to receive the name of the person being reincarnated or for
the child to take up the profession of the man when he was alive. However where
this consultation was already made the name was only known to the family and the
child still had to go through the naming ceremony.
At the ceremony the baby was taken to the
most
senior man in the gathering, who throwing it
up said “l name you UGHULU (Vulture), which was neither
killed nor harmed”! Nobody said anything so that he knew that though this reason for given
the name was good, the gathering did not like the name. Then be made another try: I name you ITIKU (Rubbish Dunghill), which is
noted for its ability to take insults which only added to its size!" Still no comments, Then he
threw the child up for the third time and gave its proposed real name. Then he
is greeted with blessings for the baby, O RETO (He will live long with it). All Esan names have meaning and so this
day was the appropriate day for relatives and friends or enemies to tell the parents whit they thought of them.
Anybody wishing to give a name carried the baby and did so. It was not Esan custom to give monetary presents by
those wishing & to give-names; this obviously is a borrowed custom probably from the Yorubas.
If the woman was still
living where she delivered, outside her home, it was on this day she returned borne. That night custom decreed that she went to '
greet her husband with the baby' and she slept at Odugha!
(c)
CIRCUMCISION:
Esan had no particular ceremony over male circumcision,
which was performed anytime the parents were bold enough to have it done. The
more usual thing was for the operation to be delayed
till the child could withstand the pain and sure sepsis; this was between five and ten years of age.
CLITORIDECTOMY: This was the female circumcision and had a more
regular ceremony. A girl was not circumcised until she was mature and then,
within a week or so of her going to her husband's place. The idea was to delay
the ceremony because it was not just a disgrace but there were fines to be paid
to the Owenan should the girl be found not virtuous on the day of circumcision.
On the appointed day the female members of the family gathered in
the compound, and before then the girl was examined; if she was found intact, the
Owenan sang out her praise and everybody began to sing and dance with the men
shooting guns. While the operation was going on, relatives, particularly of the intended husband, began to give presents to the good
girl. Presents of money, yams and oil were also made to thank the watchful
mother. As soon as the wound healed arrangements were made to send the girl to
her husband.
The ceremonies surrounding clitoridectomy are
most pronounced even to this day, with the people of Uzea, a further evidence
of the fact that the so-called backwardness goes hand in hand with simplicity
and virtue.
In Uzea,
a girl is mature round about the age of sixteen and the next three to six
months forms an exciting period in her simple life. When the family had decided
that their daughter has come of age, they inform the intended husband that she
is ready for the ceremony of circumcision; On the appointed
day the Owenan (the Surgeon, usually a female in this case) arrives and the
girl is led into an AGAA, an open enclosure attached to the
house, where all the female members' of the
family are assembled; The Owenan then examines the girl and if
intact, she declares her virtuous, to the great joy of the family. While the
operation of trimming off the clitoris with the upper ends of the Labia Minora
is being performed, guns are booming with dancing and singing.
When the wound has healed usually within five
days, the girl is ready for the public announcement of her virtue and, the great care her parents had taken over her during the past
sixteen years. The special circumcision hair-dresser is sent for and she, for a
fee consisting of 7,200
cowries now equivalent of
30k arid a bundle of yams from the intended husband, and 4,800 cowries equal to 20k plus a calabash of palm oil from the girl's
mother, gives the girl the traditional. Hair-style exclusive - virtuous ones only. This is the OJIETO (The
KING OF HAIRS). The next three months is a period of .rejoicing,
feasting and a show-off for the girl and her family. The husband spends a lot
of money buying beads (APKPONO) which the girl wears round her waist and
coral beads round her neck. The girl with the Ojieto and her body decorated
with ASUN, a juice that turns black when dry, is followed round the village,
wearing no clothes to show that she has nothing to be ashamed of. She calls on
relatives and friends who congratulate her with presents. Until the end of the three months, she goes to the market or to
village functions stark naked; only sinners have something to hide!
Though she wears no clothes, the Akpono -
several strings round her waist - cost the anxious husband-to-be anything up to
N30.00 in present day money - not the useless Naira which on September 18,
1993, exchanged at N38.20
to the U.S. dollar! The three to six months wait after the .circumcision is very welcome to the husband, who for the past
three months has known nothing but expenses. This period of show-off gives him
time to recover, and search for more money to settle the bride price. In the
olden days, this was negligible compared with what was actually spent on the girl's
hair and beads, since by the time his girl was mature, in services to the
parents-in-law, he should have paid the equivalent of the bride in full for EBEE Since the advent of the white man, the husband
crushed by the circumcision expenses, still has to pay anything up to N20.00 to
the father he has been serving since the day the girl was born!
However, when the husband has fulfilled all he
owes to his future wife's family, the girl is sent to him. The husband at a ceremony, unties
the first strand of the decorative hair before the whole thing is loosened.
After the first night at the husband's place she is considered a woman and must
from then on wear clothes.
(d)
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY:
When the bride price had been paid and the circumcision
wound had healed, a date was fixed for the girl to go to her husband. The
excited man began to make feverish arrangements, buying new clothes, getting
the house ready and buying kolanuts, coconuts and wine. In the evening of the appointed
day, selected male and female members of the family
accompany the girl to her husband’s village. They must go through a friend or a
relative of the family in that village (known as OSUOMAN), and this person was the
future guardian. This go-between accompanied the party
and by about 8.00p.m. (The husband feeling the time was 11.00 p.m.!), they would reach the street of the husband. A message was sent
to the husband that they were coming along with his wife, but unfortunately a
tree or a stump had held up their progress; would he care to come and clear the
obstacle? The husband: it once sent ‘axes and matchets’ in the form of money
and coconuts to remove whatever was causing the barrier. They proceeded along
the street and again went another message, that it sounded odd and foolish that
on a day such as that day was, he should have allowed trees to block his
street. Messengers were hurriedly sent to them with more presents. This went on
until by the time they got to the entrance of the house where the biggest obstacle
had to be cleared, their bag was full! The party then entered the house and the
leader presented the girl in disparaging terms: you asked for the hand of our daughter in marriage; here she
is, but we would want you to know right now that she has no training, has no
sense, plays like a child, cannot cook and knowing all these, it will be your
duty to train and mould her to your taste and satisfaction. After the customary
presents to the Egbele and compound women, the girl was counted on the lap of
the husband where she took her seat on the ELEVENTH
COUNT. Then followed dancing, singing and plenty of gun shooting with the cry
of joy, UKU KHU GHU!
