CHAPTER IX

SOCIETY NAMES AND LANGUAGES
Society Names — New Language — Society Songs — Illustrations of use.
SOCIETY NAMES
A society name is invariably bestowed upon the young initiate in the puberty school, generally after the ordeals have been satisfactorily passed, the purifications ended, and the initial vows taken. The name becomes a seal to the initiation, a proof that the first grade is reached, and a very satisfactory mark of the new manhood or womanhood.
An African in the course of his life acquires many names. There is his umbilical name, that given at birth by mother or parents or family. There is the one given to him at school, if he attends such an institution, by the missionary of the government teaching staff. There is the one, varying much or little from the umbilical one according to the linguistic abilities of the official, by which he is registered by the civil authorities. There is the " book " name given when he takes employment under white men, this often being a phonetic vari- ation of his clan or totem name. There may be a name adopted at marriage, probably suggested by the spouse, and the one self-bestowed when none of the others seems to exactly fit the opinion the individual holds of himself, and there are the society names ; these, as described in the narrative of the Okonko grades, being of progressive numbers
according to progressive importance.
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The society name first given may be that of a past member, thereby linking the novice to an ancestor, or it may be a term or title that, in the estimation of the tutors, sums up some characteristic or marks the individuality of the youth or maiden. It may also be that of a past tribal hero, or even a variation of that of one of the society's deities. When this last honour is conferred, some diminutive is affixed to the word.
Its bestowal is made the more memorable by the mystery of its first announcement. There are skilled ventriloquists amongst the officials, modern African Eurykles who know all there is to know about " belly-talking," or the " voice of the spirit," as it is sometimes called. They can make the command or the announcement they wish known come from the tree-tops, from the passing wind, from the flying bird, from the sleeping amphibian, from the prowl- ing animal, and from the very deeps of the earth. Other devices to astonish the novice they have also. They share the knowledge possessed by the ancient Egyptians in phonetics. Secret, mat-lined tunnels and bamboo tubes connect council house or hut of official to that of the young initiates, through which wind is driven or voices transmitted. Or the tutors may exercise their undoubted powers of mimicry, and speak through the imitated notes of bird or beast. It is said that they also tap out on the hut-wall the morse-like code of words used on their drums.
Therefore, the new name may reach the new owner by strange and hitherto unknown means, and be iterated and reiterated until the novice wakes up to the fact that it is his. His secret name. His first society name. The name never to be divulged to the uninitiated, no matter what the provocation. "A terrible way of teasing a youth is to ask him about his society name, to suggest he has forgotten
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it, to hint that it is not half so good a name as the one his mother bestowed upon him, to declare it is a nickname the owning of which does him no credit. His lips are sealed. Burning to defend himself, sure that the mere whisper of the name would be sufhcient answer, he yet must deny him- self. He is under vow, a terrible vow, a vow that if broken would in dire consequence shatter his universe. The consequence being that he does the only thing he can do ; he turns and walks silently away from his tormentors."
The grade names he afterwards takes may be merely elaborations of the first, or they may be expressions coined to mark the added grandeur and honour of the degree.
NEW LANGUAGE
Most of the societies possess an esoteric speech known only to the members, and the ability to speak it is looked upon as a sure sign of membership. It may approximate a language, as those used by Nkimba and Poro, or be merely isolated phrases used in ritual and for passwords, as in Ndembo and Penda-Penda.
Occasionally it is found divided into grade groups of words, making the knowledge of it progressive with the promotion of the member, only those reach- ing the highest grade thus being privileged to use it in its totality. There are societies that only allow their secret speech to be used by the councillors and the officials.
A systematic study of these tongues, if ever possible, might bring to light many figurative and symbolic preservations from the ancient African languages of the Coast. Indeed, they are often called, when strangers make inquiry concerning them,
KALOKO CERE.M"MAJ, DKU
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the " Old Language " (Poro) or the " Hidden Words " (Ayaka and Okonko) or the " First Words " (IzYOGA and Njembe and Ukuku).
