Introduction to Igbo Medicine

[Ɔkyeame Kwame]

Introduction to Igbo Medicine

IGBO MODES OF MOBILIZING EXTRAHUMAN FORCES TO RESPOND TO ILLNESS AND PROBLEMS IN SOCIETY - IGA N’AJUJU

(Part 1)

PATRICK IROEGBU*[1]
Alberta, Canada
patrickiroegbu@yahoo.com

Nobody Wants to Write in this Area; Why?

I have had a long standing interest in exploring African medical systems. As such, I introduce to you a course in African medicine and the perspectives of its practitioners. I am calling this course “Igbo Medicine” (IGBOMED 101). This way, I anticipate that readers will gain insights and stand up for Igbo medical heritage – therefore align it with vision in a changing global health care and development.


So, what is Igbo Medicine? This course will engage readers in the exploration of African ways of inquiry and discovery when it comes to finding the causes of illnesses and suffering, and the ritualistic and therapeutic remedies that follow. It is my hope that one day an in-depth and expanded edition of “Introduction to Igbo Medicine” (Ogwu Igbo) will emerge, adding to the awareness of indigenous practices of healing and their relevance in the modern world.

There is a need to give philosophical attention and meaning to culture and healing as they are seen by the practitioners in this area. In other words, understanding the principles around which illness is conceived of, explained, and used at cross-points of a knowledge system is necessary.


Figure 1: Diviner’s Consultation Hut

Basically, related case studies of illnesses in Igboland, how they are explained, and how healing is dispensed by Igbo healers and their counterparts in other African countries should command greater attention than they do currently. In order to get to the root of the matter in a meaningful way, use of personal and related experiences should also be encouraged in the studies of African healing systems and the institution of African medicine. This pertains not only to the wide range of forms of illnesses and social problems that indigenous healers address, but also to the changing patterns in relationship with biomedical sphere, or so-called orthodox, medicine.

In this work, I wish to discuss, specifically, Igbo divination systems. First, I want to question the composition of our knowledge that leads us to believe that the realm of the seen is more real than the realm of the unseen. Festus Adedayo’s (2005) The Dilemma of a Snake[1] points out that

“to establish the possibility of any knowledge, such knowledge has to be founded on some assumptions whose truth has to be guaranteed and to judge a specific knowledge process would be dependent on a knowledge already known to be certain and true as a standard. But obviously the need to ‘prove the reliability of knowledge always poses a problem.’”

While consummation with other cultures has broadened the Igbo cosmology of knowledge transmission, patterns of life, and worldviews, traditional values and practices have endured in the imbrications and realms of knowledge systems. Consulting superhuman forces in matters of healing, rather than throwing the Igbo into an epistemological dilemma, enables them to reach beyond the endless limitations of the human mind. In a serious sense, it allows them to engage in the symbolic and intellectual pursuit of resolving the dilemma of achieving true knowledge in regard to suffering and cures.


Two key aspects of the scientific system of knowledge consist of ideas of the nature of reality and the quest for objectivity. When the question of the study of knowledge, commonly called epistemology, is raised, some scholars argue that there is no reality, but only an individualized/collective subjective perception of reality. Others contend there is an existential reality that we can know, but never perfectly.[2] Arguments such as these suggest that epistemological differences are challenging issues faced by people and cultures as they establish experiences that shape knowledge, such as in long lasting adversity, health disturbances, and folk methodologies or culture-loggia control approach.[3] Postmodernism (Katz 1996), as Rosenau (1992) has shown, “haunts” all systems of knowledge. It calls into question the very foundation and core of the social sciences. Contemporary debate on knowledge systems poses challenges to every mode (Chappell et al 2003:73). Ignoring much of the scholarship on the cultural modes of knowing in Igbo society not only hides, but also reaffirms the discomfort surrounding, expressive and meaningful folk modes.

At home, healers are widely consulted in the search for causes of distress and illness and 'ritual cures.' Such consultations are concerned with a wide range of various ailments, illnesses, and misfortunes. Belief in sorcery, witchcraft, and superhuman forces has continued to thrive. In Igboland of south-eastern Nigeria, when a person becomes critically unwell, it is the cause of a great deal of concern among his or her family and kin members. People become seriously worried. If a malady persists, the burden becomes a subject of public discourse. There is, often, a need to try to make sense of the unwellness. The “purpose” of the illness will be subjected to scrutiny. Never is a serious illness allowed to rest without consultation with forces more powerful than those humans have to offer in order to gain appropriate insight and ritualistic remedies. The idea behind consulting extra-human forces (mmuo, agbara, oracle, deitific forces), is to ensure that all the care available in the network of kin-population is utilized. For that reason, family members, close kin-group members, and kindred elders consider the task of attempting to discover the source of the illness a moral obligation. They will shop around, far and near, in order to enquire, interrogate, and obtain a clearer understanding of what is at stake from authorized health practitioners so that they can shape and manage the crisis at hand. Often this happens in conjunction with biomedical treatment.


