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The Sociological Significance of Ancestor-Worship in Ashanti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Edith Clarke
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Extract

The Institute has laid down its policy in ethnological matters in the Report of the Executive Council held in Berlin in December, 1928. The Council then came to the conclusion that ‘there was a gap between anthropological science on the one hand and the practical work of education and administration on the other, and that the Institute could render useful service by attempting to bridge this gap’.

The following resolution was passed unanimously:

‘The Council reaffirms its resolution to encourage studies of African life and institutions, more particularly with reference to such subjects as the family, law, economic life, ideas of land tenure, systems of education, phenomena of change and similar subjects which have a direct bearing on practical work and administration in Africa.

It was, I presume, due to an accident of omission that religion does not appear in the list of subjects the study of which is to be encouraged. In Africa, above all ethnographic areas, religious dogma and practice lie at the very core of all aspects of culture, and no study of ‘the family, law, economics, ideas of land tenure, systems of education’ could be adequate that did not start off with an account of native belief. In giving an analysis of Ashanti religion I shall show that this is especially true of that culture.

Résumé

LA SIGNIFICATION SOCIOLOGIQUE DU CULTE DES ANCÊTRES DES ASHANTI

Dans les sociétés primitives,la religion se mêle à tous les aspects de la civilisation; son étude est en conséquence de première importance pour des raisons théoriques et pratiques. Ceci est particulièement vrai dans l'Ashanti où les sanctions de la loi et de la coutume sont avant tout naturelles.

La religion des Ashanti offre quatre aspects. En premier lieu, il existe une croyance au Dieu-Ciel 'Nyame; elle a peu d'importance au point de vue social. Le culte est sans portée. Dieu-Ciel provoquant peu de sanctions pour les actes sociaux, on déclare explicitement qu'il ne s'occupe point des affaires journalières des homines.

Le culte des ancêtres est en rapport intime avec la structure de la société, notamment avec la constitution de la famille et la division des clans. II fournit les sanctions attachées aux règies de morale et d'attitude sociale, et détermine certaines obligations particulières et les devoirs réciproques des individus et des groupes. Les indigénes considèrent la paternité comme un phénomène physique et spirituel. Le culte du ntoro uni à la division sociale coordonne le double système des clans, il réagit contre l'importance attachée à la parenté en ligne maternelle par les régies de descendance et d'héritage.

A côté du culte des ancêtres celui des abosom (dieux) est le plus important. Les dieux appartiennent à deux catégories. Parfois ce sont de petites divinités de la nature avec culte local ou individuel, le suntan ou fétiche, possédé dans d'autres cas par certaines personnes, peut devenir leur dieu et être adopté avec le temps par un groupement social ou territorial. Lorsque l'obosom devient ainsi la divinité tutélaire d'une cité ou d'un groupement social, ou bien lorsqu'il est considéré comme le protecteur d'une division de ntoro, il a une grande importance sociologique.

Le culte du suman n'est pas suffisamment traité par notre auteur Rattray, de sorte qu'il est impossible de se former une idée nette du rôle de la magie dans cette société. Mais ily a des preuves qu'il est très important, et nous supposons d'après quelques faits que la magie a une influence prédominante dans la vie journalière.

Le but de cette étude n'est pas de fournir simplement une analyse de la religion des Ashanti, mais de dégager certains principes généraux permettant de découvrir la fonction sociale de la religion. Nous avons considéré le dogme religieux et la pratique au point de vue du rôle qu'ils jouent en dormant à la société une armature, des sanctions juridiques et coutumières, ainsi qu'en affermissant la morale individuelle. Nous avons montré que la croyance en 'Nyame, samanfo, abosom et suman sont en rapport de diverses manières et à des degrés différents avec l'organisation sociale et la conduite individuelle. Le critérium de notre jugement sur la valeur de ces notions dans la civilisation des Ashanti a été précisément la nature de ce rapport.

