Violence in Sacred Tradition: a Cultural Analysis and Implications for Contemporary Society

Review Paper

Violence in sacred tradition: A cultural analysis and implications for contemporary society

John Bosco Ekanem

Akwa Ibom State University, Department of Religious and Cultural Studies, Obio Akpa Campus. Oruk Anam L. G. A., Nigeria. E-mail: [email protected].

Accepted 27 December, 2015

This paper focuses on the traditional culture with particular reference to the culture of the Annang people of South Southern Nigeria and presents how it generates and legitimises violence by means of sacred traditions and rituals. With the desire to maintain the status quo of male dominance, a lot of cultural practices that subjugates womanhood and young people are entrenched in the religious and cultural life of the people. Agents of violence extend beyond the physical plane to the spiritual where even the gods and spirits play crucial roles in leaching violence on the people. Other structures like the extended family system which was the only social security system have turned to be vehicles of violence and an albatross hanging on the neck of society. It is the position of the paper that all these patriarchal constructs that breed violence and subjugation should be deconstructed.

Key words: Patriarchy, violence, domination, subjugation, ancestors.

INTRODUCTION

This article aims to describe traditional culture and how it by spirits if one went against tradition were enough to generates and legitimises violence. In the pre-modern enforce conformity to the group’s norms. society the foundation of myths exalted group harmony, It was considered a most harsh form of punishment to cohesiveness, togetherness, interdependence, stability be expelled from the group, as Cain found after and the sacredness of tradition. The belief, in Annang1 murdering Abel (Gen. 4: 10, 12 - 13). This was because traditional society of south-southern Nigeria, for example, the individual lost a sense of identity and rights. Respect is that culture is a gift of the gods and the ancestors; so it for patriarchal values was also a strong force in must not be questioned or significantly changed. The fear maintaining the status quo. To avoid shame and of being mocked, gossiped about, shamed and punished maintain a sense of male honour in traditional society, women had to be kept in an inferior status. They had to be subjugated and oppressed. This goes to explain the various types of violence inherent in the culture of 1 The Annang is a small ethnic minority group in the South South traditional society that are highlighted in this article, a geopolitical zone of Nigeria. With a population of over four society that sacredness of tradition and violence went hand in hand. million people, it is the second largest ethnic group in Akwa

Ibom State of Nigeria. Over 90% of the people are rural dwellers and traditional ethos are very much part of their Violence in sacredness tradition lives. The people engage themselves in subsistent economy and majority of the elite are civil servants and teachers. Much According to Arbuckle (2004: 34) “Sacred” is referred to as what must be protected against defilement or violation. of the research reported here was carried out by the author as In religious anthropology, a wide variety of practices, a research student in the Catholic University of Leuven, places, customs, and ideas may acquire a sacred, Belgium. inviolable character. For tradition to remain sacred and 2 Sky. J. Educ. Res.

