Pragmatics9:3.3 57 -382 (1999) InternationalPragmatics Association

THE PRAGMATICS OF DUABo 'GRTEVANCEIMPRECATION' TABOO AMONG THE AKAN

Kofi Agyekum

0.Introduction

This paperaddressesduabc 'grievanceimprecation' asaverbal tabooamong theAkan of Ghana.Akan belongs to the Kwa group of languagesfound in West Africa. It is the indigenouslanguage with the largest number of speakers in Ghana. The paper addressesthe notion of the magical power of the spokenword with regard to duabc. A linguisticanalysis of duabc will be presentedin termsof its etymology,morphology, typology, syntax and semantics.In the frameworkof the ethnographyof communication, thispaper looks at the pragmatic featuresof duabc, the participants andits performative aspects.It also discussesthe situations under which the verbaltaboo is mentioned and it considersthe sanctionsinvolved. All this is supportedby empiricaldata collected among theAkan in 1994.1 Verbal taboo is an important aspectof the Akan languageand culture. There are varietiesof verbal taboos in Akan. They include ntam'reminiscential oath', duabc 'imprecation', nsedie 'self-imprecation', atennidie 'invectives' and ammodin 'unmentionables'(see Agyekum 1996). This paper, however,concentrates only on duabc. Duabc'grievanceimprecation by invocation' is a type of religiousverbal taboowhich involvesthe employment of magical and supernaturalpowers to causeharm to one's addressee.Duabc is normally relatedto supernaturalpowers which people consider as valuableand powerful. Duabc normally occurswhere there is a grievancebetween a speakerand his victim. We shall be looking at the types, functions, structuresand the prototypicallanguage used in duabc. We will alsolook at the categoriesofcommunicative participantsconnected to this type of speechcommunication. There is a Ghanamapatthe endof thepaper that showssome of the towns,villages andrivers mentionedin the text and theirrelationship with Kumasi and Accra, the capital of Ghana.

1. Theoretical framework

Duabc can best be analysed in the general framework of the ethnography of communication. Hymes (1972) proposes an ethnographicframework which takes into account the various factors that come into play in speaking.These factors are summarily put in an acronym, SPEAKING:

I This paper is a modified form of a chapter from my M.Phil. thesis from the University of Trondheim.The thesis was issued as University of Trondheim WorkingPapers in Linguistics 30 (1996). 358 Kofi Agyekum

S-settingand scene,P- participants, E - ends,A-act sequence,K- key I- instrumentality, N- norms of interaction and interpretation, G- genre.z

In the analysis of duabc , we shall look at the setting in terms of place and time, participanls in terms of the peoplewho are connectedwith it, and ends in terms of the purposeforthe duabc. Actssequence refersto the eventsthat culminateinto theduabc speechactivity and how they havebeen structured, keying is viewed in termsof the tone and mood of the participants in the act, instrumentis the medium of language usedand in the caseof duabc,itis the spokenwords.The normsrefertothe socio-cultural norns, values and conventionsattached to duabc, ffid in fact, theseare the issues that make it a verbal taboo. The genre is a religious one and this capturesthe spiritual and supernaturalaspects of this communicativeevent. Someof the componentparts of duabc are speechacts. Anything that comes out during duabc, would be considered as an integral part of the whole communicativeevent.

2. Duabc 'grievanceimprecation': The Duabc as a verbal taboo

The duabc taboo is purely a religiousverbal taboo. It is the practice of the Akans in invoking supernaturalpowers in defenceand in the executionof certainforms of justice. This has given rise to the origin of imprecationbased on the desireof the imprecator to harm the target. Akan duabc 'imprecation'normally arises out of enmity,breakdown of love, lack of peace, conflict, anger,social avoidance, selfishness,attempt to eliminate 'grievance a fellow, curse, etc. This is the reason why I have labelled duabc as imprecation'. Duabc is a verbal taboo because it derivesits effect from supernaturalpowers whosemight the ordinaryman cannot match andwhose actions and behaviour people can neither predict nor decipher. For this reason,one should avoid invoking supernatural namesin certain contexts(see also Rattray 1969a; Wagner 1987 233).It is believed that when a persontrivialises the namesof the deities, he is defiling and blasphemingagainst them. Duabc is discouragedbecause these supernatural powers (other than God) arequick to angerand their punishmentsare very severe.This, however, doesnot meanthat duabc is totally tabooed, for like all the other verbaltaboos in Akan, there arecertain situations when it canbecome mentionable. Generally, duabc is an expressionthat is invoked with the intention to punish the targetedperson. The consequenceof the duabc is that it puts the referent into an awkward situationthat affectshis life andproperty. In psychologicalterms, it affrontsthe face of the target when he is within the communicativesituation. The event may also affront the faceof by-stander.(cf. Gofknan 1955,1981; Brown andLevinson 1987).

2Inthispaper,Hymes'(I972)modelisusedtogetherwithSaville-Troike's(1989:138-157)model for Communicativeevents. Saville-Troike's (1989) model consistsof the following main features:genre, topic, purpose/function, and setting (all categorisedunder "scene or extra-personal context of the event"). The others are key, participants,message form, messagecontent, act sequence,rules of interaction and norms of interpretation. In effect, there is a stong relationship between Hymes' and Saville-Troike's models. 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akan 359

Not only does duabc affront the victim, but in the final analysis all duabc expressionsare considered taboo because they tamperwith people'slives andallegedly kill themoff. Duabc may harm an entire family and in some casesbe reversedto kill the imprecator.A reduction of the populationthrough imprecationis considereddetrimental to the society. It is becauseof the social impact of duabc that the Akans have institutionalisedit as a tabooexpression restricted to be usedas a weapon of a lastresort in somedefined contexts for bringing aboutsocial justice.

3. Duabc activity: Internal structure and participants

The internal structure of duabc as a single speechactivity hasthree major constituent parts and they are: (a) protactic proposition, which representsthe invocation(of the nemesis)and the cursingaspect (the speechact; performativeverb), (b) the apodictic proposition,which indicatesthe purposeof the use of the imprecation,and (c) the commissiveproposition, which statesthe punishment. Thereis a prototypical frame in duabc in Akan which pragmatically involves at leastthree participants or more. Theseare the imprecator (speaker),imprecatee (target) andthe nemesis(addressee). Each of the participantshas a communicative role in the speechevent. The participants and their roles are presented below. Apart from the parlicipants,there is the messagethat links the imprecator andthe nemesis.This will be referredto asthe mand. 3

(i) the speaker -) the imprecator -+ lst. person (ii) the target -) the imprecatee --) 2nd. or 3rd. person(s) (iii) the addressee supernatural,the power broker, God, deity, the nemesis (iv) the message the mand

The first participant is the imprecator (speaker/theperformer) who embarkson the act. Theimprecator functions as the animatorof the powerful words and it is his wish which thenemesis fulfils. The imprecatorsends a mandto theNemesis to act upon it. Mandswith secondperson subjects express the speaker'sintention to get the addresseeor hearer to do something. The second participantis the addressee,the centraland coreparticipant of the wholeact. It is the sourceof the power for the causativeact to inflict harm or death. It is thesupernatural power (an invisible participant) and it may be God or any of the deities. Thisparticipant is referredto in this paperas the nemesis.The Nemesisis definedin Greek mythologyas "the avenger;personification of the gods' retribution for violation of sacred law"(Longman Encyclopaedia, lst edition 1992:743).Thenemesis (addressee) is never

