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Beyond Merry-Making: Customs of Indigenous Peoples and the Normative Functions of Ceremonies in Precolonial Igbo Societies

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Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge

Part of the book series: Knowledge and Space ((KNAS,volume 8))

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Abstract

Precolonial societies in the eastern part of Nigeria had intricate normative regimes for social governance. The norms, laws, rules, and institutions often interacted in complex webs. One of the least studied institutions for social control and governance is ceremonies. Ranging from ceremonies associated with the birth of a child to those associated with various aspects of infancy, puberty, adulthood, marriage, death, and burials, the various ceremonies were not merely instruments of social governance but also veritable vehicles for the transmission and diffusion of knowledge about the environment and ecology. This chapter examines the salient and multifaceted dimensions of ceremonies in traditional Igbo societies and the ways in which those ceremonies were often deployed to educate the young and prepare them for life in the traditional settings.

This chapter is dedicated to my son, Nnazimizu, for taking time out to distract me from work.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There are arguments in some circles that the notion of human rights is entirely a Western creation and unknown in other cultures (see Donnelly 1989, pp. 49–65). For a critique of this school of thought, see Ejidike (1999).

  2. 2.

    The straight hand is a metaphorical way of saying the truth without fear or favor, maintaining fair relationships with your neighbor, never tilting the balance in ontological relationships, and so on.

  3. 3.

    In Igboland the Ahiajoku lecture, the body of literature to which this sources belongs, is the intellectual feast at which leading scholars of Igbo pedigree address a subject of interest in commemoration of the yam’s importance in Igbo culture.

  4. 4.

    In some languages of the same Kwa family, such as Yoruba, Igbo means bush or forest. Yoruba mythology posits that Oduduwa, the father of the Yorubas, encountered the dwellers in the forests called Igbo when he and his followers settled at Ile-Ife.

  5. 5.

    The Igbo language broke away from the Kwa subfamily around 600 B.C.

  6. 6.

    In the words of J. Umeh (1999), “You can’t know the inside facts about Mmanwu [masquerade] unless you are admitted to and participate in operating Mmanwu. You cannot say much about the various Ozo title societies [Igbos have societies of titled men and women; the titles are in cadres] unless you are admitted to them and participate in their rituals and activities. You can’t know the implications of various socialization rites, ceremonies, including rites of passage unless you participate in them” (p. 17).

  7. 7.

    An example of a simple ceremony is the tying or knotting of a tender palm frond on a disputed property. This is known as itu omu and is a direct function of the Igbo belief that oath-taking is a sacred and serious business. Tender palm fronds indicate danger in Igboland. Fruit-bearing trees may be dedicated to the gods with palm fronds, and only the owner may access the tree. This simple ceremony speaks volumes about the unshakeable belief of the person in question that the property in dispute belongs to her and that judgment thereon has been submitted to the gods.

  8. 8.

    Igbo jurisprudence seldom imposed the death penalty. Instead, a murderer was expected to commit suicide or make adequate reparations.

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  1. Osgoode Hall Law School, Ignat Kaneff Building, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Ikechi Mgbeoji

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  1. Department of Geography, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Peter Meusburger

  2. Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Tim Freytag

  3. Department of Geography, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Laura Suarsana

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Mgbeoji, I. (2016). Beyond Merry-Making: Customs of Indigenous Peoples and the Normative Functions of Ceremonies in Precolonial Igbo Societies. In: Meusburger, P., Freytag, T., Suarsana, L. (eds) Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge. Knowledge and Space, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21900-4_12

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