Fetichism in West Africa : $b forty years' observation of native customs and superstitions — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Fetichism in West Africa : $b forty years' observation of native customs and superstitions
John Stuart Mill · en
A portion of the wearing apparel and other goods are placed in the coffin
with the corpse. The greater part of a man's goods are taken by his male
relatives. Formerly nothing was given to his widow; now she receives a
small part. And the paternal relatives of the dead man give something to
his maternal relatives.
The corpse is buried in various ways,--on an elevated scaffold, on the
surface of the ground, or in a shallow grave, rarely cremated. Formerly
the burial could be delayed by a claim for settlement of a debt, but this
does not now occur.
No coast tribe eats human flesh. The Fang and other interior tribes eat
any corpse, regardless of the cause of death. Families hesitate to eat
their own dead, but they sell or exchange them for the dead of other
families.
The name given a child is according to family wish. There is no law.
Parents like to have their own names transmitted; but all sorts of reasons
prevail for giving common names, or for making a new one, or for selecting
the name of a great person or of some natural object. A child born at
midday may be called "Joba" (sun), or, at the full moon, "Ngândê" (moon).
A mother who had borne nine children, all of whom had died, on bearing a
tenth, and hopeless of its surviving, named it "Botombaka" (passing away).
Circumcision is practised universally by all these tribes. An
uncircumcised native is not considered to be a man in the full sense of
the word,--fit for fighting, working, marrying, and inheriting. He is
regarded as nothing by both men and women, is slandered, abused, insulted,
ostracized, and not allowed to marry.
The operation is not performed in infancy, but is delayed till the tenth
year, or even later. The native doctor holds cayenne pepper in his mouth,
and, on completing the operation, spits the pepper upon the wound. Then
seizing a sword, he brandishes it with a shout as a signal to the
spectators that the act is completed. Then the crowd of men and women join
in singing and dancing, and compliment the lad on being now "a real man."
As natives have no records of births, they cannot exactly tell the ages of
their children, or the time when a youth is fit to marry or assume other
manly rights; but by the eighteenth or nineteenth year he is regarded with
the respect due a man. He can marry even as early as fifteen or sixteen.
There are no tests to which he is subjected as proof of his manhood.
A woman may speak in a court of trial, for defence of herself or friends.
She may also be summoned as a witness, but she has no political rights.
Aged persons are not put to death, to escape the care of them; they are
reasonably well provided for.
III. SUCCESSION TO PROPERTY AND AUTHORITY.
Only men inherit. The children of sisters do not inherit unless all the
children of the brothers are dead.
Slaves do not inherit.
"Chieftains" (those chosen to rule) and "kings" (those chosen to the
office) inherit more than their brothers, even though the ruling one be
the younger.