3 Accordrng to Leech (1983: 116) "mands constitute a more general category than what we normally understand by command. They reflect a common element of meaning shared by the three moods:Imperative, infinitive, and present subjunctive. Mands invoke or conjure up a stateof affairs which is envisagedas unfulfilled". 360 KofiAgtekum

physically present in the communicativescenario; however, it takesactive part in the spiritualaspects. The imprecatee is the targeted personwho bearsthe brunt of the duabc (he can be in the secondor third person). According to the nofin and constitutionof the Akans, the potential imprecatee must not be there at the time of the utteranceof the imprecation.In somecases the imprecatormay not be known or may be a third party. In somesituations however the imprecateemay be present (seenitandua section 5.3.1). While the imprecator and the imprecatee are [+human], the nemesis is normally supernatural[-human]. The structure of duabc canbe illustrated as follows: the imprecator employsthe mand to pray the nemesrs (deity) to inflict any of the possiblepunishment(s) which the nemesisdeems fit on theimprecatee. Thepunishmentsinclude nightmares,misfortunes, siclcness,birth problems, madness,death or any other. The punishmentsare unordered and they may be one or more dependingon the gravity of the offenceand the wish of the imprecator. The imprecator can say"I give you to the deitiesto dealwith you". The imprecator implies that the punishmenthe wantsto be afflicted on the imprecateeis beyondhis power and control. The imprecative frame can be as in the examplebelow:

1. Se saa asem yi a wode ato me so yi If such matter this which you take Consec. Put me top this .s€ enye nokore a AsuoDebi nku wo. If Neg.is true thenAsuo Debi Imp.kill you ('If this accusationyou have levelled against me is untrue, may River Debi kill you'.)

Structure of Example I : If this statemenVactX is false/defamatory,etc. then nemesisY shouldkill you Z.

4. The linguistic structure of Duabc

This sectiondiscusses the linguistic skuctureof duabc in termsof its semanticorigin, etymology, ffid syntax. In the linguistic structure,it is possible to omit some of the internalpropositions and participants of duabc as listedin 3. above.

(i) Semanticorigin of Duabc

The act of duabc literally involves an attemptto use a stick to hit somebodywith the intention of killing him or her. In reality, it is ratherthe useof words which is believed by the Akans to have some "inherent power" to kill people. This is done by handing the personover to somesupernatural powers to usetheir powersto perform the act. They can proceedto harm or afflict the victim with disease,death, etc. onbehalf of the imprecator. This samemeaning of duabc is preservedin the final proclamationused in thejudgement 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation'taboo among the Akan 361 of casesin Akan arbitration.a

(ii) Etymology and origin of the word Duabc

Theetymology of the word duabc is derivedfrom two words: a noundua'stick'and a verb bc'to hit'. Duabc is, therefore,a verbalnoun from the verbal phrase bc dua 'hit with a stick'. Here is an illustration of the processof modificationof a verb into a noun imprecation.

[[bc + dua] VPll [dua+bc] I.IPll ttl tl -) ry + Nl vPll INP+v]-NPll 'to imprecate' --) 'imprecation'

It is likely that in the olden days, beforethe introductionof iron and metal weapons, the 'ctubs' Akansused dua/abaa as their major weapons in wars and for execution, hence 'imprecation' their usagein duabc and also the judgement proclamation. Duabc is a spiritualexecution where the physical executionis encodedin the spiritual world.

(iii) Omissionof nemesisin Duabc'grievanceimprecationl

In someduabc tabooexpressions, the imprecatoravoids mentioningthe nemesisbut may voicethe punishmentwhich should befall the imprecatee. These are like the informal duabcwe shall seelater. Sincethe imprecatorhimself cannotmete out the punishment, itisassumedthatthereisanunspecified agent whois goingtocarryitout.Little(1987) pointsout that cursesin which the agent is not specifiedare often in the form ofpetitions to othersto intervene. Generally, the imprecationsin Akan are couchedin the form of a mandor a petition for supernaturalintervention. Below are exurmplesof "agentless" imprecations.

(2)nba a ede ba dee wo- remfa bi nhye w'akyiri. Babyrel. be call baby foc. you neg.take some neg.put Poss.back. ('Asfor what we call a child you will neverput oneon your back.')

Thisimplies that the imprecateeis cursednever to have a child.

o Among the Akan, after a casehas been settled through arbitration, the chiefs spokesmanmakes a proclamation. The proclamation has some relation with a curse except that in the proclamation it has a purelymetaphorical significance. Here is the proclamation. Se aserna esiie yi, se wammaX amfowo ammaha amma Nananom amfa asopa antie bi enna anka womuaabaa so na wode bcJ ne tirim na wokum no a wodi no aboa. "In the casethat ensuedbetween you and X, if X had not brought you here before Nananom, for them to have used their good and attentive ears to hear and go through the case, and ifyou had taken a stick/club and hit him on the head and if you had thus killed him, you would have terited him like a beasVanimal." 362 KofiAgrekum

(3) Dee ctee me kookoo yi dee afuo biara a cde bedua Who he- Pastpluck me Poss.cocoa this foc. farm any which he-usesplant mu no egya nhye no. in that fire Imp.burn it ('As for the onewho pluckedmy cocoa, any farmin which he plantsthe cocoashould get burnt'.)

(4) Onipa blnefo a ctan me biara dee cnwu. Personsinful who he- Pres.hates me any as for he- Imp. -die. ('May any sinful man who hates me die.')

(iv) Omissionof the apodicticpropositional content ln some instances,the apodictic propositional content indicating the reasonsfor the imprecationmay be omitted as in the examples below.

(5a) Saa nipa no cbc bra biara a €renye yie. That personthe he play life any which it Neg.Prg.do well ('May that person never prosperin any venture he embarks on in his life.') (5b) Onii ko renhunu ne ho ano da wc wiase Personthat Prog.Neg. seePos. body front neverbeat world yi mu this in ('That personwill neverbe prosperousin his life').

In the abovedata, all the expressionsin bold lettersare the duabc taboo expressions. They arepunishments which the imprecatorwants to befall on the imprecatee.Sometimes the imprecator may leave the apodictic propositional part but the cursing part must obligatorily appearto show that he has the intention to imprecate. Theseforms can only be usedin situationswhere the apodicticpropositional content ofthe imprecationhas been statedearlier on in the discourse.

(v) Omissionof the curse component

It is possible in certain contextsfor the imprecatorto omit the curseor punishmentand entrusteverything to the discretionof the nemesis to punishthe imprecatee.I cite below such a variety recordedat Assisiriwa on the 3rd. of April 1994. The woman imprecator poured some drink on the ground and also threw and broke an egg on the ground and imprecatedas follows;

(6) Dee cfaa m'adeeyi menhunu onipa 'He who he-Pasttake my thing this I-Neg.-see person korJ a cfaae, Asuo Offin wo na wonim enti one who he-Pasttake River Offin you foc. you-know so 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akan 363

lkyere wo tumil.s fshow yolu powers]r. ('I am not ableto seeor recognisethe onewho took my thing, River Offin you are the onewho hasan ideaso exerciseyour powers').

