Yoruba Religion and Medicine in Ibadan

yoruba religion & medicine in Ibadan

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GEORGE E. SIMPSON

IBADAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

C O NTENTS

List of Tables Preface t.

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Page vii

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TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS IN THE IBADAN AREA

Olódumarê and the Leading Órisá: Beliefs and Ri tual s. . . 1 Olódúmarê . . . . . . . . . 2 Qbátálá . . . . . . . . . 3 Orúnmilá . . . . . . . . . 7 Êl á . . . . . . . . . . 16 Ê$u . . . . . . . . . . 17 Sángó . . . . . . . . 21 0sun . . . . . . . . . . 27 Ógún . . . . . . . . . . 29 Sánppnná . . . . . . . . . 37 Osanyin . . . . . . . . . 42 íbeji . . . . . . . . 44 P g b é .......................................................................................................47 Egúngún . . . . . . . . 49 Oró . . . . . . . . . . 53 Ókêbádán . . . . . . . . 56 Qbalógun . . . . . . . . . 57 Edan . . . . . . . . . . 59 The Ógbóni Cult . . . . . . . . 60 The Ancestors . . . . . . . . 63 Soul Concepts . . . . . . . . 63 Priesthood . . . . . . . . 64 Shrines and Temples . . . . . . . 65 II

MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT

Divination . . . . . . . Dreams . . . . . . . . Witchcraft . . . . . . . . Sorcery and Conjury . . . . . The Curse and the Blessing . . . . . Invocation of the Soul . . . . . . Defences against Witchcraft; Curses; Invocation . . Charms . . . . . . . . Magical Protection used by 272 Rank-and-File Informants

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73 74 75 81 82 82 83 85 88

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Page T R A D IT IO N A L M E D IC IN E

Traditional Healers . . . . . Native Doctors’ Associations . . . Diagnoses, Causes and Treatment of Illnesses Discussion . . . . . . IV.

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93 94 97 . 1 0 8

RELIGIOUS, MAGICAL, AND MEDICAL BELIEFS

Family . . . Education . . . Occupation . . . Religion . . . Magic and Divination . Medicine . . . Summary and Discussion .

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. 1 1 7 . 1 1 9 121 . 1 2 3 . 1 2 4 . 1 2 7 . 1 3 1

V. CHANGES IN YORUBA RELIGIONS AND MEDICINE

Religion in 1964 . . . . . . Conversion to Islam and Christian Faiths . Traditional Cults Declining, but Traditional Beliefs Compromises, Concessions, and Rationalizations Syncretisms found in Religious Movements in South-Western Nigeria . . .

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143 . 1 4 3 . 143 .147 . 1 4 7

Medicine in 1964 . . . . . . . . 1 5 0 Patent Medicines and Drugs . . . . . . 1 5 0 Favourable Attitudes Toward Modern Medicine . . .153 Interaction Between Traditional and Modern Medicine . . 154 Hospitals and Health Centers in the Ibadan Area . . .160 New Emphases and Programmes at the Medical School, University of Ibadan . . . . . . . . 163 A Pilot Experiment in Community Psychiatry . . . 1 6 4 Differing Points of View on the Use of Traditional Healers . 165 Other Changes . . . . • Attitudes Toward the Retention of Traditional Customs Schooling Desired for Own Children . . • Summary

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Appendix A . . . • Forms Used in This Study . Demographic Data on 272 Yoruba

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Appendix B Additional Tables Bibliography

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Index

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188 . 1 8 8 194 197

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L IS T O F T A B L E S

1 Religion now and Number of Wives of 172 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 Place of Residence and School Attendance of 267 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . . . 3 Age and School Attendance of 267 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . 4 Residence and Migration and Education of 268 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 ....................................................................................................... 5 Religion Now and School Attendance of 266 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 6 Religion and Education of 268 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . 7 Age and Occupation of 272 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . 8 Religion Now and Occupation of 271 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 9 Residence and Migration and Religion of 272 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 10 Place of Residence and Being Troubled by Witchcraft of 260 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . . 11 Residence and Migration and Supernatural Trouble or Experience of 270 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . 12 Supernatural Trouble or Experience and Supernatural Guidance or Protection of 261 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . 13 Religion and Supernatural Guidance or Protection of 262 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . . 14 Education and Supernatural Guidance or Protection of 259 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . . 15 Age and Treatment Sought When Seriously 111 of 241 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . . . 16 Religion Now and Treatment Sought When Seriously 111 of 241 Yoruba Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . . . 17 Religion and Illness Practices of 272 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . 18 Education and Illness Practices o f268 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 19 Illness Experience and Supernatural Trouble or Experience of 231 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . 20 Illness Practices and Supernatural Guidance or Protection o f 262 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . . 21 Place of Residence and Attitude Toward Retention of Traditional Religion of 219 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . 22 Illness Practices and Attitudes Toward Modem Medical Treatment of 245 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . 23 Place of Residence and Belief That There Are Illnesses That Modern Medicine Will Never Be Able to Cure of 246 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . ..............................................