Consulting forces that see deeper than the human surface is, for the most part, a central part of the Igbo culture. Unlike the neighbouring Ethnic Yoruba in Nigeria, whose ifa oral divination system[4] is at the centre of her traditional culture, very little is known, from an intellectual, discursive point of view, about the field of divination in Igboland. And this creates an ethnographic learning gap. While studies that focus on patterns of conversion and faith healing abound in scholarly and traditional religious literature, a sociological and anthropological focus on cultural and endogenous diagnostic skills appears largely ignored in any form of written discourse (cf. Aneziownu 1988). As divination is, moreover, diverse across cultures (Karcher 1999, Peek 1991, Gilchrist 1987),[5] its specific patterns and practices in Igboland must not continue to be disregarded in that it constitutes a useful foundation for knowledge. Literature (e.g. Ezeliora 1994, Anezionwu 1988, Devisch 1991, DeBoeck 1993) indicates that divination forms have been presented merely as anecdotes in critiques, denying the institution the genuine sensibility, and intellectual and healing reality, that it strongly embodies in Igbo medicine and healing. Today in the western world, the presence of Asian medicine, Chinese medicine in particular, is pronounced, and is taught in University and College Curriculum. This medical approach is now emphasized, and follows biomedicine as a universal therapeutic response to imbalances in health. Can the Igbo system of medical thought be similarly rescued and given a process and place in the development arena?


In this paper, which consists of three serial parts, I discuss three Igbo cultural ways of seeking for, and questioning, causes of unwellness. For the most part, I will point out how these modes of divination are employed in day-to-day realities. I will emphasize the Igbo’s explicit cultural meanings and diagnostic techniques, the curiosity in probing for ritual treatments, as well as the relationships healers share with clients seeking to address events and crisis in their lives. Healer/diviners do not just offer advice on herbal and ritual resources, but also enhance holistic treatment techniques and foster cultural, psychological, and physiological components of interaction. The study of these modes shows that iga n’ajuju (going to ask) endorses all of the society’s core aspects of gender, cosmology, age, community, and culture.



In particular, I look at palm divination, the grand mirror mode, and the seed model. I will specifically focus on these three modes in order to illustrate the concept and dynamics involved in questioning unwellness in the face of illness, social misfortune, crisis, and suffering at all levels. I argue that the ways in which the Igbo show sensitivity to the culture of knowing is not only both a cosmological and symbolic form of reality, but is also epistemological, intervallic, and significant to their lives and culture. To make the contribution and reading easier, I will present the three modes in three parts: I, II, III. My aim is to open a debate on this aspect of knowledge, and my hope is to evaluate what lessons can be applied to health and social policy in Igboland, Nigeria, and Africa. This part one of the three series will deal with the relevant terms and notions as follows.

Diviners and divination, dibia afa, and igba aja

Igbo diviners, as empowered mediators between the visible and invisible realms of reality, are known as dibia afa, dibia ogba-aja, dibia nnyocha, or dibia nlepute. Igbo terms for divination include igba afa, (to name); igba aja (to identify a form of sacrifice); iga n’ajuju (to seek out by asking); nnyocha (to examine); nlepute (to look and find out); and ahu n’anya ekwe nke eshishi agugo (seeing is believing without doubt.) These terms are connected with the revelation of secrets and the undoing of the hidden agenda of the cause and effect of things that upsets daily life. The table below lists these important references to divination:



1. Igba afa 1. To name illness, i.e., giving illness appropriate name

2. Igba aja 2. To identify an appropriate sacrifice

3. Iga n’ajuju 3. To go and ask, inquire, question, seek out by asking

4. Nnyocha 4. To probe, examine

5. Nlepute 5. To gaze out, sort out, look and find out

6. Ahu n’anya ekwe nke eshishi agugo 6. Seeing is mainly believing so as to put
out doubt.

7. Nkpughe ihe nzuzo 7. Opening up secrets, laying bare the hidden strands,
disclosing matters

8. Ago ndimmuo 8. Seeking justice in a case involving spirits
Table 1: List of divination terms


Becoming a dibia afa, Diviner

Healers in Igboland practice various specialities within their calling. A dibia afa, for example, is a diviner who is generally perceived as a skilful clairvoyant. To be a diviner is to be viewed as holding a key to the secrets of lifelines, having knowledge of the underworld, and possessing an ability to see things and transmit that knowledge to others in need. In order to become a clairvoyant, a candidate is usually called upon by the ancestral line’s deity of the art of studying and practicing clairvoyance. The diviner is often captured by an extra-human force and compelled to initiate and practice divination. Some diviners attempt, unsuccessfully, to flee their calling, and some cross sexual and territorial boundaries, gaining uncommon identities in order to become technicians of the sacred, hard-earned knowledge. Often, the source of clairvoyance comes from the crossing of boundaries; namely, entering into liminal or borderline states of mind, which is sometimes paid for in suffering or dislocation (Karcher 1997:13). Divining, and learning to divine, involves tapping into the intimate power latent in human’s innate intuitive capacity and the invisible relay of forces. The learning of divining involves seeing patterns that interconnect time, spirit, and soul, and cultivating and training in this innate capacity in order to see beyond human’s usual perceptions.



Figure 2: Diviner-healer’s initiatory power objects


When tested and approved by a master healer, a candidate undertakes initiation into the prescribed stages. A special eye-wash ritual (itu anya afa), lasting about eight market days, is undergone. The most important stage in this ritual is called the isolation stage (ngbazo nwa dibia afa), during which a candidate is excluded from public view and contact. This is aimed at resonating with a psychic or extrasensory connection and enacting sacredness, purity, and diligence with the deity of divination. The only contact the initiate has is with his or her medicine deity, called chi okwe, agwu okwe. During seclusion, a candidate maintains direct focus on his or her agwu symbols. Eating and drinking is minimized, and renders the initiate vulnerable and eager to receive insights and “hear” voices that will guide his or her divination life-path. A leading master healer guides the initiate and instructs him or her on important divinatory symbols and significations, and prohibitions to effectiveness. In essence, the initiate is instructed on how to see clear - clairvoie and interpret received messages by drawing from the experience of this rite of passage (echiche, itu ugo ihu uzo, amamihe). Also crucial are learning how to beckon the deity for intervention and interrogation processes. At the end of the training and rite of passage, other healers gather to a feast of ibo ebi, (the finding of secrets or sources of suffering and attacks.) This rite enables the new healer/diviner to demonstrate his or her new diagnostic skills, including the categorization of suffering and its implications, thus gaining recognition and blessing from both the community of healers and the lay people. A diviner is accorded great honour insofar as the practitioner is effective and brings clients from near and far to the community.


