The Women And
Children Keep One Side Of This Screen, The Men Dancing On The Other
Side To The Peculiar Monotonous Isyogo Tune.
Poorah I have spoken
of elsewhere.
I believe that these secret societies are always distinct from the
leopard societies. I have pretty nearly enough evidence to prove
that it is so in some districts, but not in all. So far my evidence
only goes to prove the distinction of the two among the Negroes, not
among the Bantu, and in all cases you will find some men belonging
to both. Some men, in fact, go in for all the societies in their
district, but not all the men; and in all districts, if you look
close, you will find several societies apart from the regular youth-
initiating one.
These other societies are practically murder societies, and their
practices usually include cannibalism, which is not an essential
part of the rites of the great tribal societies, Isyogo or Egbo. In
the Calabar district I was informed by natives that there was a
society of which the last entered member has to provide, for the
entertainment of the other members, the body of a relative of his
own, and sacrificial cannibalism is always breaking out, or perhaps
I should say being discovered, by the white authorities in the Niger
Delta. There was the great outburst of it at Brass, in 1895, and
the one chronicled in the Liverpool Mercury for August 13th, 1895,
as occurring at Sierra Leone. This account is worth quoting. It
describes the hanging by the Authorities of three murderers, and
states the incidents, which took place in the Imperi country behind
Free Town.
One of the chief murderers was a man named Jowe, who had formerly
been a Sunday-school teacher in Sierra Leone. He pleaded in
extenuation of his offence that he had been compelled to join the
society. The others said they committed the murders in order to
obtain certain parts of the body for ju-ju purposes, the leg, the
hand, the heart, etc. The Mercury goes on to give the statement of
the Reverend Father Bomy of the Roman Catholic Mission. "He said he
was at Bromtu, where the St. Joseph Mission has a station, when a
man was brought down from the Imperi country in a boat. The poor
fellow was in a dreadful state, and was brought to the station for
medical treatment. He said he was working on his farm, when he was
suddenly pounced upon from behind. A number of sharp instruments
were driven into the back of his neck. He presented a fearful
sight, having wounds all over his body supposed to have been
inflicted by the claws of the leopard, but in reality they were
stabs from sharp-pointed knives. The native, who was a powerfully-
built man, called out, and his cries attracting the attention of his
relations, the leopards made off. The poor fellow died at Bromtu
from the injuries. It was only his splendid physique that kept him
alive until his arrival at the Mission." The Mercury goes on to
quote from the Pall Mall, and I too go on quoting to show that these
things are known and acknowledged to have taken place in a colony
like Sierra Leone, which has had unequalled opportunities of
becoming christianised for more than one hundred years, and now has
more than one hundred and thirty places of Christian worship in it.
"Some twenty years ago there was a war between this tribe Taima and
the Paramas.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 265 of 371
Words from 138860 to 139451
of 194943