24 Unfortunately, one aspect that was not really treated as a violence against the human body was wife battering by the husband. In most Auchi traditions, it was considered as ‘correcting’
the woman but in most cases it does severe bodily harm to the woman.
2.2.4 THE SOUL
The soul among the Auchi people is called ‘aighu’ meaning ‘immortal’. It is not clear what distinction Omonokhua was trying to make between the soul and the spirit when he talks about ‘oreghe’ which he explained as the vital force of the human person and responsible for all that life entails.50 But what he did emphasize is that there is no separation between the body and the soul and that they both form the human person.
25
Religion/Denomination
Women (%) Men (%) Total Average in %
Muslim 50.7 50.2 50.4
Others 1.4 1.3 1.4
Source: Nigeria National Population Commission and ORC Macro, Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2003 (2004).51
Inspite of Auchi being a largely religious environment, scholars have asked at what point the indigenous people of Auchi had an idea of God. Was it when they first had contacts with the western Christian missionaries? Was there an idea of God before the arrival of the missionaries? This shall be examined next.
2.3.1 AUCHI IDEA OF GOD
Did the Auchi people have a notion of God before the arrival of the white missionaries? And if at all they did, what did God mean for them or what kind of God did they have an idea of?
This is what Onwubiko has to say, “in traditional African societies there were no Atheists.
This is because religion, in the indigenous African culture, was not an independent institution.
It was an integral and inseparable part of the entire culture.”52
These questions have been laid and argued by both African as well as Western theologians from two opposing standpoints. On the one hand, African theologians like Cornelius Omonokhua, John Mbiti, Samson Fatokun, JNK Mugambi and Oliver Onwubiko would argue that God was part and parcel of the African cosmology and ontology and can never be seen as a concept brought by the westerners. Although the particular word “God” came with the Missionaries, it does not apply that the idea of God was not present amongst the Auchi people. Omonokhua buttresses this with some Auchi names for God thus;
Oghenakhogie (God is king), Amiosino (God is invisible), Osigwe (God is judge), Osikhena (I fear God),
51Robert Lalasz, 2014, “In the News: The Nigerian Census”.
http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2006/IntheNewsTheNigerianCensus.aspx. Accessed on 09.01.2014.
52 Oliver Onwubiko, 1991, African Thought, Religion and Culture, Enugu, vol.1, p.24.
26 Anoghena( Nothing surpasses God).53
These were names used to refer to God long before the arrival of missionaries. Other parts of Nigeria reveal similar traits of the presence of God in the coinage of names they give to God.
Binis of Edo state (Osanobua=Creator of the world); Ishans of Edo state (Osenoblua=Creator of all); Igbo (Chineke=Creator, Chukwu=Great Spirit); Isoko of Delta state (Oghene=Lord of all); Yorubas (Olodumare=Almighty, Olorun=Owner of Heaven, Eleda=Creator).54
The names given by the Auchis are a clear indication already of the notion of God and how highly revered God was held and worshipped among them. Thus, Quarcoopome describes the African as both “notoriously religious” and “incurably religious”55
On the other hand, there is the belief by the some Westerners that Auchis (nay Africans) do not have a concept of God as they understand and know it, so the resolve to evangelise the people. This historical dimension shall be further expatiated when the early contacts of Auchis with the western Christian missionaries in chapter three is discussed. But suffice to say here that African Theologians like Omonokhua, Mbiti and others, disagree sharply with this view. I also disagree as the monotheistic concept of God in Auchi shows.
2.3.2 MONOTHEISTIC GOD OF AUCHI
Although there are many names for God in Auchi, the commonly used one is Osinegba.56 Osi refers to being-ness that is “immaterial, spiritual and that which is not perceptible to the senses.”57 This being is supreme and transcendental and was neither born nor created. The Etsakos, a major ethnic group in Auchi, according to Omonokhua, did not concern themselves much with a being that was abstract and metaphysical and simply not empirical. So there was the need to get an intermediary help (mediator) to access this indivisible God. Egba was to be that solution.
Egba is a ring from Elephant tusk. The elephant is perceived by the Auchi not only as the biggest animal but also as very powerful and therefore hunters wear this ring when they are
53 Cornelius Omonokhua, 2005, The God of our Ancestors: An approach to Etsako Contextual Theology, Benin City, p. 22.
54 Samson Fatokun, 2005, “African Traditional Religion and Belief Systems”, in: Ademola Ajayi (Ed.), African Culture and Civilization, Ibadan, p. 132.
55 Ibid, p. 128.
56 Among the “Ibie,” which is a distinct ethnic group within Etsako, “Ishinegba” is the word used to describe God.
57 Cornelius Omonokhua, 2005, p.35.
27 going for their hunting expeditions and they were almost always successful. And so when a hunter came back from hunting successful or when warriors who went for battle came back victorious, sacrifices were offered as a thanksgiving and in appreciation for divine protection.
In a way then, Osinegba is a name that was borne out of the experience of the Auchi people.
