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Government in Umor: A Study of Social Change and Problems of Indirect Rule in a Nigerian Village Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Daryll Forde
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Extract

The policy of adapting ‘for the purposes of local government the tribal institutions which the native people have evolved themselves, so that the latter may develop in a constitutional manner from their own past’ depends for success on more than a general grasp of the outlines of native social organisation. Native standards of value as expressed in individual and collective behaviour, the operation of balances and checks in the social system, current trends which are tending to cause some institutions and customs to lose strength at the expense of others, and the economic forces that have been or are in the future likely to be operative in the society, must all be analysed and assessed in their mutual relations as interrelated elements in a complex process.

Résumé

L'ADMINISTRATION A UMOR ÉTUDE DES CHANGEMENTS SOCIAUX

L'étude des changements sociaux offre un exemple des problèmes posés par l'administration indirecte dans une communauté indigène de Nigéria. Le grand village d'Umor situé au sud-est de la Nigéria et peuplé par des semi-Bantous, nous fournit un exemple des difficultés soulevées dans les sociétés de l'Ouest-africain, au cours du siècle, par les changements d'ordre social et économique. A Umor la structure sociale est double. Les activités économiques sont organisées à l'intérieur des clans en ligne paternelle, mais la propriété mobilière est héritée par la parenté en ligne maternelle; d'autre part, la plus haute autorité du village est une corporation formée de prêtres-chefs appartenant au groupe à filiation en ligne maternelle. Cet organisme, présidé par le prêtre le plus ancien, qui fait fonction de chef de village, a constitué le Conseil chargé de se prononcer sur toutes les questions importantes et siégeant comme cour de justice dans le village.

A la fin du siècle dernier la pacification du pays a provoqué des changements de grande conséquence. La création sous l'autorité administrative d'un tribunal indigène a restreint les pouvoirs et diminué le prestige de la corporation des prêtres-chefs. Les magistrats de ce tribunal ont été choisis parmi quatre assemblées formées par une réunion de clans à filiation paternelle. Bien que ces magistrats, à l'exception du chef de village, n'aient compté parmi eux aucun prêtre-chef et n'aient joui autrefois d'aucune autorité dans la société locale, le tribunal est désormais solidement établi dans la société et ses magistrats jouissent d'une influence considérable. Toutefois le Gouvernement de la Nigéria ne remplace pas à leur mort ces magistrats, de maniére à pouvoir établir une autorité indigène plus conforme aux traditions et mieux adaptée aux institutions locales.

Cependant un groupe de jeunes gens peu nombreux mais actifs a battu en brèche l'autorité des prêtres-chefs au cours de ces dernières années. Se basant sur le projet tendant à créer des organes de gouvernement fondés sur des institutions indigènes, ce groupe a demandé que les prêtres-chefs ne jouent plus aucun rôle dans le Conseil et le Tribunal qui constitueraient l''Administration indigène. Si le rétablissement de la corporation des prêtres-chefs de filiation maternelle comme principale autorité du village semble maintenant inopportune, à cause des changements intervenus dans le passé, et de l'évolution à laquelle il faut s'attendre dans l'avenir, on peut reconnaître cependant que la majorité du peuple a un très grand respect pour ces notables qui ont continué à régler de nombreuses contestations villageoises. D'autre part l'héritage est toujours recueilli en ligne maternelle. Dans ces conditions il semble désirable de reconnaître à la fois les chefs de deux organisations de filiation paternelle et de filiation maternelle. L'article discute les moyens d'atteindre ce but, en même temps que les opportunités qui pourraient se présenter pour une évolution constitutionnelle à intervenir plus tard.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , April 1939 , pp. 129 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1939

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References

page 129 note 1 Sir Cameron, Donald, The Principles of Indirect Rule, Lagos, 1935.Google Scholar

page 130 note 1 Umor is officially known in Southern Nigeria as Ugep, the name given to it by the riverside people of Ediba. It is the largest of the five autonomous villages of a semi-Bantu linguistic group who call themselves Yakö (Yakurr is the Government spelling).

