ANTHROPOLOGY , TEXT AND TOWN

Literary texts tell us things about society and culture mat we could Jearn in
no ocher way. l.n chis book I imestigatc what oriki tell us about Okuku
and what Okuku told me about oriki.
Okuku is a town in me Oyq State of Nigeria small by !oruba standards
but an im"ortant "olitical and cultural cemre in its own area me Odo#
Otin district. Oriki arc a genre of!oruba oral "oetry mat could be
described as attributions or a""ellations$ collections ofe"imcts "imy
orelaborated which are addressed to a sub%ect. In Okuku mey are
"erformed mainly by women .
On"ki are a master discourse. In me enormous wealm and ferment of
!oruba oral literature mey are "robably the best#known of all forms. &hey
are com"osed for innumerable sub%ects of all ty"es human an imal and
s"iritual' and mey are "erformed in numerous modes or genres. &hey are
com"act and e(ocati(e enigmatic and arresting formulations unerances
which are belie(ed to ca"ture the essential qualities of meir sub%ects and by
being utteredto e(oke mcm. &hey establish unique identities and at me same
time make relationshi"s between beings. &hey are a central com"onent of
almost e(ery signi ficant ceremonial in me Life ofthe com"ound and town'
and are also constantly in the air asgreetings congratulations and %o kes.
&hey are dee"ly cherished by meir owners.
&he most cons"icuous of me genres based on oriki are chose "erformed
by s"ecialists like me hunters who "erform ijala chams or "rofessiona
l entenainers like me tra(elling egrmgun masqueraders. )orn men and
women can make a name for themsel(es as "ublic "erformers by going
where(er
great celebrations are being held #and nowadays by a""earing on tele(isio
n and making records. &here is also howe(er a less cons"icuous but
much more "er(asi(e tradition of oriki "erfom*ance carried on by
ordinary women me wi(es and daughters of the town +scom"ounds who
learn and "erform the oriki rele(ant ro me indi(iduals and grou"s wim
which mey are associated. &his less showy more anonymous but often
more "rofound tradition of oriki chants "erformed by women is me
central sub%ect of this book .
)ecause oriki are crucia.l in making the re.lationshi"s human and
s"iritual that constitute the !oruba world they re(eal connections and
hidden faces in sociecy that would not otherwise be accessible. )y
attending ro what "eo"le say themsel(es through the concentrated and
oblique refractions of oriki and through what they say about oriki- we learn
how "eo"le constitute their society. &exts like this can lead into the bean
of a community+s own con ce"tion of itself$ without whichany descri"tion
of social structure or "rocess will remain "urely external. Inextended texts
better than in brief citations of lexical items descri"tions of "hysical
artefacts or artificially#constructed inter(iew schedules we find ,he
"ossibility of entering into "eo"le+s own discourse about their social
world.
-alinowski knew the (alue of+texrs+. .e collected them wilh a(idity and
s"ent a lot of his time in the field "oring o(er them. )ut des"ite the modem
dominance of inter"retati(e a""roaches in anthro"ology it is rather unusual
for literature to assume irs "ro"er "lace at the centre of anthro"ological
enquiry. /ork like that of 0ernande1 2*345 *3467 Jackson 2*3457 8bu
Lughod 2*3467 and Seidelman 2*3467 where literary texts arc used as a key
diagnostic de(ice a thread leading into the inner as"ecrs of a sociecy+s
imaginati(e life are still rather rare. 8nthro"ology has on the whole been
content to lea(e literature to the folklorists and oral historiogra"hers whose
aims ha(e been somewhat different.+
8nthro"ology in facthas tended to ado"t inter"retati(e techniques from
literary criticism and a""ly them to almost anything but literary texts.
9itual symbolism+ s"atial relations + and culture itself ha(e been treated
as texts whose meta"horica l meanings can be +read+ like ,hose of a work
of literature. Semiotics and structuralism ha(e attem"ted with "artial
success to show that ,hesymbolic and classificatory systems of
signification that anthro"ology bas traditionally concentrated on are
homologous to language./hat is much more e(idently true howe(er is
that they are implicated in language and de"endent on it. Sooner or
laterthey are inter"reted am"lified or e(aluated by a (erbal
commentary and with out this s"eech context ,hey could not continue to
o"erate. 8s :olo;ino( 2or )akhtin7% the great 9ussian literary theorist
"ut it sixcy years ago s"eech is +an essentia l ingredien t in all
ideological "roduction +' ritual music (isual an not to mention day#to#
day beha(iour area< +bathed bysus"ended in and cannot be entirely
segregated or di(orced from the element of s"eech+ 2:oloSino( *3=>a ".