This went on for a long time, with the husband
wishing someone would come and inform his in-laws that their houses had gone on
fire so that they would all race for home Since marital relations were
forbidden once the cock crows and Esan cocks crow by 4.00a.m., prudence and
kindness demanded that everybody wished the couple well, and departed by 3.00 a.m.
latest! Sometimes a kind and wise relative discreetly suggested the bride had a
tiring day and was feeling sleepy, a suggestion usually made with much yawning!
At this, most people except the more stupid or obviously mischievous ones,
left.
The next morning the bride, obviously shaken,
bewildered and tired was taken out by the female relatives of the husband to
have a wash. For the first seven days she stayed indoors and did not go to
fetch water or wood. She went by the name of OBHIOHA (Bride) for the next three
months, after which she was given her cooking utensils and had to fend for
herself.
 |
| Anehita Okojie - An Esan Bride steps out! |
During the Obhioha period she forbade nothing
and behaved like a daughter in the family e.g. she could take her bath in the
compound while all married women must have their bath sat the back-house, in
fact even pots they used for water must not be brought to the house.
Esan had no special ceremony of sending to the
in-laws that the husband found the Obhioha 'AT HOME', since in Esan custom all
girls are virtuous. It would be an anti-climax to send such a message, as a non-virtuous
girl had already suffered a public disgrace during the circumcision stage. The
alleged sending of the white bed sheet (stained with blood) to the parents-in-law
is un-Esan. Traditional Esan slept on mats!
(e)
THE ABDOMINAL TATTOO (ISEKELE)
In the olden days when a girl came of age,
which was just before circumcision, she had to undergo the abdominal tattoo.
While this consisted of only three linear marks in men, women had ten: from
arms by the side; there was a pair from the part of each shoulder down to the
waist line and one such mark running down wards across each breast. That gave
six in front. From behind there was a pair running to the
waist line from each shoulder. From below the navel serrated marks called
ABIHIAGHA (this represents the five blades in Benin women, known as ABERHE)
were made to add beauty to the full ten marks.
Black pigments were rubbed into the wounds
giving a beautiful character, particularly in light coloured women. The
ceremony was not so much a test of manhood as it was in men, but it showed that
the girl was now fit to be a woman, it
mother and of
marriageable age. Any man who had a carnal knowledge of a woman who had not yet
had this abdominal tattoo had committed a crime equivalent to modern rape.
8.
THE LAWS OF PATERNITY:
In the olden days there was no question of
disputed paternity as it existed in our Native Courts of the fifties, when
there were myriads of bastards in the modern sense. Every woman of child
bearing age was covered by certain laws of ownership - hence the Esan proverb,
EIMIEN OBHI IDOLO from IDO LU or done secretly, which means that no man can claim
the issue of a secret dealing. Therefore the laws guarding paternity were as
follows:-
(1)
CHILDREN FROM LOVERS:
(a) If the woman was an Arebhoa, then the
issues were for the woman's father, that meant their natural grandfather was
their legal father!
(b) If the woman had an intended husband then
the issues belonged to the intended husband who might not be natural father.
(2)
CHILDREN FROM A WOMAN SEPARATED FROM HER HUSBAND:
(a) If the .bride
price was not yet paid back to the husband the issues belonged to the first
husband irrespective of who pregnated the woman.
(b) If the dowry had been fully refunded by
the woman's father or as sometimes happened by the woman herself, the issues
were for the woman's father if he paid the money back; but if the woman refunded
the dowry herself, the issues were for the man who put her in the family way if
the man later married her; if he did not, the practice was for the suitor who came
along later to make arrangements to cover both the mother and her
child who then became his child, in order words the woman's father had an
extra-large bride price!
(3)
CHILDREN FROM ADULTEROUS UNION:
All the issues belonged to the lawful husband.
(4)
CHILDREN FROM IBHALEN ASSOCIATION:
If two kindreds met "and pregnancy
followed, the child belonged to the intended husband. If she had none, the
child was for the girl's father or for extra large dowry, to the man who came
to marry her.
(5)
CHILDREN FROM WOMAN WHOSE HUSBAND WAS A MINOR:
All the children were the lawful children of
the minor and they took precedence over the natural children the man would get when be bad overcome his minority. This was not
permitted in the case of an Onojie – To be recognized
as SON AND HEIR of an Onojie, the child must be fully legitimate.
(6)
A CHILD BORN BY A WIDOW:
If the woman was generally known to be
pregnant before the husband died, the child when born later was the child of
the dead man and such children were usually named UMOERA (You have no father).
This must not be mixed up with the name OMOERA (He has a father), which in Esan
is the name given to a child whose father was seriously ill when
the mother was pregnant, but he lived to see his child.
In certain parts of Esan, the law is EI MIEN
OBHI ELINMIN (Dead men cannot have children) hence in such places before the
woman delivered she had to be inherited so that the child belong to the
inheritor. Sometimes if the pregnancy was very early when the husband died, and by the third month it was still not known generally, the man who inherited her successfully claimed the child. It was
immaterial if she gave birth to a child six
months after the last husband's death. This should cause no surprise because in
certain parts of Esan ‘B’ a man could adopt his father's youngest son from
another mother, as his own first son particularly if it is vital for him to
perform certain ceremonies like OGBE before he had his own son.