Typically, those who accept the call to divine and heal view their bond with the forces as a long-term relationship. They operate in a consultation hut that is kept sacred—a divination house (ulo ajuju), which is built in the compound for the forces that are thought to dwell there. Divination shrines, sites, houses, or spaces (ogige afa) are surrounded with the rule of sacredness for purity, which includes such rituals as clients taking off their shoes and crossing the medicinally prepared foot-mat at the entrance of the house in order to thwart evil forces. The chancel (ulo ogwu) must be kept pure and sacred. Diviners also purify or neutralize themselves before consulting with clients. They clean their hands, chew whitish clay (nzu), rub yellowish chalk (odo) on their eyes, mark their hands with three or four strokes, and then pour libation with palm wine or hot drink, alligator pepper (ose oji) and kola nut (oji). Most diviners conceive of their relationship with their spirit forces as sacred, much like a marriage to the underlying force (ikuru mmuo). This constitutes a formal invitation to, and domestication of, the forces at work, and involves the sharing of tasks and obligations in the collaboration.

Common myths around divination are found in stories relating to the ability of diviners to identify the causes of problems and remedial strategies. Diviners are clearly aware of a public expectation and, indeed, a healer (dibia) knows that he or she will always be tested, and required to endorse and re-endorse his or her credibility, expertise, reliability, cultural wisdom, and community support. Through accurate presentation of the facts in cases involving health and life, misfortune and progress, crisis and stability, failure and success, defeat and victory, offence and revenge, a diviner must be able to recognize the best options for healing, as calculated by the superhuman forces available. Once a divinatory course completes its action appropriately, it cannot be disputed. The voice of the oracle,[6] that “other voice,” is unquestionable, because it does not blunder or play games. That is, the methods and results of establishing aetiology are culturally believed to attest to the truth, thus codifying sense to its practitioners and clients. In all these representations, a diviner (dibia afa) primarily “sees,” but does not heal, as such, like other healers do (Amadi 1983:106). The type of formation a diviner undertakes differentiates his or her area of interest from those of other healers in the cultural context.

When people go to consult a diviner (ogba afa), they express this action as “going to ask” (iga n’ajuju.) Primarily, this means to go and consult with a view toward finding the answer to a specific social, health, family, economic, or political problem. The term also, however, refers to the question one puts to the diviner (dibia afa) or oracular agent. When the Igbo say that they are going to ask the reason from forces that exist beyond the human realm, they mean that they want to ask the presumed agent of misfortune to reveal itself; that is, to say who it is and what it wants (White 1997:60; De Boeck 1993; Devisch 1991, Soldier & Pierre 1995, Iroegbu 2001).[7] Divination is the formal occasion for making uncertainty explicit and developing views on how to take proper action.

Given their activities, diviners have been referred to as “diplomats formal to the night” (Bekaert 2000). Sources, such as Chidi Osondu, strengthen this view when they describe how diviner-healers engage in research (iwa ohia) into the powers behind Igbo medicine and their efficacy in healing in a much deeper way than they are ordinarily perceived to do. A great diviner is described as one who shows a great sense of precision and the ability to pinpoint facts. He or she is said to have a deep and clear insight (idi omimi na ihu uzo nke oma). In order to reveal the secrets of herbs and roots, forces of the night, namely wind-forces (ikuku), are confronted and pacified.[8] In this way, night idiom is an important dimension for healers in the subject of knowing and relaying the appropriate remedies for a crisis. Folklore holds that the divination ritual is capable of cooling down the heat of crisis. The Igbo say, “when the mouth is oiled, it changes what it says” (onu raa ngo ya kwugharia). In that sense, divination must bring about such cooling down of the forces of disturbance by discovering what the forces are, and discovering what they require so that their untamed desires, which cause misfortune to humans, might be cooled down (Iroegbu 2000).

Best Practices In View of Conducting Divination

Rules that govern the modus operandi of consultation must be understood and made known by consults. A dibia ogba-aja, or diviner, is viewed as a broad-minded doctor of secrets. He or she formulates an appropriate recipe for consulting the invisible world of the oracle or spirit. The term ‘invisible,’ in this sense, means the world of ancestors and deific forces. Here, the dibia ogba-aja is the one who reveals which sacrifices and rites are appropriate for dealing with a particular hardship. He or she investigates the array of rituals in order to determine what will best pacify the agencies behind the crisis. Healers connect divination to both the heart (obi) and brain (uburu isi), and it is crucial, for both the diviner and the client, that all of the senses work together during a session and that all of the rules are followed. A diviner commonly uses instruments or tools in the act of divination, some of which include tortoise shells, cowry shells, coins, pebbles, sea stones, apple seeds, gongs, mirrors, and bells. They also enact esoteric songs while divining, transmitting messages and transforming their sense in the process. The responsibility of consulting a diviner comes with seniority and leadership in the family, as well as through uterine and agnatic ties. Apart from the rules of sacredness already discussed, some revering of the chancel is necessary, including a small fee called service or consultation money, which “opens the diviner’s mouth” (ego ajuju or ego iwake okwe). A specific amount may be asked for directly by the diviner or the fee may be negotiated. In one oracular session, the spirit simply pronounced how much was to be paid in either ancient money (isi ego) or in British colonial currency, and the diviner converted it.[9] All fees are to be placed in front of the shrine or divining space.