Les principes de la méthode ont été appliquées à une religion et à une civilisation. A l'intérieur de celle-ci nous avons montré que cette investigation sociologique et dynamique nous amène à réclaimer des modalités d'enquête témoignant une préoccupation nouvelle et plus étendue des faits. Nous sommes ainsi conduits à rejeter certaines classifications, certains jugements sur les religions primitives basés sur ce que celles-ci sont ou ne sont pas en harmonie avec la civilisation occidentale et la morale chrétienne. Nouspouvons mieux comprendre la relation existant entre la superstition et l'ordre social que nous désirons maintenir dans les sociétés indigènes.

Bien que dégagées par l'étude d'une seule civilisation nos conclusions ont une valeur universelle parce que fondées sur des lois sociologiques universelles.

Enfin nous avons montré que cette recherche sociologique, en permettant l'analyse objective des religions primitives au point de vue du controle qu'elles exercent sur l'organisation sociale et de leur importance à l'égard de celle-ci, fournirait à l'administrateur et au missionnaire le type d'anthropologie essentiel pour eux.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , October 1930 , pp. 431 - 471
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1930

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References

page 431 note 1 Africa, vol. ii, no. 2, p. 193.

page 431 note 2 The same omission occurs in Professor Malinowski's article on ‘Practical Anthropology’ (Africa, vol. ii, no. 1) in which the above-quoted principles of policy are more fully developed.

page 431 note 3 For a statement of the present position in the study of primitive religion and customs see Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. Social Anthropology.

page 438 note 1 Ashanti, p. 123. Cf. p. 281, where we read of the ‘place where the Creator made things’.

page 438 note 2 These other mythological beings are almost completely neglected by our authority—of the creature that rules the underworld and of the god of the sea (Opo) we know only their names. It would appear that all departments of nature have their specific deities: Asase for the earth, the leopard for the forest, a ‘creature’ for the underworld, Opo for the sea, and 'Nyame for the sky. In connexion with this it is interesting to note that there is a quite materialistic conception of the sky god. Thus in the Drum language, quoted on p. 278 of Ashanti, the spirit of the sky is described as stretching to Kwawu (a locality on the Gold Coast). It would appear, also, that Asase and the creature that rules the underworld are one and the same persons. In the chapter on ‘Land Tenure’ (Ashanti, p. 215) we read: ‘The Ashanti name for the Earth is Asase Ya, Aberewa (Old Mother Earth), sometimes qualified by the phrase Asase bo ne nsie, i.e. Earth, the Creator of the Underworld.’ Asase seems to be the spirit of the soil: she is propitiated whenever it is dug, whether for a grave or for agricultural purposes. When a coffin is being carried it is lowered twice before being placed on the ground to give the earth goddess due notice. When land is sold yams are given to Asase. According to a proverb the earth goddess owns the world, as the leopard owns the land. The earth was sacred and dangerous; the Golden Stool, which was brought down from the sky by the priest Anotchi, a famous magician who lived in the reign of Osa Tutu, ‘was never allowed to come in direct contact with the Earth—it must be placed upon an elephant's skin’. The feet of the king of Ashanti were likewise never to touch the ground ‘lest a great famine should come upon the nation’ (Ashanti, p. 216).

page 439 note 1 Captain Rattray may, of course, have facts in support of his contention that this is, in reality, the case; but if this is so, he has not given them to us, and without them I cannot accept the argument as proved.

page 440 note 1 On the point of the exogamy of the ntoro group the author is somewhat unconvincing. On p. 38 of Ashanti he writes: ‘the ntoro… (like the abusua) is exogamous.’ But in the next page it is only ‘(possibly)… always exogamous’. Surely this point could have been ascertained without any doubt.

page 440 note 2 It is not clear whether this pan is regarded merely as a receptacle for food offerings or a shrine. It usually contains, however, a Neolithic celt called Nyame akuma (God's axe).

page 441 note 1 This comparison, made by the author (see Ashanti, pp. 140-1), implies certain attributes if taken literally—and it is apparently said in all seriousness. I shall, in the next section of this paper, have to consider what these attributes are, and whether they are at all implicit in the nature of 'Nyame as it arises out of the preceding considerations.

