CHAPTER II

ORGANISATION
Headquarters — Houses for Initiates — Chapels — Membership — Membership Grades — Membership Fees.
HEADQUARTERS
Many of the societies possess property in build- ings, council halls, men's houses and women's houses, and chapels and other shrines.
Detail of mural decoration in the Ogboni House of Abeokuta.
The council house is used as the permanent headquarters of the owning society, as is the " Ogboni House " in Abeokuta and the " Egbo House " in Lagos.
The members of the council act as trustees for such property, control its use, and keep it in repair. There
21
22 WEST AFRICAN SECRET SOCIETIES
may be a similar building, but on a smaller scale, in some or all of the villages influenced by the society.
The society or council house is the meeting-place of councillors, of officials and higher grade members, who use it in the same way that Europeans do their clubs. Or they may be reserved for and by the councillors, or by the Head himself. There are some instances of their being used for housing young initiates. During the times of the celebrations they are generally thrown open to all the members.
Most of them are well built and of fair proportions, but they may be, as are those of Yassi, ordinary
village houses distinguished by the society sign. Of those that may be termed " halls," those owned by Egbo and Butwa are the most conspicuous. That of the first in Lagos is a large oblong building "like the nave of a cathedral." Its clay walls are " elaborately painted inside and have a relief of clay figures and wooden images behind the seats." It has stood for many years. The Mulumbi of Butwa . J is an oblong building of good r» ^ "T material and workmanship,
boasted of as being large enough to "contain the entire village population." The en- trance is on the east side, but being L-shaped actually faces north. It contains three doors or barricades that must be passed before the hall itself is entered. At the same end are two rooms " reserved for the officials, and that have, as far as eye can tell, no way into them." Inside the hall are seats against the
Butwa Society House.
ORGANISATION 23
north and south walls for the twenty-four councillors, and at the west end the " throne " for the Head and on either side of it three seats for the officials.
In front of these is a guarded oval space, where stand the sacred possessions. The roof, a light thatch, is supported by tree-stem posts some fifteen or sixteen feet high. The walls are of clay, outside roughly made but within smoothed with some care, and bearing cryptic signs amidst the decorative work, cleverly done in various colours.
The ijebu or Ogboni houses are vested in the trusteeship of certain families long associated with the society.
Where there is no central building the houses of the councillors may be used for society purposes, as in Egungun, whose Alagha set aside a room of their homes or build a special booth in their compounds for the use of the members, or of a particular grade. Such rendezvous increase the social power of the societies greatly, becoming centres from whence " in the intervals of the society's business, local news is disseminated and dances organised."
Each grade may possess a headquarters of its own, either a house in a village or a hired room in a town.
The " temples " of the Muhammedan societies are generally rooms in hired houses. Those of Masubori are called " Houses of Kuri " (the hori or spirit there worshipped), and are described as of fairly large proportions, furnished with articles of clothing and other things said to be worn or used by the hori, and containing the drums and flags used in the processions, quantities of food suitable to the appetites of spirits, and a large collecting box for the alms of the faithful. A portion of the room is curtained off into a Holy of Holies for the rest and retirement of the other-world patron, into which, of mortals only, the Arija in charge may enter.
24 WEST AFRICAN SECRET SOCIETIES
HOUSES FOR INITIATES
The men's houses and women's houses may be permanent structures in or near a village, or tempor- ary erections forming part of the sacred enclosure in the bush. Poro and Kongcorong own some of the first kind, known as " medicine houses " and " goat houses." These are the places in which happen, according to some writers, the gargantuan feasts and the Rabelaisian scenes attributed to these societies. " Such houses are generally old, the timbers black with age and smoke, the heap of ashes outside being as high as ten or twelve feet. There is a stout fence of the zareba kind or of living trees (that were planted as stakes) surrounding the place, with a gate contrived in the midst. No other building exists in the enclosure, which is placed outside the village."
In these houses lately initiated members spend periods of tuition, either immediately after leaving the bush or when desirous of taking up higher grades. The life is generally that known as communal, and is akin to that known amongst the peoples of the Melanesian area, the Torres Straits islands, Borneo, the East Indian and Philippine archipelagoes, Hindu- stan and Chino-India, and various regions of North America. There are time-honoured laws and regulations. The juniors fag for the seniors, collect- ing wood and other fuel, tending the fire, and keeping the place clean. The fire-tenders consider it a great honour to keep alive the flame first lit by the Head of their society. Sometimes there are separate rooms for meals. No uninitiated person ever gains ad- mission. The houses are never left empty. Someone is always on guard. One rule for the preservation of the continual presence of the guards is that certain stones within the entrance-way must be kept moist, this being accomplished by using them as a latrine.