In theabove example, the punishmentis left open by the use of the expressionlqtere wo tumi 'exerciseyourpowers'. Thepunishment canbe any ofthe typeswe havementioned earlieron andis exercisedaccording to the discretionof thenemesis based on the gravity of theoffence.

(vi)Anticipatory imprecation

It is alsopossible to havean anticipatoryimprecation, where the speechact is not complete atthe time of the utterance. One can say that it is a delayedspeech act. It is normally put in a conditionalclause giving the imprecateeample time and opportunity to manoeuvre. In Akan, suchan imprecationmay be markedby the conditionalmarker se 'if as in;

(7a) Se obiara labue adakano so wia sika a ewc If anyone Egr. go openbox the on steal money which it be mu no a Kyinaman nku no.6 in then Kyinaman Imp. kill him ('If anyone- opens and stealsthe moneyin this box, maythe deity Kyinaman kill him'.)

Inthe anticipatory imprecation (also called provisional curse by Little 1987)the malefactor orimprecatee is madeimpersonal and generic by theuse ofthe pronounobiara 'anybody'. Here,the conditional clause marked by the marker se 'if hasalso got an ingressiveftc- bue"a goingto the placebefore the act of openingtakes place." (Theingressive markers in Akanbe 'come'and kc 'go' referrespectively to a comingor a going to a placebefore thereal action of the verb takesplace.) Structurally, the se in the ingressiveintroduces a suppositionalcondition intended to pre-empt an act. A speaker can also utter the anticipatoryimprecation as follows .

(7b) Onipabiara a cbebueadaka yi so awia sika a ewc mu no Kyinaman nku no. ('May the deity Kyinaman kill any personwho opensthe box andsteals the money in it'.)

In the examplesof anticipatory imprecation above, the speechact is not complete becauseone of thenecessary conditions (the malefactor or the imprecatee)is not met.The imprecationis left openand general and it may or may not happen.By the power of the

5River Offin is one of the major rivers in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

6 Kyinaman: This is another powerful deity in a village called Nobesu near Kyekyewere. People tust its magical powers so much that they employ it very often in imprecation and oaths. 364 Kofi Aglrekum spokenword the imprecationis potential, and it becomesfunctionable at the appropriate time when a victim commits the anticipatedoffence. The condition will then be met for theimprecation to be accomplishedand the malefactor is thencursed (cf. Little 1987:184). The question that arisesis, what happensif no malefactor falls into the hap? The name of the deity might havebeen mentioned in vain andthat is tantamountto defilement and blasphemy. The speakerwill be using the imprecation as a protectivedevice to his personal advantage at the expenseof the whole society. Theseare among the main reasonswhy such imprecationshave becomeinstitutionalised verbal taboosin the Akan community.

4,1. Lexico-semanticform of Duabc

In this section, we shall considerthe natureof a prototypical duabc in terms of the type of verbs and complementizersthat are usedin duabc utterances.The prototypical verbs used are lcye 'to arrest', nya 'to afflict' andlatm 'to kill' and they are ordered.Depending on the gravity of the offence and the intendedpunishment, the imprecatorwould choose any of theseverbs. The scaleof the affliction by the nemesismoves along a continuum of stagesas in the framebelow:

lcye -'+ nya -+ kum. 'arrest' 'eeVafflict' 'kill'

We analysethis structureaccording to the natureof the punishmentsmeted out by the nemesis.

(a) lcye 'to arrest'

This is the first level of the punishmentwhere it is believed that the nemesissends his spiritual policemen to arrestthe imprecatee.According to my informants, this is where the victim may start having nightmares and unhappy dreams and may become psychologically unsound. If the person realisesthat the affliction is causedby a supernaturalbeing and runs to the deity and performs the necessaryrituals, he may be free. The fines and punishmentsinvolved at this stage are minimal.

(8) Dee wafa mesika no Kwaku Firi nkye no Personwho perf. take my money the Kwaku Firi arrest him mma me. for me. ('May the deity Kwaku Firi arrestthe one who has stolenmy money'.)

(b) nya 'to afflict'

'to The second stage is nya geVafflict', where the deity is supposed to get hold of the 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akan 365 victim. It normally startswith an illness which worsensday by day. The personmay visit variousmedicine men but all to no avail until it is revealedthat he is under the affliction of a spell. If he is ignorantof being a targetof a duabc 'imprecation'and rushes to the shrineof the deity, thenthe highestdegree of the punishmentis setin motion. Here is a nya example.

(e) Onipa a cl{c-wia-a me ntomano Ayanta nnya no. Personwho he go stealpast my cloth the Ayanta get him. ('May Ayanta afflict someharm on the onewho stolemy cloth'.)

(c) kum 'to kill'

Thisis themost prototypical verb, it is the highestdegree of the punishments.The verb lwm'tokill'means 'to causeone to be out of existence' Let us considerthe examples below.

(10a) Se wo! Wosi mekunu ho bio a If you! You step my husband body again then Akonnedi nku wo. Akonnedi Imp.Kill you. ('If you ventureto have a further affair with my husbandmay the deity Akonnedi kill you'.) (10b) Wode wo nan st gsaqseno so a Tegarenku You take your leg step land the on thenTegare Imp. wot you. ('May Tegareslay you if you shouldstep on the land (in dispute)'.)

Theverb kum'to kill' is placed in an indirectcausation (execution) where the imprecator requestsanother agent ( the nemesis)to spirituallykill the imprecatee.By the magical powerof the spokenwords, the imprecatorthus hands the offenderover to a supernatural power(see Tambiah 1968). It is in suchutterances that we really seethe magical power of the spokenword. The speaker thinks along the following lines: "If I physically beat, confront,or kill you, I may be committing a criminal offence,so I will rather handyou overto the spiritual world so that I will not be committedin any wey." According to Montagu(1967: 57)"the mereexistence of supernaturalpowers is not in itself sufficient togenerate the process ofcursing. Only whenthe individual is forbiddento takejudgement intohis own handsis he likely to hit upon the ideaof compellingthe supernaturalsto assist himin theexecution of his judgement".

t Tegare is a renowned and powerful deity taken from the Northem Region of Ghana into the AshantiRegion. Many towns and villages had/have this deity in various forms. 366 KofiAgtekum

(1la) Dee wafa mesika no Antoa Nyamaas nku no. Personwho perf. take my money the Antoa Nyamaa Imp.kill him. ('May Antoa Nyamaakill the personwho has takenmy money'.)

The duabc tabooexpression in the abovedata is Antoa Nyamaa should kill him. The imprecator is the indirect causer and the nemesis, Antoa Nyamaa,the direct causer or the instrument to effect the killing; the imprecateeis the causee.The imprecateeis not 'him'. named, he is representedby the pronoun no In pragmatic terms, the above utterance implies that, I, the speaker (in the possessiveconstruction), am hereby invoking the deity Antoa Nyamaa to kill the unnamedtarget. The example cited above could stylisticallybe statedas:

(1lb) Dee wafa mesika no dee Antoa Nyamaa na He who perf take my money the as for Antoa Nyamaa Foc. nku no. Imp.kill him. ('May the personwho has takenmy money be killed by Antoa Nyamaa'.)

