Tradycyjne święta jamu u ludu Konkomba w północnej Ghanie

Abstract

Among the African rural communities beliefs and rituals are closely connected with seasonal agricultural activities such as cultivation of fields, sowing and planting time, fructification and harvest. This article is concerned with the harvest ceremonies among the Konkomba of Northern Ghana which are held in connection with the first yam harvest. The data were gathered during the seven months fieldwork carried out from July 1984 till January 1985 in Saboba area among three tribes (Bitchabob, Bimonkpom, Nakpantiib) of the Konkomba people. There are several Konkomba tribes which are segmented into patrilineal clans, lineages and sub-lineages. The Konkomba have a segmentary system, in which authority is wholly vested in the elders with the oldest village inhabitant or the oldest clan member as head. Subsistence farming system consists of shifting hoe cultivation connected with keeping of poultry, goats, sheep, cattle and pigs. Apart from guinea corn (sorghum) and millet as the primary staple crops, yam is of secondary importance for the Konkomba. Therefore the rites celebrated among the Konkomba after the grain crops harvest (November-December) are more common and important than those ceremonies held in August after the new yam harvest. In this study only the traditional yam feasts performed in August in two villages are described and analysed: Kukul, village inhabited by the Kukultiib clan belonging to Bimonkpom tribe and Nalongni, village occupied by the Nalatiib clan of Bitchabob tribe. The new yam feast is a matter of the particular households which appear as independent and autonomous ritual units. A day fixed by the elders of a lineage is not binding to all households belonging to this particular lineage. All members of a household attend such a feast. The new yam rites are carried out by the household head, if he belongs to the generation of the elders, or by the older neighbour. The offerings and prayers express dependence of the Konkomba on the supernatural beings who are symbolically personified in sacred objects (earthenware bowls and pots, calabashes, tortoise shells, earthen cone-shaped columns, stones) and places (wall of the entrance hut, compound-yard, graves, groves). Libation, consisting of water mixed with beer or water alone, is first poured, and afterwards blood of different fowls (chickens, cocks, hens and guinea-fowls) is offered. The prayers, which accompany sacrifices, are orientated to very practical and specific goals: fecundity, prosperity, health, rain, abundance of food, social harmony. God Uwumbor was only once mentioned in the prayer. The Earth shrines (litingbaln), clan spirits (ngiwaa), personal spirits (nwiin), twin spirits (bijam), spirits of the wild (bininkpiib) and medicine spirits were asked for help in the prayers. Most often, however, ancestors were addressed who, being so-called the living dead, are supposed to help and protect in a special way the households of their offsprings. An integral part of the yam feast is a meal which expresses happiness because of a god croop and hopes for future prosperity. It also deepens social bonds between the members of the particular household and lineage.