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122 123 124 124 125 126 126 126 127 128 129 129 130 131 145 154

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Page 24 Place of Residence and Attitude Toward Retention of Traditional Customs of 269 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . 25 Schooling Desired for Own Children, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . 26 Place o f Residence of 272 Yoruba Men and Women, Ibadan Area, 1964 27 Place of Residence and Age of 272 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . 28 Place of Residence and Marital Status o f 270 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 29 Place of Res idence and Number of Wives of 172 Married Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . . 30 Age and Marital Status of 270 Yoruba, Ibadan Ar i 1964 . . 31 Age and Number of Wives of 172 Marrii d Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 32 Place of Residence and Number of Children of 181 Married Yomba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . . . Place of Residence and Occupation of 272 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 33 34 School Attendance and Occupation of 267 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 35 Place of Residence and Religion Now of 271 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . 36 Age and Religion Now of 271 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . 37 Sex and Religion Now of 271 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 Sex and Consultations W 'th Diviners of 260 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 38 39 Experience With and Attitudes Toward Dispensaries and Hospitals of 272 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 . . . . . . 40 Attitudes Toward Patients of Doctors and Nurses in Dispensaries and Hospitals According to Patients, 272 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964 41 Experience of 272 Yoruba, Ibadan Area, 1964- with Bribing Attendants and Waiting for Service at Dispensaries and Hospitals . .

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166 167 188 188 188 189 189 189 190 ISO 191 191 191 192 192 192 193 193

PREFACE O ften the Yoruba people are thought of as a definite “tribal” or “ethnic” group.

Dr S. O. Biobaku has shown that the use of the term “Yoruba” to refer to the peoples in Western Nigeria is largely the result of the influence of the Anglican mission in Abeokuta in the nineteenth century. Wallerstein says that the standard “Yoruba” language evolved by the mission was the new unifying factor, and he quotes Hodgkin’s remark: (T. Hodgkin, “Letter to Dr Biobaku,” in Odu, No. 4, 1957, p. 42): “ Everyone recognizes that the notion of ‘being a Nigerian’ is a new kind of conception. But it would seem that the notion of ‘being a Yoruba’ is not very much older” .1 And Lloyd points out that originally the term “Yoruba” applied only to the people of the Qyo ki gdom.2 Descent is traced through the male line, and, traditionally, residence is patrilocal. The lineage has not ceased to be a corporate group, even in the towns and cities, but some of its functions have been taken over by voluntary associations of one kind or another. No reliable figures exist of the extent of polygyny among the Yoruba. Lloyd cites one survey which suggests that Yoruba men who have reached the state of marriage have an average of two wives each; one-third have only one wife at any given time, one-third have two, and one third have three or more wives. In Ibadan, as well as in Ijaye and in Lalupon, the chief political officer, the Baálë is assisted by a council o f chiefs. (In Ibadan, since 1935, this officer has been known as the Olúbádán.) Unlike other Yoruba towns, Ibadan has no sacred king or pba. In the 1950s, administrative machinery of the Regional Government grew rapidly and government became much more highly centralized than it was in the earlier part of the colonial period.3 Between 1953 and 1955 local government councils were started by the government of the Western Region, and these units have become integral parts of a modem independent state. Farming is the predominant occupation of the Yoruba. According to Lloyd, a typical Yoruba town has 70 per cent of its adult men engaged in farming, and ten per cent each as craftsmen and traders. Farmlands extend for twenty miles around Ibadan; in smaller towns they go out four or five miles. Where farms are some distance from the town, small hamlets are built and many people commute from town to farm. A complex marketing pattern moves agricultural products from producer to consumer and imported goods from Ibadan merchants and wholesalers to purchasers in the city, villages, and farms.4 Thus far, there has been little industrialization 1 Immanuel Wallerstein, “Ethnicity and National Integration in West Africa,” Cahitrs d'Etudes Africaines No. 3-1, October, 1960,pp. 129-39. Reprinted in P. L. Van den Berghe, Africa Social Problems o f Change and Conflict, Chandler Publishing Company, 1965, pp. 472- 82. 2 P. C Lloyd, “The Yoruba of Nigeria,” in J. L. Gibbs, Peoples o f Africa, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1965, pp. 549-82. This is an excellent summary of Yoruba history and culture. 3 P. C. Lloyd, “Introduction ” n P. C. Lloyd, A. L. Mabogunje. and B. Awe, eds., The Cit o f Ibadan, Cambridge University Press, 1967, pp. 6-7. See G. Jenkins, “Government and Politics in Ibadan," in ibid, ch. 11.

