SACRED KINGS

The office of kingship, in both its temporal and spiritual aspects, is particularly well developed in the region from Ashanti through Dahomey, and into Nigeria. But similar beliefs and practices prevail among some Nilotic and Bantu Negroes, though often without the elaboration and the emphasis that characterize the religion of certain western Negroes.

WEST AFRICAN KINGS

The Ashanti regard the souls of dead kings with the deepest reverence, and a reigning king officiates as a high priest at annual ceremonies for propitiating ancestral souls and asking from them temporal benefits. Various sacred objects are shrines that can temporarily accommodate the souls of the dead, and among these cult objects, the golden stool, which is the soul of the nation, is most important. Tradition states that the stool alighted from the sky in a black cloud. Even the king never sits on this stool, but makes pretence to do so three times before sitting on his own stool during the ceremonies for invoking royal ancestors (Rattray, 1923, pp. 289–293; E. W. Smith, 1926).

The Ashanti custom of preserving the bones of a dead king so that these might serve as a shrine or a medium through which the ancestral spirit could find expression, will frequently be noted among Bantu as well as Sudanic Negroes. In Ashanti ceremonials, human sacrifice played an important part since kings required service in a spirit world. The reigning king and the victims repaired to the mausoleum where the bones of dead kings were kept, and there the reigning king officiated in an ancestral cult in which fertility rites were prominent.

The feast of the dead was a yam ceremony, which was performed annually at the ripening of the crop and before any of the produce was eaten; the procedure was an offering of the first fruits to dead ancestors. The Ashanti word odwira means a cleansing of the nation and a purification of the shrines of ancestral spirits, of gods, and of the less important spiritual powers. Cleansing the stools of past kings by washing and offering yams is part of the rites, and the sanctity of the stools is renewed by pouring over them the blood of sacrificed animals.

At the odwira ceremony, each victim for sacrifice had a knife passed through his cheeks to prevent him from cursing the king, and his arms were pinioned from behind. The officiating king poured out wine before each skeleton of a former king. Before each sacrifice a drummer sent out a message of death, and the executioner said, "Off with you to the land of ghosts and serve——," then the name of a dead king was mentioned. This routine was followed before each skeleton. When a reigning king died, the news went forth that a mighty tree had fallen, for the death of a king could not be directly announced. Then followed rites, at the end of which the bones of the king were placed in the mausoleum, where they were preserved to participate in the next cleansing and fertility ceremony. At the death of a king his wives and some of the slaves were strangled, so that their spirits could accompany and serve the ghost of their master.

In the household of the king, a strong system of mother-right prevailed, and does today. A king’s son can never be king, and the royal successor is chosen by the Queen Mother, who also selects the principal wife for the new king. The Queen Mother has a silver stool, and at the ceremony for propitiating ghosts of the royal dead she takes a prominent part. The status of women is further indicated by the training of priestesses whose functions are as important as those of the priests.

In Dahomey, as A. Le Hérissé (1911, pp. 5, 6, 35, 41, 73) points out, the king was supreme ruler, owner of all forms of wealth, arbiter in war and peace, and chief lawgiver, with power of life and death in his hands. He was also the high priest at all important religious fêtes. Each king at death became the principal person venerated by a section of the community composed of all his descendants. As among the Yoruba, the Jukun, and the Ashanti, court officials of high prestige were numerous, and the king’s household was ostentatiously conducted. At the death of a king, his wives and many slaves were put to death, so that their souls might accompany that of their master, and elaborate mourning rites were observed throughout the kingdom. Women of royal rank were given a high standing in the king’s household, and the twin sister of Akaba (1680–1708) was a joint ruler with restricted authority.

In 1871 J. A. Skertchly (1874, pp. 178–286) witnessed at the court of Gelelé ritual connected with ancestor worship, fertility cults, and human sacrifice. The ceremonials recorded were repeated each autumn, and they were of the kind performed at the installation of a new king, yet not so elaborate.

Skertchly describes the feasting, buffoonery, and military parades that accompanied the So-sin festivals. He pictures the twelve victims for sacrifice dressed in white shirts with scarlet trimmings and having a blood-red heart on the right shoulder. The victims were tied hand and foot, but they were cared for by an attendant who fed them and fanned off the flies.