As ignorance is co-generative to the investigation, clients are asked preliminary questions and instructed on proper decorum while the session is going on; for instance, they should not cross their legs or show indecency, which would render the efforts of the diviner non-productive. Another standing rule is that the diviner should know no details of the case beforehand; rather, these are to be exposed by the process of divination. As a matter of concern for the people, a client should go to a diviner far away from home in order to avoid a local diviner being influenced by previous awareness of the case or by community gossip (asiri oria). Once this influence is mitigated, the revelation should be discerned by a neutral “other voice of the forces who see better than man.” Going to divination means going to listen to authoritative sources. It is particularly important for both the client and diviner to begin a session in a state of uncertainty (White 1997:67-68; Devisch 1999; De Boeck 1991). Joseph Ayim Nwanoro in Ohaji, a master diviner, notes that spirits are more sensitive than men. Speed in the consultation approach is preferred (ime osiso ka mma), as Spirits are meant to write with “thunder lights” (amuma oku ezelu) as they read a client’s face and assess the problems presented.


There are cases where clients do not come to a diviner in good faith, but, rather, to test or find fault with him or her. But consultation is expected to concern itself with a client’s problem, and opening a long dialogue with the oracle, except when it is required, is to be avoided. The oracle will always identify a particular client’s purpose in coming, and then move swiftly along to the task of accounting for other events in the patient’s life. Posing unrelated questions is not encouraged, as long narratives might complicate the psychological mood of the client and weaken the diviner’s ability to ask relevant questions. If the oracle receives no further questions when he or she should, the session will terminate. The ending of a divination session means that a spirit called up will not be summoned to re-appear on the same day for the same client in the same session. An initial explanation of the rules of consultation prepares the session and begins the divinatory experience. The following three modes—mirrorization, seedification, and palmization—are significant and will illustrate further these cultural concepts and methods of coping with critical unwellness.

CONTINUED ::::>


* Introduction to Igbo Medicine (2)

* Introduction to Igbo Medicine (3)


Endnotes

*[1] Dr. Patrick Iroegbu is Social and Cultural Medical Anthropologist and of the Department of Anthropology, Economics and Political Science, Grant MacEwan College, University Studies. Edmonton Alberta, Canada. Please send comments, suggestions and permission to reproduce part or whole to iroegbuP@macewan.ca or patrickiroegbu@yahoo.com or the web-publisher.


[1] Festus Adedayo (2005). “The Dilemma of a Snake” Guardian Newspapers Ltd. Online article. Tuesday, February 1, p. 4. In: http://odili.net/news/source/2005/feb/146.html

[2] Chappell Neena et al, 2003. Aging in Contemporary Canada. Toronto: Prentice Hall. See chapter 3, p. 72, discussing knowledge building and older people in society.

[3] I am using the term culture-loggia management approach to mean culturally situated ways of identifying and addressing problems of life’s crisis.

[4] Bascom, W. Ifa Divination. 1969. See also Abimbola. W. 1977.

[5] Gilchrist, C. And his Divination: The Search for Meaning.

[6] “Oracle,” in its most basic term, refers to a culturally appropriated mode that speaks out, revealing what spiritual forces are active in one’s problem or event and what might be done about them. Shrines, altars, incubation sites, temples, grottoes or caves, deity ground forests, trees and rivers are examples of oracular signification of presence. According to Karcher (1997:13), these symbols encourage special kinds of perception, a way to see through the surface of things and hear what is at work behind them. Oracles make the capacity to see, hear, and feel extra-human forces moving and acting in fostered sites of close encounters. Oracular sites give access to a divine mindset, a knower of fates, a world soul bringing both rational and phenomenal experiences and thoughts together. Oracular sites provide means with which to gather information about the invisible world through the source, nature, and power of the diviner/agent who has been chosen and planted in the professional sight by the extra-human force involved.

[7] Pierre, St. M & T.L. Soldier. 1995. Walking in the Sacred Manner: Healers, Dreamers, and Pipe Carriers – Medicine Women of the Plain Indians. Toronto: Simon & Schuster.

[8] Fieldnote March 1998.

[9] Here, the spirit pronounced that 400 naira should be paid, half on the spot, and the remainder at the commencement of the therapy.

[Ɔkyeame Kwame]

Introduction to Igbo Medicine 2

IGBO MODES OF MOBILIZING EXTRAHUMAN FORCES TO RESPOND TO ILLNESS AND PROBLEMS IN SOCIETY - IGA N’AJUJU

(Part 2)

PATRICK IROEGBU*[1]
Alberta, Canada
patrickiroegbu@yahoo.com

In this part two, I will discuss with details the concept of mirror divination and draw out the experiences and perspectives healers and clients give out in dealing with some more challenging health and other related issues that make them approach and use the oracle for consultation. I aim to show that people do not just go to divine for the unknown alone, but also to mobilize the cultural forces in the ecological fields to respond to their needs in time and space.