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YORUBA RELIGION AND MEDICINE IN IBADAN

m Nigeria, and Ibadan has much less than Lagos. Ibadan, Lagos and other cities now have some modern department stores, hotels, office buildings and residences. Free primary education was started in Western Nigeria in 1955 and resulted in a massive expansion of instruction at this level up to 1960. Since that time the govern­ ment has e icouraged consolidation to raise the standards and to reduce unnecessary expenses. Callaway says that the city of Ibadan leads Nigeria and even West Africa as a thriving centre of education at all levels.4 5 The University cf Ibadan, an out­ standing modern university founded in 1948, provided undergraduate and graduate instruction for nearly three thousand students in 1964. In recent years, unemployed school leavers have constituted a serious social problem in Ibadan. During the past two decades the growth of a prosperous and educated elite has been an important development, but this group makes up less than one-half of one per cent of the population in Western Nigeria. Since the present study deals largely with traditional beliefs and practices, we arc concerned here only indirectly with the new elite. Yoruba life is undergoing considerable change. New patterns are developing in family life, government, education, the economy, religion, medicine, art and in other areas. Old ways, however, have not disappeared entirely, and the purpose of this study is to give some indication of the extent both of the continuation and of the changing of traditional religions and traditional medicine in the Ibadan areain 1964. The sentiments, defined as “combinations of perception, belief, and feeling which each person carries in his mind as guides for conduct and for the definition of reality,” found by the team responsible for the Cornell-Aro Mental Health Research Project in the Western Region is valuable in understanding “The Yoruba World” . These sentiments pertain especially to the Rgba Yoruba who live in the Abeokuta area, but in the main, they are characteristic of Yoruba who reside in the Western Region. We give below thirteen of the seventeen sentiments on the Cornell-Aro list. Reference to these sentiments will be helpful in examining the findings of the present study on Yoruba religions and medicine. SELECTED SENTIMENTS OF THE YORUPA PEOPLE»

1 The world is made up of many unseen forces—some malevolent, some poten­ tially malevolent. We must piotect ourselves by every possible means. 2 One of the main ways to protect ourselves and our children and to ensure the benevolence of the spirits is sacrifice, the killing of a living being. 3 Success is counted in children, wives, houses, money, land, titles and good standing with one’s neighbours. All of us—adherents to traditional beliefs, 4 P. C. Lloyd, “The Yoruba of Nigeria,” pp. 555- -6. See A. Callaway, “From Traditional Crafts to Modern Industries,” in Lloyd, Mabogunje, and Awe, op. cit., ch. 8; B. W. Hodder, “The Markets of Ibadan,” ibid., ch. 9; and H. A. Oluwasanmi, “The Agricultural Environment” ibid., ch. 3. 5 Archibald Callaway, ‘*Educational Expansion and the Rise of Youth Unemployment,” in Lloyd Mabogunje, and Aw,, eds., op. cit., ch. 10. « A. H. Leighton, T A. Lambo, C. C. Hughes, D. C. Leighton, J. M. Murphy, and D. B. Macklin, Psychiatric Disorder among the Yoruba, Cornell University Press, 1963, ch. 3. X

PREFACE

Moslems, and Christians- -believe in an after-life in which people are judged as good o r bad. The here and now is, however, important in ;ts own right. 4 There are many changes coming which promise a better life for us. But we had better not become so enchanted with the new as to depart radically from the old customs and beliefs. 5 People have it within their power to bring harm and misfortune to others through magical means. Therefore, we must be careful in the way we treat each other. 6 Education is the golden key to success in life—if not for me at least for my children.

7 There is nothing that money cannot do. 8 Everyone belongs somewhere in a group, but all people are not equal. Age, sex and vested authority determine every situation, and we must respect the people above us. 9 .. .the most important ties are those in marriage and between parents and children. 10 Since our world as women is centered on children, it focuses on the future, but we believe we can help them by continuing to practice many of our old ways. 11 Marriage is the normal and natural state for adults, and polygyny is the normal and natural form of marriage. 12 All o f us belong in a variety o f groups—family, village compound, lineage, or tribe—but except for the face-to-face relations of immediate families, loyal­ ties are now confused. 13 Health is precious to all of us. We have heard about germs and nutrition, but if someone is after you with magic, it is mainly sickness or death that he will be able to send. The data in this study were obtained mainly from two sets of informants in the Ibadan area: 275 “rank-and-file” informants and 35 persons who were reputed to be especially well informed about traditional Yoruba religion, or medicine, or both. The larger sample was reduced to 272 when it was found that three of these individuals were non-Yoruba. Of the 272, 54 were residents of the village of Ijaye, 108 o f Laluppn, and 110 of Ibadan. In Ibadan, 32 informants lived in the Oje section, 36 in Oke Qfa, and 42 in Isale Ij?bu. Data concerning the age, sex, marital status, migration, education, occupation, religion of these informants are given in tables in Chapter V and in the Appendix. Of the 35 persons who were healers or leaders in traditional religions or both, 31 were identified with Ibadan sub-tribe, 2 were Ilesa, 1 was Ekiti, and 1 was QtanAiyegbaju. Thirty-two of these informants were male and 3 were female, and the latter three were healers. None of these informants was under 30 years of age, 11 were between 30 and 49, and 24 were from 50 to 90. Of these 35 “experts”, 18 lived in Lalupon (8 healers, 6 traditional religious leaders, and 4 persons who were active in both areas), and 17 resided