Читать книгу THE LITERACY OF BELIEF - Uju C. Ukwuoma - Страница 10

CHAPTER 2

Ancestral Worship of Uncle Bryan

What we see contributes to the shaping process of our future.

Uncle Bryan yells out like a town crier around three in the afternoon of his chosen day of worship: “The time has come! Everybody should come out! Let us commune with our ancestors! Let us use our brain to solve our problems! Let us fellowship with those who own us and those we own!”

Upon hearing his voice, we rush out to see him holding a chicken (or rooster, I am not sure) in his left hand and a kitchen knife in his right. The legs of the rooster are tied together. Uncle Bryan buries the head of the rooster backward in between the wings as if he wants to suffocate the fowl. You can hear the cock panting as we gather in front of uncle Bryan, but he does not care. He swings the chicken above everyone’s head, saying things like:

“Everybody will be alive. May God protect us. No evil shall befall any of us! If early death is coming, it will take this cock. Death will not seek for any member of our family. May those who will tell us one thing and do another thing never come our way! May the eyes of our enemies be blind towards our progress. May the spirits who own our land eat this rooster! May we continue to escape automobile accidents because that is not how we will die! Because life moves in cycles, may the cycles of our market days protect us. May we be in harmony with the periods that separate our market cycles. May our activities revolve around the rhythms of those cycles! May we have a bountiful harvest! May the forces that maintain the rhythms in all the big trees around us defend us!”

He then calls the names of people in the family tree who have died, asking them to protect us. Upon completion of his utterances, he kills the cock by slashing the throat. He sprinkles its blood on a particular spot at the center of our family premises. There are four buildings on the premises of our immediate family. The most conspicuous is my father’s duplex surrounded by three of his brothers’ bungalows built in a circular form. Our family reserved the spot where uncle Bryan poured the blood of the rooster, for that purpose. No one steps on the spot or gets close to it in the morning while sweeping, no matter how clean you want to sweep the compound. Some dirty looking white chalks and moth-infested carved wooden objects surround the spot like trash. A raggedy looking piece of zinc covers the place so well that a visitor can overlook it for a garbage dump. In short, the spot appears like a disposal site.

Someone is delegated to cook the cock, probably uncle Bryan’s wife or one of my cousins’ mom. It always turns out to be very spicy but delicious chicken soup. That is my favorite part of the event because everyone eats the food, no matter how little you get.

While eating, uncle Bryan describes how everything around us has a rhythm and moves in cycles. He teaches us this point by encouraging us to place one of our hands on our chest to feel our heartbeat. My grandfather often added that we could become whatever we chose to be in life if we allowed our brain to direct us and if we learned to think and wait on the divine direction of our ancestors.

What thrilled me the most was the way uncle Bryan began his day. He usually sat in front of his house early in the morning, surrounded by many items: a little earthen pot containing kola nuts, alligator pepper, white chalk, and other things I did not recognize. He also had a type of gin that had more than 95% alcohol and an object that looked like an elephant tusk, which, according to him, represented some idols. I enjoyed listening to his chants. He held a piece of chalk in one hand and his high proof dry gin on the other. He threw parts of the chalk to the ground, splashed some of the gin, made some poetic recitations as if he was addressing someone physically present there, and gazed at the imagined being.

“God, the creator. God, who created everything and knows all he created, whereas his creation does not know him, come and have some chalk. Come and rub off of this chalk — God of my previous seven lives. God of my present life, this is chalk. Come and rub. A new day is here, and mornings are powerful. As we open our doors, we open our hearts and mouths. Please, come. It is the reciprocity of respect that leads a woman to give birth to her kind. I have come to you this morning because another day is here. What I have in my hand is chalk. I also have an alcoholic drink. All of you should, please, take some chalk and have some drinks. Whoever I have called, should please call his kind. No one should come alone.”

As he poured drinks on the ground, he reaffirmed: “Land is the same, that is why people step on it all over the world. I beckon you to come and take your share. My ancestors, I call on you this beautiful morning to come and drink. My late great grandparents come and rub some chalk.” At that point, he pronounced the names of more than twenty of his ancestors and asked them to join him.

