Mambila Tribe: Ethnological Report of C K Meek
1929.
(p85) Ethnology - the Mambila tribe
As Mr Meek, on account of illness, spent only 10 days
investigating this tribe, I make bold to offer a few minor
additions to his notes.
RELIGION
- I was able to verify the account of the Moon Rites (vide
MTS I 547-8) which is correct in every detail except that they
are still practised at Mbanga. The Mbanga people in addition,
unlike the rest of the Mambila, worship the sun but to a lesser
degree. The moon is their paramount god and they do not
recognize the supreme being "Nama" or "Chang". The sun rites
are observed every day at sunset when the Elders pray each man
holding the sacred grass in his hand. Their word for Sun is
"Lo" and for moon "Wil".
- Generally I have found the supreme being "Nama" is
identified with the earth. For the people say they are buried
in the earth and their spirits abide therein.
- One or two villages have idols. At Ntem it is a piece of
wood carved to represent a man "Shuga" and is kept in the
sacred grove.
- The sacred grass So or Jiro invariably contains the eye of
a cow and the process of divination or swearing oaths is often
accompanied by a kind of cymbal.
- The harvest rites performed
at Vokide in November are of interest. Here the village Heal is
not the priest but an old woman is designated priestess. Behind
the Chief's house is a pit kept covered by a large stone. The
people celebrate the coming event by dancing for 7 days. On the
eighth day the priestess goes to the pit alone the people
sitting at a distance. She removes the stone and looks into the
pit. If she sees vapour rising and young seedlings of corn
sprouting she stands up and laughs for this portends a good
harvest; whereat all the people join in laughing. They then
dance and drink beer for another 7 days. Should the priestess
see no vapour or seedlings she cries and all lament. No one is
allowed to look into the pit except the priestess. Divination
of crime is however performed by the village head.
(p86) MARRIAGE>
- In marriage by exchange if
one couple has no children, it is customary for the other
couple to share their children with them. That is to say if one
couple has four children two of them would be given to the
childless couple.
- At Mbanga and Mbang apart from marriage by exchange they
have a system of marriage which might be termed marriage by
labour. Should a woman have no brother and a man, having no
sister, wished to marry her he goes to her farm and works it
for her one year and provided her with beer. At the end of the
year she goes to his house. No bride money is given but if a
son is born, when he grows up, he works on his grandmother's
farm for a year. They have no marriage by purchase.
BURIAL
- After death the body is opened and the whole of the
internal organs examined for signs of witchcraft. I was unable
to substantiate Mr Meek's statement that only the heart is
examined (v.para.1,p551,Tribal Studies I). In fact at Mbang
they go so far as to make incisions on the inside of the elbows
and behind the knees and examine the veins and tendons and also
sever the head completely.
- At Mbaso and Gubin the body is placed in a sitting posture
in the grave. Elsewhere the corpse is laid on its right side
with the head to the west and the feet to the east. In some
instances a woman is lain on her left side.
- As a rule, the period of mourning is one year. Note. On the
whole the Village Heads have unusually good authority over
their people and I think the reason may be found in the fact
that they are also the priests and therefore held in
respect.
Sgd H.J.Gill, A.D.O. (dated 8 xi 1931).
Notes on Dr Meek's
Report (page numbers refer to Tribal Studies, Vol.I)
Pp532-3
Intermarriage between hamlets: Addendum I/ to this report,
omitted here: hdg/gives the result of analysing the marriages of
three hamlets.
The figures show that intermarriage between hamlets of the same
village and between hamlets of different villages[CS1] is almost
exactly in proportion to the distance between the hamlets
concerned. Insofar as there is anywhere a tendency to obtain
wives from a particular village it is from a friendly village,
not as Mr Meek suggested from a hostile one. Instances are
Gembu-Mbanga, old enemies who refrain from intermarriage, and
Tamnya-Vokkude-Mbange, old friends who practise it.