In the above, the speakerstrengthens the imprecationby the use of an exclusive focus 'as marker na and also the topicalisingmarker dee for' which topicaliseon the imprecateeand nobody else. The na focusesattention on oneparticular nemesis, Antoa Nyamaa, which is going to mete out the punishment. The focusmarkers are usedto lay emphasison the degreeof the seriousnessof the intentionof the speakerand aimed at making the imprecation very effective.

(d) Other variantsof the curse/punishmentcomponent

Apart from theseprototypical lexico-semantic expressions of the curseand punishment, 'May we also meet otherssuch as Onyamentua wo kn, God punishyou', cmmc dam, 'may he make you mad', cmma asem no nsi n'anomna cno ara nka n'enomasem (lit.) 'may the issue appearin his mouthso that he shouldsay it from his own mouth', i. e. 'may 'may he confess',mfa nsuonto neyom you put a streamin his stomach',Jngu n'animase 'may 'woe the personbe disgraced',mmusuo nka no be unto him', andstill many others accordingto the will and wishesof the speakerand the gravity of the offence. One of the most harmful of all the imprecationtaboos is wherethe imprecatorinvokes the Alrnighty God as follows: Onyankopcnmpae agradaa nsi onipakorJ no tirim, 'May God strike the head of the personwith lightning'. This is becausethe energy in lightning kills instantaneouslyand the tnget hasno time to pleadfor forgiveness.

8 Antoa Nyamaa: This is a shrine harbouredin a small stream called Asuo Nyamaa in a village called Antoa some seven miles away from Kumasi. It is a very renowned deity and people in the Ashanti 'grievance 'assertive Region very often use it for duabc imprecation' and nsedie self-imprecatory oaths'. 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akan 367

4.2.The syntsx and pragmatics of Duabc

This sectiondiscusses the syntax and pragmaticsof duabc. It looks at its conditional clauses,transitivity, mood, aspect,tense, polarity,and person. Thesyntax of theimprecation is suchthat it carriesa conditionalclause initiated by theconditional marker se 'if . This indicatesthat the imprecatoris not absolutelysure of thetruth condition of the case and that is why he is leaving it in the handsof nemesesto handlethe casefor her/him. For this reason, if it turns out that the suspectedimprecatee is not the guilty party, then he is free. Conversely, if he is guilty the supernaturalbeings will punishhim accordingly.

(12a) .Se barimayi de ne ho aka cbaa no If man the take his bodv Perf touch woman the a Kyinaman nku no. then Kyinaman Imp. kill him ('If this man has had a sexualaffair with the woman, may Kyinaman kill him'.)

In the use of se in the above conditionalimprecation, the imprecatorhas a specific imprecateein mind. The conditional type of imprecationmay also be expressedby the useof a genericterm asonipa 'a person',without a specificimprecatee in mind. Here is anexample:

(l2b) Onipa a w-a-besesa me kookoo no nyinaa no SesimanNtoa Personwho he perf.collect my cocoa all the SesimanNtoa ku no ma me.e kill him for me' (l\4aySesiman Ntoa kill the personwho hascome to collectall my cocoa'.)

We canidentify two tlpes of duabc in termsof their transitivitywith regardto 'he thementioning of the imprecatee.There is the true transitiveWabc dua (lit.) hashit 'hit' 'tree'and stick','he has imprecated'. Herethe direct objectof the verb bc is dua the imprecateeis not mentioned. The referentis opaqueand may thus haveno opportunity to pacifythe nemesis. In this type of transitivity,offenders (including close relatives) may notbe awarethat they are targetsof the imprecation. One can say somethingas follows, m'adee yi a ayerayi dee merelabc dua, 'As for my item which is missingI am going to casta spell'. In this type of curse, thereis a threat and the deity is not mentioned,but thepresence of the expressionbc dua puts fear into the hearers.This forewarns the victimto take heedand either bring the thing back or find a way of appeasingthe imprecator. The secondtype is ditransitiveduabc andit is a typeofdouble object construction in Akan (seeOsam 1997; Saa and Eze 1997). In the ditransitive,the personimprecated ismentionedand the name comesinbetweenthe structurebc...... dua asin'.

t SesimanNtoa: This is a shrine in Nkoranza. one of the maior towns in the Brons Ahafo Resion ofGhana. 368 Kofi Agyekum

M ebc X dua. I- Fut. -hit X stick. ('I will imprecateX.') Agent Fut. hit Goal Theme

In the ditransitive, the referent is transparent. It is, therefore,considered that the consequenceof the imprecationis more seriouswhen the target'sname is not mentioned. If the victim becomesaware of the imprecation and finds proper ways of pacifying the nemesis,the anticipatedconsequences of the duabc canbe deactivated.There are cases where peopledie becausethey might havebeen targets of curseswithout their knowledge. Victims of a spellor a curse,who realiseit very early areable to consult somedeities for adviceand solutions. Oneofthe most importantpragmatic characteristics of duabc asa speechact is that the speakermust be in the first personsingular me'I', andthe tensemust not be in thepast but either in the presentor future. In terms of aspectit shouldbe in the imperfectivebut not in the perfectiveexcept when it is a duabc being reportedby anotherperson. Here the reporteris not performingtheduabc at the sametime thathe is speaking.For this reason, it is not to be consideredas explicit performative.(see also Searle 1969, 1976). In terms of mood in imprecation, the apodicticproposition is normally in the indicative. However, the imprecatedmand is in the imperativein the form of a polite command(a speechact of request)on the nemesis.The imprecatorrequests the nemesis to useits powersto punishthe imprecatee.In termsof polarity it is alwayspositive, not in the negative,because it is somethingthe speakerwishes to happenbut not thathe wants to deny its occurrence. Duabc, may be said to contain a speechact verb bc..iua'cast spell' which is usually referredto ascommissive in the generalliterature. The structuralterm commissive propositionrefers to the part of the duabc tabooexpression where the speakermentions the punishmentwhich shouldbe metedout to the imprecatee.r0The explicit commissive verbs would rather be (lEe, nya, lar*), thosementioned in the commissiveand not the implicit verb(bc..dua) ortheir clauses (see also Austin 1962; Ray 1973:19;Leech 1983: 206; Wardhaugh 1992: 284). Accordingto Leech(1983: 206) commissives have a posteriortime reference,i. e. they refer to a time frame later than that in the main verb or at the point of the utterance. Even thoughbc...dua'cast spell' as a phrasalverb is usuallyimplicit, the claim madeby Leech(1983) applies to the duabc ritual as a whole. This is becauseat any point one is imprecating another, the effect of the imprecation is expectedto comeat a time after the utteranceand never before.

r0 'I In actual usage the phrasal verb bc...dua appearsin a clause mebc...dua cast a spell'. This clauseis almostinvariably omitted in the contextof duabc usageand is, therefore, implicit. We, therefore propose that in Akan, the clause contaimng the phrasal verb should be taken to refer to the whole duabc ritual, rather than the phrasalverb in isolation. The pragmatics 'grievance of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akan 369

5.Typological classification of Duabc

This sectionlooks at the types of duabc along two parameters.The first is basedon the nemesisinvoked and the secondis basedon the appropriatenessof the duabc. We thus have

'Minor (a) Duabc vs. Major Duabc (b) Appropriate vs. SpitefulDuabc

Amongthe Akan, the gravity of a duabc may partially depend on the offence committed,but the most essentialparameter for the assessmentof the gravity of a duabc expressionis the nemesismentioned. The supematuralpowers used as nemeses are ranked in termsof the degreeof their powers. Dependingon the offence, an appropriatenemesis is selectedto execute the mand. Basedon this background,one can talk of minor vs. maiorduabc. We shall also look at instanceswhere the minor or major duabc is said to beused out of spite (nitandua).