"Contrary to what some good people in England would have us believe, the morituri were in the best of spirits. Those ungagged were laughing and talking with each other, while their muzzled brethren were taking matters just as apathetically, swaying their heads from side to side in time to the music of the bands."

Skertchly touches the main function of these So-sin customs when he describes a small hut erected for reception of the ghost of the dead King Gézu. The roof of this dwelling was decorated with striped cloth and cowrie shells, and inside was a gift of tobacco and liquor. This hut, like the stools used at similar rites in Ashanti, was a shrine for temporary residence of the spirit who was to be supplicated. The king of the Dahomeans took charge of all the ritual and so acted as intermediary between the living and the dead.

Kingship among the Yoruba of Nigeria is of the Ashanti and Dahomean type (S. Johnson, 1921, pp. 48–57). The king is the head of social organization, government, and religion. His person is sacred and he is not allowed in the streets by day; tradition states that a king acquired his prestige by eating the heart of his predecessor. During life the king is surrounded by a retinue of officers both male and female. The chief of these are military leaders, a diviner who consults oracles, keepers of genealogies and historical records, eunuchs who guard the king’s wives, and custodians of such ceremonial objects as state umbrellas, drums, and ivory trumpets.

Certain women of the king’s palace held exceptionally important positions; for example, the Iyamode resided in special quarters where she worshiped the spirits of former kings, and to her the king himself knelt in salute. A priestess of high rank consulted oracles at the tomb of a dead king, and when possessed by the spirit of the dead monarch she came raving to the royal palace to foretell the future and to state what kind of sacrifice was required by the dead king.

A king who was about to take office visited the mausoleum of his predecessors and asked their spirits for permission to reign, a request which was accompanied by sacrifice and other ritual. At the death of a king, slaves were sacrificed to serve in the spirit world, and a number of persons of high rank volunteered for the honor of being executed at the tomb of the king. During the life of a king of the Yoruba, men were appointed under a title meaning "to die with the king," and such persons, who were greatly honored during their lives, were distinguished by a gift of "death cloth," which was a silk wrapper. These guards of the king protected him against poison and assassination, and they were likely to be faithful since they had to commit suicide at the death of the king.

A king of the Yoruba who was unsuccessful in a war that he himself had provoked was expected to take his own life. A king of Dahomey who had outlived his usefulness received a gift of parrots’ eggs as an intimation that he must commit suicide. Among the Baganda of Uganda, and in some Nilotic Negro tribes, self-sacrifice by suicide on account of age or inefficiency is one of the traits linked with an exalted kingship. When a king of the Yoruba ascended the throne, his mother was "asked to go to sleep," and after her suicide an "official mother" was appointed.

Some of these features of Yoruba kingship persist today, but the more crude customs were abolished in the year 1858. In the kingdom of Benin, Southern Nigeria, customs of human sacrifice persisted until 1897. The sacrificial rites were performed at an altar in the king’s compound. This structure remains today, but without so many decorative ivory tusks. Heads of bronze are retained, but these are not comparable in workmanship to the older examples. I noticed that the objects on the altar were sprinkled with blood, and was informed that goats and chickens are frequently sacrificed there in place of human victims.

In eastern Nigeria, among the Jukun, the same types of behavior and belief are associated with kingship. The Aku of Wukari is a supreme incarnation of divine power and as such receives great reverence. He must eat in private, and so great is the spiritual power within him that every object he touches becomes impregnated with divine force. In connection with law, we noted that sacred oaths are sworn on objects belonging to the king. The king is believed to control wind and rain; therefore, his primary function is to secure good harvests. Formerly the king was put to death when his physical strength began to decline, for on the vitality of the king depended fertility of the soil and fecundity of human and animal life (Meek, 1931, p. 123).

Formerly a Jukun king was a manifestation of the sun’s power, and reverence for the sun is still a feature of spiritual beliefs in the Benue region of eastern Nigeria. Expressions equating the king with the moon still exist, for the ruler is sometimes called "he of the moon" or "the full moon." The phrase, "The full moon lighted the palace," means that the king gave an audience. C. K. Meek (1931b, vol. 2, pp. 490–549) states that tribes near the Jukun practice rites of moon worship, and these are closely associated with the person of a chief. A libation to the moon is poured over a monolith by a priest who prays that wives may be prolific and the crops bountiful. In the Jukun religion, kingship is associated with celestial bodies, divine power, and fertility. In connection with worship of the sun, a Jukun priest prays at a shrine, saying, "In coming to you, O Sun, at this season we are following the custom of our forefathers. Grant that all may be blessed with an abundant harvest, with health and offspring, with success in hunting and trade."

