CULTURE

Basic aspects of Mwaghavul culture

At about 1909, the Jos Plateau region was pacified by the British colonialist following years of fierce resistance by the people. As a result of this conquest the people began to accept Christianity in part to discover the source of the colonialists’ power that defeated them unlike Islam and their Jihadists whom they have consistently and successfully fought off. About 80% of the Mwaghavul are said to be practicing Christianity. Christianity disrupted the people’s existing spirituality, the crux of their cultural practices and ways of life. Their traditional religion was known as kum. They have a house of the gods that they call lu kum. To communicate or interact with Naan (God) either through prayer, worship, sacrifice, or confession is to engage in tok kum. Their traditional religion, like most African traditional religions, consists in the belief of a supreme being- Naan, and several deities that assist this supreme being in ministering to the needs of the people. Central in their religion is the practice of divination, koos Paa, whereby the people consult with the yem kuum (diviner), who consults with the gods, Cospa, to discern the cause of, and solutions to, all their ailments or ills. Koos Paa facilitates all interactions between humans and the deities. The deities, when properly entreated, shower blessings on humans (gurum) or visit them and their society with different kinds of afflictions.  There are various deities e.g., Yer Kum, the deity of fertility, the deity of increase and purification, Tenpe, plays a significant role in their agricultural life. With this deity, good farm yield and peace are assured in the land. The deity Kumbong, represented by poles affixed to the compound gate protects the life of the people within the compound from evil forces including witchcraft and sorcery. The deity also ensures modesty, causing wayward women to stumble and fall at the entrance of the gate. Kuumpaal is another deity that guards against adultery and theft. Then there is the family deity called Dakum that prevent barrenness in females and impotency in males. There are other arrays of deities against personal, familial, and communal ills. Additionally, they venerate their ancestors (nji). For instance, there is a compound or shrine of the masquerades (Bong wong), from where the ancestors, represented by the masquerades, emerge when they visit the living. Mwaghavul also practice male circumcision, jep midang, and maintain different secret societies for the transfer of special knowledge.  The Mwaghavul society is graded into age-groups according to period of birth.  There are three age sets broadly defined: dikam mo (elders); nan-no, middle age, and zilang mo\jirap mo young male and female respectively.

The Mwaghavul people have several cultural festivals that are invaluable to their way of life. These festivals ensure neighborliness, mark life cycles, and fill the lull period following harvest e.g., horse racing and dances. Some of the festivals and rituals relate to such professions as hunting, fishing, and farming.  Some of the festivals include the cultural dance- veland – a fluting festival for males, with its female corollary dance called taa-waza. They observe Pwaghal, a victory dance that celebrates a hunter who successfully kills a leopard.  This is different from kwat, a hunting festival. Females entertain themselves with a traditional dance called Ceer.

One of the enduring festivals of Mwaghavul that brings its people back to Mwaghavul town and that is sometimes celebrated by those in the Diaspora (outside of Mwaghavul hometown) is the Puus Kaat.  The name translates to ‘a day of gathering or a meeting day’. The Puus Kaat is an annual cultural festival that reflects their agricultural and hunting lifestyle. Celebrated in Mangu, their main hometown, the festival is their most important fest.  Analogous to the various yam festivals of other agrarian peoples of Africa, such as the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria, the Ga of Ghana with their Homowo festival, and the Amazigh of Algeria with Yennayer festival, this festival ushers in the rains and is offered to express their gratitude to their God for a good harvest. A crucial component of the festival is the dance parade which provides an opportunity for the people to exhibit their various arts, crafts, musical instruments, and traditional and modern attire. Their ‘warriors’ through performance also showcase their traditional hunting instruments and demonstrate their skills in using them. While a festive occasion, and contemporarily a cause for the reunion of Mwaghavul indigenes in their homeland, there is also a spiritual component to Puus kaat. It marks Mwaghavul calendrical year of planting and harvesting, it includes various rituals and symbolic acts to appease the god of fertility, to induce adequate rainfall, and to cleanse the land. It is also aimed at engendering peaceful interpersonal relationships among the people and between the people and their ancestors.

The Mwaghavul traditional funeral rites are instructively unique. Like most people, they belief that humans consist of a perishable body and an eternal soul, which is a person’s essence. The soul goes to yil nji (spirit world \land of the ancestors). cibeling is their eternal resting place accessible only to good people. The journey to this place is treacherous, a sojourning soul passes through the underworld, wongohor. Only good people pass through successfully, those sucked in are eternally doomed. However, to usher the deceased on this journey, certain burial rites are performed.  A deceased body is wrapped with fabric from the waist down and placed on a woven reed or mat. They are interned either lying on their back or in a sitting position followed by some burial ceremonies. Three days after the burial, priests from the paternal family open the grave to conduct traditional autopsy to ascertain the character of the deceased and the cause of death. This ritual rite is called naa kiciir. This rite transitions the soul of the deceased into the liminal phase, where it stays for a year. After this one year, based on the determination of priests, the deceased who meets certain criteria is transitioned into an ancestor and deified as nji ancestral spirits. A second set of funeral rites are then performed to incorporate the said deceased into the cult of ancestors and of the spirits (masquerades). This process involves the removal of the skull of the deceased (nwos nangkaa) from the grave and testing it. Mwos, a traditionally fermented form of alcohol is poured into the skull. If it drains through expected cranial cracks, the deceased has passed the test; the skull is then placed in the communal shrine. This is a great honor, because it shows that the deceased led a good and worthy life. Were the skull to fail the test, it is adjudged to have led a worthless life, and consequently, the skull is thrown away. Between seven and ten afterwards, deification rituals are performed for the now successfully transitioned soul to have it rooted in the family compound. The deification process takes so long because it is cost intensive, requires a lot of planning and coordination, and it involves the whole family. When completed, the now rooted ancestor can be consulted and entreated to intervene in the affairs of the family.