intact there was need to have in place deep respect for symbolic protest, they reduce the possibility of real the status quo. This was important because the statutes violence destroying the status quo (Black-Michael, 1975, of the ancestors were sacrosanct and unquestionable. cited in Arbuckle 2004: 34). According to research findings, among the Annang Traditional clowns, drunkards and satirical singers during people of South Southern Nigeria, the ancestors had festivals in Annangland fulfilled a function of expressing immediacy as members of the living community and insults and hostility within the status quo. They could therefore participated in daily life of the people (Ekanem, publicly insult the chiefs and elders; announce their 2002). Kessing (1982: 30 - 31) had also found out similar hidden transgressions and acts of oppression and cultural praxis among the Kwaio people in the Solomon exploitation of the poor, orphans and widows in society. Islands. For these people, tradition must not change Satirical singers also used music to perform rites of otherwise the ancestors would punish the transgressors. reversal and rebellion by pouring insults not only on Therefore it was not easy to change some cultural themselves but also on the elders and those who wielded practices, no matter how obnoxious they were to good power and authority in society. They did this without taste and civilisation because of fear of ancestral endangering the system but, ironically, sanitising it. Even violence. What therefore served to maintain the in contemporary political dispensation in Nigeria, the sacredness of the social order was violence, expressed services of clowns are sought during public functions in both overt and subtle ways. This was profoundly where they pour insults on the president, governors and manifested in the rites of rebellion and reversibility. other prominent political figures and the effect of such insults is not anger but laughter. Such insults outside the Rites of rebellion and reversibility ambience of clownish satire would have been met with heavy reprisals and even arrests. It may sound contradictory to say that violence in tradition Just like the clowns and drunkards in traditional served to maintain the sacredness of the social order. Annang society, political cartoonists in Western societies This was actually what took place in Annang traditional also fulfill a function of expressing hostility within the society. In this society there were rites of reversal in status quo. Anger, ridicule and opposition can be which women stripped themselves naked and “sit on released without endangering the system. According to men,” as an act of rebellion and protest. These were rites Arbuckle (2004: 34) parliamentary oppositions likewise of reversal in which women desecrated their womanhood, are not out to destroy the democratic processes, despite exposing their privacy, the vehicle of lineage life and at time the viciousness of their verbal abuse thrown at the bridal honour to public gaze and ridicule. This was an government benches. According to him there are rules to open rebellion and disrespect to their husbands and the avoid excessive abuse and their breaking constitution an men folk. In this way, the women showed in a most act of violence. He goes on to assert that in the same dramatic way that what their husbands owned and Western societies, humorous television and radio possessed exclusively was now displayed in the public presenters publicly mimic the idiosyncrasies of the Prime arena of derogation, triviality, and public consumption. Minster, President and other prominent political figures Rites of reversal also come out in some Annang without getting into trouble. In Africa, respectable masquerades. Ordinarily, no woman in Annangland could institutions for social security like kinship and the carry the mask, not to mention a women being initiated in extended family have turned out to be vehicles of abuse any masquerade cult. But during the public display of and violence. Ekpo masquerade, for example, the mother masquerade and girl masquerade come out and mingle with the rest of Kinship and the extended family: Potential for abuse the masquerades. Eka Ekpo, the mother masquerade, though parodied, was the fiercest and the most violent In Africa in general and among the Annang in particular, and these were attributes that were reversals of kinship and the extended family system generate great motherhood; and Aboikpa Ekpo, ‘the girl masquerade,’ potentials for abuse and subtle violence. Kinship is used also in a mimicry way, mingled freely with fierce and to designate social relationships in the family and in intimidating masquerades when as a girl she was would society. It is kinship that gives rights and obligations to not dare to look at the face of masquerade. members in the kinship (Ekanem, 2002). The relatedness Rites of reversal seem to be the case across cultures. is primarily biological and according to anthropologist The Anthropologist Max Gluckman describes similar rites Robert Lowie (1948: 57), they “merely serve as a starting of reversal, in which men and women exchanged clothes point for the development of sociological conceptions of and commoners showed disrespect to chiefs, as example kinship.” It is from these that societal solidarity and of stylized reaffirmation of the order of things (Arbuckle, cohesion take off. For any society to stick together, two 2004: 34). In fact, ritual of rebellion and license indispensable qualities are needed and these are “loyalty functioned as a mechanism of psychological and cultural to fellow members and a willingness to share one’s catharsis because they discharge real social tensions goods and services with members of one’s kinship group” connected with rigid hierarchical relations and, as a (Lowie (1948: 57). Getting involved and benefiting from Ekanem 3