If a man who for one reason or another had
been unable to get his wife to be pregnant, had formally given her permission
to try her luck outside (strictly as laid down by Esan custom expressed as a A
MUN OLE OBO BHE UGHE, the issues were lawful children of the lawful husband.
As already noted under the law of inheritance,
OMON – OSHO issues from love affair, had no legal status customarily. He could not inherit: property and did not appear at ancestral
worship, but if a man had kept a girl and she bore him a son while still in her
father's house and he later paid the dowry on her (not a refund) he could claim
this boy as his first son. If he did not, but married another woman who bore
him a son, this particular son would be his heir-that is the child from the
lawful wife.
9.
THE LAWS OF SENIORITY:
Since Esan people were polygamous and wealth
was counted in lives and children, seniority amongst one's own children was
very well guarded as it also affected the order and method of inheritance.
(a)
FIRST SON: This is the very first
male issue by a lawful wife. An OMON OSHO) could only aspire to this
unique position in the family when all conditions already enumerated were
fulfilled. A man made a public testament of his first son by giving him the
hearts of all animals slaughtered in his compound, so that by the time he died
all Egbele were aware of who was his heir. There is bound to be trouble if he
was giving a favourite the hearts
(b)
SECOND SON: For the
purpose of inheritance and the sharing of
property, NO ONE WOMAN COULD HAVE FIRST AND SECOND SONS; unless she was the only wife. If there
were several wives and one woman was the mother of the first and second sons,
according to age, when the father wanted to share things, he gave
the first son his share first, side tracked the second son, and gave the third
son who had a different mother, the next share. If the
third, and the fourth sons had the same mother, he would miss the
fourth son and let the fifth choose next if he too was from another woman.
The custom therefore was that property was shared ACCORDING TO DOORS, that is,
that the property owner shared whatever he had to give to his children in his
lifetime, in such a way that NO MOTHER IN HIS COMPOUND missed a share
because her son was very junior.
For example, a man had two wives. The first wife had first, second, third and fourth sons; the second wife then had the fifth
son. If the father had just two things to share, the first
son chose first and the FIFTH SON then chose the other. Thus, it often happened that while the first son had a wife, the second, third and fourth had none, while the junior,
the fifth had.
(c)
DAUGHTERS: As already explained,
apart from the first daughter EHALE NON ODION), who
really held a position of love more than
anything else, daughters had no position of seniority. Things were much worse for them after they had got
married and left the family.
(d)
AMONGST WOMEN: How
seniority was decided amongst the married women of the village had already been
described: it was by the system of IREKE.
(e)
OMINJIOGBE: While in most places Ominjiogbe was hereditary,
passing from father to the son who performed the burial and Ogbe ceremonies, in a
few places like Ekpoma, ownership of the family was by age, the oldest man of
the Uelen succeeding the last Ominjiogbe. In the Royal Family, of course, the
Ominjiogbe is the heir and automatically takes precedence over all his brothers
and uncles.
(t)
SYSTEM OF SHARING:
Having known the custom over seniority,
it is easy to talk of how things are shared between two people according
to Esan laws. It all actually depends upon what was there to share. In all
cases it would be oppression or cheating for the person who did the sharing to
choose first.
(1)
FOOD: It is the junior who does the sharing. The
elder, by age, then chooses first.
(2)
LABOUR:
Now the older one divides the piece of job for the junior one to choose the bit
he thinks is lighter.
10.
A MAN LOSES A WIFE:
(1)
BY DIVORCE: It has
already been made clear that legal annulment of a marriage was practically
unknown before the advent of the white man. Heads fell on both sides when a
woman bolted from her lawful husband. There was of course, no question of a
refund of dowry. Invariably the husband retained the children who had passed
the breast feeding age.
(2)
BYREFUSAL: There comes in most married
couple’s lives. When either thinks life was much happier before they met. Such a time came to our forebears, and if that awful realization
came to the woman first, she bolted for freedom with the inevitable slashing of
a few throats or overt war! If the man, however, found the woman's cup of
sins was full and overflowing, he had a quick remedy; all he did was to get
into his room count TWENTY COWRIES which he handed over to his wife and showing
her the door! There was the end of an unhappy marriage, the annulment being as
binding as if it was a decree by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, with the
difference that there was no NISI nonsense about it! Before the eyes of the
departed spirits it was DECREE ABSOLUTE!
Sometimes, if the woman was still in love with
the man or did not want to leave her children, as she must do if she left the
husband, she tried some delaying manoeuvres: she went round showing the twenty
cowries to the elders of the Egbele, who, of course came down to the husband
with “What is this I hear about you and YOUR SERVANT!
“Sometimes the elders succeeded in talking round the angry husband, but since
the annulment had been absolute to take back this woman, he had to remarry her by
slaughtering a goat the ancestral shrine to tell the spirits that he had
recalled all he had said! But if he was a man who had genuinely had enough of a
tigress, he merely answered the elders' question with, “what I have given. I
have given!” PERIOD!
The case of Princess Fatima, daugbter of
Momodu I and junior sister of Princess Imapu, daugbter of Eromosele the Great
both daughters of Ehiagbe, happened as recently as mid-September, 1992. The
critical time I have described above came to Chief Osolease of Ubaekpen
Usugbenu. Feeling he could no longer stand Princess Fatima, although he
felt hazy about Esan native laws and custom, be entered his inner room and came
out with 50k which he handed over to the Princess who herself was totally ignorant
of what that meant. She came to the Palace and showed Momodu II
the Ojirrua (her senior brother and the Royal
Family Ominjiogbe) the 50k.
The king shook his head and said,
"Go back to that husband of yours - that is NOT what custom says!"
