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The Governmental Roles of Associations among the Yakö1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Daryll Forde
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Extract

In the study of indigenous African institutions that exercise control while promoting social cohesion and regulating inter-personal and inter-group competition, much attention has been given to the analysis of the governmental functions of kin groups on the one hand and of ritually sanctioned political chiefship on the other. Institutions of these two types, which correspond to the distinction made by Durkheim between segmental and organic solidarity, were the basis of the well-known classification of African Political Systems by Fortes and Evans-Pritchard into two contrasted types labelled lineage or segmentary in one case, and centralized or statelike in the other. In their classification these writers were mainly concerned to distinguish politically centralized chiefdoms from those societies in which the exercise of political authority and social control was confined to recurrent but fluctuating combinations of lineages under their ritual leaders. In this they were led to imply, perhaps as a result of the limited range of societies selected for consideration, that apart from small autonomous bands of kindred, the only alternative to an acephalous and segmentary lineage system was a centralized society in which offices and political powers were hierarchically arranged with definite relations of administrative superiority and subordination holding between offices and councils at different levels. ‘Administrative machinery’ and ‘judicial institutions’ were treated as concomitants of centralized authority.

Résumé

LES RÔLES GOUVERNEMENTAUX DES ASSOCIATIONS CHEZ LES YAKÖ

La distinction apparemment claire entre les sociétés acéphales et segmentaires d'une part, et les chefferies centralisées de l'autre part n'est pas prouvée suffisante pour la description et l'analyse de l'ordre complet des systèmes politiques africains. Il y a des sociétés dans lesquelles ni l'un ni l'autre des principes susmentionnés ne forme le trait dominant du système. En outre des droits et des obligations qui trouvent leur origine dans les liens de parenté ou de localité, ceux produits dans des associations peuvent prévaloir. Le rôle politique des associations chez les Yakö est analysé comme un exemple d'un tel modèle de gouvernement. Les Yakö vivent en grandes communautés unies, chacune composée de plusieurs milliers d'habitants. Mais au delà du niveau de la parenté paternelle localisée d'une centaine de families, l'autorité morale et le pouvoir coercitif résident dans les diverses associations de notables. Dans chaque quartier d'Umor, la plus grande des communautés villageoises indépendantes avec une population de plus de 10.000 habitants, il y a une association de notables qui dirige l'initiation et d'autres cérémonies au nom du quartier. Tandis qu'on devient membre principalement par succession dans diverses lignées paternelles et clans, cette association n'est pas un corps des anciens se comportant comme représentants du clan. Elle exige des gages et désigne ses propres officiers. Elle possède un prestige et une autorité morale considérables. Son chef juge les disputes dans le rayon du quartier et peut défendre les intérêts du quartier dans les affaires du village. Mais elle n'a aucun pouvoir direct de contrainte. Pour ceci elle doit compter sur l'assentiment d'autres associations qui peuvent contraindre les récalcitrants de leur propre part.

Dans les affaires de la communauté plus étendue, l'autorité rituel et morale d'un conseil de prêtres est reconnue. Il exige l'observance des droits et des obligations d'usage et juge les violations et les disputes. Ce conseil est composé de prêtres d'une suite de sanctuaires de fertilité qui sont individuellement associés avec des groupes de parenté maternelle dispersés, et de prêtres de plusieurs autres cultes des esprits considérés efficaces pour l'ensemble du village. Mais de nouveau, cette association de prêtres du village ni exerce ni n'exige des pouvoirs séculaires. D'autres associations indépendantes de notables, organisées dans le village et prétendant au soutien de leurs propres esprits, réclament le droit et le pouvoir d'imposer des sanctions mystiques et physiques sur ceux qui refusent d'accepter leurs règlements et leurs décisions sur les disputes.