They are mostly (i) combinations of words that have been manufactured to express some society sentiment, or to help along some ritual practice, or to denominate some sacred object, much in the same way as the word " gadget " was created by the English ; (2) modifications of the tongues of the tribes the societies influence, created and accepted in the same spirit as were bilingual words by the allied armies during the Great War ; (3) inver- sions, words disguised by artificial letter revers- ing, composed as is the " back slang " of British costers, cabmen and schoolboys ; and (4) archaisms.
An interesting comparison can be made of some of them with Shelta or Skelta, the old Irisli or Gaelic phonetic speech known in England as the " Tinkers' Language," as, for instance, the Poro and Masubori binni, spirits, a word used in Shelta for anything small like a fairy ; the Bundu granny, wise woman that is akin to the Tinkers' granni, to know ; and the Andomba oseebli and the Shelta sweebli, both used for a short, stumpy boy.
The " Old Language " of Poro is complete enough to be reduced to a syntax. A few specimen words are here given, grouped as above.
(i) Aban, initiate ; abankalo, initiation house, or initiation, or initiates ; abuke, anything Poro ; akal and biri, signs and symbols ; akanta, rite or rites ; akumra, enclosure sentries ; akuso, imple- ments or weapons ; aporo dif, Poro bush ; aseba or azvonko or azvuni, dances and dancers ; asuka aban, graduate ; atumpan, council fire ; bafe, huts ; bowi, armlets or leglets ; bakumabenge, ornaments ; fari and obanika, enclosure or parts of the same ; gafe
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(horn) used of a krifi, spirit ; ebunde (" men in petticoats "), ceremonial dress ; kamela and kani, palm screen before enclosure and gate in same ; kunki or runki or runku, novice dress ; jambe and mayambo^ graduate's dress ; ngahomzvi, servant of an official ; oborrka, the uncircumcised or uninitiated ; osimore, novice ; re, official shield, especially the one carried by Laga ; tanga-tanga or tange-tange, the mitre of the Grand Tasso.
(2) From the Arabic, murde, the noise or " shout " made by the members when assembling, and salkene, praying field, used for the festival before the opening of the sacred enclosure. From the Mandingo, obarin (ancient Bambara for father's brother), used as a title for the guardian of a novice. From the Hausa, binni, for the official known as the chief of the spirits, bori, as an alternative to krifi, and in the words Mabori and Mambori (anything that moves slowly, like a tortoise) used as titles for the women allowed to act as honorary officials and known as the mothers of the spirits. From the Kongo, eseka and osoki (the " four-eyed "), used as titles for doctor and magician. (These last words introduce the problem of the kinship or the association between Poro in Sierra Leone and Nkimba in Nigeria. There is a saying, " He who is the servant of Grand Poro serves Nkimba'')
(3) The society members say aj^ma setubi for *' palaver finished," the Temne being ibutes ampa.
(4) Two words are survivals of the speech of the autochthonous Capez, a tribe conquered by the Temne in the early years of the sixteenth century, bemfa, sacrifice, and obolomba (from obolem, Men of Bullom) the title of some of their doctors. Other official titles are archaic Temne and Baga, such as Tasso, a corruption of the Baga Kasi : Laga, from Raka ; Soko (chief dancer or dancer in charge) from Seki, and there is also the word kamegotrun (enclosure.
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council house or men's house), from kamamhwi or kemembzvi.
In the Nkimba secret speech the following modifications of the Kongo are found, lusambzva instead of lusala, a feather ; jana for van^, to give ; diomva for kzvenda, to go ; nkubuzi for mbizi, meat for food, and nzimvu for masa, maize.
A member of this society wishing to say " Fetch us some water to drink," would say in Kongo, " Bong' 0 maza twanua kweto^"^ but if he was speaking to a fellow member he would say, " Diafili ngoluvizva tutefa kubwefoT
The Kizenga speech of Ndembo is of smaller vocabulary than the above, and shows little ingenuity, being mostly ordinary words of the Kongo language prefixed by ne and suffixed by Izva.