page 442 note 1 Even as to this there is some confusion. The genealogy of only four abosom is given, but it is stated simply that all others are, like them, sons or descendants of the sky god (see below, the Abosom). On the other hand some abosom seem to be almost animistically conceived, and merge into the grade of suman, where their connexion with 'Nyame is not self-evident.

page 442 note 2 Captain Rattray does not himself use the term High God, though it is used of 'Nyame by Marett in the chapter he has written for the second volume of the: trilogy. Nevertheless, our author's conception of 'Nyame does not seem to differ fundamentally from that of Father Schmidt's High God—if his comparison of him to Jehovah holds true, and his frequent allusions to Ashanti ‘monotheism’ be taken at their face value.

page 443 note 1 Lowie, , Primitive Religion, p. 127Google Scholar.

page 443 note 2 Ibid., Introduction, p. xii.

page 443 note 3 Marett, The Threshold of Religion.

page 444 note 1 See Africa, vol. ii, no. 2. Cf. also the article by Cardinall, ‘The State of our present Ethnographical Knowledge of the Gold Coast Peoples ’, in Africa, vol. ii, no. 4.

page 444 note 2 Westermann, op. cit., p. 206.

page 444 note 3 Ibid., pp. 203-5.

page 444 note 4 Ibid., p. 206.

page 444 note 5 Ibid., pp. 206-7.

page 444 note 6 They do, but they are not the only ones found in the statements and beliefs of primitive people.—Editor.

page 447 note 1 Ashanti, p. 143.

page 448 note 1 For an account of the so-called Jujus of the Ibibio cf. Talbot, P. A., Life in Southern Nigeria, chapters ii–ivGoogle Scholar.

page 447 note 2 Religion and Art in Ashanti, p. 2. For another somewhat mysterious personage who may be a god, see the account of Santeman Kobina, who figures in the rites of the Sacred Grove at Santemanso (Ashanti, p. 132): ‘I cannot be quite certain about the Santeman Kobina, who is invoked…. He is not a human spirit…. All were emphatic upon that point. My clerk informed me that it was “the spirit of nature”, and … the old Queen Mother said it was the soul of the leaves and the trees and of the earth at that spot.’ We are further told that Kobina ‘means that the day of observance of this spirit is Tuesday’. The rites fall into the standard obosom complex, but the spirit is not apparently connected with either 'Nyame or water.

page 447 note 3 Besides the small portion of the ‘creation myth’ referred to above, and the statement that besides being regarded as descended from the Sky god, the power of the abosom is also believed to be derived from 'Nyame, our authority gives us a number of ceremonies at which the conspicuous ritual is concerned with the worship of the gods. The sociological data which would link the cult to any specific group of people, define its precise meaning in their lives, and enable us to understand its place in the larger system of co-ordinated beliefs, is unfortunately very inadequate. The whole matter of the connexion between the ntoro and the obosom is never clearly set forth. I deal with the question in the following section, but only very briefly.

page 449 note 1 The mortuary ritual proves that individuals having the same god are under definite obligations to one another. We are not told, however, precisely what is the nature of these obligations, nor the extent to which they are legally and morally binding and to which they control co-operative activities.

page 450 note 1 Ashanti, p. 55. In a book called Among Nigerian Head Hunters, by Captain Wilson-Haffenden, shortly to be published by Messrs. Seeley Service & Co., Ltd., which I have had the privilege of reading in manuscript, the author finds among the Kwottos a belief in two souls—ekiti which he defines as the paternal, or spirit soul; and the kofi or maternal, matter soul. After death both these ‘souls’ return to the source from which they are believed to have come. The ekiti returns ‘to an association with water, conceived as, in the form of rain in the sky, the source and home of the male fertilizing element in nature; … the “maternal soul” (kofi) … goes back whence it is believed originally to have come, to an association with earth …’ (p. 291).