“What I am asking is for everything to be well with us. Men and women should encounter lots of goodies. We do not want to kill anyone, but anyone who wants to kill us will die. The host of water spirits, I did not forget you, please come and have some chalk, come and have some drinks. All the spirits living in the waters, near and far, come and eat with us. None of you is exempted. I insist that anyone I have called should call his mates so we can be complete, because there is strength in unity. Please, all of you, put your hands together to prevent war in our land. Chalk is holy. Chalk is white in color. We use chalk to get good things. Chalk has no association with impurities. All of you should remove impurities in the lives of all members of our family. May our stars shine. May the eagles in us arise.”

As he rubbed the chalk on his head, eyes, ears, mouth, chest, hands, and legs, he continued to affirm.

“Our brain will function properly by thinking good and peaceful thoughts, our eyes will not see evil, our mouths will say good words, and our hearts will not harbor evil thoughts because it is also the heart of God.”

With his hands lifted to the sky, he continued, “Our hands will work so we can have enough food, our legs will not take us to bad places.”

Finally, he listed all the four market days that constitute one week in the Igbo tradition and declared that those days would bring good tidings.

“It shall be well for us on Eke day, on Orie day, on Afo day, and on Nkwo day in the name of God Almighty, the creator of Heaven and Earth.”

Lifting a kola nut to his mouth, he chants, fluently, in the Igbo language as he did with the chalk: “The creator of Heaven and Earth, the One who lives above us but has given us the Earth, here is kola nut. I present this kola nut as thanks for the life you have given us. I thank you for good health; for granting to us the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Accept my thanks for the boundless opportunities you have given our sons and daughters. I thank you for my family, for my friends, and for my well-wishers. Oh, merciful one! I also thank you because of my enemies. I thank you because of those who say we cannot drink water and keep the cup. I thank you because the ground will sweep them away in due time. Please, come and eat kola nut. Eat and show me that you have answered my prayers. You know what my heart desires, so please make my desires come to pass. To you, my Chi (personal God), I present this kola. I request you accept this kola nut. Please, accept this kola nut on behalf of the gods and the angels.”

Making friendly gestures as if he is in the company of another, uncle Bryan utters: “Please, present my request to them. I am a mere mortal; I am weak, but you are my strength. I am requesting for your spiritual and physical guidance. Cover us with your kindness and protection. Keep our enemies from tormenting us and shatter every impediment that hinders our way. I declare that we are free from all troubles. We are free from all dangers. May your blessings come quickly. Let the doors of opportunity open for our children. May the sun shine your glory into our lives, and may it blanket our spirits like a dew. Ancestors, I present this kola nut to you. I ask all of you to receive my offering of kola nut, for I am your child. I am your blood. Exit the realm of spirits and eat kola nut. I know that you dwell in the spiritual realm where favor and prosperity are in abundance. Bring to us blessings of happiness, the longevity of life, and success during your trip. May we have them in abundance in this generation till our seventh arrives. The gods and goddesses of our land, please come and enjoy this kola nut.”

He recites the names of many shrines and deities and invokes them, “Take this kola nut to the spirits whose names I am yet to call. All you spirits whom I am unable to see, please eat kola nut. To those of you who are at my front (he extends his hand forward), eat kola nut. To those spirits who protect me at my back (he stretches his hand behind him), take kola nut. To you spirits at my left and right-hand sides (he turns his hand both ways before continuing), I know you protect me from invisible forces and danger, so, take kola nut.”

Finally, he breaks the kola nut and swings the pieces around his head, saying, “I hope that you have answered my prayers. Please, show me some signs. I am like a child who bathes only on his tummy. I know nothing. I trust your divine direction. Please, manifest your powers.” He then eats a piece of the kola nut and throws the rest away for the spirits.

He performs a similar ritual, but with the seeds of alligator pepper, which he refers to as a cleansing agent. While holding a couple of the seeds and slightly exposing them, he places them all over his body, saying, “By the touching of this alligator pepper all over my body, may all negativity leave my body.” Moving meticulously from his forehead, he makes his way down to his face and chest until he reaches his legs. Finally, he raises the hand with the alligator pepper and moves it anticlockwise four times above his head and, after that, throws them away. He engages in these rituals every day. Having observed uncle Bryan for 20 years practicing his beliefs, and considering what I learned in the process, I now know that what we see contributes to the shaping process of our future.