LIFE CYCLE OF A SUPYIRE

Africa can be seen as a sort of sacrifice, 32 but this does not appear to be the case among the Supyire. Marriage This is the rite that fully establishes an individual as a full-fledged individual in society. One must marry outside the family clan. The wife will invariably come to live in the village of her husband. Indeed it is the norm for the husband to build a hut for her in his own parent’s home compound. So he will not move away from his family. A series of long negotiations over the years between two clans culminate with a family delegation from the groom’s side making an overnight stay in the village of the bride. They stay with their jatigi who then as intermediary goes with the delegation to bring greetings and gifts to the girl’s family. Kola nuts, cloths, cooking utensils and two chickens to sacrifice to the ancestors are among the obligatory gifts. There is also usually nowadays a cash dowry. After friendly banter over the quality of the gifts, the bride’s family provide a communal meal to seal the alliance between the two families. Consistent with the third party nature of most dealings in Supyire society, the couple to be married is at no point involved in the negotiations. They are not even in the village on the wedding day; the girl will already have left to take up residence in the groom’s village the previous day. They are strictly forbidden to eat any part of the communal wedding meal, even leftovers. The marriage is only really seen as consummated with the successful arrival of the first child. At this point they have fully entered into the ageless stream of family life, by contributing to its ongoing existence and expansion. Married life Men and women tend to live very separate lives. The men eat together first and then the women and children. There is a fairly rigorous division of labour. For example, it is the husband’s responsibility to provide the staple for the meal: corn, 32 Dickson, Kwesi A. and Paul Ellingworth,, Pour une Théologie Africaine, Yaounde, Editions Clé, 1969, p.109. millet or rice. It is the woman, no matter what her husband’s means might be, who has to work to provide the tomatoes, spices and other condiments for the stew. Divorce is fairly rare. The families, having invested so much in the marriage and the family alliance, will seek to ensure that it is successful. So although a wife may be mistreated, and may run back to her parents’ home, in most cases attempts at reconciliation will bring the two together again. There is little alternative. There is no role for a single woman in society. She has no means of obtaining an independent income. The children of the marriage belong to the family of the husband: it is they who have paid for the wife and the offspring of her womb. On the other hand, if she is widowed, it is the husband’s family who has the responsibility to take care of her material needs, and provide her with a younger brother or cousin as a husband. Any offspring of this levirate marriage are considered as belonging to the deceased brother’s family. If he has not already done so, the younger brother in such a case still needs to get married himself to another woman to be a fully fledged member of society. It is rare to see a woman enjoying an idle moment. From dawn to dusk, they have responsibilities: collecting firewood, drawing water, heating it for bathing, pounding flour, cooking, tending the youngest and working in the fields. A good wife does all this for her husband without complaining, and above all, bears him many children. The joy for women, as for men, comes in working together in harmony, and sharing the chores with the members of the extended family. Polygyny is still practised, somewhat less now than in time of warfare that claimed the lives of many men. The principal reasons for taking more than one wife are said to be: 1. If your first wife is unable to bear you children. 2. If your first wife becomes very sick or an invalid and can no longer work, or cook or satisfy your sexual needs. 3. If your first wife dies, even if she has given you children, and you are still young, you should marry again because of your own needs. Funeral One of the main goals in life for a Supyire is to have a good funeral; it is a prize to be won. To qualify for this, he or she will have lived a long life, produced many offspring and have a family in a position to celebrate it. First, there is the burial with a series of rites, including wrapping, washing, and dancing the body, and giving it its last meal before burying it in the graveyard outside the village. Then there is the wake, a feast-cum-celebration, the size and extravagance of which reflects the age and importance of the deceased. Such a send-off, properly performed, will ensure him or her a good welcome in the village of the ancestors. The wake does not always take place immediately after the burial. There can be a delay of months or even years. The timing depends on the family having the grain and the money and the willpower to organise it. But for as long as it is not carried out, no one else in the family can receive his wake; moreover the reorganisation of the family’s responsibilities cannot take place. Only when the wake of the family is finished, can the authority of the deceased be devolved to the next in line. As Joyce Carlson 33 observes, the nightmare scenari o is a “bad death”. If a person dies accidentally, by falling out of a tree, by snakebite, by suicide or murder, or in childbirth, or out in the bush away from their home, then they are a sinarbu, and as such, receive a hasty, insulting burial. It is said that if they are shown honour in their burial, their spirit will bring bad fortune back on those who buried them. The body is not washed or dressed in grave cloths. Nothing is done for it. The grave is dug right beside the body where it lies. The ditch is filled with thorns. Those burying the body turn their backs to it, and roll it backwards with their feet pushing it into the grave. Finally they cover it with earth. There is, though, a way of at least partially redeeming this shameful situation by ensuring that the departed does integrate into the village of the ancestors and is not left homeless and dangerous. For someone who was married and would thus have had a full ceremony if he had not met a “bad death”, the family can organise for the sinarbu to be transformed. That is, they go to the cemetery in the middle of the night with a flute player who calls for the soul of the deceased, and then a hunter fires off a rifle round to indicate that the soul has come. Then they wrap a bamboo pole to represent the body in burial cloths, and bring it back into the village. There they go through the whole burial ceremony and wake with the pole, just as though it were the body of the deceased. 33 Carlson “Senufo Funeral Ritual” unpublished. Another case of “bad death” is when a child or young person dies unmarried. After the burial there is no wake. But at some stage there will be a ceremony to integrate him into the village of the ancestors. If there is a death in his family soon afterwards, the ceremony for the youth will be carried out quickly during this fuller funeral. Otherwise, on the third day of the village festival, a collective wake is carried out along with the music and feasting for all youth, children and aborted babies who have died since the last festival.