page 452 note 1 Cf. Malinowski, Sex and Repression in Savage Societies, and see also Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. Social Anthropology and Kinship.

page 453 note 1 The suman is defined by Christaller as ‘a charm, amulet, talisman worn as a remedy or preventative against evils or mischief, such as diseases and witchcraft, consisting or composed of various things such as feathers, hair, and teeth of various animals’.

page 456 note 1 Captain Rattray's definition of a suman is as follows: ‘A fetish (suman) is an object which is the potential dwelling-place of a spirit or spirits of an inferior status, generally belonging to the vegetable kingdom; this object is also closely associated with the control of the powers of evil or black magic, for personal ends, but not necessarily to assist the owner to work evil, since it is used as much for defensive as for offensive purposes.’ Religion and Art in Ashanti, p. 23. On the evidence given us, however, there is very little support for the conclusion that the potency of the fetish is due to an in-dwelling spirit.

page 456 note 2 See his account of the making of a shrine for a god, Ashanti, chapter xiv.

page 458 note 1 I have been considering mainly Captain Rattray's material, because, as I have said, he has given us one of the best accounts of religion of any West African tribe. My criticism applies specifically to his, in many ways, brilliant work. But it could be made even more strongly against the accounts of religion given by other West African writers, in some of which the sociological data are almost entirely negligible.

page 460 note 1 Religion and Art in Ashanti, p. 318.

page 460 note 2 Ibid., p. 319.

page 462 note 1 Religion and Art in Ashanti, pp. 103 and 190.

page 462 note 2 Ibid., p. 155.

page 462 note 3 Ibid., p. 234.

page 462 note 4 If the clan becomes extinct its land passes to the Stool, but the family ghosts cannot be transferred with it. To avoid the possibility of extinction slaves were allowed to inherit property, though not Stools, in order to carry on the cult of the family ancestors.

page 462 note 5 Ashanti, p. 215.

page 463 note 1 After birth the two spirits in the child are not regarded as abruptly severing connexion with the spirit world. Birth does not automatically affiliate them with the new environment. This has to be done by a succession of rites, each stage being marked by definite ritual acts. There is even a special name for the child during this transitional period, when it is known as a ‘ghost child’. If it should die during this stage it is not accorded funeral rites ‘lest the mother should become sterile’, and the body is mutilated and beaten to discourage the ghost mother, who at its birth mourned her loss as if it were the death of her child, from sending it back to earth. It is significant that the precaution is for fear of the sterility of the mother. We have seen the importance that is attached to fertility in Ashanti prayers. A barren woman cannot supply clansmen to serve the ancestral spirits. Again, therefore, we see the sociological significance of the rite.

page 464 note 1 After the Bara rite a girl is addressed by children as Ena (mother).

page 464 note 2 Religion and Art in Ashanti, p. 70.

page 464 note 3 Ibid., p. 120.

page 464 note 4 A euphemism for ‘had died’. See op. cit., p. 127.

page 465 note 1 Religion and Artin Ashanti, p. 151.

page 465 note 2 Ibid., p. 151.

page 466 note 1 Religion and Art in Ashanti, p. 158.

page 466 note 2 Ibid., p. 161.

page 466 note 3 Ashanti, p. 44.

page 466 note 4 Religion and Art in Ashanti, pp. 164-5.

page 468 note 1 Thus we know next to nothing of the influence of religion upon the industrial and agricultural life of the people, though this must certainly be as strong as it is over their social organization. We are told nothing of the effect of magic upon trade, exchange, manufactures. The treatment of arts and crafts is from a purely technological and museum point of view, completely divorced from its sociological context; nor are we given any facts regarding the transmission of professions or crafts, except for one remark in the third volume to the effect that a son inherits his father's obosom and trade. It is probable that here, as elsewhere among primitive peoples, this follows with the inheritance of tools, and would therefore be controlled by the dual units of the abusua and ntoro. These are facts of obvious practical and theoretical importance and for which the anthropologist, the missionary and administrator alike, are entirely dependent on the field-worker.