Pp 533-4. "Mwandi" (sun) is
commonly used by the Northern as well as the Southern Mambila.
Tagbo, Lagubi, Tongbo (Lagbo, on p560): Bo is apparently a
termination denoting a group of people, as in Jabu, Gembu etc.
Lak is the name used in Torbi dialect for Gembu, Tong is the name
used in the Kabri dialect for Gembu, and is also used for certain
hamlets now under Kabri. It means apparently also "rive
confluence". Lagubi must be "Lak-Gubin" (Gubin being a
neighbouring village to Gembu). I obtained no confirmation of the
use of any of these words for a sub-tribal group of
villages.Pp534-4.
Mambila groups in Bamenda Div.: The hamlets mentioned are in
Tikar country. Blacksmiths: Dr Meek's description of the smiths
as a race apart applies to the blacksmiths of the northern /F88/
corner - Kuma, Gikau and Jabu, but not to those of the Southern
Mambila-Kabri and Vokkude - who speak the ordinary dialects and
have the same customs as their neighbours.Pp535-6. Exagamous kindreds.
The only instances of a kindred which has divided itself between
two village-chiefs are, I believe, the Chiefs of Gubin and Tem,
and the kindred of Mbu, which is split between Wa and Gembu. In
both, the exogamous principle is breaking down. On the other
hand, all villages and many hamlets contain a plurality of
kindreds and endogamous marriage is therefore found in nearly
every hamlet (cf Note 1, above).
Wartime confederations: the groups Mverrep, San and Mbar were not
invariable members of the confederacy of Gembu-Wa-Tep, but had
connections also with Warwar.Pp537-9. Social system
(general): Dr Meek states, "The whole Mambila system is based on
a dual form of marriage, "that is, on the one hand they had a
true patrilineal marriage by bride-price, and he refuses to
accept Capt. Izard's view that "Formerly there was no other form
of marriage than that by exchange". It is possible that the two
views may to some degree be reconcilable. Dr Meek's statement is
true of the northern villages, the only ones he was able to
visit. /F89/ In the southern ones, on the other hand, it seems to
be beyond doubt that until recently there was no true marriage by
bride-price: in its place were practices which appear to be
stages in the development of a bride-price system and away from
an exchange system. In the first place, a man who had no female
relative to offer as an exchange could indulge in secret
fornication. The girl's parents would not object, since any
children born would belong to them and would moreover enhance
their daughter's worth for exchange. Of this stage of
development, if it is a "stage", I came across one example only.
The next stage is licensed concubinage: the man is accepted at
the girl's parents' house and at frequent intervals stays there
for some days, working on their farms as well as his own. The
girl would, however, never come as wife to his house. A third
stage is described by Mr Gill /v. supra, para2, F86/. This stage
is clearly marriage, in however "futile" a form, not mere
concubinage, and the next step to it is true bride-price
marriage. I was informed that, sometimes at least, male children
would belong to the father and only female to the mother. Such a
distribution is contrary to the known Mambila principles and it
may be merely that an act of grace has by repetition become a
custom. /But certainly incredible nowhere that exchange prevails:
it is the females who are at a premium (in Bauchi it has been
reported that a daughter's "illegitimate" daughter may be
exchanged for a girl who can be exchanged in turn for a wife for
any member of the family): under the same system, one is obliged
to provide a male with a female to exchange for a wife; and
permitting an unmarried father custody of his male children would
probably depend rather on the existing ratio of unmarried males
to unmarried females in the mother's compound, or on the desire
of senior males to take additional wives, perhaps.