the kindred is a matter of give and take – sharing with this means is that the family of Jesus is those who do his each other. The quality of sharing is governed by norms father’s will. of reciprocity particular to each group. And as Hollnsteiner (1978: 38) contends, “reciprocity is that Subjugation of women in patriarchy principle of behaviour whereby every service received whether solicited or not, demands a return, the nature In patriarchal system power lies unquestionably with and proportion of the return determined by the relative men. Patriarchy “is any system in which men achieve and statuses of the parties involved and the kind of exchange maintain social, cultural and economic domination over at issue.” females, and younger males (Jary and Jary, 1991: 457). In Annangland in particular and in Africa in general Research findings show that patriarchy is the oldest form where the extended kinship obligations conflict with the of domination (Ardener, 1989: 72-82; 1972). Thus demands of a modern economy and loyalty to wider Rosemary Radford contends that sexual oppression society, the potential for abusing individuals is obvious. springing from deep anti-female prejudice may not only The following case study further illustrates this dynamic. be the oldest form of human domination but it is possibly In 1998, while researching on dispute settlement the most entrenched type of prejudice and discrimination among the Annang of South-Southern Nigeria, I went into (Radford, 1972). She goes on to assert that the the development of Osusu Societies in some villages for domination of women is the most fundamental form of widows in Midim clan. What I found out is that these poor domination in society, and all other forms of domination, widows were objects of bully by the chiefs and the men whether of race, class, or ethnic group draw upon the folk and even other members of the extended family. fantasies of sexual domination. What they wanted was to collect the money from the In the Annang traditional society, male dominance was women even though traditional law and the laws of achieved through educational processes. A typical Osusu forbade it. The women felt very much abused and example was that boys were taught to be strong, not intimidated by such demands, but they were powerless to talking much but competitive, and must be always in stop giving out the money lest they be ostracized by their control, while girls were raised to be compliant, other- relatives. This type of situation is one of the aberrations oriented, subservient to men and not to express their of the extended family system. People can be completely anger directly. They were also taught not to raise their ruined by avaricious and rapacious extended family eyes but look at the ground while they were talking with members. Without a doubt, an extended family system is men. Even when western education came to Africa, the traditionally a source of identity and support for its traditional society did not see any need of giving women members. However, it is indeed a big source of conflict the opportunity of western education, because they especially for people trying to make ends meet in believed that woman’s primary function in society was to contemporary depressing economic situation. bring forth children and to be mother and housewife. The Of course, the extended family system is not limited to dichotomy between the way boys and girls were raised in Africans and the Annang. For the Jewish people during annangland has recently been brought out in research the time of Christ, it was the foundation of society. That findings during the initiation rites for male and female as notwithstanding, Jesus openly and strongly criticized it. shown below.2 As would be expected, his listeners would have been deeply disappointed and offended. However, their Male initiation in Annangland: Rites of violence disappointment did not deter Jesus from insisting that justice, compassion, mercy must be shown not just to Education to instill male superiority was clearly family members, but to all peoples, no matter what emphasised in Annang patriarchal society. Initiation into culture they belonged to (Luke 10: 29-37). Abiewo3 cult in Annangland included important stage of There is yet another episode from the Gospel of separation from the mother and women in general. Often Matthew 12: 46. In this periscope we see that on one this separation was symbolically expressed by dramatic occasion his relatives, including his mother “were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him,” and they sent a messenger to tell him this. 2 Customarily, going by Jewish way of doing things, he The research was conducted by the author in 1998 during a should have immediately stopped his preaching, and fieldwork in Annangland on Dispute and Conflict resolution obeyed, leaving the crowds behind. This, however, was among the people. The Catholic Diocese of Ikot Ekpene is not the case. Rather, he used the incident to explain that here acknowledged for the financial support for the the ultimate mark of family loyalty is one’s commitment to research. Also acknowledge is the Department of Social and justice and love, and these virtues must extend beyond Cultural Anthropology, Catholic University of Leuven, family demands (Matt 12: 47-50). Jesus further explained Belgium for painstakingly supervising the research. that whoever was in need was a family member, and God 3 was the Father of all (Matt 6: 9-15; Luke 14: 26). What This was an initiation of Annang young men as traditional warriors. 4 Sky. J. Educ. Res.