*?7. 8nd in Okuku-asinother "laces #literary texts function like nodal
"oints in the Oow of s"eech. &hey are salient and enduring landmarks in
the field of discourse reference "oints 10 which s"eakers orienr them
sel(es or from which they take their de"arture. Iris often through literary
texts that exegetical commentary is directed towards these other systems
of signification.
8N&.9O@OLOA! &BC& 8l+$+D&O/N >
it. S"eech act theory has enabled us ro ask what a s"eaker is doing in unering
certain words' and what the "erformer of oriki is doing is a (ital "art of lhe
social "rocess. Oriki "erformance is in(ol(ed in struggles for "ower as well
as in lhe legitimation of the starus quo. Oriki are used to swelllhe re"utation
of the "erson they are addressed to and to lay claim ro membershi" of
certain social grou"s. )ut oriki not only are a form of social action lhey also
represetll social action$ not of course as in a mirror image but in a
mediated and refracted discourse. /hether im"licitly or ex"licitly lheyoffera
commentary
on it$ a commentary which is made u" of heterogeneous and sometimes
.
com"enng (aews.
Literary textS whether wrinen ororal offer an es"ecially (aluable
re"resen tation of ideology because of their concentrated +worked#on+
character. Literary texts are often described as ha(ing an(ol(ed greater
thought or effort than other kind? of utterance as being more "remeditated
or as undertaking to exhibit a greater degree of skill.+ &hey may aniculate
and gi(e form ro otherwise amor"hous notions circular.ing in society.
)ecause a literary text is more detached from the immediate context than
other utterances ha(ing the quality of re"entability and the ca"acity to be
recreated in a (ariery of situations it is com"elled to "ut things into words
which normally are left unsaid. Less of its content can bo$ assumed from
the immediate context of utterance. In this way the text becomes as :olo
ino( "ut it +a "owerful condenser of unaniculated social e(aluations #
each word is saturated with them +2:olotino( *3=>b$I E=7. &he text
furlhermoredoes not %ust re"resent an already#constituted ideological
(iew"oint' it is in the text that a (iew"oint is constructed in the "rocess
re(ealing more about the ideology im"licit in daily discourse lhan could
olherwise be disco(ered. &he text itself says more than it knows' it generates
+sur"lus+$ meanings lhat go be7Ond and may sub(err the "ur"orred
intentions of the work. It has lhe ca"acity ro "ick u" subterranean
.
ideological im"ulses that are brought to realisation in no other discursi(e
arena.a
8bo(e allliterary texts arcre(ealing because they arcinhercnuy discursi(e.
:erbal forms lend themsel(es to (erbal exegesis. &here is a continuiry
between the ob%ect of discussion and the discussion itself which IS
conduci(e to detailed acti(e conscious commentary by the "eo"le
in(ol(ed in its "roduction and transmission. In Okukuas in many orber
"laces language linguistic formulationsand es"ecially literary texts are
intended and ex"ected to be talked about to be ex"lamed ex"ounded and
o"ened u" so rbat the multi"le meanings enclosed and com"ressed
within them arc re(ealed. Fuoting an orikioften leads automatically to a
historical narrati(e. Itmay also o"en our into a discussion of family taboos
the characters of the gods or the com"osition and relations of social
grou"s. &he onki are not %ust the trigger which sets olfa se"arate discourse'
rbey are the kernel ofrbe discourse itself which will not take "lace exce"t
with reference to the oriki.&hey are thus in
Go"yrighted -aterial
Go"yrighted -aterial
H 8N&.9O@OLOA! &BC& 8ND &O/N
many c.ases the only route into the sub%ect. lt is in literary texts rbat
commentary on all s"heres of ex"erience is inscribed and from the
starting "oint of literary texts that second#order discussion is instigated .
Not only are literary texts made to be inter"reted'they arealso
accom"anied by well#de(elo"ed indigenous methods and techniques by
wb%ch their inter"retation is carried out. &he decoding of oriki -as of
other !oruba oral texrs#relics on etymology etiology "ersonal
memoryand something like riddling. &hese techiDques "ro(id e the
outsider with a gu%ding thread a certain linllted access to the inner
as"ects of the discourse. &he outsider contem"lating ritual art or cooking
is seldom so fortunate.