ORGANISATION
25
CHAPELS
Beyond the buildings described, most of the societies own " chapels." These may be merely tiny thatches raised a few inches from the ground, and containing fetish objects and the offerings of the members, or huts built by the roadside near villages, or within them, large enough to contain an erected "altar" and the presence of the devotee. In BuNDu they are known as "paint houses" and in Ram en a as romari. Those of Yassi are known bytheir paint- splashed walls, and those of PoRO have wide-open entrances and outer walls whitewashed. The little space within contains a fetish altar.
Temporary headquar- ters for the purposes of retreats and schools are erected from time to time by many of the societies, and these are discussed in the chapter on Festivals.
Poro " chapel."
MEMBERSHIP
The original societies were exclusively male in membership. This applies to Pagan and Muham- medan alike.
The first of the women's societies was Bundu of Sierra Leone, and the original members were of the Temne tribe. Nkamba of the Congo followed. NiMM, of Nigeria, is probably the earliest of mixed membership.
To the student of African anthropology there is
26 WEST AFRICAN SECRET SOCIETIES
nothing strange in the early rise of the women's and the mixed-membership organisations. Although ap- pearing as a drudge only in most pictures drawn of the land, the African women have long been respon- sible for most of the social life of the villages. In political life also they are not infrequently the " power behind the throne," and are often to be found upon it. One name only need be mentioned as an illustration, that of Nya-Katolo of Angola, Queen of the Ba-Kuena, who trained her own well- paid army, conquered all the countries between the Luena River and the Kavungu, defeated all opposing powers, including Matiamvo the local male Napoleon, and established many flourishing villages, all of which were ruled by women. In commercial life they also hold their own, and in that of religion they have supplied their share of Oracles and Priest- esses since the time of Tanit, the Punic mystery of Carthage.
Most of the exclusively male or exclusively female societies admit their members at the age of puberty, and initiate during a specially held " school." The exceptions are, children dedicated to membership from birth, and admission at any age. Where this last rule is found the junior members often form a separate lodge of non-secret character.
It is the general rule to exclude cripples, the mentally deficient and the physically deformed. Those considered illegitimate are denied admission by some societies.
In those which are Pagan the dead retain their membership ; indefinitely in some instances, and in others for a term of years, as in Poro, which "names" a member for the first seven years after decease. If a " councillor," the seat he formerly occupied is left vacant. There are several instances of past coun- cillors and higher-grade members being " called " at the opening of the annual celebration. An
ORGANISATION 27
Ekongola official shouts such names three times. Egungun appoints a guide to bring these spiritual members to the assembly. Org makes no decision until their opinions have been asked, and, by methods only known to the officials, their votes registered.
Honorary members may be admitted. Those chosen for such distinction are Africans holding high rank in other societies and resident Europeans who are interested in local customs. Egbo and Poro both have a long list of names on their honorary rolls of civil and military officers who have served in Nigeria and Sierra Leone ; that of the last men- tioned containing the names of some of the officials who have governed the colony. Such members have an investiture rather than an initiation. It is ceremonious and spectacular, but in no wise a divulgence of the society's secrets.
MEMBERSHIP GRADES
The members are graded from probationer to councillor, above which there is only the Head. Egbo, Ogboni, Okonko, and Poro have each ten grades or degrees, and other societies have six or seven.
The junior grades, like the first two of Poro, are not often secret ones, although they may have their own particular signs and passwords. They are the novice grades. Their members salute those of senior rank ; those of Egbo by pretending to be lame, those of Poro with a thrice-repeated bow, and those of Nkimba by touching the temples three times.
Senior members of Okonko sound out a note on a horn to clear from their path all those of lesser degree.
The members of the highest grades, especially that of council rank, form a Negro aristocracy that,
28 WEST AFRICAN SECRET SOCIETIES
like that of marabout, is both envied, admired and feared. To gain a place in those grades is the ambition of tens of thousands of West Africans.