NILOTIC NEGRO KINGS

Among the Dinka, Shilluk, and some other Nilotic Negroes, religion is founded on ideas of God, the sacredness of kings and rain-makers, and reverence for all ancestral spirits. Deism, kingship, and ancestor worship were shown to be indispensable traits of spiritual life among several tribes of Sudanic Negroes, despite the fact that their general culture differs radically from that of Nilotic Negroes. For the former, agriculture is of primary importance, and religious rites are concerned with productivity of the soil, but the social and economic life of the latter is based on the keeping of cattle.

In the religious beliefs and practices of Negros, important differences occur, though the controlling principles are analogous. Human sacrifice and ceremonial cannibalism are not traits of the Nilotic region, and in this area the use of carved wooden figures is relatively unimportant. In Ashanti, Dahomey, and Nigeria, art and religion have combined to produce an elaborate expression of spiritual ideas through the media of wood, bronze, and ivory. Woodcarving, and especially the fabrication of human effigies that serve temporarily as shrines for the reception of ancestral spirits, are characteristic of the Bantu area. Nilotic Negroes are at a disadvantage with regard to raw materials for the development of esthetic art in connection with their religion.

The Dinka revere Dengit (Great Rain), and the Nile Dinka state that Dengit once ruled their tribe in human form; this is the same belief as that of the Shilluk, who assert that their god Nyakang was once a king. The Dinka begin their supplications with the phrase, "God and our ancestors," a phrase that correctly indicates the two main elements of their religion. Rain-making ceremonies take place at the shrines of Dengit, and a harvest rite following the cutting of durra is observed there. At this shrine of Dengit, the Agar Dinka install their new rain-makers. The deism of the Dinka is very similar to that of the Shilluk, who believe in a supreme being Jwok. The Dinka reverence Jwok but he is of less practical importance than Dengit, and likewise with the Shilluk, Nyakang is of more functional importance than the supreme being.

Rain-makers of the Shilluk and the Dinka were the king and the tribal chief, respectively, and in both tribes these rulers were slain if their health and virility failed. The Dinka rain-makers were regarded as sacred because each of them was controlled by an ancestral spirit that had come to him from several generations ago. An aged rain-maker who felt that his powers were failing made his own funeral arrangements. Among the Agar Dinka, a wide grave was prepared, and in this the aged rain-maker lay on a bed surrounded by his friends and relatives. The rain-maker reviewed the past and gave advice for the future; then, after a day or two of abstention from food and water, he told the watchers to cover him with earth, and the grave was filled in.

Papit, a recent king of the Shilluk, traces his genealogy back to Nyakang through a line of twenty-eight kings. At the installation of a Shilluk king, a statue of Nyakang is placed on the stool and is then taken away. After sitting on this stool for a time the king retires, and in solitude he communes with Nyakang and his other ancestors during a period of ten days. During this period, the spirit of Nyakang enters the new king and so gives the spiritual power that a king must possess in order to maintain the prosperity of his people. (C. G. Seligman, 1912; C. G. and B. Z. Seligman, 1932, pp. 74–87).

BANTU NEGRO KINGS

The Baganda, a Bantu-speaking pastoral tribe of Uganda, have beliefs and practices closely resembling those of Sudanic and Nilotic Negroes. The associated ideas are those of divine power, the sacredness of the king, the worship of ancestral spirits of the royal dead, and the dependence of national prosperity on all these factors. Baganda customs, especially those associated with rain-making, resemble those of the Nilotes, but in the elaboration of ritual, including human sacrifice on a large scale, the Baganda procedure more closely resembles that of the Sudanic Negroes.