Some literary texts are more cemral to social discourse rban others.
Inthe
history of Buro"ean literature there ha(e been "eriods when the role of
the literary text has extended far beyond the boundaries we recognise
today organising fields of knowledge which now are assigned to
discourses not defined as+literature+.
*E
In oral cultures Ongsuggests the
literary text always "lays this kind ofmnem onic and organising role 2Ong
*3457.
**
Ifliterary form is what makes knowl edge memorable and
therefore transmittable then all of inherited knowledge in oral cultures is+l
iteratu.re+. Itis in "oetry and narrati(e
that history "hiloso"hy and natural science are encoded and th
.
ug
.
h
.
rbei
r
ro
fonns that this knowledge is organised. It is certainly true that in
!oruba
towns oral literature is still an organising discourse. B(en those who
are functionally literate ba se a large "art of their self#conce"tion # their
ideas about sociecy and their "la ce in it # on ita11 2narrati(es7 and oriki.
On.ki commemorate "ersonalities e(ents and actions that "eo"le
consider im"ortant . &hey "ro(id e a way of lhinking about social
relationshi"s within and between families and a way of "romoting and
ex"ressing the ri(a lry of ambitiou s indi(iduals.&hey are the li(ing link
through which relation shi"s with the orif a, the +gods+ arc conducted .
8nd it is i n oriki that the "ast is enca"sulated and brought into the
"resentwhere it exercises a continual "ull. On.ki,thenarcone ofthe
"rinci"al discursi(e mediums through which "eo"le a""rehend history
society and the s"iritual world .
&his srudy traces the ways in which oriki enter into the construction of
"ersonal "ower and communal solidarity in Okuk#u and bow they
im"licate the "asr in the "rocess. &he guiding thread of orik i leads to
some disco(eries
about the constitution of this !oruba rown. &he way notions of kinshi"
and town membershi" arc articulated in oriki,and the way the on"ki arc
actually used in daily lifere(eal a com"lexity and negotiability in the
com"osition of fundamental social units that existing accounts of!oruba
social structure do not "re"are one for.&he oriki of indi(idual s also bring
to (iew the central im"ortance of the self#aggrandisernent of +big men+
who within the chiefly hierarchy and between its interstices o"erate much
in the manner of their New Auinean counter"arts building u" a
follo(ing and thereby creating a "lace for themsel(es in society.&hough
the "henomenon of "atron#client
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8.+lIf.9O@OLOA!. &BC& 8.+ID &O/N ?
relationshi"s bas been well described in the comcxr of modem !oruba city
lifeI the +traditional "olitical system+ of !oruba towns has always been
"resented much more in terms of the checks and balances berween
go(ernmental institutions or the +re"resentati(e+ character of chiefshi" and
the im"ortance of com"etition between lineages rather than between
indi(idual big men. @ersona l 01-iki are the means by which a big man+s
re"utation is established. &hrough them we arc afforded access to the
dynamic "rocess of self#aggrandisement and the (alues it generates. Onki
show that big men are
a cenual and long#estab.shed feature of !oruba social "rocesses.
Oriki howe(er do not re"resent the only way of a""rehending soc*al or
s"iritual realities. &heother +literary+ discourses that coexist with oriki-notably
Ifa di(ination "oetry and iwn or narrati(es#offer other ways which con(erge
with oriki along some dimensions and di(erge along others. In some res"ects
they offer a different (iew of the world and are the means through wh%ch
different social and s"iritual relationshi" s are established. &hese differences
and con(ergences need to be ma""ed in future work. &here is a "anicu larly
close symbiotic relauonshi" between oriki and uan which makes its "resence
felt throughout thisstudy. )ut my focus isalways on oriki and the models
they "ro(ide for inter"reting and inter(ening in social ex"erience # without
suggesting that these are the only models or that they are used in all contexts
or equally by all members of the community. Jndeed it *s "recisely the
element of +bia + their a"tness to ex"ress (alues from a "articu lar anglewith
"articular ends in (iew which makes them (aluable as clues to social
ex"erience and social "rocess.I On"Ju are nothing if not "artisan. Srruggle %s
e(ident in these texts$ ri(alry as"iration self#"romotion an intensity of
"ro%ection and (olition that is almost beyond words.