The substantial grades may be complete organisa- tions in themselves, acting without reference to the society as a whole, and having their own pass- words and signs and ritual and secrets and even speech. This explains why Idiong, for instance, is self-controlled and yet an integral part of Egbo ; and why only the member who has reached the highest degree knows all the secrets of his society. In some cases, as in Ampora, Egungun, Orisha and others, the grade-society has lost all links with the parent- society save in its use of a kindred ritual.
The title of the grade may be that of an ofhcial of the society, that official ruling over the grade, as the Wuja of Poro rules the Wujanga grade, or the grades may bear names unique to themselves and not that of their titular leader.
Some grades have importance other than that given by their place in the seniority of the society ; thus the Ndibu grade of Egbo, although not the chief one, is called the " mother " degree, and the official who controls it always acts as the Idem or Deputy Head of the society. The chief of the Awzaw grade of Okonko is also given the like honour.
For purposes of promotion two, or more, grades may be considered as one, the taking of one being automatically followed by the bestowal of the others, as is done in Egbo {Eturi and Nkanda grades), and in Okonko {Aja-Ama^ Ife-Ii-Awku^ and Amawanlu grades).
Promotion from grade to grade is usually a matter of age and seniority, but in some cases it is by selection and in others the honour can be pur- chased.
In some of the male-membership societies the chief wife of a man who has attained high rank
ORGANISATION 29
shares the honour of wearing the insignia of that rank; the chosen wife of an Okonko member, for instance, adding a cord about her ankle (the opposite one to that adorned by the man) for every one her husband wears. Also she may adopt a new name corresponding to the one, or more than one, assumed by him on entering the higher grade.
The following particulars of the ten grades of Okonko may be taken as typical of the societies in which promotion is purchased, and as illustrating most of the progressive dignities offered by the others.
First Grade. Amanwulu, the probationer's degree. The sign is one corded string, of special texture and plaiting, fastened about the waist and another about the ankle. The first is only worn at ceremonials. A staff of carved osaga or okeakpa wood is carried. This is the initiation grade, and all the members are youths.
Second Grade. Chi, the grade of the " spiritual men " (the men who can talk with after-death spirits). The sign is an iron staff about five feet in length and ornamented with a three-inch brass band near the top, and a small ivory horn through blasts on which a man of this grade may proclaim his presence and importance. This is the first grade that gives the member the privilege of bearing a new name.
Third Grade. Aja-Ama.
Fourth Grade. Ife-Ii-Azvku.
Fifth Grade. Amawanlu. These three grades are taken together, and there seems little importance attached to them save in their being steps to higher ranks. They are the " two-stringed " " three- stringed " and " four-stringed " men, the additional strings worn being similar in' material and workman- ship to the first. The signs and ritual of the three appear to be interchangeable.
30 WEST AFRICAN SECRET SOCIETIES
Sixth Grade. Ajalija, the first of the major grades. The rise to it is a matter of selection as well
as ability to pay. If the promotion ceremony in- cludes the sacrifice of a cow the new member of this grade is saluted as Obu-Efi, He who has slain a sacred cow. This sacrifice is a rare one, most of the donated beasts being branded and turned out to graze as the possessions of Okonko stool. the society. The sign of the
grade is an iron staff nine feet long, forked at the top and spear-pointed below, with brass bands at the two ends and at the centre. They used to wear four-inch wide copper anklets, but these are not now often seen. The small ivory horn of the minor grades is exchanged for one of larger size, and a goat-skin bag now makes an additional ornament. The Ajalija have the right to be buried in a coffin within the pre- cincts of the council house, and to have a cow sacrificed at the funeral. They are en- titled to sit on a stool, a right generally reserved for tribal chiefs. Most of these stools are ancient, and are jealously guarded by the owners, at whose death they revert to the possession of the society. The stools are carried by attendants, and
" Ajalija " Stool of Okonko.
ORGANISATION 31
are always placed upon a spread goat-skin. If the stool is not available the goat-skin must be, as the Ajalija are not allowed to sit upon bare earth. Three attendants (formerly domestic slaves) follow each man of this order ; three new names are adopted at election, three prostrations are made before them. Sons whose fathers held this grade are given priority of election.
" In the great majority of cases men are content when they have reached this order, and but few make any attempt to advance further. They have reached quite an honourable position in the community and are influential citizens."