The poor woman trotted back from Eguare to Usugbenu and informed the aggrieved
husband what the Onojie had said.
It dawned on him, he might be wrong, quickly
sought advice, spent a considerable time looking for cowries,
counted twenty and gave it to Fatima. The Onojie was satisfied that that
marriage had irretrievably hit the rocks!
In some cases, some proud women thought it
would be a disgrace going to beg the husband indirectly by showing the cowries
round, and so, as soon as the angry husband handed over the cowries to one such
woman she made for home as the crow flies! Here comes the rub: if within a day or two, flared temper settled, and the man had
found that his only wife was gone and so he was face to face, with all the
hardships attached to OHALE (Bachelorhood) he went meekly to his
wife in the parents' village and made her believe that before her was a
penitent and not the devil of yesterday, and as a result the woman followed him
back home, in the eyes of his Egbele and the departed ancestors, he had
committed a crime worse than adultery. It was as heinous as having anything to
do with a widow before formal inheritance! It would cost him
a big fat she-goat slaughtered at the ancestral shrine and shared by his
Egbele, before he could call the woman his wife again. Also he had some account
to settle with his parents-in-law.
(3)
BY CONSENT: Sometimes a man feeling he was too old for one of his wives;
could slaughter a goat to
remove that woman from his list of wives; he could then give her to his son.
This was one of the ways by which a brother (same mother) could have a brother
as an uncle or a sister as a niece! (Makes the head of a non-Esan reel!)
It sometimes happened that an indulgent father
not wanting to expose an erring son who committed adultery with one of his
wives, removed such a woman by the same procedure from being his wife and be handed
her over to his greedy son.
Here, remember the case
of Prince Ekute of Ugboha, the inherited wife Oduaki and Ekute's heir lreyokan.
Although this re-marriage by consent was
permissible, it was against Esan custom for a man to take the wife of his son,
dead or living. No amount of goat flesh or blood could make the living elders
or spirits of departed ancestors be a party to this collusion! It
was just not done! Similarly,
it was not customary for a
man to inherit the wives of his junior brother who has a maternal brother: the right went to this maternal brother.
(4)
BY DEATH: This was the more
painful way of losing a wife, for it included mental and physical sufferings
for the husband. As soon as the wife died, arrangements
were made for the return of the dead body to the village of her birth. If she
was old and with grown-up children, the body was accompanied in a festive mood
by as many people as possible, depending mostly on the popularity of the dead woman
and or children. The corpse wrapped in white cloth and resting on a form made
from seven palm branch stalks, was carried feet first by two men of Igene rank, one at the head
and the other at the
feet. Depending upon the mood of the man at the head, the corpse bearers walked
or ran as if they were strongly under the influence of alcohol. Superstition
made many believe that the movements of these carriers were controlled by the
dead body! Thus before leaving the husband's village, the
corpse 'paid' courtesy visits to the homes of her friends and 'went' to say goodbye to places she had cherished while alive. With
singing and drumming the dead woman was returned to her own village.
If the
wife had no children and was young, the body was solemnly returned to her
people for burial.
MOURNING:
As soon as the body had been returned the
husband went into compulsory mourning. He discarded all his clothes, tied a
small black or smoked cloth round his loins, smeared the forehead, hands and
feet with charcoal and strings of a delicate forest creeper called IRIALOLO
were tied round the ankles,
wrists and neck, and for the next seven days he carried a bow and arrows (seven)
from which he shot away one every day. In a broken
pot green UKHINMIN leaves were burnt, the smelling fumes being supposed to be capable of driving off the
spirit of the dead wife which might be angling to come to the living husband.
For these seven days the widow must sleep on the bare ground, never cleaned
himself and remained round his house - generally cutting a pitiable figure for
himself. On the last day he shot away the last arrow, threw away the .bow and the pot of leaves, discarded black and all the
paraphernalia of mourning of which Irialolo is symbolic. He then came home,
took a bath and there ended his customary public mourning for his wife.
If he
had died the wife was bound to go through a similar period of mourning. She put
a small white cloth on the bier with her back turned to the dead body, and
after the body had been taken away for burial she discarded her clothes and
decked herself in black with Irialolo round her wrists, ankles
and neck. She armed herself with IHINMIN, a many sided fruit from a tree much
like oil bean tree (pentaclethra) and believed to be much shunned by spirits!
In some places she carried the female blade for cutting yams (ELO), while in
others, she also carried the bow and seven arrows, all these being meant to
frighten away the spirit of the dead partner. She wept
loudly every day and on the seventh day she went to the husband's farm, wept
round it, scratched up seven yams with a stick, tied them up in a bundle (the
only time customs permits a woman to carry
a bundle of yams), and returned home.
She then discarded her
mourning accoutrements; washed and then ended her public mourning. To a woman really,
the death of her husband was not only a grievous loss but brought her great and
painful humiliation. Under the section on Women Association, it will have been
seen that a woman sank in her status like lead in water, on losing her husband
in the village. If she
was the most senior woman of the village, she then became the most junior, and
to achieve that position, she had to be inherited; if not
and she merely stayed with her children, she had no position at all.
Children of a dead father or mother had their
hair shaved off and were kept away from farms, markets or going about alone
during the seven days of mourning.
11.
BURIAL OF THE DEAD:
Since the smallest Esan Community was a unit
organize don kinship, it was very rare for a person to die without a next of
kin. As long as he was an
accepted member of the village with or without a relative, in health, he was
like one of the fingers of a hand, acting in unison with the rest for the common
welfare of a village and in death, was a collective liability. Even in modern times no Doctor just coming into the District
would fail to be impressed and sometimes alarmed, by the whole village turning
out to accompany one sick man to the hospital, particularly
if it was a case of an accident.