and physically hurtful actions. The young initiate were objective, tradition constructed the woman to fit into this trained to courageous and fearless. Before the outing social value. Elsewhere I have elaborately described this ceremony, they were made to symbolically search for a construct in the Annang Fattening Room (Ekanem, hidden human skull in a remote part of the forest as a 2002). demonstration that they had been able to come back In Annang traditional society the woman was a creation from battle with at least one human head. Throughout the of culture, carefully and deliberately manufactured for the initiation the initiate learnt to stick together, help and trust lineage. And the objective of these feminine constructions themselves as a mark of solidarity and co-responsibility. was to mould the woman into a reservoir of plenitude and The initiation ceremony was painful and energy fecundity. As long as these were achieved, it did not sapping. The message was that men could not be true matter if those bodily parts that amplified a woman’s men until they had learnt to stand together and suffer sexuality were dissected and commoditised. And even physical pain without any show of fear. They were taught though the entire ritual was put in place by patriarchy, the the etiquettes of the clan as well as tactics of traditional women were made to carry out the subjugation and warfare. The violence against the initiate and the fear that oppression of themselves by themselves, by making it the ritual evoked in them, aimed to test them and to exclusively women’s affair in order to make them instruct them that they were to be more together than appropriate to themselves a phony sense of women and keep a distance from them to avoid being independency and autonomy. polluted, and that they were their superiors. Integral to In the Fattening Room, the would-be bride was made to these initiation rites was the insistence that true men open up her bodily boundaries, and she was fed as many must uphold the traditions of the clan, including male times as possible with food rich in carbohydrate and dominance. It was instilled into them that as men they protein which would enable her to be fat and healthy. A were bread winners of the house, providers and huge body, for the traditional Annang, was a metaphor for protectors of the family honour and traditions. generative potency. It was believed that the fatter the Similar research findings have also been discovered woman, the more seeds of life that were implanted in her elsewhere in Africa. Ramphele (2000: 102-10), in her by nature. Therefore tradition had to manure this soil (the study of contemporary urban African children in a woman) for the planting of the seeds of life. What this township in Cape Town discovered that similar definition meant was that the process of fertilizing the soil took of “manhood” still runs through all stages of the place in the fattening room. Thus the female body, development of boys’ identity. The boy is still repeatedly produced in the fattening room and marketed by told that as a man he is to be a fighter, a warrior, patriarchy, became a huge, efficient, functional and protector, hero, provider, and initiator, reinforced at every automatic child manufacturing machine, almost stage by particular strategies. Those willing and able to completely detached from the person. succeed in showing their “manhood,” be it gang warfare Another very important activity that went on in the or courtship and capture of the trophy called woman, Fattening Room was a long process of orientation which were celebrated. The weak were seen as mere women boardered on indoctrination. The initiate was trained on (See Arbuckle 2004). The initiation rites of girls were how to be subservient to the man, especially her even more encompassing the subjugating. husband. It was instilled into her that God made her to be under the man, to obey him without complain and never Female initiation in Annangland: Rites of subjugation to resist his authority. It was drummed into her head that an authentic Annang woman was one who must put her In contrast to the initiation rites of young men were those eyes on the ground, which was an outward sign of of girls, who were trained to be docile, humble, obedient, integral and unconditional obedience. patient, enduring and above all subservient to men. Like In all these the body of Annang woman was treated as the boys, females were also separated after an object – a means through which the destiny of the clitoridectomy, a painful exercise. Unlike the boys that lineage was carried out. Her bodily beauty was not were to suffer pain with manly courage, the girls were told necessarily for her own sake or for her self-worth as a to be patient so that they would be able to bear the person, with personal rights and autonomy, but for burdens of married life, for the endurance of suffering masculine appeal, to excite copulation which would in under men without complains was considered a much turn enhance reproduction for corporate society. “Since desired womanly virtue among the Annang. They were the body of the woman was traditionally constructed for trained on how to take care of their husbands and masculine attraction and enhancement of amorous children. desires, it followed therefore that the female body was In Annang traditional society, the female body was commoditised and advertised in the marital market” constructed by patriarchy for the benefit of cultural (Ekanem 2014). Apart from all these, by the time the practices and beliefs. The Fattening Room, for example, woman got out of the fattening room, her entire outlook in was the Annang man’s desire for fat, humble and life, her philosophy of life and destiny had been subservient woman in marriage. In order to achieve this conditioned and shaped. She came to believe that she Ekanem 5