Les entendements communs, soutenus par l'enchevauchement des membres parmi ces associations, semblent avoir garanti l'observance générale des droits coutumiers d'individus et de groupes, et permis la contrainte de décisions collectives dans les affaires publiques. Mais ces diverses associations dans les quartiers et dans la communauté entière ne sont pas rangées dans une hiérarchie explicite par laquelle l'une est sujette à l'autorité d'une autre. Du reste,le premier des prêtres du village, bien que connu comme chef du village, ne peut pas être considéré comme chef politique. Sa position rituelle n'est pas essentiellement distinctive, son autorité morale et ses jugements sont exercés de la part du corps entier des prêtres. Ainsi, l'observance du droit d'usage, le maintien de l'ordre public et l'exercice de l'influence politique par individus et groupes alliés sont tous obtenus à travers les activités d'associations qui se perpétuent et qui concourent et se répriment au maniement des affaires publiques et au jugement des maux privés.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , October 1961 , pp. 309 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1961

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References

page 309 note 2 Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E. in the Introduction to African Political Systems, O.U.P., 1940, pp. 5, 6–7, 11–12.Google Scholar

page 310 note 1 Brown, Paula, ‘Patterns of Authority in West Africa ’, Africa, xxi, 1951Google Scholar. A similar criticism has since been made by Middleton and Tait, in their Introduction to Tribes without Rulers, London, 1959Google Scholar. See also A. Southall, Alur Society, Cambridge, n.d.

page 311 note 1 See Forde, D., ‘Ward Organization among the Yakö ’, Africa, vol. xx, 1950.Google Scholar

page 312 note 1 See Forde, D., ‘Fission and Accretion in the patrilineal Clans of a Semi-Bantu Community in Southern Nigeria ’, J.R.A.I., vol. lxviii, 1938.Google Scholar

page 312 note 2 Total membership was said to have previously been only about 30 but a count of memberships in associations in one patriclan in 1939 showed that some 30 per cent, of adult men claimed to be Yakamben. If this was typical it would give a much higher membership figure. This accounts for a discrepancy in statements about the numbers of Yakamben in an earlier publication (‘Ward Organization among the Yakö’, op. cit.). In the census covering 108 adult men of the major section of one patrician comprising five lineages of from 13 to 28 men each, 35 per cent. claimed membership of the Ward Leaders' association. Their ages covered a wide span. Only a fifth of them were over 50 and more than a third were, according to their age-set memberships, less than 40 years old. In this article Yakamben are referred to as Leaders in place of the ambiguous term Elders used in the earlier publication.

page 313 note 1 Thus, in Ukpakapi ward the Egbisum, Usadja, and Lekpangkem patriclans assumed this right and in Idjiman ward, Lebuli, Kebung, Otalosi, and Ugom made similar claims. In Ukpakapi one territorial sub-division of a large patrician—the Ndai section of Lekpangkem-Ndai—had sought to monopolize the second office (of Ogometu) by demanding a right to nominate the successor when an Ogometu from the Obeten Ogometu lineage of Ndai had died.

page 313 note 2 The overlapping memberships in ward and village associations were further shown in the census of one patriclan section referred to above in which eleven of the men who were Leaders in the ward were also members of various senior village associations. Two, both old men of sixty or more, were members of the inner priesthood of Okengka and one of these was also a priest of Korta. Two others were also members of Korta. Three were members of Ikpungkara and three others were members of Okundom. There were two other members of Okundom who had not joined the Ward Leaders.

page 314 note 1 The authority and functions of the Ogbolia and the Yakamben as here described were those attributed to them by the Yakö for the period before the Native Court became effective in the twenties. The manner in which the judicial and other secular functions of the Ogbolia came to be superseded by those of Court members (‘Warrant Chiefs ’) selected from the wards has been indicated in ‘Government in Umor’, Africa, vol. xii, 1939.Google Scholar

page 315 note 1 On the character of these spirits and the roles of their priests see Forde, D., The Context of Belief, Liverpool, 1958, pp. 9–12Google Scholar, and ‘Integrative Aspects of the Yakö First Fruits Ritual’, J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst., vol. lxxix, 1949.Google Scholar

page 319 note 1 For an analysis of the relation between these associations and the kin groups of their members in Yakö mortuary ceremonial see: D. Forde, Death and Succession: An Analysis of Yakö Mortuary Ceremonial, in a forthcoming volume of Simon Lectures in Social Anthropology, Manchester University Press.