5.1.Minor Duabc

Minorduabc refers to a situation where a minor deity is used as the nemesis. A minor deityin thispaper refers to a deity with no establishedsacerdotal system.rr The deity in thiscontext can be a family deity,or that of a small streamwithout apriest. Thesedeities areusually localised and not known in many partsof the Akan state. One can imprecate asfollows:

(13) Dee c twaa me boradee no Asuo Bcne Personhe cut Past my plantain the River Bcne mfa ne nsuo nto ne yam. Imp.take its water put his belly ('May the skeam Bcne run through the stomach of the one who stole mv plantain'.t2)

It is believedthat punishmentsinvolved in the minor duabc arevery minimal and can be 'pacificatory slightsicknesses, nightmares, etc. Duadane rites' can easily be performed toward off thewrath of the deity. The pacificationrites cost less,and can be performed outsidethe shrinewith ordinary water and by word of mouth. It may be performedby a familyhead or any elder.

rr In the Akan concept of supreme beings, major deities include powerful supernaturalbeings and Godwho is 'summus their inter paris'. Since, God is the head of all the major and minor deities, it seems moreconvenient to have a triadic system of deities in Akan as shown below. -+ Minor Major -t Supreme Lessergods Powerful gods God

12A stream running through the stomach of an offender implies that the person will have a continuousand serious diarrhoea which cannot be treated by any orthodox medicine. 370 KofiAgtekum

5.2.Major Duabc

Theseare imprecations which involve the mentioningofnames ofrenowned andpowerful deitiesin the Akan society.These deities are believedto be powerful becausethey are unforgiving and may even kill imprecatees.They usually have establishedsacerdotal systems to act as human intermediariesbetween them and the living. Some of the Akan deities corurectedwith thesemajor duabc, include Antoa Nyamaa, Asuo Ayantar3,Kwaku Firi, SesimanNtoa, Akonnedi of Lartehra,Tegare, Gagau,r5Kyinamanso, etc.When their namesare mentioned in imprecation,people are of the view that the consequenceswill be very grievousand severeand may extendfrom the target to his entire family, all dependingon the intentions of the imprecator and the degreeof the offence. Apart from this, pacificatory rituals in thesemajor imprecational spellsare very costly. They may involve the paymentof varioussums of money,offering of eggs, fowls, sheep, drinks, etc. which may put a whole family into bankruptcy. Victims of major imprecationsmust travel to the shrinesbefore the rituals can be performed.It is becauseof the fearof sanctionsby the communityand the consequences of themisuse of duabcwhich canresult in the imprecatorhimself being punished by angry nemeses,together with other reasonsand factorslisted in sectioni that peoplewould alwaystry to avoid the useof suchtaboo expressions. The Akan peopleare much more scaredby imprecationsthat involve the invocation of deitiesthan thosewhich are informal curseshke mmusuonka wo 'woe be unto you'. Again apart from the duabc where the imprecatee is struck with lightning by God (see 4.1), the Akansattach greater importance to the abosom'gods' than to the Almighty God duringimprecation. It is not thecase that they do not believein the existenceof thepower of God. Like the Christians,the Akan believethat God is slow to anger and, therefore, if they entrust an imprecationinto his handshe may not inflict the punishmentat all or may not do it in time to satisfythe intentionsof the imprecator.16Thisis the more reason why most imprecatorsemploy the abosom'the gods'other than the Supremebeing as the nemeses.In this sense,although God is the Almighty supernaturalpower, imprecations involving the use of his name may be categorisedunder the minor imprecation.This is basedupon the speedwith which he acts, themagnitude of thepunishment meted out, and the absenceof an establishedsacerdotal system in his name.

'' Asuo Ayanta: This is alsoa River deity nearAsante Bekwai which peopleemploy rn duabc and nsedie.

]a Larteh: a town in the Akuapcm District of the Eastern Region of Ghana, is the place for the Akonnedi shrine.

t5Gagau is a deity in a town called Asaman in the Agona District of Ashanti in Ghana (see Ghana Map)

r6See Joel 2:13 ....."Rehm to the Lord your God, for he is graciousand compassionate,slow to anger and abounding in love and he relents from sending calamity." 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akan 371

5.3. Appropriate and spileful Duabc

This section addressesthe appropriateness of an imprecation. The appropriateness is defined in terms ofwhether the imprecation is proportionate to the offence and whether the imprecator imprecates appropriately or out of spite.

5.3.1.Nitandua'Spiteful grievance imprecation'

'hatred' 'imprecation', Nitandua is made up of two words; nitan and dua and literally means hatred imprecation and glosses as'spiteful imprecation'. This is the most grievous of all types of imprecation among the Akan. One rnajor denominator of all the casesof spiteful imprecation is that it is disproportionate to the offence committed. Other sociological and emotional factors like enmity, hatred, jealousy, breakdown of love, lack ofpeace, conflict, anger, social avoidance, seffishness,attempt toeliminateafellow, can also set in. The offence could also be based on suspicion or mere hearsay. Nitandtta can be major or minor depending on the nemesis invoked (see above). The contexts of the use of nitandua are the followine:

(a) participantsinvolved, (b) the scopeof the imprecation, (c) setting,in termsof place andtime of the imprecation.

An imprecationwould be consideredas a nitandua in a situationwhere a person'sitem(s) get(s)missing or stolenand he asksX aboutit andin spiteof X's denial, the imprecator insistson using an imprecation. It is assumed that the speaker is pronouncing the imprecationout of sheerhatred. Nitandua also occurs in situationswhere there is no justificationwhatsoever for the imprecation.It alsoinvolves cases where an imprecator goescontrary to certainlaid down Akan customsand institutions and imprecatesfor his ownegoistic tendencies. For example,an adultshould not imprecatechildren who have committedan offence out of ignoranceand without any intention. If the imprecator simplyneglects their ageand imprecates, rt ts nitandua. Nitandua can also be defined in terms of the scopeof the punishment on the imprecatee.If theimprecator states that the punishment should not be limited to thevictim alone,but shouldbe extendedto coverhis whole family andall otherrelatives (vicarious punishments),then of coursehe hasgone too far. Hereis an exampleof suchanitandua.