Thus, when a man died, the whole village mourned him for the customary
seven days: they abstained from their usual work, dance and merriment.
(1)
A CHILD: A few people usually
from the Uelen went to bury it.
Mourning was limited to
the immediate relatives.
(2)
A YOUNG MAN: He was
buried by the Egbonughele and the Igene with no formalities; he was buried as
born - naked.
(3)
OLD MAN WITHOUT CHILDREN:
He was treated like a young man - but in places where the clothing ceremony was
customary, and he had performed it, he was given the privilege of a wash and
buried with all respects, and clothed.
(4)
ELDERLY MAN WITH CHILDREN:
He was buried with much feasting and the least sign of mourning. The
pre-interment ceremonies are described below. The body was taken to the special
burial ground for such respected people.
(5)
MARRIED WOMEN: The
corpse was returned to her family. The uniformity of this practice is rather
surprising. When a man had been accepted as a member of a village
where he was born, if he died there he was buried there. But in Esan custom
marriage does not alter a woman's nationality. If an Uromi
woman married an Ekpoma man, lived all her life and died in Ekpoma, she was
still an Uromi woman and must be returned to her relatives in Uromi to avoid
any suspicion of a foul play. In most villages there were different burial
grounds or sections in the same bush. Children and childless people were buried
in the same bush and old men with children were buried in different places. Each person had his or her own grave which was about three or
four feet deep.
Only an Onojie could be buried in the house or
in a special cemetery close to the Palace grounds. All others had to be buried
in the bush. Hereditary chiefs and some important men could be buried in their
homes, but the children had to bribe the Onojie to obtain permission to bury
their fathers outside the usual
place. Indiscriminate burial of dead bodies in houses and compounds is an occurrence
of recent times. The old custom built up by men who had no knowledge of public health
as we know it today, are now made light of, and in several districts the
traditional burial grounds have been desecrated and turned into farm lands.
The fear of spirits, like the respect of the dead, has vanished with the
arrival of westernization. Today there are no more village burial bushes and
homes and compounds have become the burial places for the dead. This is not
Esan custom.
(6)
PRE-INTERMENT RITES:
As would have been seen already, Esan of old had a deep respect bordering on
superstition and dread for dead bodies, not just because they feared the dead
body was that of a person who had joined the world of spirits, but because a
dead body was a source of health hazard to the living as in tropical climate
bodies decompose at an alarming rate, (it is. .almost
complete in four days); relatives, whose duty it was to prevent any disgraceful
associations with the body of dead relatives, did all in their power to bury
the body as quickly as possible before the slightest onset of putrefaction.
Wake keeping therefore was an uncommon thing. There was one general reason when
interment had to be postponed, and even in this case it was only for old and
respected elders with children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, usually described
as EYE BII IHIENHIEN. The reason was death such as on a bad or unlucky day such
as the rest day – Ede Ezele or Ede Owo and in some districts, also the second day of
the farming week was considered as unlucky day to join one's ancestors! If an
aged man died on such a day, he had to be buried the next day – but during the
night when the dead was amongst the living, only the bravest of the living ventured
out. The playful and harmless dotard whose whiskers Eye and Ihienhien pulled fondly a couple of days back, had now
become an object of fright!
Before the body was ready for burial, it was
washed, a new pot being used for the water. If the dead man was well-to-do the
Egbele demanded the slaughtering of a goat called EBHE IHION in honour of the sponge with which the
body had been washed. The body was then wrapped in a new mat
and brought to the front of the main building, for the ceremony with EMAN ELINMIN,
the special foufou prepared simply with fish, or with the goat flesh in the
case of a wealthy man. The children assembled round the body that was lying
with the head towards the house.
On behalf of the first son one of the IKO EGBELE (Egbele's representatives) blessed the dead
and cut some of the foufou at the feet. The children and all the descendants
knelt besides the body and were given a bit of the food one by one. With this
last sacrament at which the children have accepted themselves as one before their dead
father over, the feet which had I been exposed for this ceremony were wrapped
properly. The body was then placed on a form made with seven fresh mid-ribs of
palm branches in (IKPOGBA IHINLON). The whole corpse is then wrapped with a white
- piece of
cloth, provided by the heir. While this was going on some Igene and Egbonughele
had been busy preparing the grave at the appropriate site. The body was then
taken on the head by two men, with the feet in front. For an old man with
children there was dancing round the village, the places visited depended upon
the whims of the carriers although they made the onlookers believe the dead
body was directing them! Then they headed for the cemetery with the heir
holding the pot that had been used during the washing. When the body had been
interred the pot was placed on the tomb and everybody
turned for home with the strict injunction that no one must look back or knock
each other's heels. The idea was to get out of the burial grounds as quickly as
possible. The hoes and cutlasses used were left at a gutter (ULANMEN) in the compound for seven days before they
were touched or used again. The Igene and Egbonughele washed their hands and
feet in front of the house before they entered their houses.
Where the dead man had no issue but had a
godson the god-child)
assumed the position of a
first son in all the ceremonies - since Esan people believe OMON NA KHA BIE KHE
ORO (A child you could have had, is your godson). Eman Elinmin (the last meal)
was firmly believed in, since Esan believed that the journey to the world of
spirits was long and tedious. Thus any condemned person was also given this
simple last meal before execution, to provide energy
for the last journey.
Again and again I have stressed the need of
our elders and the Enijie being constantly vigilant in the preservation of
their custom and laws because of the persistent battering and assault both are
receiving in the hands of education, religion, politics, sheer ignorance and
modem technological advancements. There is an Esan adage which says, "When
you start doing things that were never done before, you start seeing things no
one had seen before.” I have written about Esan respect for the dead - particularly the elderly. Today when a man dies the children get a
sort of embalmment done at a hospital and put away the body in a cold
room awaiting the arrival of
the children from Europe
or America. Sometime it is because they do not consider the
period right for the great merriment they are expecting or sometimes the children give as a reason for such postponement
wanting to save up for a grand mortuary rite! When finally the funeral rites
are to start there is a wake-keeping at which the body is exposed for all and sundry
including children to view. Children no longer fear the dead and so respect for
dead people is no longer the norm.
