Culture and the Nkalaha World - Onyeji Nnaji

Culture and tradition are two concepts which had been dully misconstrued by many religious fanatics in the community, especially in the aftermath of the religious crisis in the year 2002. Although the terms are related, they possess, each, features which may critically be defended to be the base of their differences. Culture, according to a social scientist; Simmel (1971: 6), is referred to as the “Cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history.” Now, the objectification of the agency of external form of the people’s history and the cultivation of this history into the individuals in the community are two ways channel culture passes to be credible. Culture is inbuilt but tradition is acquired. Agencies of external objects form the layman’s definition of culture as people’s way of life. Nkalaha has many external forms objectified and cultivated into the inhabitants.

Nkalaha has a set of behaviour, mode of conduct, dressing, activities and greetings which are sometimes peculiar to them and many a time similar to those of the communities in the neighbourhood. All these formed the bases of Nkalaha culture. In Nkalaha, it is our culture for the younger ones to stand up for the older persons to sit down. And while older people are discussing, children do not interfere. We do not wait for an elder to greet the younger ones. In her mode of dressing, Nkalaha has different dressing for different cultural display. Elders wear differently from young men. In the pre-colonial era, Nkalaha dressed in “Ekwerekwe,” design of Akwete woven wool. Mature men tied it round about their body with a cross-over part above (behind) the shoulder. Young men above puberty - tie it around their waist and ran it downward - crossing from front to their buttocks. Grown up women tied it around their waist and a little covering on their breast.

Culture is a form of civilization of a particular people, race or nation which may be peculiar to them or not. The base of Nkalaha civilization is loyalty and subordination: according honour to whom honour is due. Nkalaha culture aimed at developing individuals from character moulding stage to maturity. It interprets how a man and a woman should behave or conduct his or herself in the home. Nkalaha oral tradition anchors itself on hunting lifestyle. They fish, hunt animals and set traps. This single activity – hunting – forms the demonstration (hands movement) seen during cultural dance. Tradition differs a little from these.

Now, tradition may be seen as a normal practice and conduct of a people. These practices may be the process through which such people pass their custom, belief system and history from one generation to another. Nkalaha has so many practices that aimed at sustaining her history, belief and customs. These practices are seen in her festivals, ritual, masquerading and so on. Festivals form the calendar month recognized by the community. Her week days are Oye, Ahvo, Nkwo and Eke. The completion of these four market days makes a week. Seven Orie market days make a month. The first month in Nkalaha calendar is marked with new yam festival. It continues until Onwa-Esato that marks the end of the year. The inhabitants check and knew their time through the crow of cocks, Okwa (bush fowl) and the different sizes of their shadow.

Ritual is a general practice of people in the community. They make incantations to their gods who, in many cases, are replicas of their dead fathers. Nkalaha believes in reincarnation. They also believe that their ancestors are around them. This is the more reason why elders throw pieces of food to the ground, muttering some words, before eating. They also believe that, to say the truth over any matter, one has to stand on the ground barefooted. The inhabitants also believed in the existence of the Almighty God, whom they refer to as Chileke or Chiufu (God the creator, or God Almighty). On the contrary, they believed that this Chiufu can only be approached through their worship of the things they see (things naturally made; trees, stones and water) which are replicas of the presence of nature and, of course, the Almighty which cannot be seen. And since the worship of these natural instincts and their reverence for them can make them pious and avoid evil, it was without recourse that such was the true worship of the Almighty who embodies the cosmos. The belief which the inhabitants have over spirits, gods and the nearness of their ancestors are tied around their myths, religion and masquerading. And they have guarded this with every jealousy. It was the provocation of this jealousy that caused the rile experienced in the community in 2002. It is the juxtaposition of their culture and tradition that gave rise to the taboos in the community. The same forms the community’s custom.

Stages of growth in the community are justified by the level of attainment of the inhabitants in the fulfilment of traditional rights. Maturity, on the other hand, is justified by one’s ability to bear pains. Men, in like manner with the rest communities in Africa, are trained to accept and embrace pains. First, in their growth after infancy, they are made to pass through the process of initiation. In Nkalaha, initiations are in stages depending on the age of the initiate. Each year a particular age grade gets initiated into one stage of societal life or the other. The first stage of initiation in Nkalaha is “Oma Nkpume.” This grants the child the right to belong to Nkpume masquerade cult. This stage of initiation is done with beating by the masquerade. During the process the person is made to dance on the playground. After this particular initiation the initiate ceases from being an ogboduru (see Nnaji 2007). He, after this action, ceases from sleeping in his mother’s room as it is feared that he may tell the mother the content of the masquerade. His company and peers changes from those who are ogboduru to those who have been initiated. The same people he sleeps with. 

The second stage is “Oma Omebe.” This also qualifies the initiate to belong to Omebe masquerade cult. This stage succeeds the first initiation with just a year or two. After this stage the person is qualified to attain any further level of life as the society may stipulate for him.

The next stage, after Omebe initiation is marriage. Now, the essence of the pains inflicted on him and his ability to take them is to justify whether he can keep a family of his own or not. By this it means he can defend his family at any time, against any attack. Before marriage, forms of growth and development or stages of life are also checked by the number of heaps the person makes each day while cultivating. For a full-fledged man in the society, he is expected to complete 100 heaps a day. This aspect is however used to assess his strength. When he begins to make such number of heaps per day, the next line of thought will be to look for him a wife. Marriage then marks another stage of life, growth and development. At this point he is made to pass through the rigorous process involved in marriage, which many a time is not very palatable. Marriage (courtship) in the traditional Nkalaha society lasts for more than a year.