was inferior to man and must acquiesce to his whims and the lineage to have the opportunity of taping reproductive caprices. She believed that her subjugation, suffering energy from the Life-Giving Source. etc., were the lots of women and therefore there was As the mbobo entered the arena, she was ushered in nothing she could do about her situation. by the xylophone, while she gracefully danced to its When the period of the fattening was over, there were melody. A little removed from the entrance of the arena still a lot of activities that followed and these activities was mmiam anwa, a special deity of the lineage. As she centred mostly on the female body. Before the outing progressed in her graceful dance, she jumped over ceremony, the hair of the initiate, which had been left to mmiam anwa in order to prove her virginity. Before this, overgrow throughout the period of confinement in the the entire community had gathered in the arena to Fattening Room, was artistically plaited. And her pubic welcome the Mbobo as she was now called. Going round hair, which was not shaved throughout the period of the the arena, she would perform her beautiful and graceful confinement, was relaxed, dyed with black and combed dance; intermittently unveiling her ebony-black pubic out. Her body was shaved so that no hair was found on it. hairs for public gaze, and the crowd would rush in to have The body was artistically decorated with indigo body a look at it, followed by rounds of applause. Present in paintings of adung and akun.4 It took more than a day for the arena were ewa ekong masquerades who would go the artist to work on her body, artistically designing her around the arena, ordering all girls to undress and display body with adung. The adung ate into her skin and after their pubic hairs. Any girl who refused to comply three days it was washed out. After washing out the immediately would be severely beaten. As the girls adung, beautiful bodily marks were left on her body. With undressed and displayed their pubic hairs, the men would an added decoration through black indigo body painting rush in to have glimpses of them. with akun, the body of the woman looked like ‘a beautiful Meanwhile, ewa ekong masquerades ushered in the work of art.’ prospective husband, with songs from their ritualized Then followed the outing ceremony at the Village voice, each of them carrying umbrellas upside down. The Arena, where the body of the woman was displayed as if prospective husband was properly dressed in traditional it were a cultural ‘artifact’ on a public gallery. The entire attires of loincloth, white singlet and ujad iwuo, a special body of the women, which had been cleanly shaved, was woolen head covering. At the centre of the arena was a robbed with nsei mixed with palm oil. This made her mount measuring about six mitres high. Meanwhile some body to shine out like a polished product, glistering with members of the age group of the intending husband beauty, radiating joy, and exciting amorous feelings. She carried him shoulder high, with dance and placed him on entered the arena in nudity. Her voluminous hairs were top of the mount. The Mbobo then increased the tempo of artistically plaited. On her waste were beads carefully tied her dance, displayed her pubic hairs to the husband, who to allow one side fall, kissing her left thigh. The pubic after spraying her with gifts, was excited, jumped down, hairs were covered with white handkerchief. The bodily embraced her and at that moment they were joined in paintings enhanced her bare breasts, which jumped up marriage. and down at every move of her graceful steps. On her From what we have seen so far, we can safely deduce huge legs were well published brass coilings known as that in Annang traditional society; the female body was agwok. On her angles were tied ajioro, small tiny rattles constructed for her subjugation. Be it the principal acts of that produced clanging sounds as she moved. She wore clitoridectomy, or the tattooing of her body, or the exotic a rounded costly necklace called ndo that seductively act of the decoration and ornamentation of her body – kissed her temples (see Ekanem 2002b). they were all geared towards her subordination. It was The high point of the outing ceremony took place in the meant to tell her she needed a man; it was for the Village Arena called Anwa Mbobo, a cosmological space purpose of making her a subject, who would that brought together the various strata of society, a unconditionally fulfill her existence in society as mother perfect representation of the aspirations, hopes and and life-giver. The body of the women, in traditional yearnings of the community. The arena also was a society was therefore fragmented into breasts, pubic representation of cosmic uterine source, the womb of hairs, fat legs and buttocks, separated, as it were, from Mother Earth, from where sprang communal fecundation. her person, and displayed for public gaze, and for Therefore when the entire lineage went to gather in this entertainment. Her privacy and autonomy was vandalised cosmic space, it had deeper meaning than going to watch and brutalised. Even in contemporary Annang society, the outing of an Mbobo initiate. It was more for the the body of the Annang woman continues to be purpose of regeneration, a return to the womb for the objectified. The bullying power of patriarchy has gone reincarnational recycling of life and for each member of beyond the physical to the spiritual.