page 130 note 2 An account of the native economy is given in Forde, , ‘Land and Labour in a Cross River Village, Southern Nigeria’, Geogr. Journ., 1937, xc, pp. 24–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The demography is analysed in Charles, and Forde, ,‘Notes on Some Nigerian Population Data’, Sociological Review, 1938, xxx, pp. 145–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 131 note 1 For an analysis of the patrilineal organization and the functions of the Obot Kepun see Forde, , ‘Fission and Accretion in the Patrilineal Clans of a Semi-Bantu Community in Southern Nigeria’, J.R.A.I., lxviii, 1939.Google Scholar

page 135 note 1 For a fuller analysis see Forde, , ‘Kinship in Umor’, American Anthropologist, xl, part 2, 1939.Google Scholar

page 137 note 1 In selecting an Ina, and above all an Obot Lopon, definite qualities are sought. It is not an office for an old man. A priest should reflect in his own physical vigour the beneficent power of the spirit and a priest will usually ask another to deputize for him if he is ailing at the time of a ritual. Moreover, the death of a priest after but a few years in office is felt to suggest a weakening in the concern of the yose spirit for the well-being of its devotees. To select an old or feeble person is to invite this misfortune. It was indeed claimed that if two or more priests of a single yose died in succession after only a few years of office a notion of infusing new blood into the priesthood would come into play. It was believed that the threatened chain of misfortune and enfeeblement could be broken by selecting as a successor a son of a member of the lejima, that is, by breaking the rule of succession within a group of matrilineal kin. This may be and is occasionally done, apart from previous misfortunes, if a man well fitted by physique and temperament, on whom the lejima elders and the ase priests are agreed, cannot be found from within the group. A priest thus appointed is adopted into the group at his installation when the spirit is informed that this man is being given to the lejima and to the spirit as its priest. This was the course finally adopted in the appointment of the present Obot Lopon in Umor. Ikpi Eboli, the son of a man of Yabot lejima, whose mother belonged to Yapuni lejima, was finally elected. He is the son of a younger brother of the senior elder of the Yabot group.

page 138 note 1 The term Obot (pl. Yabot) can best be translated as Leader or Head, but its connotation varies with its context. Used alone in the plural it is understood in Umor to refer to the indigenous village council. The kepun heads are distinguished as Yabot Yepun. The same term is also the title of a matrilineal kin group which is now divided into two separate sections which are distinguished by the addition of the name of the Ina or of the yose spirit, e.g. Lejima-z-Ina Uket or Lejima-z-Obolene.

page 138 note 2 They include the heads of two other ritual organizations known as Korta and Okengka which perform ceremonies in conjunction with the rites of the ase at the annual New Yam Rites; Obot Yabunga, the head of the corporation of magicians whose techniques and powers are believed to enable them to satisfy particular human desires, including the cure of many diseases, and to combat specific and harmful supernatural agencies, including those evoked by black magic; the priest of one kepun shrine in Umor which is believed to have been established when the Yakö of Umor first occupied the village site; the priest of the village Obasi shrine; the priest of a powerful spirit, Esandet, whose shrine lies in a tract of uncultivated land remote from the village; and finally a group of persons who have particular ceremonial functions in connexion with the ase priests but are not associated with a particular spirit or an independent ritual organization. These are Obot Omengka, who plays a leading part in the initiation of newly appointed priests; Obot Odele, the leader of the trumpeters and drummers who precede the ceremonial processions of the Yabot at the New Yam Feast and other main village rituals; the Yabot Leko or Yanun Eko, two war leaders who formerly conducted rituals to ensure success in warfare (no appointments to these offices have been made since the last holders died several years ago); and finally the Village Speaker, Okpebri, who speaks on behalf of Obot Lopon and of the Yabot both in rituals and in announcing decisions on disputes and other village affairs.

page 140 note 1 Edet Lopon is by no means an elaborate cult object. It consists only of a helix of copper-wire some six inches long, a makula, i.e. a heavy copper or bronze pennanular bangle and one piece of iron ‘hoe money’ (ekase), the whole wrapped in a thick binding of dried palm fronds.

page 141 note 1 Ikpungkara, like the other secret societies, had its mark, consisting of a bunch of leaves known as kepepelīwa which it affixed as a warning on exposed property or sites claimed by the society or any of its members. Both Ikpungkara and two other societies, Okengka and Okundom, give the protection of their marks to others besides members whose rights have been infringed. This protection is sought, in return for a gift to the particular society, especially for the protection of fruit trees planted along paths and of clusters of oil palms which have been prepared for the collection of fruit and palm wine. The protection is believed to be at once supernatural and physical. The thief is believed to fear sickness or death inflicted by the power of the cult objects possessed by the society and also punitive action by its members if he is discovered. To-day a society will seek to discover and denounce before the Native Court a man who has stolen from a palm or fruit tree under its protection. In the past, it is claimed, the society was entitled to act directly by seizing live stock from the offender, subsequently justifying this action, if needed, before the Yabot.