Hdg/ As the conclusion to be drawn from all this it is suggested
that the dual form of marriage, while so long-standing in the
Northern villages as to be fundamental to the social system, was
not a primeval and unchangeable custom, but only a compromise
evolved - as the result of a fight against the unsatisfactory
features of exchange marriage - from an earlier system in which
no other form of marriage existed. F90/ Pp539-40. Exchange marriage:
Certain practices were noted among the Southern Villages which Dr
Meek does not actually mention: (a) A woman who is a
proved child-bearer is (or was) sometimes exchanged for another
woman plus money, or rather plus hoes, which were formerly the
only currency; (b) a woman may be exchanged for the
refusal of a girl, or, on the principle of the bird in the hand,
of two girls; (c) re-exchange is regular during the
negotiations for a marriage, and a long chain of exchanges of
brides and prospective brides may be set up, but once marriage is
consummated the wife is not again exchanged. Pp540-1. Bride-price: The
majority of men state that their wives were obtained by purchase,
not exchange, and it looks as though a system of bride-price of
the common (Moslem) type (i.e. where the father, not the mother,
has custody of the children) is coming into existence. For
instance, it was said at Gembu that exchange had been rare for
over 30 years, yet al the families were undoubtedly patrilocal.
Possibly the patrilocal bride-price system is an extension of the
marriage with a purchased slave which Dr Meek mentions. It was
evidently common in the past and is probably so now, for a girl
married by bride-price, if she had borne no children within a
year or two, to be reclaimed by the parents and given in exchange
elsewhere. Pp 541-2.
Custody of children: Enquiries went to show that the vast
majority of children now reside in the father's house, despite
the fact that their parents are alleged to be married under the
bride-price system, which should imply maternal custody.
/F91/ Whatever the truth of this and whatever the allowances to
be made for falsehood, it seems clear that the dual social system
described by Meek is rapidly breaking down, partly from natural
causes and partly from the Administrative Order regarding
exchanges, not as in some cases elsewhere from inadvertent action
by the Courts. /Unable to trace this order; ref. to "inadvertent
action" obscure. Hdg/Pp542-3. Change of married
status: It was not unknown for a man to contract a marriage by
bride-price or its equivalent, and later, if opportunity offered,
to effect an exchange and obtain his same wife "genuinely". In
such an instance children born prior to the exchange remained
with the mother's family, while those born subsequently naturally
belonged to the father. The instance quoted by Dr Meek, where a
husband gave his sister into slavery to save the skin of the
wife's uncle, illustrates the same principle, and I believe that
between the words "all children begotten by her(sic)" and "would
become his", the word "subsequently" is implied.
Redemption from slavery: In the only instance which came up, a
man had been sent to slavery as a child to redeem his father's
mother (the father having married by exchange, the grandmother
apparently by purchase). No case of self-redemption was
noted.
Inheritance of wives: both levirates are practised throughout the
tribe, but inheritance of widows either by or from a son or
sister's son, mentioned by Meek, is not practised in the Southern
villages.
Inheritance of chieftainship: The Chiefs of Wa and Tep (whose
appointments date from German times) and probably certain others
are /F92/ sons of purchase marriages. Pp 543-4. Illicit sexual
relations: It should be noted that a Mambila man seldom marries
before 25 and a girl before at least 20. Unmarried adults of both
sexes occupy regularly the same sleeping-hut as a married couple.
Pp544-5. Relationship
terms: Most of the terms quoted by Mr Meek are unknown in the
Central and Southern villages. Pp546-7. Moon worship: the
new-moon rites continue at Mbanga, one Taro from the hamlet of Fu
being the priest. The day after the performance of these rites is
a public holiday. The rites described by Dr Meek as performed at
the waning of the moon have evidently lapsed. F93/Pp551-2. Ordeal: The sole
oath or ordeal which the tribe now admits to practising when
questioned by an Administrative Officer is that on the Kuru gong,
or Yong, which is enjoined by the Native Court (mentioned on
p555). Pp552-3.
Ngubsho: This charm (not to be confused with Ngu, a witch-testing
concoction imported by itinerant quacks from the Tikar tribe)
does not seem to be known in the Southern hamlets. In an
alternative way of preparation the cock's head is impaled up on
the stick. Pp553-6.