Seventh Grade. Ekwu. Like the three last of the minor grades this one seems but a preliminary to those that follow, those of Awzaw.
Eighth Grade. Awzaw-UnaWy the Awzaw of the House, and the
Ninth Grade. Awzaw-Nukwu, Great Awzaw or Awzaw of the People, are taken together. In the ceremony of promotion to the last a horse is sacrificed, and the Awzaw-Nukwu thereby gains the additional courtesy title of Otibwu-Anyinya, The One who has Slain a Horse. In a tsetse country this is not an easy law to fulfil, but " the condition of the poor brute matters not as long as it is not actually dead. The new Awzaw must let out whatever blood it has. Sometimes the animals are in such a decrepit con- dition that they have to be carried to the place of sacrifice." There are special purifications in the ceremonies for this rank, most being performed at night. After the candidate has been " purified to office " he must not be seen in public for two months. He may not sleep at home, neither may his feet come under any roof-tree. He is accommo- dated in a friend's compound, in a small new booth. Should it rain, he may sit under his friend's eaves " but his feet must remain outside." He is daily
32 WEST AFRICAN SECRET SOCIETIES
smeared from head to foot with chalk. He may see no one not of Awzaw rank. His food may be brought by his chief wife, but he may only speak to her from within his booth and through the medium of his eldest son.
On the day his two months' seclusion is ended, a day of great rejoicing in the village, he parades the streets preceded by an attendant bearing the ogenne, the Awzaw bell. The deep- toned clanging heralds his approach. On reaching the market-place or the chief's house, or the house where resides the Head of the society, he embraces his fellow gradesmen, greets his eldest son, is proclaimed, and adorned with the insignia of his new rank. These consist of an iron-shafted spear with a crown-like, twisted-metal ornament at the foot of the blade and around the centre, and with brass bands at intervals down the shaft; a large ele- phant-tusk horn requiring two men for the carrying, a special stool of a pattern restricted to his grade, and ankle-cords dyed red with ujie^ camwood. He binds similar cords round the ankle of his chief wife.
" The peculiar benefits that accrue to members of this order are : absolute exemption from all forms of manual labour ; immunity from bodily assault from any native whether of his own or any other town ; the right to inflict punishment on any offender against himself or household ; the right to sit on the council which exercises jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases in his town, and which regulates customs and promulgates laws." Formerly he was forbidden to cross water, but modern life in Iboland has made this law a dead letter. If he is convicted of any offence, such as theft, he is deprived of his
Okonko Staves
ORGANISATION 33
title and expelled from his grade. Should necessity arise for his arrest, he must not be bound or tied in any way. His rank is considered sufficient guarantee that when told to attend any inquiry he will do so.
When promoted the new Azuzaw-Nukzvu usually bestows upon himself four additional names, and grants a like honour to his chief wife.
The holders of this grade are in nearly every case sons whose fathers formerly held the rank, but they cannot be elected during their father's lifetime.
The Head of the grade, the Okfala, is also Head of the society. He ranks as a High Priest in the district where he lives. This office is hereditary. When the holder is a minor the senior Nukzvu- Awzaw acts as his Deputy in cases arising from confessions of adultery, or from offences committed against fellow gradesmen. All other judgments are the combined effort of the Okonko council, spoken through the voice of the young Okfala.
The grade has its own secret language, and uses special drum-notes, made either on the ekzue, or great drum of the society, or on smaller editions of the same instrument, and only understood by its members. Also, and this is what no other grade of any other society is known to share, it has its own currency. This " money " is described as " tiny " pieces of iron resembling small squashed tin-tacks, half an inch in length, with arrow-shaped heads and the stems the thickness of a large pin. They are known as umumu, and are disbursed by the grade as thank- offerings at purifications, also exchanged for pay- ments in kind by the pilgrims who desire the help of the Okonko Oracle. They are greatly valued by the ordinary people of the district, who wrap them in leaves and bury them near a member's grave, or at the threshold of the house of an official,
34 WEST AFRICAN SECRET SOCIETIES
as a propitiation to the guardian deities of the society.
Tenth Grade. Fu or Pu or Aji-Chi. This highest grade is very exclusive. " Not more than half a dozen members have ever been known at any par- ticular period of the society's history." Those who attain to it form the inner council or executive of the society. The salutation is obuzulu, a word con- veying the idea that all killings are now at an end. The holders of the ofhce are dreaded as " men who have power to slay or keep alive." They are the " Hidden Men." They function from the darkness.