(14) Onipa a wabewia efie ha mpempenadee Personwho Perf.-come-to-steal house-here jewelleries yi dee [Kwaku Firi kill no]; efie biara nso a this foc. fKwaku Firi kill him] house every foc. which cde mpempenadeeyi bewura mu no nso [bc fie hc ]. he-useiewelleries this enter in that foc.[ruin house there]. ('Theperson who hasstolen jewelleries from thishouse may [KwakuFiri kill him]. Again any houseto which thesejewelleries may enter, may you fruin the entire houseand depopulateit]'.) 372 KofiAgtekum

The actualtaboo words in the squarebrackets above arewhat we term asnitandua. The reasonis thatthe offence of anindividual should not affectinnocent people. These innocent partiesmay not be able to find out the causesof their woeswhen the cursestarts taking effect. In termsof setting, it is againstAkan traditionto imprecatepublicly in the street, such an imprecation is consideredto affect the whole village, town or state. The imprecatoris punishedby the eldersand the necessarycustomary rites are performed. Nitandua is a very seriousact and, therefore, attracts heavy penalties and sanctions. I provide here an exampleof nitandua recordedat the Asantehemmaa'scourt during my researchin Kumasi in 1994.

Case1: Brobbey vs. Nana Akua (atl of Ntonso near Kumasi)

Venue:Asantehemmaa's Court: "Kumasi Manhyia" Date: 14thJune 1994 Participants: Members of the judiciary of the Court, the Queenmother,the partiesinvolved and audience.

Backgroundof the case: Therewas a fight befweentwo families, whereKwame Brobbey insulted Nana Akua, a younggirl. He usedsome invectives referring to her sexualorgans. He went to the extent of sayingthat her armpit and her sexualorgans stink. Upon this, the lady Nana Akua imprecatedas follows:

(15) KwameBrobbey ee se wo ne wo yere da a Antoa Nyamaa ne Akorckcto Kwame Brobbey if you and your wife sleepAntoa Nyamaaand Akorckcto nku wo. Imp.kill you ('May the deitiesAntoa Nyamaa and Akorckcto kill you if you havesex with your wife'.r7)

In fact, thisparticular case was tried twice. In the first instance,Brobbey was foundguilty ofusinginvectivetaboowords. In thesecondpart,NanaAkuawasfoundguiltyofusing a duabc taboo expression, thus restrictingBrobbey from having sex with his wife. Brobbeyremarked as follows "Since sheimprecated me I havenot venturedto have sex with my wife". Tl"risproves his belief in the magicalpower of the spokenword. The eldersof the court ruled that sincethe duabc was usedin the street. it is nitandua'spitefulimprecation'. By Akan hadition, this type of nitanducimplies that she hasimprecated not only theperson but the peopleof the entirevillage andsanctions must be imposedon her.After that,she was orderedto go andpaciS thenemeses so asto ward off the wrath of the eods.

'' Akorckcto is a maior river deity in the Asona Dishict of Ashanti Reeion of Ghana. 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akan 373

Case2: Kwaku Bio vs. Kwasi Buronya

Venue: Asantehemmaa's Court: "Kumasi Manhyia" Date: lOthMay 1994 Participants: Members of the judiciary of the Court, the Queenmother, the parties involved and audience.

Background of the Case: Kwasi Buronya imprecated Kwadwo Bio by invoking Antoa Nyamaa and the River Bia. The matter of imprecation was as follows: Kwadwo Bio inherited the legacy of Kwasi Buronya's late father. Bio took all the property of the deceased including, his cocoa farm, houses,golden ornaments and his clothing. Buronya imprecated as follows:

(16) Se wode nxepapa ntoma ka wo ho a Antoa Nyamaa If you take my father cloth touch your body thenAntoa Nyamaa ne Asuo Bia nku wo. and Asua Bia kili you. ('If you should wearany of theseitems belonging to my latefather Antoa Nyamaa andAsuo Bia shouldkill vou'.)

Deliberationof the case: "Thists anitandua'spiteful grievance imprecation', so ifwe do not performthe customary ritesand offer a live sheep, the river will inflict someharm on the imprecatee. The imprecatorshould be pronouncedguilty." This particularcase rs a nitanduain the sensethat Kwasi Buronyaknows that the inheritoris permittedby custom and tradition to usethe cloth. If he imprecateshim becauseof this, then of course,the imprecationis basedon hatred. Kwasi Buronyawas foundguilty andasked to pay someamount of money, andto providetwo life sheepand onebottle of alcoholfor the pacificatoryrites to neutralisethe imprecation.In this case, KwasiBuronya was not much disturbedabout the otherproperties like the cocoafarm and thehouse which were immovable.He washowever driven by jeaiousyto seeKwaku Bio wearinghis father'srich clothes.

Case3: Alhaji vs. Yaa Agyeman

Venue: Asantehemmaa'sCourt: "Kumasi -Manhyia" Date: 24'h May 1994 Participants: Membersof the judiciary of the Court, the Queenmother, the partiesinvolved and audience.

Accordingto thenarration Yaa Agyeman previously fetched water from the Alhaji's house. At somepoint, Alhaji askedthe womanto reducethe frequencyof her visits to the place. Lateron, therewas a squabblebetween the Alhaji andthe woman'schildren when they wereplaying football and this finally endedat the police station. After the police 374 Kofi Agltekum deliberation, the woman went to the Alhaji's house with eggsand abottleof schnapps and imprecated as follows:

(17) Se enye me me ba na boroo wo ba na If it Neg.is ne my child Foc.beat your child and wode ato no so a Antoa Nvamaa nku wo. you Perf. him top then Antoa Nyamaa Imp. kill you'. ('If it is really not the casethat it was my child who beatyour child as alleged, andyou have falselyaccused him, then AntoaNyamaa should kill you'.)

Alhaji brought the caseto the Asantehemmaa'scourt and the woman was found guilty of the performanceof the act and the utteranceof the imprecation.After the reprimands, sanctionsand the fines imposedon the woman, shewas askedto perform pacificatory rituals to neutralisethe effectof the imprecation. An imprecationmay be settledat the traditionalarbitration by the secularand religiousadministrators and the party found guilty (imprecatoror imprecatee)is fined. Sinceduabc tabooby its powerof the spokenword canharm the imprecatee,it must be deactivated or neutralisedafter the arbitration.The neutralisationof its effect is done throughsome invocations, incantations and the performance of certainrituals. The major aspectofthe ritual involves the appropriateuse of language.The term used rsyerel{tdane dua no (lit.) 'we are going to upturn the imprecation'.This meansthat we are going to pacif,, the nemesisand deactivatethe magicaland harmful power of the imprecationto make the imprecateefree. Peoplenormaily use the expression Nana kclatwea, wodi bem, 'Nanayou deserve an apology, I am at fault', asthe pacification formula. Accordingto NanaBanahene, one of the senior spokesmenof the Asantehene,"the expressionlalatwea is an apologetic deviceand a cleansingverbal tool a victim usesto cleanhis lips andmouth that have been defiledby the useof the duabc verbaltaboo so that his mouth will henceforthnever use sucha tabooexpression."

