Post date: Aug 11, 2014 3:33:27 AM
26 Oct 1964
[More on social organization, which I sent to my sister] How were and are people kept in line? In the old days, if a person became belligerent, he might be sold as a slave, It seems this method was used quite a lot. This also may account for the fact that crazy people and really dumb ones have no place in the society now, as there was no place for them then—they could be sold or sacrificed.
On the other hand, cripples and handicapped persons are respected, and all of them are given useful work in the community, as they would not have been suitable slaves. You see many victims of polio walking with the aid of a stick now, but none of them beg, as do the crazy people.
The society is organized by age groups. If a person’s actions are out of line, there is a lot of social pressure from members of his age group, usually enough to bring him back to good behavior. Failing this there was the Ekpe society which dealt out punishments, usually very harsh.
The Ekpe was a court, or sat as a court, and any case could be brought before Ekpe by a member, such as stealing, divorce, poaching.
The highest organization was on the village level. If a palaver occurred between villages, such as over land (which often occurred) about the only recourse was to go to the Long Juju in arochuku, which served as a court for major palavers and made the region-wide trade in slaves and palm-oil up to the twentieth century possible. Failing this there was an inter- village war, also not so infrequent, at least in this century after the Long Juju had been crushed by the British and before Pax Britannia had been established (still not in some areas).
About personal discipline again. The method of age group control works only in the villages, of course, where every one knows everyone else. Only recently, since the white man came and educated the natives, has there been the problem of the towns in this region, where the individual is freed from the village mores and restraints. Because of this the morals in the towns have deteriorated terribly. British crushed the Juju and Ekpe society, the church crushed many folkways which regulated morals, and education moved the native out of his village and social circle. By far the largest numbers of people still are peasants, still live in the villages, where the traditional restraints operate yet, tho somewhat do-winded by the loss of power of the Ekpe and Juju.
Since almost all of the traditions (including behavior, etc) are taught in the village at a time when the child is in the new schools, he comes out with an education in the European sense, but none in the local sense, especially for secondary school students, and he is a social out-cast, for the most part, in his village. It is becoming harder to find jobs with only a secondary education, and for the many who fail in secondary school they can only mooch off of relatives in the towns, as they are town people, not bushmen, where living is cheaper.