There is an incident which illustrates the
points I am making beautifully.
On the 13thof April,
1989, a respected old man from a famous family in Benin died. He was Pa Omorogbe
Effionayi reported to be 115 years old and a senior brother of our respected
Chief (Dr.) Iyayi Efionaye, a timber magnate, an
acknowledged millionaire and a phillantropist. Pa Omorogbe's body was deposited in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital
Mortuary until the 19th of May, 1989 when the relatives and a gathering of
dignitaries came to claim the body for the funeral ceremonies. The body was
found missing! It took the tenacity and calibre of members of the Iyayi family
to trace the body to Ewohimi in Esanland, some 150km away, buried.
Can anyone think of a
more disrespectful thing happening to an elder! Obviously an Odionwele of a
verile community of Egba in Orhionmwon Local Government Area suffered this
indignity because of modernization. Our' culture
and tradition teach 'absolute respect for the elderly dead and a minimum
exposure. Esan edion were buried as soon as they died - EI MUN YAA! (It is not
kept till later!)
12.
THE BURIAL CEREMONIES (ITOLINMIN):
The time between death and onset of the burial
obsequies depended on wealth and affluence of the dead man and
standing of his children. Rich families usually began at once or shortly after
the man's death. In the case of the Onojie, it will have been seen already
that the ceremonies were so vital that they were soon after the death of the
last Onojie.
The funeral ceremonies were performed for
one's Egbele and the success of the ceremonies depended upon the
satisfaction of the elders and various bodies like the married daughters of the
village (Ekhuian), Edowaya (Helpers) etc. The first son of the
dead person was the pivot of the whole occasion. All
brothers and sisters did their share under him.
(a)
UTARE: This was occasion on
which the heir made public announcement of the father's or mother's death. It
should be a ceremony lasting one day, although to show wealth, some families
prolong it. The requirements consisted of a ring of fish and a goat; the goat
was slaughtered and like the fish, it was divided into two halves with the celebrant
retaining half while the Egbele took the other half. At the end of the ceremony
of Utare the day for the actual burial ceremonies was fixed near or put off,
depending upon how ready the family was.
The Utare ceremony itself had significant
purpose. It was on this day that the wives to be inherited were disposed of.
Those who were not going to be inherited began their formal mourning. In the
eyes of the Edion if one of their grade died and the heir had not performed the
Utare ceremony, that man was still alive and appropriately when they shared
Anything at the Okoughele, they faithfully
sent the dead man's own to his house! The children could avoid this respect
which is embarrassing for them by at least making a public announcement of
their father's death which is known in ESAN custom as UTARE. This custom also
laid it down that this ceremony should not be delayed
for more than three months. If it was not done after three months, as far as
the Edion were concerned, their colleague left the village for a very, very long journey,
and he got no more share from
their booties!
(b)
UHELAMIN: This is the first stage
of the burial ceremonies. On the eve of the appointed day, which is customarily
EDE EZELE or
rest day, and early next morning, the whole village reverberated with the booming
of guns and feasting. The evening start of the ceremony usually is around 10.00
p.m. (Ede Izele). In
most part of Esan ‘A’ the actual first day of the ceremonies fell on first day
of the farming week, that is on Ekpoma, Igueben, Okhuesan, Ekpon or Ugboha
market day.
First a she-goat was slaughtered in honour of
the parent's waist, that is,
for having been able to
have children. Dances and friends came to heighten the effects of the day, while the children all spent freely voluntarily or on demand. On
the second day, there was a lull in the activities; on this day came the
EDOWAYA who were the celebrant's helpers - they accepted presents and thanked
the givers on behalf of the man they were assisting. On this day too, a cow was
slaughtered. As soon as the cow was shot, the first
person to touch it with a matchet owned the tail, by custom, an obvious
incentive our forefathers invented to ensure that the cow shot or wounded was
recovered, because without the cow all the ceremonies would be delayed.
On the third day foufou in large
quantities was prepared. It was shared as follows - thirty foufou balls for the
Edion, twenty for Igene and their underlings, the Egbonughele; the rest was shared amongst the visitors. Using the
cow meat of the previous day the soup pots were loaded in such a way that they
would be acceptable; the Edion and even the Igene had the knack of refusing
their share 00 the ground that it was not sufficient. In such a
case, he, (the celebrant) had to use money to bribe the people to accept;
therefore he might as well make sure that the foufou and soup were of such
quantity that only a gathering of elephants would grumble at the size - hence
the cow even till this day, is a MUST for the burial ceremonies, although in some
districts like Ugboha,
burial ceremonies outside
the royal family, were limited to goats. Only a few people in the district were
‘Ogbeminas’ (those who buried their fathers with cows).
The fourth day was the day of IKHUEMIRE. All
the men who married the daughters of the man being buried, came down with
something like a war dance, shooting guns and praising their parent-in-law.
Each son-in-law brought the customary gifts consisting of a goat, a fowl, a
piece of white cloth for the celebrant, thirty coconuts and Elanmen Ihinlon
(6533 cowries equivalent to 27.2k) for Edion Egbele, twenty coconuts and Elanmen
Isen (4666.7 cowries or 19.4k) for the Igene and Okhihinlon
(980 cowries or 4k) for the intermediary. A man's greatness in life could be
ascertained by the grandness of his burial ceremonies which was also influenced
by the number of sons-in-law that came with this type of dance. The wealthy
Afua of Ekpoma went down in history when one hundred sons attended his funeral
Ceremonies.
