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Of souls and bones: the living and the dead among the Rukuba, Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Jean-Claude Muller
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Extract

The relationship between the living and the dead looms large in Africa, but the study of such interactions is notoriously fraught with pitfalls and perhaps only now are we equipped with a valid conceptual framework to enable us to deal adequately with the problems posed by ancestor worship and by the various spirits of the dead in Africa. Fortes (1965: 16—20; 122—142) first gave us a comparative framework of ancestor worship in Africa but part of his conceptualization has been recently questioned by Kopytoff (1971) who argues that the distinction between elders and ancestors is not as clear cut as our own implicit dichotomy would seem to imply. However, his argument, stressing a continuity between the living and the dead, leaves out the fact that elders, when they die, very often become ancestor spirits and, even if they do not become such, take on new qualities and new powers that are different in nature from those they held when alive (Brain 1973; Sangree 1974).

Résumé

A PROPOS D'AMES ET D'OSSEMENTS: LES VIVANTS ET LES MORTS CHEZ LES RUKUBA, BENUE-PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Cet article examine la place que tiennent les morts dans la pensée et la pratique des Rukuba. On trouve deux sortes d'individus qui auront un destin différent à la mort; certains ont une âme qui se réincarnera alors que les autres en ont une qui disparaîtra sitôt après le décès. Celles qui se réincarneront peuvent, en attendant leur métempsychose, venir tourmenter les vivants sous forme de fantôme que l'on saura facilement chasser ou éliminer. L'influence des morts sur les vivants se manifeste surtout quand une malédiction d'aîne à cadet n'a pas été levée avant le décès de l'aîné. Dans ce cas, on agit comme si le mort était encore vivant en demandant à ses os de lever la malédiction. Les ossements sont investis d'une puissance maléfique que l'on craint mais il suffit de prendre certaines précautions pour qu'elle soit neutralisée.

Cependant, les ossements des chefs—en particulier leur crâne—sont physiquement utilisés dans certains rituels où ils jouent le rôle de sanction sociale en aidant à perpétuer les normes et les coutumes. Les ossements des chefs des deux villages rukuba rituellement les plus importants sont l'objet d'un rite annuel incluant une divination, un remerciement aux chefs décédés ainsi qu'un rite des premières semailles dont le facteur le plus important n'est cependant pas—aux dire des Rukuba eux-mêmes—l'influence des feus chefs mais celle de la tribu voisine, les Irigwe. Les relations entre les vivants prennent toujours le pas, chez les Rukuba, sur celles entre les vivants et les morts et l'article montre aussi qu'on ne doit en aucun cas assimiler les aînés rukuba à des presqu'ancêtres comme l'ont suggéré récemment certains auteurs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , July 1976 , pp. 258 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1976

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