7. Summary
2.3 The Worldview of Adamawa People
communities. Much of what is seen on Nigerian movies also depicts the traditional worldview of the western Nigerians as much as it does that of the easterners.
e. The Southern Region: This region covers the shoreline areas of eastern Nigeria known as the coasts of the „Bight of Benin.‟ The peoples living in this coastline region are quite heterogeneous. They speak chiefly un-related dialects but have one thing in common and that is their location. This has imbued in them a relatively common worldview because of the main source of their livelihood which is water (primarily the sea, the Niger Delta, Cross River and the Aqua-Ibom River). All the streams of Nigeria empty into the two main watercourses of the country: the Niger and the Benue, which then confluence into one and flow down to the Atlantic Ocean through the region at the Niger Delta. The worldview of the people in the region is basically linked to water. This is where the marine spirits, mami-water and kingdoms of the sea or under water are popularly venerated. If a person tries to dispute their existence. He will be lucky if he is just laughed at.
Otherwise, one is regarded as being bad-mannered and impervious and therefore, conceited towards the beliefs of the people and should be raced out of the way.
The communities in this region depend virtually on fishing as a means of livelihood. Their worldview is also linked to snakes, the kingdom of the underworld (who rule the visible world) and the kingdom of the sea. The rulers of the so-called kingdoms are recognized as queens, princes and princesses of the mighty kingdom and can be worshipped with blood covenants.
Though cryptic, these assumptions are purely intended to assist in the unpacking of the various possible worldviews prevalent in the Nigerian and Adamawa situations, where Pentecostalism operates under a pluralism of worldviews. There cannot be a single worldview so to say that can capture the total mind-sets of the various communities in the country. Each community has its own stress even though there are commonalities like belief in witches and ancestral spirits. The map on page xviii throws more light on the cultural groupings and possible worldviews of Nigerians.
but embody ethnic values. Adamawa people are a warring people who believe in valour.
Bravery is an asset; therefore, they do not give up easily or run away from war. The son of the Supreme Being, therefore, can be a warrior who can grant victory or success in war to his ethnic people only and not to humanity in general. Also, since this son does not belong to our humanity, he cannot die.
The Adamawa worldview is positive because it does not conceive evil. Although a tad riverine, Adamawa people do not believe in marine spirits. Instead, they believe in spirits living in trees and mountains. If there are any spirits in the water they give good catches of fish. The ancestral spirits are believed to keep a watch over the community. They do not hurt the people; rather they warn them in situations of eminent danger. In return the people offer them the first fruits of every year. In Adamawa, evil spirits are believed to be white and the good spirits are black.
Being predominantly a plains people whose livelihood depends on fishing, farming and cyclical hunting, the worldview of Adamawa people is different from that of the forest or more riverine and costal people of Nigeria who have been documented extensively. It is therefore difficult to generalize an African worldview in the case of Nigeria and more particularly Adamawa.
Adamawa people do not just rely on their ancestral spirits but believe strongly in totems. The chief totems are the lion, leopard, hippopotamus, crocodile, baboon, monkey, alligator and hyena. Among the birds they revere the eagle, vulture and hawk as totems. The owl is not beloved because it is considered as the carrier of the spirit of death.
Totems are meant to protect the people associated with them. They are not meant to be dangerous to their human partners; they instead protect. When they are hurt in the bush, their human partners are also hurt. When they die, their human partner also dies. Humans with totems simply share their existence with their totems. This researcher, for example, belongs to the rain cult. His totem is the crocodile. Since he makes rain, he can never be beaten by rain or get drowned in water because a crocodile will always rescue him. However, totems are not worshipped; rather, a covenant is entered into between the human partners and their totems. Anyone who kills or hurts a crocodile‟s human partner cannot be protected from any evil associated with water.
Initiation rites like Yondo or Laou and Magih both similar to the Bondo found in Sierra Leone and Liberia are very popular among various ethnic groups. Some ethnicities like the Bwatiye, have lakaune as their circumcision festival, the Mayah and the Yandang also have circumcision ceremony as an important rite of passage to adulthood. All the initiation
rites mentioned above culminate into circumcision ceremonies at the end. Both male and female children have to go through this initiation and be circumcised. Only a few ethnicities do not perform circumcision rites.