2.8 VILLAGE AND BUSH

The Supyire world is divided in two: the village and the bush. The village is home, a safe sanctuary surrounded by the wild bush, inhabited by dangerous animals and spirits. Animals fall into two categories: bush animals and domestic animals. The bush becomes even more sinister at night, when the little bush people are out and about. People hesitate to venture outside the bounds of the village in the dark. The shape of the traditional village reflects this need for protection. All the family compounds are enclosed behind the village walls. There is one sole entry to the village and to get to any particular family home requires knowledge of the sinuous paths that connect all the compounds. I have known even Supyire friends to get lost in a small village with which they were not too familiar. At the entrance is found the village vestibule. The vestibule is easily distinguished from other huts, as it alone has two doors that enable it to serve as an entrance passageway. Being the sole point of entry, it is naturally the focus of efforts to defend the village from outside dangers, visible and invisible. Any enemy assaulting the village would be met at the vestibule by a battery of bows or rifles. The vestibule also houses a series of magic charms to ward off any evil spells aimed at penetrating the village. This is also where the elders of the village meet to make decisions, and negotiate with outsiders. They meet here too with the ancestors and perform various sacrifices to them. Each family compound inside the village is itself walled in and has its own family vestibule, containing an altar to the ancestors of that family. The traditional compound is dotted with thatched mud huts: round sleeping huts for the women and children, square ones for the men and others serving as granaries and a kitchen. There is an open space in the centre that is where most daily activities take place.

2.9 THE EARTH

The Supyire have an intimate relationship with the earth, as it is ancient and the source of all fertility. They receive children from spirits living in a certain sacred spot on the earth. They live in huts made from the earth, farm on it with tools fashioned from metals drawn from the earth. Finally they are buried under the earth. Traditionally the grave is dug with two holes connected by a tunnel. Before the body is laid to rest in the tunnel, the children of the deceased crawl through the tunnel to see their parent’s home. The sacred nature of the earth is seen in that land cannot be bought or sold, but can only be used by permission, and that certain acts can spoil the earth. In that case, rain will not fall until the spoilt earth is repaired. 34

2.10 FAMILY UNITY

“It is through a crack in the wall that a cockroach enters.” “One hand cannot wash itself.” Many proverbs, like the two above, and folk tales express the ideal of unity, solidarity and co-operation in the Supyire family. This is a concern common throughout Africa. Grebe and Fon write, “The greatest moral value that the head of the family tries to uphold is UNITY. Within society each extended family is in opposition to other ones. Dealings between families are regulated by the influence a given family has within society. The larger a family, the greater its chance to make its influence felt. But if the family members are not united, the group is weakened. The head of the family will, therefore, always strive for two things: 1 to increase the number of his family; and 2 to have his family united.” 35 One is automatically expected to feed and lodge any member of one’s exten ded family who arrives at one’s home for as long as they care to stay. The desire for unity is seen too in the process for making decisions. The men will gather to discuss a given problem. The youngest will be given the first chance to speak. 34 See below, p.44. 35 Grebe, Karl and Wilfred Fon, African Traditional Religion and Christian Counseling; Yaounde: Karl Grebe, 1982, p.4.