Chapter 15

CHAPTER XV WOMAN, MARRIAGE, ETC. An account of Ibibio women, gathered from purely feminine sources, has already been published.1 Here, therefore, it is only necessary to give supplementary information collected from men. With this people, marriage consists in payment by the groom to the bride’s family of a dowry usually varying in amount from £5 to £20, sometimes reaching up to £100. In this the whole family share, the father receiving the greater proportion and the mother the next largest sum Among the richer Efik of Calabar, bride-price and wedding gifts are said to reach double this amount. The child is generally betrothed when from two to six years old, the ceremony consisting of drinks given to the parents in the presence of witnesses. From then onwards, besides occasional small gifts to the betrothed and her family, the bridegroom-to-be has to help on the farm, in fetching firewood and in taking his share of any such work as house-building, etc. The dowry is paid in instalments, of which the first is usually handed over when the girl is ten or eleven years old, and the last at the time of the actual marriage, though occasionally not till long afterwards. In some regions not only is the child allowed to visit her betrothed before this, but is even brought up in the latter’s household, so that her conduct may be carefully supervised. The bride-to-be goes into the fatting-house soon after her first menstruation, and there stays from three months to three years, according to the riches of her parents or 1 D. Amaury Talbot, Woman’s Mysteries of a Primitive People. 203 betrothed—who often supplies the food during this period— and the custom of the particular tribe to which she belongs. If the girl is “ circumcised,” 1 as is usual among the greater number of Ibibio, the operation is generally carried out while she is in the fatting-room, though sometimes it is performed when she is about five or six years old. The marriage takes place immediately the time of seclusion is over, and after a separate gift, called “ the he- goat’s entry,” has been made by the fiance. The maid is generally presented by her parents with cooking utensils and sometimes with a servant to wait upon her, while the bridegroom supplies the wedding feast. As a rule, marriage is not permitted between those who are, so far as is known, related in the smallest degree, nor is a man allowed to marry the sister of a wife during the lifetime of the latter. A free woman could marry a slave, in which case their children were nearly always free. Owing to the changes consequent upon the introduction of white rule, matrimonial “ palavers ” form a fruitful cause of litigation. Before the coming of Government, a wife was her husband’s legal property and little better than a slave. The hold she had upon him was twofold ; one on account of the children she bore him, since, in the condition of constant fighting, the strength of the family was an all- important factor ; while the other was the dread that, if too ill-treated, she might call in the aid of witchcraft or poison to rid herself of so harsh a master. Whenever possible, the actual birth takes place inside, or at the back of, the house, and in the presence of old women of experience who give what help is necessary. The navel cord is buried under a plantain or a tombo palm, which is henceforth called after, and said to belong to, the child ; while the after-birth is usually buried either with it or separately outside the compound. The mother stays in the house for a period ranging from one to four weeks, during which time she is not allowed to go out save to wash. The blessing of many children is still looked upon as the greatest and best gift of the gods. This was somewhat amusingly exemplified one day just before the end of our 1 Clitoridectomy. tour, when passing through a system of creeks. The Ibaka chiefs had given me as guide a man called Eyen Akan Inyene. At evening time, when writing down the name of each labourer beside the amount of his day’s wage, a gust of laughter shook the paddlers as that of our guide was given. On inquiry, it was found that their mirth was caused by the meaning of his name, “ Children are better than riches ”—a favourite Ibibio proverb. It is singular, amid a people where large families were of such value, that so many children should have been put to death on account of various tabu. In the old days infants born feet foremost were allowed to die and their bodies thrown away, while the mothers were, in some parts, driven out into the bush, and never allowed to return. Babes who came into the world with teeth, or those whose upper teeth showed first, were apparently unknown ; if any such appeared they would probably have met with similar treatment to those born feet first. The birth of twins was regarded as so great a misfortune that, in olden times, it was followed in many tribes by the death of both mother and babes ; in others the former was allowed to live in the bush and even in some parts to take her property with her into exile, after making a sacrifice to Isong, the Earth, of a duck, goat and tortoise. The babe was, however, invariably placed in a large earthenware pot which was thrown into the thick bush. In recent times the custom was modified in Eket District in so far that after the death of both children the wretched woman was permitted to exist in a special settlement, set apart for these unfortunate outcasts. The following account of how this cruel custom was stopped throughout the Oronn country has been given by Chief Daniel Henshaw : “ One day, in the month of March 1902, I was travelling from Eyo Abassi to Oyokun Inyang. About mid-way, on the right-hand side of the road, a path branched off. As we went by, I heard a noise in the bush, and so said to my guide, Abassi Inyang, that I wished to go and find out the cause of the cries. He, however, said that he could not come, as it was against their country’s law since the path led to a “ twin-town.” I made up my mind to go alone, and after about fifteen minutes’ walk reached a settlement of small huts, built under the big trees. It is thick bush here, and no one had taken the trouble to clear the place or build proper houses. There I saw more than a hundred women, standing in a small open space, all crying and shouting together. “ When the people saw me, they stopped at once and looked at me as if they had never seen a man before. I went up and tried to find out what the trouble was. On that, they pointed to a woman sitting near one of the huts and said : ‘ We want her to leave this place and go to the second twin-town farther on.’ “ I asked, ‘ Why ? ’ To which they answered : ‘ Because she has twice borne twins and cannot therefore be allowed to stay with us, who have only once suffered such a calamity.’ “ The poor woman, Aruk Osio by name, cried out : ‘ They are all driving me from the town, so that I should be forced to live in the bush by myself. Even here, we lead a very hard life. We can get scarcely any food and have a lot of trouble, seeking about in the bush before we can find ever so little. Also we may not draw water from the main streams and are forbidden to attend any market. Sometimes the little bush-springs, which are the only ones permitted for our use, dry up in the hot season and we have to search for a long time before even a drop can be found. There is no way of buying food except when the time for the “ twin-market ” comes round ; then, by going to it along bush paths, we can get a few yams and cassava in exchange for the nuts which we have picked in the forest. If life here is so hard and difficult, how much more so will it be if they drive me off still farther, to live by myself ! I would rather die than go ! ’ “ On hearing this, I tried to persuade the other women to let her stay, but one of them, Isaw by name, answered : “ ‘ We will not permit this ; but, if you want to be a good judge and help us, try and arrange that we should all be allowed to leave this bush, where so many have died away from our good homes and with no husband at all ! The people of Eyo Abassi sent us here and, according to their law, no food may be brought except to one who comes of a large family. In such a case, perhaps some one will come and lay down food on the road, shouting your name. Even then, the chop is never enough to last for more than a day or two. We are troubled for want of water to drink and have no cloth but these small pieces.” “ Upon this, I looked round and saw that most of them were naked, save for a narrow rag about the waist. So I promised them that, if they would allow the poor woman to stay for a week or two, I would try to persuade their people to let them return home. They would not agree to this, so I told Aruk Osio to do as they bade her, lest, in my absence, they should drive her by force into the bush. On that, she rose up and went off with a little basket upon her arm, crying- very bitterly. The words which she used were : ‘ Andinyong kenim, O ne mi ? ’ Andinyong kenim, O ete mi ? ’ i.e. ‘ Where shall I go, O my Mother ? Where shall I go, O my Father ? ’ “ After this, I returned home to Idua Oronn and sent to call all the Court members to attend the sitting next Monday. My heart could not rest at the thought of the poor woman, so I sent for one of the chiefs, Esin Anwana by name, who is a powerful man in the town of Eyo Abassi. I conversed with him and asked him to help me by speaking to his people. He at once agreed, and next Monday, after the other cases were finished, I put the matter before the members, begging that they would allow the poor women to return to their homes. “ On hearing this all made a great noise, crying out : ‘ Nyung awkaw mbubia oduk idung oduhu ama awaw,’ i.e. ‘ Henshaw says that the twin-women may come back to town ! Were such a thing done our Jujus would leave us ! ’ “ When they were silent again I spoke very gently with them and said : ‘ I wish to put one or two questions to you, will you please answer them ? ’ They replied that they were willing ; on which I asked : ‘ Have you ever known any woman conceive by herself, without the aid of some man ? ’ To this they answered, ‘ No.’ “ Again I asked : ‘To whom does the child belong ? ' They answered : ‘ To the man.” So I begged them to take their wives back again ; to which they replied : ‘ This thing has been going on for many hundred years. The Juju will not allow any twin-woman near the town. Should his rule be broken we must all die.’ “ Not the members for Eyo Abassi alone said this, but also those from more than sixty different towns who had come together about the matter. After all had gone, I sent Abassi Inyang to call one of the twin-women before me. The one chosen was called ‘ The Mother of Twin- women ’ because she was the oldest. When she came I said : “ ‘ I am going to report all that I have seen and heard about your treatment to the District Commissioner, Mr. Whitehouse,’ who in those days governed Oronn from Calabar. ‘ Should he agree to my recommendation that you should be sent back to your homes, would you be willing to go ? ’ “ The old woman replied : ‘ I must consult the others before giving an answer.’ So she went away promising to bring them down on the morrow. “ The following day I heard a song upon the road, in the distance, but drawing nearer and nearer to my house. So I sent a messenger to see what sort of people were coming to visit me. He returned and said : ‘ It is the Twin-mother with her following.’ At once I went out to meet them. A little way before my compound they saw me and many ran to embrace me. Some of them wept, some smiled. I took them in. They formed a circle in my compound and began to dance. All were in rags and looking very poor, so different from old times, when they had danced in gay clothing. One of the songs which they sang ran thus : ‘ Nyung effanga amada mbubia oduk idung,’ i.e. 1 Henshaw has brought the twin-mothers back to the town.’ When they stopped, I asked them to take a seat. They all sat down. “ First I thanked them for coming to visit me, then put to them the same question which I had asked the oldest woman. All agreed at once, begging but one thing : ‘ Would Government protect them ? Otherwise the townsfolk would surely kill them.’ This I promised, saying : ‘ Government is ready to help all. The principal reason for which white men came is to save life and protect the helpless.’ “ On hearing this they were all very glad and said they were ready to return at once. I gave them a little dash and they started singing again and went on their way, more than pleased. “ On the morrow I proceeded to Calabar to report the whole matter to the District Commissioner. He approved and instructed me to see the chiefs and do all that I could to arrange matters. Three days later I called another full meeting of the Native Court, and fixed a day on which each man was to have a house ready to receive his wife, so that the women might come home within the week. Chief Esin Anwana seconded my words, but the others looked displeased and said : ‘ We must first go and consult our Juju with sacrifice.’ Thereupon all went gloomily home. I sent to the Twin-mother and said : ‘ Tell all the women to pack up their things. Within a week I shall come myself to fetch you and will send Court Messengers round every town so that you may go home in safety.’ “ On March 28, I went early in the morning to Eyo Abassi and saw all the chiefs in the town square ; after which I went to the late Chief Osio Isaw’s compound and bade him send round a bell, proclaiming that if any person or persons troubled the twin - women on coming home, Government would take up the case and severely punish the offender. " After this had been done, I went straight to the bush where the twin-women dwelt. All had packed and were ready ; so I told them to accompany me back to the town. Arrived there, I stood in the middle, watching while each went to her own home. “ That was a great day throughout Oronn ! For some time afterwards Court Messengers were continually walking round the country to see that no harm was done. Two days after I had reached home, these twin-women brought a fine play with much joy to visit me. I myself was more than pleased, and at once joined and danced with them for a few minutes. As I never practised their dance I could not do more. After this, I stood by and watched p them. At the conclusion I gave them another small dash and they went happily away. “ Since that day they have been allowed to draw water from the town springs, to attend any market and to walk fearlessly along the main road, etc. Everything has gone nicely up to date, and, because of my part in the affair, Oronn people sometimes call me ‘ Ebe Mbubia,’ i.e. the twin- women’s husband. That is all of the matter so far as I can remember.” Surely it is more than enough reward for a white administrator that a man such as this, head chief of his clan, should explain to these poor women that “ the principal reason for which white men came is to save life and protect the helpless.” As will be gathered from the number of “ twin-mothers ” mentioned as belonging to Eyo Abassi alone, twin births are remarkably frequent among this people. Possibly this is partly due to the dread of such a thing, which is always present in the minds of those about to become mothers. A child is usually suckled for two or three years, during which time the husband is not supposed to approach his wife, though he is sometimes allowed to do so after a year has gone by. A curious power possessed by many women of these parts is that of producing milk apparently at will. It is quite common for those who have not borne babes for ten or fifteen years to be able to do this. Grandmothers of sixty to seventy still suckle their grandchildren. Awai of Idua Oronn, for instance, who is about seventy years old, is a well-known example of this.1 A famous Ibo woman, known to most west - coasters under the name of Helen of Troy, because two towns fought to claim her on account of her beauty, has borne no child for fourteen years, yet is still said to produce milk to nourish unfortunate waifs, such as twins or motherless children. My friend, Dr. T. B. Adam, one of the kindest and most brilliant officers of the West African Medical Service, analysed the milk and pronounced it to be of excellent 1 In the course of the study of Ibo and neighbouring tribes, it transpired that, among Kalahari, at least, the ability to produce milk, almost at will, is regarded as an ordinary attribute of womanhood. quality. The woman is now employed as matron of one of the Government prisons, and many unhappy orphans have had cause to bless her lactiferous powers. According to several informants, some barren women are also asserted to have the power of suckling babes. This is thought to be sent them in consolation for having no children of their own. The only means adopted in order to produce such a state of affairs is said to be the giving of hot tombo (palm-wine), which is thought to have the property of increasing the flow. Native doctors claim to be in possession of much obstetric knowledge. Over and over again cases of abortion have occurred after the taking of draughts prescribed by a medicine man ; but there is no proof that this was not merely a matter of coincidence. When it is suspected that a babe is about to be born feet foremost—which among Ibo as well as Ibibio is regarded as a grave misfortune— some of the most famous native doctors are called in to manipulate the body of the mother so that the infant assumes the desired position. It is very rare that any are born in this heterodox fashion, owing, it is said, to the careful precautions taken to prevent such a disaster. The desire of Ibibio women for offspring is stronger than all else. Young girls just out of the fatting-house