5.3.2.Appropriate Duabc

Generally speaking, sincethe society doesnot encourageimprecation, there is not a ready madeterm for appropriateimprecation. Our attentionon duabc'imprecation' is therefore focusedon nitandua'spiteful imprecation'. Notwithstanding, imprecation performscertain social functions which may allow theuse of it andthis is what we discuss in section6 below.

6. Socialfunctions of Duabc verbal taboo

Although duabc as a verbal taboo carriessome sanctions, there are situationswhere the sociefyallows it to be usedfor self defence,protection of property andother purposes and theconsequences could be acceptable.These cases include theft , slander, libel, marital cases,etc. Eveninthese instances,sanctions may beimposedtodeterpeoplefromthe 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akqn 375 wrong usage of these imprecations. We also saw earlier on that duabc is one of the strategiesused to deal with one's enemies who may be pursuing him in diverse ways (see example 4). Among the Akan an imprecation can be embedded in a libation prayer where the genre gives the speakers the opportunity to use imprecation on known and unknown people and even tribes and states who they think hate them. Let us consider a marriage engagement libation text below.

Onueaduampon nsa! Abosom nnuasa mommegye nsa! Asaase Yaa nsa! Ayokofoc nsamanfoc nsa! Asonafoc nsamanfoJ nsa! Agonafoc nsamanfoc mo nsa nie! Biretufoc nsamanfoc nsa ! Yeafre baako yi dee na yeafre mo nyinaa. Mommegyina yen alryi alq)igyina pa. Enne da yi na ene da bi se. Enne da yi na nlo ara mo nana Yaa Pokuaa Ye de no rema Kwasi Owusu awaree. Mo adaworome mommegyina wcn alq)i alryigyina pa. Momma wcn awares no nkJ so. Momma wcn nwo abaduasa. Momma wJn abrabo nsi wcn yie. Wcpe sika a momma wcnnya bi. l4/csc ahahan mu koraa e momma ennane sika. (lB) fOnipa bcne biara a ctan yen dee Momma cnwu uwia ketekete.J (19) [cman biara a ekaa wcn nko na anka Asanteman agyigya dee Momms Cnhwe ase ponC. lbc bra biara a mommma no nnye yie. Momma emu nnipa nyinaa ase nhye. Na yenlafa wcn agyapadee nyinaa dommumJ Mommehyira yen a yeahyia ha yi nyinaa. Mommegve nsa yi nnom no preko. Mommma mmusuo biara nka yen. Yen a yeahyia ha yi nyinaa nlot,a so. Audience: Mo ne kasa.

('Otweaduamponthe Almighty God hereare drinks! Deitiesof thirty fold rush for drinks!t8 AsaaseYaa the Mother Earthhere are drinks!

'drinks' 'here 'tThe expression is a poetic shorthandfor is/areyour drink(s). 376 Kofi Ag,,ekum

Ancestorsof the Oyokoc clan drinks!re Ancestorsof the Asonaclan drinks! Ancestorsof the Agona clan hereare your drinks! Ancestorsof the Biretuo clan drinks! Ancestorsof the ekoc na clan drinks! Oncewe haveinvoked one we haveinvoked all of you. Comeand give us firm support. Today is a greatday among all otherdays. It is today that your granddaughteryaa pokuaa Is beenengaged to Kwasi Owusu. By your grace comeand give them a firm support. Let their engagementprosper. Let them give birth to thirty fold. Let them havea prosperousmarriage. If they searchfor moneylet them find it. If eventhey takehold of leaves,let them turn into money. (18) lAny sinful man who hatesus Let him die an afternoondeath when the sun is overheadJ (1e) lAny nation which wishesthe downfaltof theAsante nation. Let herperishfrom theface of the earth. If she embarksott any economicventure let it fait. Let all thepeople in that nation perish So that we will go and takeall theirproperties as bootyJ. Comeand bless all of us here. Let us not fall into any predicaments. Give us long life andprosperity. Come anddrink this onceand for all. Audience: Thanksfor a good speech.)

In the abovetext, the expressionsin the squarebrackets are imprecations within a libationtext' The first one(ex. 18)is againstany enemy and the secondone (ex. l9) refers to any antagonisticnation. In the oldendays, duabc wasone of the statemechanisms for the implementation 20 of statelaws. On thepolitical scenein Akan,there can be animprecation 'the from thecman- lgteame state'sspokesman'as foliows:

'e Oyokoc: This is one of the eight matrilineal clans of the Akans. The others are Agona, Ekocna, Asona, Aduana, Biretuo, Asakyiri and Asennee. Every Akan is supposedto come from one of theseclans. Members of the same clan considerthemselves as brothersand sistersand trace themselvesto one great grandmother. During libation, the ancestorsof theseeight clans are invoked. The speakercan list all of them or mention some and say that once some have been invoked it is assumedthat all of them have been invoked.

to It is recorded in the Old Testamentthat imprecation was one of the methods Moses used in enforcing the law of God (cf. DT. 27-28). Little Lester (1987) alsorecords that the discipline of the faith of Islam is also maintainedin part by curses( eur'an 2: 16l). 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akan 377

(20) Dee cbeye dcm atia chene biara no Asuo Bosom Personhe Fut. do crowd against chief any the river deity Tanc nku no. Tanc Imp. kill him. ('May the river deity Tancslay anybody that rebels against the king.'2r)

Amongthe Akan, as in many otherAfrican societieslike Tanzania,law andmorality may be maintainedby the useof imprecations.In Akan, theprevalence of suchcurses acts as a mechanismto instil fearinto the peopleto behavethemselves well. McKenzie (1993 145)argues that the formula"Cursed be...." functions as a way ofmaintainingstability within the community. Pronouncinga curseon onewho hasacted in waysthat violate acceptedsocial responsibility is a way of expellingthat personfrom thecommunity. In this case,curse is alsorelated to themaintenance of the convenantthat theLordmadewithlsrael(Jer.11:13, Det. 27:15-25)."Thereisalsotheuseof the "preventivecurse " as a standarddevice for theprotection of sacredplaces as well asdeeds or agreementsbetween persons (see also Little 1987:183; McKenzie 1993:I44-I45 for socialfunctions of curse).

7.The human participantsin Duabc

Amongthe Akan, duabc can be employed by any person.The only exceptionsare certainsacred persons in the Akan community who are prohibited from incurring the dangerousrisks associatedwith duabc. Among theAkan, traditionalpriests, chiefs, and kingsshould neither imprecate, nor be imprecated.Such people are the custodiansof the deitiesand should therefore revere them and arerestrained from using their names in vainso asto defile them. Womenalso occupy certain specific positions with regardtoduabc. In additionto thepriests and the chiefs,pregnant and menstruating women should neither imprecate nor be thetarget of imprecation. The reasonis that first and foremost a menstruatingwoman is consideredto be uncleanand must, therefore,have nothing to do with deitieswho are regardedas sacred, for shemay defile anddisempower them. With regardto a pregnant woman,there is the fear that any harm resulting fiom imprecationor swearingwill affect theunbom child. Montagu(1967:37-38) alsorecords a similar issueamong the Maoris ofNew Zealand. He writes "Even to the presentday the Maoris of New Zealandstrongly believein thepower of thecurse. Pregnant women must not swearnor cursetoo much for thismay endangerthe baby'swelfare." Certainspeech acts like in a wedding,the matrimony, commissioningof a ship, sentencingsomebody to life imprisonment,etc. in Europeancultures require specific authoritativepeople who have the right to mentionand perform them. Induabc, however, there are no specific authoritativepeople who have the sole authoritativepower to imprecate.Little ( 1987)records that in orderfor thecurse to be effective,and in orderfor the utteranceto be consideredas a speechact, certainconditions must be met. These