" Each grade gives the member a certain function in carrying out the society's law, and experience of some new phase of it, some advance in it, some higher power, that may be a higher morality, and thus step by step they (the members) reach its climax and completeness."
" Finally, when he has passed through all the grades, which few do, when he has finally sworn the greatest oath of all, when he knows all the society's heart's secrets — and that can be summed up in the sentence : I am what I am through my knowledge of law and order and justice and morality — then, and not till then, he is an Elder, a man revered, honoured, and obeyed."
MEMBERSHIP FEES
All the societies charge fees. These are of varying amounts and paid in all sorts of currency. There are entrance fees, promotion payments, food charges, tips to officials and largesse to members, money for feasts, cash paid at the beginning and ending of the periods of seclusion, and the professional fees paid to the operators at such rites as circumcision and excision.
As examples of those societies considered ex- pensive, Egbo, Idiong and Okonko may be cited.
ORGANISATION 35
Egbo charges £30 to £50 for the rank of Ndibu, £50 to £80 for that of Eturi, and £80 to £100 for that of Nkanda, besides initiation fees and ofhcial " presents." It has been estimated that to reach its highest grade an expenditure of more than £700 is demanded.
Idiong, a highly exclusive society of "aristo- crats," although its nominal charges are only £20 for its probationary grade and £75 for full member- ship, appeals only to the very rich because of the necessary expensive entertainments at election and promotion. At these the population of a whole district is often feasted, and during the feasts " money is scattered like rain " upon the guests.
Okonko charges are as follows: First Grade. £10 in cash or kind, goats forming the usual medium. Second. £20. Third to Fifth. £25 each. Sixth. £50 to £90 in fees, or £10 bounty given to each mem- ber of the grade, over and above the donation of a cow, or cows, to the ofhcials. Seventh. £15 to each councillor and ofhcial. Eighth and Ninth. £90 in cash and donations of goats and cows to the officials. In addition there is the expense of a feast to many hundreds of people, that may last several days, the charges of professional drummers and dancers, and the expensive tipping on the day of election. There is also the cost of the horse for the sacrifice. Tenth. " Although the grade is a cheap one (the nominal fee is £130) there follows election a festival lasting from a week to a month, according to the means of the new Jji-Chi."
The less up-to-date societies, including Bweti, Ekkpe, Jamboi,Malanda,Naferi,Njembe,Ofiokpo,
OvRA, OwU-OGBO,RAMENA,SEMBE,TlLANG,and YuGU,
still accept payment in Molucca white or Zanzibar grey cowries.
BoRi demands a new house for the tutor, money and grass mats for the members of the council, and
36 WEST AFRICAN SECRET SOCIETIES
for the officials a new large jar, one red cock, one black hen, a pair of white fowls, an all-white or all- black ram or he-goat, and one white and one black country-cloth.
BuNDU payments include a bushel of clean rice, a fowl, a gallon of palm-oil, a new handkerchief, and a bottle of rum. For the betrothed girls who are initiated there are extra " bush " charges of rice and fowls, dried fish and one cane of salt (kasankra).
BuTWA fees are paid in beer and calico, hoes and beads as well as cash.
E KONGO LA charges for initiation goods to the value of ten shillings for the Head, and donations of food to all the council members and the officials.
Ndembo charges one fowl at the beginning and one hundred strings of blue pipe beads at the termina- tion of the puberty school, and fowls and goats at each promotion.
Nkimba and Nkamba demand two dollars' worth of cloth and two fowls from the candidates for their tutors, five strings of blue pipe beads as a " farewell dash " to the same officials, food in kind or money to pay for same for the councillors, and a pair of goats for the Head.
PoRO payments include eight leaves of tobacco at the outer gate of the sacred enclosure, twelve at the next, sixteen at the third, and twenty-four at the last and innermost barrier. There are also gifts of rice, fowls, and goats to the officials. Of late years this society has demanded cash fees in addition to some of the payments in kind, and the amount charged is increasing in amount.
Anvils are included in some of the payments, that of BiLi being two anvils, from ten to fifteen fowls, from two to six spears, a piece of bark cloth and a pot of palm-oil ; the last two being multiplied by the number of the officials taking part in the initiation.