DISKUS: A.M. Okorie

DISKUS Vol.3, No.1 (1995) pp.48-52

Ala-Umuokoroala: The Divinity of an African Igbo Village

Rev. Dr. A.M. Okorie
Department of Religions
University of Ilorin
Ilorin
Nigeria

Introduction

The African traditional divinity discussed herein is Ala-Umuokoroala, the goddess of an Igbo village. The village, called Umuegwu-Okpuala, is located in Afugiri, a clan in Umuahia, Abia State of Nigeria.

In this paper, the subject is approached phenomenologically, by which I mean looking at the facts of Ala-Umuokoroala as they were presented to me by my informants.<1> No attempt is made to add, subtract or colour the data, but to present them as they are. The paper concludes with two brief contrasting African views of Ala-Umuokoroala; from a 'traditionalist' viewpoint and from a standpoint of Christian apologetics.

Ala-Umuokoroala: the Nature of the Divinity

Ala means the mother earth, which is productive. Umu means the children of Okoroala, who was the ancestor of the Umuegwu community. Ala-Umuokoroala means the divinity of the people of Umuegwu-Okpuala village.

Ala-Umuokoroala is a female divinity and is regarded as the wife of Obasi di n'elu, otherwise known as Chineke, the Supreme Being. Through her the people address and offer sacrifices to the Supreme Being. During her festival, the deity is pictured as a woman wearing bangles (ezi nwanyi gbaola).

Ala-Umuokoroala has some relationship with other divinities such as Njoku, Imo Miri and Iyi Afo. Njoku is the divinity of agriculture. Crops would not exist without Ala. Both Imo Miri and Iyi Afo are divinities of the river or stream, which also come from Ala. Any offering or sacrifice to these other deities must be passed through Ala and her permission must be sought since she is the mother and protector of all the village people.

Further, there is a marked relationship between Ala-Umuokoroala and the women. Before a woman is married the bride price is kept in the shrine of Ala for one or two days prior to its being taken to the parents-in-law. When the new wife arrives in the village, she is brought to the shrine and dedicated with a kola nut. This serves as a seal of agreement that she has become a member of the community. If she gives birth to a child, she must go to the shrine to dance and thank Ala. If she is an unfaithful wife and her husband is embittered about it, she is taken to the shrine of Ala, where she will swear not to be adulterous again. Should she run away from the home and refuse to come back to her husband, Ala would kill her.

Being a female divinity, Ala is regarded as the pro-creator and the giver of all children in the village. When a woman gives birth to a baby boy, a cock, some jars of wine, kola and white chalk are taken to the priest, who offers these to the divinity in appreciation of her gift to the parents of the new baby boy. If the baby is a girl, a hen is substituted for a cock.

Basic concepts connected with the worship

Ala is land, and land is fertile. It produces food in abundance to sustain life. Since land is productive, Ala is believed to be productive also. Barren women are taken to her shrine, where they appeal to her to give them children. Often with firm belief the women become pregnant and bear children.

Ala also gives long span of life. The ancestors were recorded to have lived longer because they worshipped her. The Umuokoroala people were previously noted for agricultural productivity, made possible by Ala. Other material and spiritual blessings conferred by the divinity are contentment, peace and guidance of the wandering spirit of the people.

One who has problems can take them to the divinity for a possible solution. Such a person is not bound to promise to be grateful, but if one makes a promise he is bound to fulfil it. If he fails, the divinity may warn him in the form of sickness or bad fortune, but without killing him.

Kwashiorkor (odima) is accepted as the sickness inflicted by Ala. When someone is attacked by it, the divinity is appeased. If at last the person dies, his relatives have to perform some rites to prevent the wrath of Ala in that family. If anyone died as a result of the inflammation of the abdomen, he would be seen as having been killed by the goddess. Death inflicted by Ala is looked at as a very awful death. If the deceased reincarnated, his relatives must consult the soothsayer in order to know what they would do to assuage the goddess or else the person would die again.

Ala is believed to be morally pure. She does not tolerate stealing, poisoning, slander, ill feelings, evil machinations, adultery, extortion and such moral depravities. The deity does not allow an evil-doer to die until the offender in a loud voice confesses his sins to the hearing of the people. A notorious offender of the land may not be reincarnated as a human being but will live his life after death in the hump of a tree. The fear of this consequence makes the people to be of high moral standards.

Invitation and Initiation into the Priesthood

The person chosen as the priest is the oldest person in the family that served the divinity. If the person dies, the next male in order of seniority in that same family takes up the priesthood. Before the appointment of the priest, a diviner (dibia) is consulted to confirm whether the person chosen is the right man. Should the right candidate refuse to officiate, Ala would inflict illness on him or cause some sort of bad fortune against him. After a prolonged suffering the candidate will have to decide to become the priest, and in the light of this decision things will begin to go well with him again.

During initiation the priest-elect will prepare rich meals and provide wine, meat, fish and kola nut. He invites all the priests of other divinities and they will eat, drink and pour libations. The people will present gifts to the priest and such gifts are called ihu (priestly gifts). He is given a big ram's horn and a small tom-tom (ekwe). He uses the horn and tom-tom to invoke Ala during sacrifices and ceremonies. The initiation ceremony lasts for eight days.

Taboos which the initiate must observe are that firstly, he must not eat snake, lizard and frog meat, secondly, he must not step on the dung of cows, and thirdly, he must not sleep with his wife any day preceding the official day of Ala ceremony.