So the coinage or usage of the name Osinegba(Indivisible being that surpasses Egba) is a reference to the fact that the invisible God is more powerful and more potent than the Egba that they have come to know. Thus Egba which is seen as a divinity became a medium for reaching Osinegba. The Supreme Being Osinegba was invoked in the shrines and solemn communal assemblies.58 Like the Christian Sunday, a day was set aside for the worship of God. This is called ‘Ewo’ (native Sunday). It does not take place on the western day called Sunday (first day of the week) but rather takes place after the market day called ‘Elumhi’. On this day, people neither go to their farms nor to the markets. They stay at home to rest. Unlike in Christianity where everyone is required to go to the church, only the priest and elders go to the shrines to offer sacrifices on behalf of the entire community. There are also places of worship in Auchi. Such places would include some designated forests, rivers, trees as well as village squares and shrines. These places are treated as sacred places and people generally do not go near such places.
2.3.3 INTERMEDIARIES
Just as in normal physical communities where elders play the function of intermediaries such as performing religious activities or making decisions on behalf of the entire society, so do intermediaries play such roles in the religious sphere. Here, two types of intermediaries can be distinguished: Divinities and Spirits, and Ancestors. The Divinities and Spirits, and Ancestors59 are intermediaries in Auchi theology; just the same roles that saints and angels play in Christianity. The Auchis believe that because God is invisible and almighty, he can only possibly be accessed through intermediaries that are real.
2.3.3.1 DIVINITIES AND SPIRITS
The Auchis, like Africans in general, believe that God is supreme and inaccessible. They believe that the Supreme Being could not be directly approached owing to His immense greatness and transcendence, hence the need for the worship of these lesser gods as
58 Cornelius Omonokhua, 2005, p.37.
59 Omonokhua defines an Ancestor as a man or woman who attained a ripe old age before death, lived an exemplary life and had children who would remember him or her. A childless person and children are not venerated as ancestors. The person must have a lived a life of peace. (Cf. Cornelius Omonokhua, 2005, p.57.).
28 intermediaries.”60 In other words, “for most of their life, Africans place God in the transcendental plain, making it seem as if He is remote from their daily affairs”61 However, Samson Fatokun writes, “…owing to His remoteness, He has brought into being a number of divinities and spirits to act as His functionaries in His theocratic government.”62 Fatokun has classified these divinities and spirits into three, as follows;
(i) Primordial divinities, those believed to have been with the Supreme Being long before the earth was created.
(ii) Deified Ancestors, historical figures, e.g. Kings, cultural heroes and heroines, war Lords, founders of villages and towns.
(iii) Personified/deified natural force or phenomena, e.g. the earth, rivers, trees and mountains.
This is a little bit different from the situation among the Yorubas63 of South-West Nigeria.
Here, Ifa acts as the major system of divination, in which the people know about the past, present and future. Indeed, he is worshipped as the god of divination. Ifa is a system of 16 basic and 256 derivative figures (odu) obtained either by manipulation of 16 palm nuts (Ikin) or by the toss of a chain (opele) of 8 half seed shells. 64
2.3.3.2 ANCESTORS
Because the ‘ancestors’ or ‘living dead`65 occupy a crucial ontological position somewhere between Spirits and God, and between God and men for the Africans, they, therefore, play a noble role for those still living. On this, John Mbiti writes: “they in effect speak a bilingual language of human beings whom they recently ‘left’ through physical death, and of the spirits to whom they are now joined, or of God to whom they are now nearer than when they were in their physical life.”66
60 See Samson Fatokun, 2005, p. 134.
61 Ibid, p. 133.
62 Samson Fatokun, 2005, p. 134.
63 Yorubas constitute a major ethnic group in Nigeria with a population of over 35 million people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoruba people. Accessed on 12.02.2014.
64 William Bascom, 1969, Ifa Divination: Communication between God and Man in West Africa, London, p.3.
65 This concept was developed by John Mbiti and refers to those who have died but are still in the Sasa period, that is, they are in the state of personal immortality because their process of dying in not yet completed. This process is usually completed after the fifth generation when there is no one left still living who has had a personal experience or knowledge of the dead while they were alive. Thereafter, the dead go into the Zamani stage, the stage of joining the spirit, at which point the death process is regarded as being finally completed.
(Cf. John S. Mbiti, 1969, African Religions and Philosophy, London, p.83.
66 Ibid, p.69.
29 According to Peter Domnwachukwu, ancestors “are looked upon to for protection by those who are living in the visible world (and) stand before the gods as intercessors for their living relatives. They intervene for the good of their living relatives.”67 Domnwachukwu further opines that “the knowledge of the Supreme Being (God) comes from the ancestors, who bring this revelation to the living…”68 They convey human requests, needs, prayers, sacrifices and offerings to God and relay His responses back to human beings.69
For Ikenga Metuh,
Most African societies recognise fundamentally two types of divinities, the Supreme Being and the deities. The Supreme Being though recognised as the creator and Lord of the entire universe features less frequently in public worship and rituals than the deities, who are many and feature in almost every aspect of African life.70
In J. Awolalu’s own words
The ancestors constitute the closest link between the world of men and the spirit world and they are believed to be keenly interested in the welfare of their living descendants…they are regarded as presiding spiritually over the welfare of the family…the living have the confidence that they live in a world in which their ancestors are interested and over which they are watching.71
In Malawi, for example, the Lomwe traditional belief of ancestors is that they are
“intermediaries who intercede for the people before God.”72 This explains the respect Auchis have for their dead. Although these intermediaries are themselves spiritual they can be located particularly in what Mbiti calls the Sasa period.73 Those who really distinguished themselves while alive are elevated to divinities74 and deities, especially at the Zamani stage.75