Festivals: Every kindred has its "Sabbath" which is the market
day and comes at ten-day intervals - five days in Mbang and the
Kaka villages. Not infrequently the market hasceased to function,
but its name and date persist (v. infra). There are four chief
seasonal festivals, as shown in the list below, which is taken
from Titon but applies widely: (1) Kati (chief festival,
sowing of corn), (2) Gevur (ripening of maize / first or
second? in general, maize ripens twice throughout this area.
Hdg/), (3) Kip (harvest-time, celebrated by both sexes;
Nyoti is particular for women),(4) Nyingwan
(harvest-thanksgiving when the crops are gathered). Kundu is the
name given for burial feasts. Pp557-8. Burial: the custom of
burying a chief under one of his granaries and hanging his gown
and fez on it is by no means invariable: some have been outside
their hamlet in a grove. Pp558-9. Blood-brotherhood:
Though individual blood-brotherhood rites are not now practised,
they are not unknown to the Southern Mambila, and in instances
where a pair of hamlets is forbidden by custom to intermarry a
long-standing blod-brotherhood may be given as the reason. Diga
(Mbamga) and Kila (Vokkude), Koshin (Mbanga) and Mbarr are such
pairs.
Circumcision: Sometimes postponed till after puberty. No reason
was suggested except that the boy might have been frightened to
undergo the operation earlier.
House-building: As Meek says, houses made of a frame of reeds
(tolergrass) are usual in the northerly villages, and houses of
the "lath and plaster" type in the center and south, but it is
not correct to say that short thatch invariably goes with a
framework hut and long with the latter. Pp561-2. Granaries: Each wife
and adult son has his own granary, the usual practice being that
their corn is put to current use, while that in the master's
store is kept for reserve and tax-paying.
Family group: Although in almost every hill-top group of
compounds there is a nucleus of two or three compounds of close
relations, there is almost invariably also a number of compounds
belonging to persons who admit no close relationship.
Ownership of bamboo palms: Gullies containing the bamboo-palm
belong as a rule to the hamlet as a whole, not to a special
household or family in the narrower sense.
Dancing floor: In the northern group of villages the center of
the beaten dancing-circle is invariably (?) occupied by a "coral"
tree (Minjiriya, Erythrina senagalensis-Dalziel) growing out from
a mud platform. It may be noted that the Minjiriya is revered
also by the Kaka of Bamenda. Names of the villages and hamlets:
The naming of a village after a previous chief is, I believe,
purely a Fulani_German innovation. The Mambila, unless speaking
to a stranger, uses the kindred - or place-name (which are one)
or occasionally the name of the existing chief. The following are
"village" names of Fulani use only and derive from a chief of the
period 1890-1910: Titon, Vokkude (nickname), Tamnya, Gembu, Wa,
Tem. Most of the remaining hamlets and villages are known abroad
by their Mambila kindred-names or a corruption of it, though
Kabri among others seems to be a pre-Mambila place-name. Pp562-3. Weapons' hoes: Spears
are made by the blacksmiths of Kabri and Vokkude who are true
Mambila or at least very long-standing immigrants. Hoes, on the
other hand, are made only by the blacksmiths of Kuma and Gikau,
close to Nayo Daga, who are distinct from the Mambila proper. It
is curious if the Mambila with their highly distinctive shields
have, as Dr Meek suggests, been spear-bearers for only a short
time, and one would like to hear in more detail the evidence on
which he bases hiw view.
F96/ Musical instruments: a curious instrument is used by men to
accompany their "crooning". This is a plucking instrument, like a
guitar without a handle, of which the sounding medium is a series
of springy splinters instead of strings.
Personal appearance: clothes are now worn by a few women in the
northern villages; in the south they are still nude. Some of
these follow the Kaka fashion of piercing the nose or ear and
inserting a fragment of straw. The chipping of teeth is common,
but is a fahsion only, not obligatory.
Markets: The market day is the holy day, coming roung every ten
days except in Mbang village, where the five-day Kaka week is
kept.
Sgd D A Percival, 1 xi 35.