The male children are initiated into adulthood. At their “passing out” (re-entry) ceremony they are told, “today you are men.” During their days in the bush they are taught among other things:
i. Bravery with the sole goal to protect self and the community. Speed and valour come into play here;
ii. obedience and respect for elders and seniority is almost sacred);
iii. to keep secrets of their ethnic group and community;
iv. to use their common sense in decisions they take;
v. the dignity of labour;
vi. honesty;
vii. never to steal except if it is to snatch a woman from another community and never from his community and in case of hunger or during famine, one should take just what he needs to fill his stomach for the moment and nothing more;
viii. And to be a good father of your children and husband to your wives and be willing to bear responsibility for other children and wives of the community who have lost their fathers and husbands.
A man is trained to be a soldier, a farmer and a hunter. During those days in the bush for training, no females should see the boys, not even their mothers or sisters. They learn a new language, codes and sign language along with whistling technics to alert each other in case of eminent danger. Each group that went to the bush together remains as a peer group.
They assess each other‟s achievement in life, defend each other, fight together in war, marry around the same time, live together and die together for each other and the community. Each peer group can be likened to a company formation in a military unit. They know and respect their leaders within the group from the days they received training in the bush. Only men train the company of boys.
A man‟s wealth or success is assessed by how many children and wives he has and has left behind when he dies and how many people attended his funeral and not how much money, cattle or houses he left.
The female initiates during their days in the bush are also taught among other things:
i. what it takes to be a mother and a good wife;
ii. to protect self and community during wars including strategies to protect the
children;
iii. never to be unfaithful to their husbands;
iv. home management (never to eat before their husbands or children), and
v. To ensure that cooked food is kept in the home all the time in case a stranger comes to the family at night.
If a young woman becomes pregnant before marriage, several punishments shall be administered. She will not have any bridal showers when she moves to her husband‟s house.
She will not receive proper farewell from her father. The lady shall be led out of her father‟s house through the back door and never through the front door. Above all, she cannot give birth no matter the severity of the labour until she confesses who made her pregnant. A woman‟s wealth is measured by the number of children she has; she will be the proudest woman especially if her children are mostly male.
The age group associations are very powerful union of especially the people of Numan. Possibly borrowing a leaf from traditional initiation groupings, of the lakaune initiation camps, the modern age group associations in Numan among the Bwatiye helps in harnessing the efforts of the Bwatiye youth in any given situation (even in religious matters or matters of defence of the community). An age group or peer group is made up of persons whose birth dates fall within two years of their births; for example, those born in 1950 and 1951 would be classed as an age group while those of 1952 and 1953 would also be in the same age group or peer group. They hold meetings at appointed times and in emergencies they convene to find solutions to matters at hand. They plan their lives and community projects together. Individuals work towards making a mark within their age group and their community. They will support each other‟s individual projects. They also defend each other and will always stick together. They are expected to cry together, laugh together, suffer together and die together if need be.
One could see that there is something continuous in the traditional and the contemporary age groups and the way Pentecostals create a sense of group. The Pentecostals encourage professional groupings of their members; they form associations to support church programmes and activities. For example, architects come together to design buildings for their churches, engineers supervise projects for free, electrical engineers and electricians design and install electrical fittings and maintain them. Bankers advise on financial matters and facilities available in banks, Nurses and Doctors provide free medical services in conventions and crusades. Each profession is grouped to provide services.
Two factors that link Pentecostalism with Adamawa traditional practices are first the offering of the first fruits to the chiefs or the priests at the shrines before any one eats from the harvest. Here a religious ceremony must be performed and the priests and chiefs or kings must eat of the new harvest first before anyone else. This is practised among Pentecostals also (see page 196 below under 7.14 Financial Support). Second, is the promise of deliverance to members who are under the spell of the spirit world. This links them up with the African belief in ancestral spirits, spirits of the underworld, kingdoms of the underwater, witchcraft, water mermaids and blood sucking spirits. In my view there is continuity between indigenous African beliefs and Pentecostal concepts.