Satisfying marital processes prepares the person for the next confrontation of becoming a complete man in Nkalaha society. The next level is Obu Ulo. This is in the form of taking a title, but it has no title attached to it. Instead, it justifies the person that he is mature enough to take any title. This is different from Oshi Ji. The latter can be done by anyone who feels he has grown enough yams and wants to belong to the group of people called Igube ji. On the day of this title taking, the person feeds the entire population that is traditionally permitted to attend the programme with yam only. Apart from these and other titles not mentioned in this history, Akam masquerade also is included in the required thing that a complete man in the society is expected to participate in. Initiation into Akam cult marks the peak of the initiation ever an Nkalaha man engages himself in.  

In the same light, women are not left out in these forms of cultural moulding. They too have series of patterning to go through as unto the males’ formal initiations. The female child born in Nkalaha begins from when she is still very young to receive her moulding. Her breeding begins with the directions on how to sit down and how not to sit. Female children are taught a particular way of seating down different from their male counterparts. They are also taught the better ways to talk. They are not allowed to use vulgar words. All the same, male children are instructed and checked against scatology, but this is of no amount compared to the level of restriction posed on female children. It was the duty of midwives to police children against scatology and discourteous words.

The civilization of the girl child in Nkalaha society occurs in stages. As the child grows, she is met with serious kinds of patterning. On or before the age of six, she is taught how to wash plates. Getting mature from this, she faces another facet of the socialization. This time she is confronted with the challenges of cooking. She is kept under the tutelage of her mother and elder sisters from whom she learns how to cook various dishes. All these are organized milieu for preparing the girl child for advantageous family living, as a mother, in the future. Every arrangement is designed and put into practice for the real positioning of the girl child.

At maturity, the girl is seen already equipped with the required skills for managing a home. As part of her marital processes, the girl is at a time kept in confinement for more than a month. This system is, in Nkalaha dialect, referred to as “Ono l’ Uhvu.” This is usually a fattening period for the girl child and a time when she is given utmost attention from her parents. The period is declared opened with “Okpa Nri.” From then on, she is entertained with pounded yam and chicken until the day she ends her confinement. She is not allowed to do anything. And to make sure that this dream is achieved, she is attached with a boy and a girl who would serve every errand purpose she may have. She is allowed to stay inside until the day she moves to her husband’s house. Only girls who are discovered to have had teenage pregnancy are not given the grant to this care giving.

Few days before she leaves to her husband’s home, she is allowed to visit friends and relatives. This opportunity is designed for people to see her before she leaves the parents finally. Usually people give money to her as a means of showing appreciation for how much she has improved in health while in her confined period. This visitation continues until the day draws closer for her to leave her parents. This visiting period is called “Uyi Uhvu.” Until the day she leaves, she is not allowed to do anything skillful.

On the day she leaves for her husband’s house, the girl is made to appear before her father – first thing in the morning so that her father would see her first before other people in the neighbourhood – for his last blessing. He pronounces blessings upon her as she kneels before him. She appears naked with a little covering around her waist and around her breast. The constituent of the covering around her waist are beads. After this early morning blessing, she leaves her biological home in the evening of that same day. This aspect of the marital process takes place only on the Nkwor market day.

This aspect of life for the girl child does not end with her days with the parents, it continues as the girl moves to her matrimonial home. This time it is her parents-in-law who takes up the duty. For seven Orie market days, she does not go to farm or take part in any skilful activity. All she is expected to do is to go to the stream and fetch water for her mother-in-law or an elderly woman in the neighbourhood according to her wishes. Good types among the females try to restrain their mothers-in-law from cooking. She begins to assert her position as a woman in a home and manage her own home after she has been celebrated.

The celebration of the new wife is called “Okpo Efu.” On this day the mother-in-law will procure three stones and set for her. Upon these stones she is expected to make her first cooking and continue on it as her cooking position. That day, they will make merriment, after that day she becomes a woman to manage her own home in her own way. Nkalaha custom is in these conditions seen reinforcing and promoting the building of individuals in the most viable way of equipping the adherents with skills required of him until he/she is grown to handle his or her own affairs. These are some of the ways which culture and tradition aid in engraving a systematic life style in the individuals through the series of dutiful undertakings of the agencies that composed the world of an Nkalaha man.

The relationship between the custom and the people’s belief is that it is the gods themselves who check against any traditional offender. Every taboo is punished by the gods. Some costly items may be stated for the offender to provide. But all the items are used to appease the gods. Mainly, it is Alu goddess that attacks people that commit taboos.

In Nkalaha, it is a taboo for a girl who is not married to be impregnated. When this happens it attracts the cleansing of the land. It is also a taboo in Nkalaha for a married woman to sleep in another man’s house in the night. This, however, is subject to some excuses. It is not a taboo if her husband had earlier permitted her to do so. On a similar notion, a couple is not supposed to make love with each other while they have their cooking pot still on fire. Doing this attracts the anger of Alu goddess. Again, it is a taboo for anybody, male or female, to make love with another outside a roof. It doesn’t matter where it takes place, whether within or outside the community. Such deeds attract the cleansing of Alu goddess or punishable with sickness and death. The duty of Alu goddess is to police the inhabitants against every evil deed within and outside the community and to make sure that they live descent life.