page 143 note 1 The status and powers of the courts were codified and revised by the ‘Courts and Native Authority Legislation for Nigeria’ which came into force in 1934 (Courts and Native Authority Legislation in Force on 1st September 1934, Government Printer, Lagos, 1934Google Scholar; to be cited below as C. & N. A. L., 1934). In the schedule of ‘An Ordinance to prescribe the powers and duties of Native Authorities’ (No. 43 of 1933) the Native Courts of the Ediba-Ugep [=Umor] -Ekuri-Abini-Akuna-kuna Native Court area are recognized as Native Authorities pending the reorganization of administration among these peoples. The former powers of the several courts, of which that at Umor is one, were substantially maintained by recognizing them as of Grade D. The powers of a Grade D court are laid down in the schedule of Ordinance 4 of 1933 as having jurisdiction over:

'Civil actions in which the debt, demand or damages do not exceed twenty-five pounds.

'In the Southern Provinces such jurisdiction concerning land, or in which the title to land or any interest therein comes in question, as may be stated in the warrant or annexure thereto.

'Full jurisdiction in causes relating to inheritance, testamentary dispositions, the administration of estates and in causes in which no claim is made for, and which do not relate to money or other property, and full jurisdiction in all matrimonial causes other than those arising from or connected with a Christian marriage. ….

‘Criminal causes which can be adequately punished by imprisonment for three months, or in the case of theft of farm produce or live stock by imprisonment for six months, twelve strokes, or a fine of five pounds, or the equivalent by native law or custom.’

The Court is also empowered to administer: ‘(a) the native law and custom prevailing in the area of the jurisdiction of the court, so far as it is not repugnant to natural justice or morality, or inconsistent with any provisions of any other Ordinance; (b) the provisions of any Ordinance which the court may be authorized to enforce by an Order …;(c) the provisions of all rules or orders made under the Native Authority Ordinance, 1933, or under the repealed Native Authority Ordinance, and in force in the area of the jurisdiction of the Court.’ Unless the warrant for a summons is issued at the direction of the Court petitioners must pay a fee of 5s. for the issue of a summons against the accused, or 10s. where the claim in a civil action exceeds £10, and a fee of 1s. for the issue of a summons for a witness or for the adjournment of the hearing of a case.

Any person who is aggrieved by an order or decision of the Court may appeal within 30 days to such higher court or to the District Officer as may be set out in the warrant. From the Court at Umor appeals may be made to the Magistrate's Court at Obubra or, if the District Officer has sat as President or Adviser, to the High Court.

page 144 note 1 No. 44 of 1933, paras. 23, 25; C. & N. A. L., 1934, pp. 133-4 and Text of Grade D Court Warrant, Lagos 1053/35.

Being of Grade D the court at Umor has however no jurisdiction over reserved classes of cases which must be tried before a Magistrate's Court, in this case the District Officer sitting as Magistrate at Divisional Headquarters at Obubra, or before the High Court.

The reserved classes as enumerated in the Warrant of Grade D Native Courts, Lagos, 1053/35, are homicide, treason, sedition, counterfeiting, trial by ordeal, practice of witchcraft, slave dealing and child stealing, defilement of girls, procuration, rape, documentary defamation, false pretences, forgery, corrupt practices, official secrets, perjury (if the Native Court considers a penalty more severe than it can impose is required), offences against Public Revenue, Posts and Telegraphs or Railway, official corruption.

page 151 note 1 An attempt had been made in 1923 by a District Officer to establish a new Village Council in Umor, but the body then called into being is said to have been unsuccessful. It was abolished two or three years later and no particulars of its composition or its failure are available. I failed to discover whether any of the members of Bendom were appointed to it.

page 152 note 1 As most recently expounded in Sir Cameron's, Donald memorandum on The Principles of Indirect Rule, Lagos, 1935.Google Scholar

page 154 note 1 See ‘Land and Labour in a Cross River Village, Southern Nigeria’, Geog. Journ., 1937, xc, pp. 24–51.Google Scholar

page 155 note 1 There were said to be about 130 children attending the Mission School in 1935, a very small proportion of the total number of minors (under 18) in the village, which I estimate at nearly six thousand.

page 159 note 1 It would probably be desirable to encourage the appointment of heads of the three anomalous territorial groups which have been derived by fission from one or more of the othet yepun. See Forde, , op. cit., J.R.A.I., lxviii, 1939.Google Scholar

page 159 note 2 Such, for example, as the siting of latrines or the opening of new bush paths, both of which are instances of questions over which adjacent yepun could not agree on mutually satisfactory arrangements during my stay in Umor.