Divination is not a test of valid priesthood since a diviner is a professional priest or 'medicine man'. Divination is imbibed by inspiration; it is an art. However, an Ala priest is often aware of an impending evil through a dream or vision, and often is equipped with the knowledge of rites to perform to avert the impending evil.

The professional priest (dibia) uses the following things as tools of the trade or a divining board: okwe (tree), akaa (bangle), egede (metal bead), ezego (cowrie) and eze madu (human tooth). Okwe represents Ala because okwe is a tree that grows from the soil. Akaa represents wealth because akaa is worn by the rich. Egede represents the god of thunder. Ezego represents money, and eze madu stands for human beings. If the eze madu falls out when the priest shakes his apparatus, he will say that the enquiry is connected with a human being.

Worship of the Divinity

The full worship of Ala-Umuokoroala takes place once a year in the month of November, during the new yam festival. It also lasts for eight days, although this does not prevent the offering of other sacrifices taking place at any time of the year. Whenever the November festival is not observed, the yield of the farm would be less, the priest might become sick, and the people would experience a bad omen such as an epidemic. Fortunately, the feast is observed.

During the annual festival, which is determined by counting the Igbo tribal market days, everybody spends lavishly to entertain his visitors. It is a merry occasion as the people dress gaily, eat, drink and dance. The festival is seen as a calendar by which the villagers keep record of events such as age-groups and people who married at a given period.

The priest of Ala officiates during the worship, assisted by the village elders. A day or two before the actual ceremony, the path to the grove is cleared and swept very clean and the trees in the grove are also trimmed. The shrine, represented by a very big tree (oji) with a pot at its foot and a typical thatched hut beside, is decorated with palm wine leaves (omu nkwu) and feathers of birds. After its decoration, the shrine looks very awesome and sacred. The big tom-tom (ikoro) is repeatedly drummed to alert the people.

The day arrives. The priest leads the worshippers to the shrine. He places all his materials in front of the shrine, breaks the kola nut into four parts, pours wine on the shrine, blows the horn, and invokes Ala-Umuokoroala. Through the process of incantation (igbaa ude), the goddess is invited, and the ancestors are also invited to come and listen and partake in the offering. The priest starts the invocatory prayer by praising the divinity and later petitions for protection, health, productivity, fertility, wealth and other requests are made. All the elders will positively answer in unison 'amen' (eyewo, obuya). The priest then kills the sacrificial fowl or goat there and accordingly spreads the feathers or hair and the blood upon the materials and on the shrine.

Cows, goats and fowls are generally the sacrificial animals. Birds can be used when goats are not available. Eggs are normally used to make promises and acknowledgements. Other items employed in sacrifices are alligator pepper (ose orji), odo (yellow powder) and native white chalk (nzu). The white chalk signifies peace and prosperity.

The major reasons for the worship of Ala rest on the belief that she gives sound health, protection, abundance of crops, offspring, opulence, progress and prosperity in life. Additionally, it is the custom of the people to make supplications and atonements to the deity and to be thankful for her benevolence toward them.

Ala-Umuokoroala is believed to be a major errand-runner for the people to the Supreme Being (Chineke), who readily obliges her. Other divinities, Njoku, Iyi Afo, Imo Miri and Ofo na Ogu may ally with her to carry out the hard tasks of punishing an offender or protecting the innocent. Man will die but how does he die, in pains or in peace; what disease eventually kills him; on what day does he die; what of his fate in life after death? These are the preoccupation of the people and it is only this divinity, Ala-Umuokoroala, that can determine the destiny of man.

Conclusions

A Traditionalist viewpoint

One of my informants, Onyenze Ezechukwu, opined that Christian influence has reduced the observance of most of the festivals. The young people take more to Christianity which is an imported religion. Traditional religion is better than Christian religion. When traditional religion was effective, cheating, stealing, lack of trust, avarice, acquisition of wealth at the expense of others and similar vices were not common. Adultery was not widely operative. Women did not pose as rival to men. Every woman was under the control of her husband. In fact, traditional religion limited evil practices but Christian religion ushered evil deeds into the community.

Again, traditional religion worships the Supreme Being indirectly through divinities, while Christianity worships God directly. The meeting-point is the worship of the Supreme Being. Both religions aim at worshipping the Supreme Deity but in different ways. Bible and hymnal are the stock-in-trade in Christian worship, whereas in traditional veneration kola nut, fowls, goats, wine and other items are used.

A Christian apologetic viewpoint

Paul says 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious'. (Bible, Acts 17:22). So it is with the people of my village, Umuegwu-Okpuala. The religious system of Ala-Umuokoroala was developed by our forebears in response to their lives' situations. It is believed that the worship helped them to find an integrated and meaningful interpretation and understanding of the universe.<2> The divinity, Ala-Umuokoroala, is invariably a deification of the natural phenomenon, the ordinary ground. To the Umuegwu populace earth has become 'the Great Mother Goddess, the spirit of fertility, the nearest and dearest of all the deities'.<3> Such veneration of Ala-Umuokoroala is a groping response to Reality, Chineke, the Supreme Being.

Notes

1. I express my indebtedness to my kind informants who supplied me with valuable data about the village divinity. My main informants were my father, Chief William Nwosu Okorie (late 1993), a teacher-friend of his, Mr. Onyenze Ezechukwu, and a former Secondary School Principal, Mr. Ebenezer Ibe, all of the same village.

2. Cf. J.S. Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion. Ibadan, Heinemann, 1975, p.194.

3. G. Parrinder, West African Traditional Religion. London, Epworth Press, 1949, p.37. See also R.J. Gehman, African Traditional Religion in Biblical Perspective. Kijabe, Kesho Publications, 1989.

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