Mirror Divination Mode, Iga n’ enyo
In order to illustrate its significance, I will describe here how the grand mirror is consulted. Mirror divination (afa enyo) encompasses both afa enyo nta (small mirror) and afa enyo ukwu (grand mirror), each of which is distinctive, and is intended to deal with intractable cases that often take people on long journeys.[i] With small mirror divination (afa enyo nt), diviners use small mirrors to reflect images as inversions of one another, such that a client may see the inverted image of him- or herself in the mirror. This utilizes revelations that we cannot ordinarily see on our own. Generally, however, when the Igbo talk about iga n’enyo (going to the mirror), they mean going to consult the grand mirror (big mirror), which is sanctified and empowered with medicine for consultation. On the contrary, a small mirror reads problems almost as symbolic reflections. Each reflective outcome produces an interpretation in its own right. Questions are raised and the mirror will be turned in different directions until a decodable reflection or appearance is registered on it. This allows healer/diviners to capture messages uncommon to our ordinary perceptions. In particular, mamiwota specialists use this type of technique. Because it is a small mirror with facilitating medicines packed around it, it is easy to carry, hence being a resourceful and important aetiological device.

Grand mirror divination, afa enyo ukwu
Reputed experts of this mode offer, on a weekly or daily basis, a consultation referred to as iga n’enyo. The origin of grand mirror divination is linked to the drive to overcome problems encountered in seed divination (afa igba mkpuru okwe). Informants noted that divinatory evidence often attracts the police, who harass diviner/healers and demand to see visible evidence of pronouncements that might be associated with family dissent and court actions. Attempts to overcome the mockery of the divinatory art and the embarrassment resulting from law enforcement authorities’ tendency to capitalize on the opportunity to humiliate clients and healers made the need for some extra power and evidence that would prove the authenticity of the oracular revelations inevitable. Devices such as the grand mirror emerged in response to the need to prevent that inadequacy. It is said that the extra-human force behind the grand mirror appeared from the sea, and practitioners quickly point to and present related symbols. Informants claim that the mirror sees to all corners of Igboland and beyond, and that several spirits help to mirror the family, the water, the forest, and the market. Professional grand mirror divination takes place mainly on the Nkwo, Eke, and Orie market days, and apart from Afo, as a recent visit to the field reinforces.[ii]

Concrete St. Joseph’s Grand Mirror Consulting Centre

I furthered my inquiry into this area by accompanying clients to the grand mirror house called St. Joseph in Umudim, near Owerri. This grand mirror house, or centre, is not a religious organization per se; it is, rather, a consulting house for spiritual communion, set up and named by the healer. Divinatory consultation here is principally tied to prayer petitions and invocations, which are seen as means of discernment. The technique originated from the water by the aid of a powerful spirit, referred to as Ezenwaanyi or Mamiwota.

Consulting Processes

i. First meeting with the diviner-healer

Peculiar to the process of questioning the grand mirror is that it entails an all-night or all-day session, each session generally lasting 6 to 9 hours. Clients are given instructions about what to do and expect, and about proper conduct. An encounter with the diviner/healer in the evening or early morning precedes the actual confrontation with the oracle. I will focus on an evening session here.

ii. Facing the grand mirror and questioning the forces

Prior to clients entering the mirror house and beginning to view and question the grand mirror, the healer anoints their eyes. Inside the mirror house, each client occupies a cabin equipped with a grand mirror (enyo ukwu), also called a “wonder mirror” (enyo ebube). When clients are properly seated before the sacred grand mirror, the healer shuts the door and leaves the consults alone in a kind of seclusion designed to promote self-immersion and deep self-questioning. As a matter of modus operandi, undergoing such questioning in a group context means that one of the consultants becomes a proper witness to the diviner’s interrogation of the grand mirror oracular realm. The forces reflected in the grand mirror are subject to wise interrogation. They are summoned and asked to explain why they intrude into the lives of the long-suffering client, under whose name the grand mirror reflexive discourse is opened. Consultation is therefore a self-participatory interaction. The consultant may voice any question suggested by the images in the mirror. The information thereby gathered is transmitted to the diviner/healer at the end of the viewing session (early the following morning around 7 a.m.) and leads to a second assembly.

iii. Second meeting with the diviner-healer

In the morning, the diviner opens the door and leads the group out, usually to the front of the consultation house where the preparatory session took place. He makes sure that none of the participants speaks to one another. When all are seated tension and curiosity mount among the accompanying members, who now watch things from one side. Each person (there were 11 people involved in this particular session) is, in turn, asked to give his or her account of the divination experience. The healer asks questions such as: What led you to participate in the session? What did you ask? What did you see? What did you experience? How did you present your case to the forces that appeared? The various consultants are to report, in detail, their experiences with regard to these questions from the diviner. The diviner may explain the facts underlying each account, sometimes indicating why, for instance, a particular illness has taken the form manifested in the ill person. Stolen items, cases of sorcery, and episodes or circumstances of severe illness are analyzed according to how the attacker is dealing with the distressed. When this second assembly is finished, the healer moves the process to a more customized or personalized session, which I will denote in the third meeting.