The ceremonies of the fourth day dominated by
the Ikhuemire were f great significance. The Ikhuemire was an indisputable
evidence of lawful marriage. It was only the legally recognized husband that
was permitted to attend the father or mother-in-law's funeral ceremonies in
this way.
The fourth day ended with ceremonial
hair-plaiting called ETO OKUKU, a feature of all really big funeral ceremonies. On the fifth day, the Edowaya then showed the celebrant the
accounts of those who had sent him presents and what had been collected during
the ceremonies. He carefully noted these as he would be required by custom to
return these presents in greater measure when any of these friends were
involved in a similar ceremony. After this the helpers were feasted, thanked
and they left.
As soon as possible after this the chief
celebrant killed a goat or used a whole carcass of an antelope to end the
burial ceremonies, expressed as Fanon len Uria. This is the final
act in a ceremony that left the heir exhausted and broke - but he had done all that was necessary to have full right to
inheritance of the person-he
had just honoured with a
most crushing funeral
13.
OGBE CEREMONY:
In most places all that was necessary to have
full right to inheritance and the title, if any, of the dead parent was to
perform the burial ceremonies strictly according to native laws and custom that
is, to the satisfaction of his Egbele. But in Uromi and Ekpoma, in particular, another ceremony had to follow and this was the OGBE. Like the burial ceremonies it involved the slaughtering
of a cow and the spending of a lot of money, the whole
proceedings concluded with the dressing of the cow's head which was tied with
some raffia cane and hung up; this part was the most vital for without its
being done all the expenses were for nothing.
It was
not everybody that was either entitled or required to perform Ogbe. It was
usually the first son in a large family or an Ominjiogbe that was required to
perform it before he could have legal authority of inheritance of his father's
and family property. If a man performed it, it holds good for himself and his
children, that is, he had confirmed his own line's right to inheritance: if he
died his son must succeed him fully. But should this son now die without
performing the Ogbe ceremony the grandson could not inherit the family
property, like economic trees, titles etc. Claim to these things then passes to
the senior uncle of the loser. This must be very clear: for example, a man had
three sons - Uduehi, Itama and Obaedo. On his death, Uduehi, the heir
successfully claimed everything after burial ceremonies of his father but
without performing Ogbe.
Later he died and his son
claimed the family property and family title. He could not get them by native laws and custom.
The right person to come forward would be Itama, the boy's uncle, who, if he
was wise and proceeded to perform Ogbe would now bring his own line into the
right succession line.
In most places in Esan, even amongst the
ruling houses, Ogbe has long been considered redundant and claim to inheritance
is decided by the burial ceremonies; instead of Onon lu Ogbe na bhe ogbe (be
who performs Ogbe owns the family tree), the more constant Esan custom, (after
Ogbe was discontinued) came to be Onon ton Olinmin yan Uwa (He who performs the
burial ceremonies owns the house and all there-in). In the case of the Onojie,
however, the expensive Ogbe is now incorporated into the funeral ceremonies
except in Uromi and Ubiaja where it still has to be done separately.
14.
THE CLOTHING CEREMONY (lRUEN):
I have found no uniformity for this ceremony,
but all over Esan where it was done, the significance was the same. In places
where the ceremony had the greatest significance it was performed by the
wealthiest and top ranking people of the community. This was
the case in Igueben, Ugbegun, Ekpoma etc. In Ugboha
it was quite a simple ceremony: a man never went in for the ceremony until lie
had a child; then he went to the Odion of his family who tied the cloth, a
simple hand woven piece of cloth, round his waist with his blessings. Age did
not matter. In Ibhole and Ukhun the ceremony was performed in age grades, for
example, all Egbonughele could perform it together and then left this rank of
scavengers.
In Ewohimi and Ebelle areas it was simpler
still and made so cheap that it would be within the reach of every man. It
could only be performed by those with children however, but if they had none of
their own they could adopt their brother's sons for that purpose. Irma form of
Iruen was simple to the point of being ridiculous; all one required was a
native tomato (okhokho) and one fluted pumpkin (Umenkhen). At the ancestral
shrine his guardian tied a cloth round him, and his wife, who he might have
been living with for years, was shown to him! On the contrary, in a place like Ukpenu,
Ekpoma, it was a terrifying cere money; cows, goats, sheep must be used. A man
might be very rich and might be the oldest man in the village; until he had
performed the Iruen ceremony he was of the street sweeper rank!
The Ekpoma or Igueben ceremony was the more
customary of the expensive type. All other types were in essence modifications
dictated by common hardship and necessity. A ceremony with such great
significance ought not to be made so difficult that only the upper segment of
the community could perform it. For instance, in Ekpoma,
it was only the man who had advanced in age with several children and of
sufficient financial standing chat could dare embark on the crushing expenses.
Firstly, the man called his Egbele together to
consult the oracle as regards who amongest the elders who themselves had
performed the Iruen, should tie his cloth. The oracle was consulted four times
before a date was fixed. He then got ready two pieces of cloth which must be
white, Okhon, - a cloth-like material from Ogolo palm (Raphia) and Ovu-Orele
which was the belt. On the appointed day he killed a he-goat with
which he prepared foufou.
The Egbele was then called together, the white cloth, Okhon and Ow-OreIe in a
white-washed calabash container brouhgt out and the celebrant with his wife was
then surrounded by the Igene and Egbonughele who spread out their own covering
cloths. The man then removed all his clothes and the appointed elder tied the
white cloth round his waist and over this, the Okhon. The cloth underneath was
tied with the Ovu-Orele.
Three times the elder
called his name but he should not answer until the fourth time when he did so
with HE YO -O, AGBON TIE MEN O IYE ELINMIN! (Truly, it is the
world calling me and not spirits!).