If the reasons for studying a !oruba town through on"ko' are self#
e(ident something more "robably needs to be said about the reasons
forstudyingmikr
through the "articular town of Okuku. 8"art from the fact that I took an
immediate liking O Okuku and was rrcared from the moment l arri(ed as
someone who belonged there were some broad general reasons for
Staying there rather r.ban in one of the numerous other "laces I (isited
during my first year in Nigeria. Okuku iscui rurally and "oliticallK+an Oyo
town #though with srrong l%e a influences and some features of dialect
"eculiar to the Osun area
# and on"ki are belie(ed *E be more highly de(c.lo"cd in the Oyo area than
in other "arts of !orubaland
*H
O.kuku is also an old town with an
unusually im"ortant oba 2+king+7 for its si1e and exce"tionally strong
ceremonial life. .owe(er all !oruba m*(ns ha(e r.beir own rraditions of
"erforming arts and their own cultural s"ecialities and "eculiarities and a
study based in any one oftbem would ha(e yielded equally interesting
results. Itwould be in*"ossible to select one "lace as being outstanding.
On the other hand it would be equally im"ossible to select a +ty"ical+
"lace re"resentati(e of the !oruba small town though there is a ga" in the
exi ting literature for this category. I
Scholarsof!orubo culture nnd sociecy ha(e always hnd to denI with the
fact that there IS no such thing as a +re"resentati(e+ social unit .&he$ conce"t
seems ina""hcable *E a "lace where there IS ftnt such regional
dwersicy and second so many le(els of org'amsauon. It IS not J<St that
!oruba are di(ided mto rtGO%nJsed +sub#grou"s+ such as IJebuIJesa Oyo or
Bluueach of which has chsnnc<L+e SOGial and cultural features while
"oMSeN+lng a common language and sharmg fundamental social and
cultural "nna"les' but that e(en /lthm any such !oruba +sub#grou"O
ddferent towns ha(e d*fferent culrural trad*uons' different gods are
"rominent and dtfferent an forms are em"hasised from one "lace to the
next .8t the same ume howe(er a town is not a dtscrete unit thar can be
treated in solation. It is subordinate to a bigger town o(erlord o(er
smaller ones' it bas economic and historical links with neighbounng towns.
-embers of e(ery town also ha(e thetr farm senlements where they
often s"end more time than tn the town "ro"er. @eo"le ha(e business
connecuons %obs and sometimes e(en "ro"eny in other towns and for long
"eriods e(en tn other countries. It IS anttiaal to talk of any !orubo town as
if its "eo"le+s interest? and actiL lies were confined within its boundones .
Gulturally too no town is self#contatned. /hile there are differences
there *S also a great deal of o(erla". &he same culruml elements are found
o(er wide a.reas though they may a""ear in different configurations and
with dtt&ercnt meanings. /hat we arc "resented with could be described by
/ittgenstem+s famous notion of +family resemblances+ where a grou" of
items share +a com"hcau$d nerwork of sJD<,anues o(erla""mg and criss
crossmgO someumes EL#+Gr.lll strntlanues sometimes stmtlanues of detad+ so
that all somehow seem to go together though there IS no sinaJe dtacritical
fearure whach they all share 2/irtgenstem *3=4 ". >57. 9esonances and
recognition combmed with a feeling of Slr.lngeness of dts"laccment are
the ex"ericnccofunyone who has li(ed in more than one "lace in !oruba
country.
Studies of !oruba social srructure ha(e res"onded to this situation with
local and com"arati(e accounts of the (arying forms found in different
towns.
@.G. <oyd *E "ankular has laid
thcgroundworkforasystemauccom"arati(e o(emewof"ohtical and social
org'arusauon 2<oyd *3?I *3?4 *36E *365 *36? *364 *3=*7
and%.D.!. @eel has "ro:Ided an excc"uon.<y full and "enetrauna
social hmory of one town 2@eel *34>7. &he study of culture howe(er
*nd es"ea**ly of hterature has tended eather to generalise
"rcmarurcly or to anthologise synthesasmg elementS liken from
dtfferent "laces . &he result has been a re"rcMentauon of +culture+ as a
synthetic construct occu"ying some adeat realm well abo(e the
concrete forms of real life.&here are good reasons for generaltsing and
synthesisma. -uch of the onkr I quote m this book ' IIbe recognised
by "eo"le from other towns and sometimes the Inter"retation g (cn tn
one "lace will com"lement or enhance the one rccogntsed in another. 8
broader Vltw ts ulnmatelytnesca"able .)ut this :Jew c**n only be
constructed on the basis of detaded locahsed srudies.