iv. Third meeting with the diviner-healer
After this public interaction is completed, the healer meets with each consultant separately in his antechamber for further interaction and private communication. He will then turn to other investigative facilities in communion with the forces in order to further determine the therapeutic and ritual options appropriate to the problem at hand. He will then prescribe a remedy. A consultant may be advised to go home and think over the outcome of the divination and then come back for further action. This was the case of one participant, Mr. Iroha, whose case concerned a car theft and the downturn of his son’s fortune, as well as his incapacity to deal with the predators. The question now is this; is grand mirror helpful? How well can grand mirror handle such cases and, in this ongoing predicament, how does relief become meaningful?

v. The transactional efficacy of the grand mirror divination

The grand mirror technique is generally acclaimed for its efficacy. Users acclaim its results and consider its application symbolic, genuine, and assuring. First, it allows each consultant to see things for him- or herself. Second, sorcery can be undone on the spot through procedures using such things as magic needles or pins (aga, nwandudu amuma), provided by the healer/diviner. Third, an offender may be forced to confess right there in the mirror, cancel his or her source of attack, indicate what was used in the attack, and specify what can be done to counteract it. To indicate his or her refusal to perform any of these actions, the offender would show his or her back instead of face (ihu, iru). The significance of showing front-side (ihu, iru) and backside (azu) corresponds with the ideas of persistence, truth, acceptance, agreement, regret, willingness to negotiate, co-operation, or rejection versus their opposites. And the mirror reflects all of these symbolically. In cases of death or insanity, the attacker would clearly be shown and forced to explain the reasons for the attack. Stolen goods or abducted persons are seen in the mirror, and the current circumstances of the stolen goods or kidnapped person/s are seen. Whatever the situation, the consultant is made to see all there is to envision.

The afflicted and his or her accompanying group may decide to seek revenge against someone who has killed their relative or caused a member to suffer insanity or another form of harsh misfortune. In some instances, the client may request that the healer/diviner call the person out in the mirror so that revenge may be sought by piercing the offender’s image with the magic pin or needle (aga, amuma). The request for on-the-spot revenge may come from the healer or from the client who is asking what can be done. From whichever side it may be sought or suggested, the diviner plays the role of healer/judge or healer/retaliator by introducing and explaining the consequences of retributive actions (ime na imegwara). This is necessary because, if a client decides to terminate the life of an offender out of uncontrolled anger, the other consultants may similarly ask for further retaliation against that client’s revenge. This may unleash death upon death via attacks and counter-attacks. Rather than permitting such incidents, which allegedly may happen in extreme cases, the healer seeks alternative means of dealing with the situation, calls upon the conscience of the clients, and advises them on the use of iju ogu. That is, a resort to effective use of their innocence in prayers and symbolic application for justice – thereby enhancing their fate and consequence through laying down in petition to the extra-human forces to take revenge on their behalf based on the principle of equity and retributive justice. By so doing, a healer also protects his own conscience in terms of the imperatives and repercussions involved in the healing process.

vi. Reliability in the face of disharmony
Soliciting declarations from the forces regarding aetiology and suggested therapy may shed light on problems other than the ones that consultants are already aware of. It is also not out of place to suggest that divinatory pronouncement may sometimes, in turn, generate conflicts. When such problems arise, the grand mirror procedure is considered reliable, and, in short, the crucial “last resort.” However, cases abound that further question this efficiency. A diviner/informant told of a case, reported by the Nigerian daily newspaper, The Punch,[1] about this new divinatory technique of revealing the secrets underpinning human suffering: A team of newsmakers from the mentioned press had participated in the grand mirror divination. Their participation provided them with an opportunity to interrogate other participants, and even to take photographs of an insane person from neighbouring Yoruba, called Tunde, who was undergoing treatment. Having reported their findings with the pictures they took, a judiciary case was laid against the healer by the patient’s caregivers. But the evidence, which can always be verified, was found in the grand mirror technique itself, culturally viewed as a means by which to settle such matters. This does not mean that other investigation modes and procedures are not reliable, but the technical problem of offering indisputable evidence to the unbeliever is resolved by the way in which the grand mirror reflects events and circumstances surrounding each problem through self- or group-participation, in which all consultants are seeing and interacting in the viewing session. The argument that the healer only sees and says what suits him or her is thereby counteracted. Law enforcement agents find it easy to pretend that traditional ways of showing genuine evidence for the reasons behind human suffering have been overtaken by more modern methods. On the contrary, however, ethnographic records support the fact that great credibility is given to divination into human suffering through the grand mirror cultural mode. To explain this better, let us introduce the case of a village community from the Okigwe area of Igboland.

A Village Community Consulting the Grand Mirror

In 1978 through 1980, a village in the Okigwe area was involved in a case concerning quick and premature deaths among its progressive individuals. Members of the local community were worried and complained, thereby generating public concern. The burden of diligence caused the community to assemble and seek insight into their misfortune. After a long discussion, they decided to consult reliable customary ways of knowing. A famous healer in the field, Dibianta, and his field of grand mirror, was chosen. On the agreed day, sixteen village elders presented themselves at the house of the healer and were allowed to enter the praying house to see things for themselves. With no exception, all participants saw the culprit, who was himself among them, causing the problem of early deaths amongst the villagers. Even the said perpetrator agreed that he had also seen himself. His admittance to having seen himself on the grand mirror as the source of the problem made sense to all of the participants. Details, from where the culprit had placed the dangerous medicine, namely on top of a palm tree, to where he set himself against the village’s successful people, were also uncovered. The culprit, having seen for himself facts he could no longer deny, admitted the whole truth about his evil acts.