He was then covered with chalk and asked to take his wife with whom he had been
clothed. The man then went home and danced round the
village kneeling at each door to thank the people. He was greeted with U KHI
RUIEN NE LINMIN GBE!
(May you not be clothed to die at the hands of the spirits!) He was given money
or the house owner might shoot a gun in his honour. On getting back home there was feasting with
dancing and the booming of guns. For the next seven days he was strictly
forbidden from sleeping on an uncleansed or unrubbed house, sitting on
bare ground, eating of a meal without meat and must not sleep alone. On the
seventh day he slaughtered a cow; thirty pieces and twenty pieces were used to
cook foufou for the Edion and Igene respectively. Only those
who had already performed the ceremony could partake of this meat. The
remaining meat was used to prepare six calabashes of foufou for his age grade
that turned up at night to eat their share. They divided themselves into
Okhiode, Oberuan and Obiyon, each group taking two
calabashes of foufou.
SIGNIFICANCE
OF CEREMONY:
Clothing ceremony was the most authoritative
act of a man who desired honour and respect of all in the village. No man who
had not performed it could be made Odionwele. While the laws attached to this ceremony
conferred honour, distinction and marks of high social standing on the
performer, he was strictly guided by certain laws calculated to make him live
an honourable life for the rest of his life. These
laws were:-
a) He was duty bound to settle any dispute coming
to his knowledge between a man and his wife.
b) He could no longer be called upon to sweep the
street or be challenged to a wrestling match or be attacked. Any attacker did
so at the risk of having a goat slaughtered against him by the Edion.
c) As a man of dignity he had to conduct himself
honourably at all times and must never again do certain acts of dishonour like
kneeling, stooling over paths, yam holes or moats (Iyala) or clean himself
after defecation on a kolanut tree, telling lies, abetting crimes etc.
d) He must not find a tree across the farm path
and side-track it saying it was none of his business to help cut it off.
e) He could no longer sit on bare ground and
hence had to carry EKPOKIN about and on this he sat.
f) If it fell to his tum he could now be made an
Odionwele. If he was the oldest man in the village and he had not performed
IRUEN he forfeited what his age had brought him.
g) In death, honour and respect followed him to
the grave: with or without children he must be fully clothed before burial. In
the olden days a man who had not performed this ceremony was on death, buried
as he was born, NAKED! A Khi ruen, ai ye lu okholo ai ye deba eneria (when you have performed this clothing ceremony, you
no longer do evil, you no longer associate with evil doers)
15.
FEASTS AND RELAXATION:
The year in Esan was divided into 91½ arming
Weeks, consisting of THREE working days and ONE day of rest, every FIFTH DAY.
The first day of the farming week fell on Ekpoma, Igueben, Ugboha, Okhuesan, Opoji
and Ekpon market day. It was called EDE UGBO NON ODION. The universal day of rest was called EDE OWO or
EDE EKEN and farming on that day was tabooed. This day fell on Ewu, Ugbegun, Illushi, Emuhi and Ewatto market day.
The fact that none of the big markets was held on this day supports the belief
that it was meant to be a proper day of rest.
The year was again divided into nameless moons
(UKI) which were tagged with farming stages as moon for bush clearing, moon for
sowing yams, moon for tying yams, moon for eating fresh com etc. the year ended
in December and particularly in Ekpoma, it ended round about December 24. After
harvesting yams, usually between August and October, there were little farming activities and then began a
long period of debauchery, relaxation, the yearly village feasts, ceremonies of
all types, like burial, clothing etc. and as the devil finds work for the idle
hands, this time of the year was the time for 'meetings' and the few agitations
that occur in Esan.
Most of the yearly feasts in towns and
villages took place between September and December. From the
end of the first week of December, particularly in Ekpoma Area, the ancestral worship
ceremonies for ending the year began. All first sons with no father using the
central yam (OJIOKPALUNGBO), serve their dead fathers and perform the ceremony of
IKUKPE (marking the year) which lasted thirteen days - the end falling round
about Christmas Eve. This was the traditional end of the year, after which every man could begin clearing the bush for his new
farm.
Every village or town usually had its dance
for relaxation for example, AGBENOJIE, AGBEGA, EGBABONELINMIN, OLEKE etc. For the first three days of the 'week' it
was all toil, but early the fourth day the street and village square were
weeded and swept, the women rubbed the houses and kept the compound
clean. One could sense a festive mood in everybody who had a wash and put on
his best clothes. By 10 O'clock the village dance was staged and the rest of
the day was reserved for feasting friends and drinking - mainly palm wine; pito
and burukutu were alien while Ogogoro or Akpeteshi or Kainkain was introduced
into Esan land by the Urhobos in the forties even though it was a punishable
offence to be found with this drink, the British called 'illicit gin' with a vengeance.
It was after independence in 1960 it became
the most popular drink. In places like Ugboha, they celebrate their rest day
with Ogolo - palm wine from Raphia palm. The general merriment goes on all day
with visits to friends so that the expenditure is shared. To ensure that every
one had his own fair share of necessary rest and relaxation there was a strong
belief handed down from father to son, that spirits did their farming by
wandering round the farms of the living on Ede Izele or Owo or Eken, The lazier
ones took an extra day of rest on the town market day – EDE EKIOLELE.
Apart from the weekly day of rest, each
village or groups of villages had a period of feasting on a grand scale at
about the same period each year. It lasted four days. The period was
characteristic for the special clearing of the streets, decorations in the
homes, purchase of new clothes with friends and relatives coming from far and
near bringing dances and presents. It was an expressed mutual agreement for one
to return this type of visits and presents when the villages of these visitors
were having their own annual feasts.
These yearly feasts invariably left the
celebrants exhausted and broke and by the time they recovered it was time for
the next year's feast! Also with so much eating and drinking something near an
epidemic of stomach trouble followed!
WPP Jr
Editor/Publisher
Editor/Publisher