The bullying power of spirits in patriarchal cosmology 4 These were traditional fruits and roots, whose acidic content It is Arbukle (2004) that has written about patriarchal would leave some burning marks on the body of the woman. 6 Sky. J. Educ. Res.

cosmology in which he reports that in religion, cosmology the correct ritual had not been used or the words or means “a theory that or conception of the nature of the actions were wrongly applied. And among the Annang, it universe and its workings, and of the place of human was believed that a married woman who committed beings and other creatures within the order (see adultery would be punished or even killed by Ekpo Nka Achtemeier 1993: 807). In the cosmology of patriarchal Agwo, the god of adultery (Ekanem 2002a). culture, the author asserts that there is a hierarchy of Similar bullying by the spirits could also be found during transcendent gods and spirits intimately concerned with the time of Jesus. That is the reason why his disciples the wellbeing of the group and its stability. There are accepted without question a causal link between sickness intermediary and more approachable spirits helping and the breaking of a cultural norm. When the disciples people to relate to the High God. Harmony is maintained “saw a man who had been blind from birth” they asked by the smaller spirits or gods, who keep evil forces under Jesus: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that control, but people, can allow these forces to enter their he should have been born blind?” Jesus refused to lives through sin. accept the causal link, replying: “Neither he nor his And this brings us to the concept of sin and sickness in parents sinned” (John 9: 1 - 3). People such as lepers or Annang society. For the Annang, sin is not a personal the blind were defined by the community as dangerous to affront to gods but simply the breaking of rules and the society, and marginalized from community relationships. disruption of the social order. For this reason, things must They would have felt desperately alone, bullied into be put right, not by what Douglas (1970: 102) refers to as isolation by the cultural pressures, their self image an interior change of heart, but by formal rituals gravely affected. Jesus refused to accept the culturally appeasing the spirits. assigned cause of sickness and concentrated physical Indeed, the gods and spirits are very much agents of and social healing of the sick by restoring them to bullying, and in Annang patriarchal society there is strong community life. belief that people can manipulate gods and spirits to cause harm and havoc and to spread sickness and Family secrecy and rituals of power diseases. The people believe that almost every misfortune is attributed to the evil one. Even though they In most patriarchal societies people cherish and fear know that sickness can come about through natural secret. Many rituals are kept secret because they are causes, but for them the ultimate causes of evil in the about controlling or manipulating evil to one’s advantage. form of sickness or death is commonly that ancestors are This can be done through sorcery. Ritual specialists can punishing the living for not showing them respect or for dominate people’s life in violent ways because of the breaking clan taboos. power they assumed to possess. People will also hide There is also widespread belief that the living can harm incidents of breaking customs lest members of other others through intentional or unconscious use of magical lineage of clans and publicly ridicule them or make them forces such as sorcery, magic and witchcraft. Sorcery is targets of sorcery. An example of this is hiding the the deliberate use of magical forces to harm some people incident of the birth of twins in a family during the time or group, while witchcraft is seen as a malign quality when twins and their mothers were killed in Annangland. innate in a person. Some witches, unlike sorcerers, are In this case one of the twins would be killed to appear generally unaware that they have this quality or are that the mother gave birth to a single child. In this exercising it. For most Annang people death is generally process, one child is killed through act of violence. believed to be the result of sorcery through enemies or rivals. Implications for contemporary society The traditional Annang cultural religious world was encapsulated in fear of evil spirits and the manipulative We have seen that the elements most marked in powers sorcerers. To get out of this, they sought to patriarchal culture are the ideology of the extended defend themselves through rituals. Adherents of African family, male domination, conformity to tradition, and Traditional Religion believed that people of evil intent systems to maintain the status quo. Significant value is could invoke the spirits of the dead to harm or even kill placed upon loyalty to the extended family, and the the living. This is what the Annang refer to as Nnong individual to be subjected to considerable, and even ekpo nno agwo, invoking the spirit/ghost to strike violent pressure to conform. Also brought is the fact that somebody with stroke, for example. There were a variety transgressions of culture are concealed in case outsiders of religious specialists, like Shamans, and diviners, who find out and use them to threaten the wellbeing of the had the ability to discern precisely which spirit or person whole family. There is therefore the tendency to cover up was causing the illness or the failure to succeed, the serious crimes and violations of individual freedom as reasons and the necessary remedies. Once people were well as peace and security. All these have profound persuaded of the source of the evil, then the challenge implications for modern and contemporary society, as was to get the right ritual to neutralize the power of the many people are still entrenched in tradition and malignant force. It there was no success, it was because patriarchy. The tendency to conceal is explicated in Ekanem 7