Greatly angered, the community elders went home and tried to deal with the matter in their accustomed manner at the community centre (obom, ogboto). Here, the perpetrator’s hands were tied behind his back and he was tortured, severely beaten, and threatened with being killed during the night. Before this could be achieved, however, the news escaped to the culprit’s family. The police were quickly called to intervene and bring the situation under control. The family of the offender, in collaboration with the police, turned the story upside down. The claim became that the diviner had manhandled and tortured the accused, Okoroigwe, with beatings and the use of dangerous medicine in order to force him to verify the community’s claim of the deaths of its members and to punish the offender’s family for their non-progressiveness.

Okoroigwe, however, did not yield to the charges that his family brought against the diviner. Rather, he testified that he was not in any way victimized by the dibia afa, or compelled to accept the claims levelled against him. He verified that he went through the consultation process in the same way as the others, and that he did, indeed, see himself and his activities unveiled in the grand mirror. In addition, Newspaper coverage in The Punch was also tendered to justify the activities with which the mirror divinations are associated.

The question arises as to why the confessing offender would not seek the refuge offered by the controversy raised by the police and his family. A large part of the answer to that question lies in the fear of further extra-human revelations and retaliation. Informants often point out humiliating treatments to which they have been subjected by the police with regard to divination decisions. One said that “apart from no confidence shown by the Church on what healers are doing, healers seem somehow not protected on the side of the police as well.” This harassment has resulted in healers taking more steps to back-up their divinatory statements with some undeniable evidence or proof, such as the ability for clients to see things for themselves and then bear witness to what they have seen. Informants argue that it is because of the dismissive attitudes of healthcare agents and police that diviners have tried to adjust their techniques accordingly. The need for useful changes designed to respond to these issues are equally true in regard to the divination devices healers subject their approaches to.

CONTINUED ::::>

* Introduction to Igbo Medicine (3)

Endnotes

[1] Efforts made to lay hands on this Newspaper report by The Punch (in late 1970) did not come through untill the after the time of our writing. But the healer citing it did so with every air of pride and certitude, knowing that he was sure of his information in that regard. According to the healer the report was entitled “Dr. Dibianta discovers a new technology of revealing secrets on human suffering.”

[i] Reputed experts operate on a weekly basis a mirror divination, referred to as iga n’enyo. The origin of grand mirror divination is traced to the drive to overcome the divination problems proper to seed divination (afa igba nkpuru okwe). At times, as it was confided, evidence of police harassing diviner-healers is too embarrassing to openly voice out or might heighten family dissent and court actions. To overcome the mockery of the divinatory art, there was a need for some extra power and evidence to indisputably prove the authenticity of the oracular revelations as applicable to any crisis presented. Devices such as the grand mirror emerged in response to the need to forestall the inadequacy of material evidence. It is said that the extra-human force behind the grand mirror appeared from the sea. Informants claim that the mirror sees all corners of Igboland and beyond and that several spirits pull together and help to mirror the family, the water, the forest, and the market.

[ii] Fieldwork follow up, April 2001 and October 2003, respectively. In general, divinations are not carried out on afo market days. And healers do not engage in medical practices as such on those days. It is a day during which healers and diviners rehabilitate themselves, paying respect to the deity of medicine and divination, including their ancestors. Julius Nwosu is a reputed healer and masquerade specialist, whose house we entered for discussion on core aspects of divination. “It was on a wrong day”, he said, and “there was nothing he could do to show us things connected with the great art of knowing”. His major concern was that to do anything on the odd day (ubochi nso) would break the rule and offend the institution, incurring its wrath.

[Ɔkyeame Kwame]

Introduction to Igbo Medicine 3

IGBO MODES OF MOBILIZING EXTRAHUMAN FORCES TO RESPOND TO ILLNESS AND PROBLEMS IN SOCIETY - IGA N’AJUJU

(Part 3)

PATRICK IROEGBU*[1]
Alberta, Canada
patrickiroegbu@yahoo.com

Both parts one and two of this presentation have outlined the definition and meaning of divination in the light of cultural device to manage episodes of illness in kinship based systems of society organization and relationships. Mirror divination is specifically elaborated to illustrate the sense of endogenous skills and creativity in a changing traditionism and modernism. This part three will take up two more modes of divination to establish the fact that modal variety is often a way of reaching deeper and broader layers of the cultural and cosmological fields of a society in the intervention and management of conflicts, health, social, economic, and political contours of troubled life and society. In the following, what palm and seed-object divination systems are in their processes and in their significances will be the main discourses.


Palm divination, afa olule aka

Palmistry, also called “fate in your hand” (akaraka), is a common practice. Apart from specialists, commoners usually know and carry out palm readings (ile aka). Every person’s palms (obo aka) are marked differently, and each may have something to say about the current and future events in the life of the person whose palms are being examined. In this sense, the palm of the hand is crisscrossed with signs. Fingers and thumbs are also significant, as is the overall shape and texture of the hand. And the wrist wrinkles (“bracelets of life”) trace the pattern of overall health and life when figured in with the lines on the palm, thus weaving the life story of individual clients (Karcher 1997:42) into an unfolding tale. “Palmists” (ndi ole aka) are readers and interpreters of the palm markings (akaraka), and, in particular, the visible symbolic lines (akara gbaputara ihe).