Canon J. Roscoe reports that the Baganda based their worship on the idea that agricultural and pastoral prosperity depended on the vitality of the king, who was never permitted to reign after he became old and feeble. If a king felt that his physical powers were waning, it was his duty to commit suicide, and in some instances a king took his own life while in his prime. This ceremonial sacrifice transferred the king to a world of spirits where he continued to live in affluence as owner of the herd of cattle that was killed at his grave. The spirits of men slain at the funeral of the king became his spiritual retinue. During the king’s life, men were killed in order to give longer and more efficient life to the ruler. The Baganda had thirteen sacrificial places, each with its own temple and priesthood. The gods were intimately associated with these temples, and at the shrines contained therein oracles were read by the priests, who were told by the ghosts of kings what sacrifices were required. The decorated jawbone of a king was preserved, and, as in Ashanti, the most important rites of ancestor worship were performed in the presence of the king’s bones (J. Roscoe, 1911, p. 107).

The idea of kingship as closely associated with divine power prevailed among sections of the Bushongo, who are southwestern Bantu. The king had an elaborate court organization including ministers, trade guilds, and medicine-men. Each king was a reincarnation of the spirit of Bumba, the founder of the tribe, and from Bumba the monarch derived his power, for his ancestor Bumba had caused the sun to shine and had sent the rain. C. G. Seligman (1930, p. 209) compares the nature and power of Bushongo kingship with the beliefs and practices of the Shilluk in respect to Nyakang, founder of a lineage of divine kings.

E. Torday (1925, pp. 72, 154–156) states that god the creator is the supreme spirit of the Baluba; but it is to the relics of dead ancestors that homage is paid, and to these sacred remains supplications are addressed. An ancestor is worshiped as founder of the tribe, and his chief priest is the head of it. The human relics which form a sacred shrine consist of human nails and other bodily fragments; these are guarded by the head of the tribe or clan.

The sacredness of kings, the power of their departed spirits, and the rites of ancestor worship are constant factors in Negro religion, yet beliefs differ in their intensity and in the elaboration of their attendant ritual. For the Ovimbundu (southwestern Bantu), kingship did not imply great elaboration of court life and ritual, yet the simple rites were of the same kind as those already mentioned. At the death of a king, slaves were beheaded and eaten. A king’s head wrapped in oxhide became a sacred relic which was consulted on such important occasions as warfare, drought, or a long caravan journey. At intervals the head was provided with a new covering, and at this time an ox was sacrificed.

G. P. Lestrade (Editor Duggan-Cronin, 1929, vol. 1, section I, p. 17) points out that "Venda life revolves round the chief. He is the absolute lord and master of his people in a way which all iconoclastic influence of white contact and white government has done little to diminish. Indeed, at a certain age he becomes a god, when after abjuring all contact with women, and ridding himself of his wives, he performs the dance which confers godhead upon him."

SUMMARY

The ideas involved in the sacredness of kingship are of a kind that might develop independently, and outside Africa such concepts are widely spread, as Sir J. G. Frazer has pointed out in "The Golden Bough"; but the part played by diffusion as opposed to independent invention remains undetermined. So far as Africa is concerned, the concepts, together with the ritual that expresses them, may have originated in Egypt. The sacredness of kingship has been broadly dealt with by A. M. Hocart (1936).

The king of Egypt was the son of Horus the Great, whose attributes were later taken by Ra, the Sun god. The king, who was believed to be a god, was worshiped as such, and his statue was placed among those of the gods. Statues of Ra were endowed with the "fluid of life," which they transmitted to the king by contact. Each day the king performed a sacred exercise to renew his power; therefore he received the title "Endowed with Life, like Ra, for ever."

The deistic ideas associated with kingship, and the elaborate rites connected with royal ancestors, some of whom are deified, should be regarded as a constant aspect of Negro religion, varying in intensity of development, but in no way isolated from other phases of ancestor worship. All ancestors, even those of the most lowly commoners, are sacred, though remoteness in time and the lack of organized ritual may cause a decline in the ancestral power. Yet each Negro family has gods of the hearth who are intimately concerned with health and fecundity. No matter of family concern, be it so trivial as the sickness of a domestic animal, is beneath the notice of the ancestors.

The family ghosts can be benevolent or vindictive. They must be placated by sacrifice at the hands of a medicine-man or the head of the family. This intimacy between the sacred and the profane worlds can be shown as the essence of Bantu religion, and despite the special developments that we have recognized with regard to deism and ritual, the daily contact with proximate and lowly ancestral spirits is fundamental in all Negro religion.