rr Asuo Tanc is the river deity for the Asante state of Ghana.In the olden days, whenever the Ashantiswere going to war, they had to consult this deity. 378 KofiAgtekum include the presenceof proper actors(participants), time, place, verbal formulas,and gestures. In the sociolinguisticaspect of the valueof duabc, it is recordedand pointed out in many societiesthat the conceptsof imprecationand oath are in someway instruments of the weak. Accordingto Little (1987),those who have physical, military or judicial power tend to use suchpower. They use it to maintaintheir vision of order. It is rather the aged,the sick, thepoor, the orphaned,the outcastwho lack such power, and hence they resortto the power of the spokenword. Theybelieve in the instrumentalityof words and their causal"power" to make and unmake(see also Thomas 1971: 502-512).My interview really confirmedthis when I askedto find out which categoryof peoplewere interestedin imprecatingand swearing. More than 90Yoof my intervieweesanswered that it was normally the poor and those in the lower ranks in the society. One of my informantsOp. Kwaku Addai of Assisiriwa in Ashanti told me "as for a rich man if you stealhis ten poundsit doesnot affect him so he will not imprecate." The rich, the higher rank, andthe dignitariesin the societvwill normally prefer to sendtheir casesto court. My researchrevealed that in the Akan society, in termsof gender,it is womenwho areparticularly interested in usingthe taboowords of duabc.I attendedthe Asantehemmaa'scourt for threemonths. This court generally dealswith feminine anddomestic caseswhich the king's court, saddledwith stateand paramount cases, does not have time to handle.In fact, about50% of the cases tried therewere those of duabc'grievance imprecation' and the participants were normally women, especiallymiddle aged ones. Therewere fewer cases that involved imprecation betweenmen andwomen or betweenmen only. The researchfindings also revealed that non-Christiansand illiterateswere much more engagedin duabc thanChristians and literates.The Christiansdo not believe in the power of the deities,and again they feel thatinvoking the deitiesimplies the worship of idols. The literates who have been influenced by western culture also distance themselvesfrom African traditionalreligion andtherefore do not engagethemselves in imprecation. In muchthe sameway it was foundout thatparticipants rnduabc aremostly found in the rural areasrather than in the towns andcities. Thosein the citieswould normally seek redressat the legal courts insteadof resortingto imprecation. It is possibleto combinesome of thesesocial indexes, that is to saythat an imprecatormay belongto two or more of them. He can be an illiterate,urban and non-Christian. The questionthen is which of thesesocial indexes carries more weight. The Christianfactor is more prime in the sensethat one could get a literate non-Christianperson in the city who would still be interestedin imprecation. Notwithstanding the categoryof peoplementioned as being interestedin duabc, thereare idiosyncratic forms of linguisticbehaviour towards these issues. Some people are normally interestedhduabc irrespectiveoftheir socialclasses, sex, religion, education, rank or statusin the society. In fact, I know of a university graduatewho still engages in imprecation. 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation' taboo among the Akan 379

8. Conclusion

Thispaper has discussed duabc as a religiousverbal taboo in Akan. Sincein duabc the spiritualcomponent is obvious, the taboo nature of the expressionsbecomes very dangerous,because people fear the wrath of thesespirits andnobody would risk his life by mentioningan unmentionable.In duabc, thereis the magical power of the spoken word.Quite apart from this, thetaboo also stems from theimportance and reverencewe attachto the deities.There is alsothe issueof facethreats in duabc cases.For example, aI any time a duabc verbal taboo is utteredin public, the facesof the audience are affronted. ln duabc the imprecator invokes the supernaturalpowers to impose harm or punishmenton the imprecateeespecially in situationsof conflict. Duabc involvesthree participants,the speaker(imprecator), the addressee(the deity- nemesis),and the target for the imprecationand the punishment(imprecatee). There is a message,which is the mand.In termsof the structureof the language,we sawthat the prototypicaltype of verbs usedarearrest, ffiict andkill. Duabc has threemain parts. Theseare the protactic proposition,which is the invocation, the apodicticproposition, stating the reason(s)for the imprecation,and the commissiveproposition, stating the punishment. It is possibleto omit eitherthe protactic, apodicticcontent, the commissiveproposition or the imprecateein certaincontexts. In terms of types of duabc we saw that we can have an anticipatoryimprecation wherebythe taboo expression forewarns would-be-victims to avoidsaying orperforming certainacts. We alsodistinguished between major andminor typesof duabc basedon the typeand power of the deity which is invokedand how soonit metesout the punishment unto the imprecatee.We arguedthat all the renowneddeities in Akan are invoked for majorduabc while the smallerand less powerful ones areused for minor duabc.Major duabc is employedwhen the offenceis grievous.We pointedout that althoughGod is a supremedeity, becausehe is all-forgiving, and sinceno sacerdotal systemhas been establishedin his nameby the Akan, duabc which involve his namemay be considered asminor duabc taboos.For this reason,God is notregularly invokedfor duabc purposes. Apartfrom thesetypes, we alsodiscussed nitandua 'spitefulimprecation', cases where the imprecationis disproportionateto the offenceand the imprecatorimprecates the target out of sheerhatred and envy.We notedthat among the Akan, this type is about the most grievousduabc taboo,and it attractsheavier sanctions. Among the Akan, thereis the possibility of warding off (by pacification) the wrathof duabc imprecation.This is done first by settlingthe matterin the presenceof the secularand religious authoritiesby the impositionof fines. After this, rituals are performedto pacify the supernaturalpowers and an appeal is madefor forgiveness.In view of the fact that in duabc a person'slife is at stake, peopleare advisedto refrain from theseutterances, and children - as part oftheir socialisationprocess - are educatedand cautionedabout the useof theseexpressions. The paper finally looked at the sanctions of duabcand commented on the humanparticipants. 380 Kofi Agrekum

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-lu-) i \ .anroo.antoo- ---E\A fs \ \ !) )I 1.,..-.-^.- <__eh4.-r \+H.- Sr ?(€s n (- KUMAsrr I, E= | \ '-)--) Loke ro \t EosomlweEosomtwe /,/ '^\J-.i)t^. I ==-:{,\ i ,r r'- € ( r::I.r^i.ttnGTEnN \:=l\-W \. Bekwoeo ,l \ +- '\. .)1 J t ""^ \ri.,, i *oFoRrouar \s-l--! 'r, , *- -rr--I, Lottdh/./ \. * L---.-.--{-nu' v. i 't (/'\. "n" L^--l / .o cENr*..ot |.. t.. REGToN )Xr^o + /

CAPE COAST O IOOKm SEKONDI LJ--J-l-r-J 'grievance Thepragmatics of duabc imprecation'taboo among the Akan 381

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