But diviner/healers, in this case, go beyond the visible lines on the palm. They dig deeper in order to confront the hidden signs and bring out the unseen (akara zoroezo). In doing this, white powder, a mirror, perfume, and other objects, such as candle lights and burning incense, are usually employed. For example, in the examination of the hand of a patient, powder may be put in the hand and rubbed in well. A small divining mirror may then be placed on the hand to reflect underlying symbolic marks best known to the diviner/healer. A diviner constantly caresses the palm (obo aka), muttering questions and words in line with what she or he is observing. After all this, the healer identifies, in most cases, problems that the client may have encountered in his or her life. The healer will also warn against future misfortunes that might occur if nothing is done to balance events. Usually, ritual sacrifices will be indicated to solve ongoing problems and counteract future ones. People may consult this form of fortune telling to determine their future, improve their luck, determine what they are destined for in life, and how to go about achieving that destiny.

Particular healers, such as those dealing with owummiri, uke, and ogbanje, use palm examination as a “first call” to identify whether or not a patient belongs to any spirit cult, or to determine how fatal his or her case is and what therapeutic steps can be taken at that moment. In addition, the use of colours is important. The case below, in which a woman was close to death, illustrates this divination method.

Case of a Woman Crying in Death Agony after Her Fifth Delivery

Healer Nze Iwu Vernatius of Nsu, narrated this case concerning a woman who had contracted with her spirit to die after delivering her fifth child. Upon his arrival at the patient’s home, the healer found the people in a state of helplessness, and the woman’s husband was no less confused. The healer recalled how he worked and said:

He (the husband of the dying woman) quickly hauled me inside, where his wife was laying writhing in pain, struggling, and crying loudly. First, I took her hands and opened her palms for examination. When I looked closely, I screamed aloud. I called out for immediate rescue or she would die! I pleaded forthwith, addressing the spirits to give way. “Hold on!” (Chere nu!), my voice passionately thundered.

In her palms were two bold and large colours—one red and one blue. Nobody was seeing these colours except me. I called the woman’s husband’s attention to it, but he also couldn’t see it. I declared that she needed to be bailed out (ngbaputa) at once or else she would depart to join her group of water spirits. “Her group is all dancing around waiting for her to feast together. Your wife is an uke” (i.e., belonging to owummiri, the water spirit cult) She was left with two options: to die or become insane if she refused to join them.

Further to this palm divination finding, the healer pointed out that diviners are sometimes helped by what sort of cries the ill person voices. In line with this view, he reports of the dying woman:

She had been crying out, “how can I ever leave my four children and the last one, and to whose care? I know it is the fifth that we agreed, yet I am confused, unwilling, unwilling, unwilling.”

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the healer went on:

I requested that a hen that had laid eggs and reared chicks be brought to me quickly for the bail out (ina n’ebe). People moved into the gardens around and caught one. When it was brought to me, I went into service, and sacrificed the hen; with its blood I cleansed the blue colour, balancing all the colours into a unity of red (human blood) that gave the woman her life back.

It can be seen from this narrative that incidents like this call for immediate action and cool heads in the logic of sorcerous exchange (wete isi bia were isi). In order to deal with sensitive emergencies successfully, one requires a healer/diviner who is not only capable of identifying the problem on the spot, but is also able to rescue the patient by personally confronting the attacking forces. If not, the critical position (the blue colour in this instance) before such a healer would prevail without opposition. Offering the sacrifice cancelled the verdict (the blue), and changed it to red, normalizing the woman’s humanity. Significantly, the blue colour meant the breaking of ties (nkabi njiko) between the patient and his or her cult group. If the healer had not met the patient until the colour was black, the situation would have already reached a “deadend” (uka agwula), with no hope of rescue whatsoever. And this was close to taking place; no rescue would have occurred in the black colour zone, in which the sealing of the covenant would have been irrevocable. The black colour is a point of no return, a point where all negotiations are closed. The following box depicts this:

Palm divination reveals colours significant with covenants. They are namely:

Red: danger, blood

Black: dead-end, ended matter

Blue: breaking of ties, judgement

These basic colours indicate critical moments for the ill person. A healer reads them and interprets the implication of each colour signification. Therapy is therefore constructed on each colour indication, and may differ by intensity and type of resources needed to face it. Cases of insanity and traumatic distress are given proper care.
Box 1: Colours in palm divination and significance


Seed-Object divination, afa mkpuru okwe (igba okwe)

This is the most ancient and popular of divination techniques still in regular use. In this device, each of the intervening objects or seeds represent or indicate a specific cause or source of the problem. A dibia who uses seeds to question the forces involved is described as “a specialist of a hundred seeds” (dibia ohu okwe iri). These seed objects are sacred and deeply symbolic. Apart from seeds, this divination may also include the use of beads (ego, okwe, ola), and symbols of the heart, cross, and seat (ube mgba, ekwe, oche). There are also symbols for agwu, such as a button, ear ring, plate, coffin, or chain, as well as fertility items such as gravel, breadfruit seed (udara, okwute), a precious stone, and male and female chimpanzees. The healer holds the key to the significance of these materials, which can only be revealed if it is considered necessary. For example, the ring may represent a woman’s sexual affair, and the seat may depict family affairs. When the cross and chain join together, this indicates that the client is chained or tied up. If it is the cross alone that appears during aetiological investigation, this indicates prayers. If it is agwu, it means that the client has an unresolved agwu problem, such as being called to become a healer; udara symbolises a marital relationship; and money (ego) indicates that the cure will be, or has been, ineffective.

The number of seed objects a diviner might use evolves according to his expertise. They may be even or odd in number, such as 16, 24, 35, 40, or 50. Only the diviner knows what each one represents, so as to protect their sacredness and secrecy, as well as their effectiveness.