Thus, the ordinary words for " All right, wc will go to-morrow," are " Ke diambu ko mbazi tukwenda^"* and the society words become " Nekelzva nediambulzva ne ko ne kiayi kia nengundi yakala tukwenda ne ngyalala.^^
The Lubendo of Butwa is similar. It is formed by transposing the syllables, as kasaka for kakasa, little foot ; or by changing an initial letter as temuka for semuka, possessed. It preserves some archaic words, as Tambe, an almost forgotten Batwa word for God, and employs a few manufactured words, especially small words compounded together, as busanhabemba, the sprinkler of water from the lake, used secretly to indicate the use of a society medicine.
The secret speech of Penda-Penda is largely archaic Baga ; that of Sindungo is the ancient dialect Sindungo, now almost extinct in Angola ; that of Egbo contains much obsolete Ekoi ; and that of Masubori, used by the Arifa and other officials in prayers to protecting deities, contains some long- forgotten Kanuri and Mandingo words.
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The languages of the women's societies have not so rich a vocabulary as those of the men, but they are even more jealously guarded. They are largely concerned with songs and sexual matters. They must not be confused with the " tabu words " about which so much has been written, not only of Africa but of all backward races from the Eskimo to the Maori, and which are merely words forbidden to be used in public. The languages spoken by the women in society gatherings are composed of " sacred " not " tabu " words, and an illustration of their use may be found in the attitude of the Ababda people to their ancient Baja To-Bedawiet dialect, who believe that to speak even one word of that tongue before strangers would bring ruin to themselves and to all they represent.
SOCIETY SONGS
The society songs would also repay the study of linguists desiring to know more of the foundations of West Coast languages.
Those of BuTWA " are of archaic words set to weird melodies." The Ekongola chants have been " handed down in a tongue so old as to be practically forgotten in the present day." The BuNDu girls are taught their duties and responsi- bilities in " songs sung in a speech unknown to any save themselves, and said to be in the same language their ancestors spoke." The Katahwiriba women sing the old war-songs of the Ashanti warriors' wives. The novices of Ampora, Ayaka, Ekkpe, and Ikung are given instruction in " chants, long- drawn out and mostly of melancholy sound, full of words that may only be understood after long and fatiguing training," and verses " couched in a foreign tongue, said to be that of the society," and " hymns
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of praise, barbarous and dissonant, containing words not meant for the understanding of ordinary ears," and " songs of a meaning hidden deeply in a jargon of words as secret as everything else belonging to the society."
Those of Penda-Penda " link up past and present," and echo " what may be called the first penetration of darkest Africa by the poetry of the mediaeval East," some of them being laudations of monarchs " who were contemporary with William the Conqueror of England." Those of Bori and Masubori tell of " a civilisation, Berber rather than Arab," which began " as early as 800 a.d. in Central Sudan and has continued more or less the same to our day." Those of Mannakeh and Mori tell of kingdoms " older than any known in the Nile Valley," and those of Si'mo, as did the Karari of the Hausa peoples, sing of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopian Meroe, from which may have come the first foundation of the Christian kingdom of
Dongola.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF USE
Illustrations of the use of these secret names and languages are included in other chapters of this book, but the following is also worth recording :
"The Hut Tax Insurrection of 1898 " (in Sierra Leone) " was led by Bai Bureh (" Kabalai "), the man who, although not of chief's stock, had become a powerful king by his successful leading of the Temne army against the Susu settlers in 1873. He was not antagonistic towards the ruling powers, as witness the fact that he had been their ally in the 1892 campaign, but he was bitterly opposed to the tax, and successfully led the opposition to it. He refused to see any of the envoys sent to him by the Government, and things were checkmate
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until a messenger penetrated the Kassi country and gained an interview with, the Bai. After that the opposition ended. ... It was discovered that the interview was made possible by the messenger being able to speak the secret language of Kabalai and his followers."