hope to become mothers within a year after marriage and, by native law, can claim divorce from a husband who proves incapable of fulfilling their wish within that time. One way in which jealous women are said to be able to prevent fellow-wives from bearing babes is by bribing a witch to retard delivery by turning the key in a lock nine times. A case of this kind once came before me in Court, and, at the earnest request of the plaintiff, I ordered the wizard to revoke the spell by turning the key the required number of times in the direction of unlocking. This brought vividly to mind “ the nine witch knots ” of the old northern ballad. It also recalls the jealous ruse to which Hera herself descended in order to retard the birth of Hercules. The babe is named by the father either on the day of its birth or the next day. The first son is generally called Akpan and the eldest daughter Adiaha. A male child is usually circumcised within the first two months, by a man in some regions, and a woman in others.1 Once in Oyubia Court a case was heard in which there came to light a custom still obtaining among the Okkobbor, which would seem to be a relic of endogamy, applied to women, and originally intended in punishment of those who married out of the clan. From the evidence it appeared that a woman who had espoused a man of another town grew weary of her husband, and fled from him back to her birthplace. Under such circumstances, a repulsive custom surrendered her to the will of the members of all the principal “ companies ” of the town. On the night of her arrival, the chief “ society,” twenty to thirty strong, assembled at her father’s house, bringing gifts of palm-wine, rum, or gin, and claiming full rights over the woman from sunset to dawn. The following night the next “ society ” in importance had the power to make a similar claim, which might be repeated by another on the third night. After each of the principal clubs had exacted fulfilment of the custom, should the woman still survive, a small dowry was offered for her by some fellow- townsman, and she was given over to him as a wife. In this case, the father, Chief ’Ndu of Odobo, proved to be an arresting figure. He wore a beard, arranged according to the ancient fashion of the tribe, in three plaits, much in the style of the Mangbatu people, as represented in the Duke of Mecklenburg’s book,2 and also, save for the absence of narrow whiskers, strikingly like one of the captives shown on the lower part of a proto-dynastic Egyptian palette in the British Museum. In his discussion of the ethnic relationship of the vanquished there depicted,3 Doctor Seligmann claims all the plaited-beard people, whether north or south, as being kin to the prehistoric Egyptians, mixed with negroes in the south, and perhaps with other races in the north.4 1 For clitoridectomy of females, see p. 204. 2 From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile, vol. ii. p. 37. 3 Dr. C. G. Seligmann, Ethnic Relationship of the Vanquished represented on certain Protodynastic Egyptian Palettes (vii. 44-9). 4 Prof. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S., Ancient Egypt, Part IV. p. 171. ’Ndu seems to have objected to the enforcement of this revolting custom upon his daughter, pointing out that, though exacted in olden days, it ought no longer to be observed, lest Government should disapprove. He seems to have persuaded the members of the chief “ society ” to go from his compound, leaving the woman unharmed, but, incredible as it may appear, the latter not only followed in order to submit to the rule, but even broke from her father and returned to the house where the company was assembled, after ’Ndu had discovered what was going on, and had forced his way in and compelled her to follow him home. The old man’s conduct resulted in steps being taken which, it is trusted, will have put an end to the custom throughout the Okkobbor country. Perhaps the worst case, as showing the state of morality in certain sections of the District, is one recorded under No. 440 in the Judgment Book of ’Ndiya, which was heard on June 5, 1913. In this the prosecutor stated on oath : “ The accused was my late father’s wife. While my father was alive, her father had connection with her. After the death of my father she said she would marry me, and I took her in marriage. When I was living with her, her brother named Ekpe ’Mkpa came and asked permission from me to take the woman to stay with him. After he had taken her to his house he had connection with her, and on learning this I refused her. Afterwards I was persuaded to allow her to come back, but took action against the brother.” A curious Juju for securing the favour of wished-for parents-in-law was brought to my notice at Idua Native Court on August 8, 1913. In this case Okong Odiong accused Edet Okong of having made a magic medicine to turn away from him the favour of a couple whose daughter both men were anxious to marry. Okong Odiong, in his sworn statement, said : “ Accused made a Juju to poison the hearts of my future father- and mother-in-law against me, that they might take back their promise to give me their daughter and bestow her upon him instead. I did not myself see the poison made. Etim Odiong told me that he went to Edet Okong’s house and saw it there on the table. It was the kind which native people mix with black rum and carry outside their houses at dawn. Then they fill their mouths with the mixture, blowing it outward, that it may be caught upon the breeze and carried to those whom it is intended to affect. The wind bears it straight to such persons, and it touches their hearts, causing them to look with hatred upon some whom they formerly loved, and regard others with kindness whom they did not like before, according to the names called before the Juju when the medicine was made.” All the chiefs present in court on this occasion testified that this was a well-known “ magic ” in their town.