families hiding, and accommodating criminal family a field day and their exorcism is becoming an exercise in members to the detriment of societal security and futility. What these church leaders seem to be doing is to equilibrium. There is the tendency to support immorality impose immeasurable violence and fear on people, committed by family members and publicize those of recycling them and putting the people in chains for others who do not belong to the family. This is violent exploitative ends. This is a mockery of christianity. disservice to contemporary society. Undoubtedly, the extended family system has been the only social security put in place for people in society REFERENCES where social welfare from government is non-existent. Achtemeier E (1993). “Women,” in The Oxford Companion of the Bible, However, because of biting economic situation and the ed. Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, New York, Oxford pressure on families, the extended family system now University Press (1993) 807. seems to be an albatross hanging on the necks of Ardener, Edwin (1993). The Voice of Prophecy, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, individuals and society. Certainly, this extended family 1989. Ardener E (1872). “Belief and Problem of Women,” in Jean Fontaine, system is a powerful cultural construct and it has ed., Interpretation of Ritual, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, negatively impacted on the family. There should therefore 1872. be deliberate effort to deconstruct it through acts of Arbuckle GA, Gerald A (2004). Violence, Society and the Church: A government especially by creating opportunities for Cultural Approach, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 2004. Black-Michael, Jacob, Feuding Societies, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1975. people to work and take care of themselves. Douglas M (1970). 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It is for this reason that all Solomon Island Society, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982. obnoxious cultural practices and beliefs should adapt to Lowie, Robert H (1948). Social Organisation, New York: Holt, Rinehart changing circumstances and times. and Winston, 1948. We have also noticed from our analysis that people in Meggitt MJ (1965). Gods, Ghosts and Men in Melanesia, ed. P. Lawrence and M. J. Meggitt, Oxford University Press, London, 1965. traditional societies take sickness as not so much a Ramphele, Mamphela, “Teach Me How to Be a Man,” in Violence and biochemical matter as a social one. It is particularly Subjectivity. Ed Veena Das, et al. University of California Press, attributed to social, not physical causes. While not Berkeley, 2000, pp. 102-19. doubting the spiritual dimension of sickness, it seems modern spiritualists, evangelists and pastors are replicating the religious functionaries of traditional society by using their privileged position as visionaries to bully their clients by injecting fears into their life thereby rendering them psychologically traumatized and maladjusted. This type of situation breeds suspicion and distrust and a society that is made up of disoriented people can never achieve much in life, if at all. One of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity is that Jesus Christ has conquered evil and all satanic powers through his death and resurrection. However, what some religious leaders, visionaries and healers tend to do now is to present the picture of a society that is dominated by demons, witches, wizards and sorcerers. In the process, even though they call upon Christ every second and exorcise demons in his name, demons seem to be having