Among Congo cannibals

Variety of taboos—The totem taboo—The permanent taboo—The inherited taboo—The temporary taboo—Circumcision taboo—Canoe-maker’s taboo—Mourner’s taboo—Cursing a wife—Taboo of sympathy—Father’s curse on a child—Kicking a person’s foot—Various curses—Different oaths—Giving tokens.

Taboos are the prohibitions and restrictions put on things and actions by the witch-doctor during and after an illness, by the family totems, and temporarily by the individual himself. They are the “thou shalt nots” of fetishism. To disobey them is to risk dire consequences to health of body, to success in expeditions, and to one’s luck. Among the Boloki the outraged spiritual powers are supposed to avenge themselves on the breakers of the taboo. The taboos send their ramifications into every part of native life, thought, and action. There is not a single article of food that is not taboo to someone, there is not a place that has not been tabooed at some time or other, and there is not a possible action that has not been, or is not, affected by taboo. When a witch-doctor tells his patient that he is not to eat goat’s meat, then goat’s meat to that man is tabooed, forbidden, unlawful for that man to eat; and should he break the taboo by eating goat’s meat, then he believes that a serious relapse will follow and probably death.

The taboos are many and various, but most of them fall under the following heads: The totem taboo (called mokumbu) is not so evident to the casual observer among the Bololi people, and I might say among Congo people generally, as it is in other parts of the world. One family that I know may not eat a certain snake, and another may not eat fowls. If the men of these families kill and eat their totems they will become thin and weak; the women will not only become thin but sterile; and the pregnant woman who breaks her totem taboo will be delivered of a weak child, who will remain thin and undersized all his life.

To another family a tree with small edible fruit (named mwenge) is a totem. The tree must not be cut down, nor its fruit eaten, and if by any mistake a woman of this family burns it while pregnant she carefully saves the ashes, i.e. instead of throwing them away she puts them in a special place apart from the usual heap of refuse, otherwise her child will be born emaciated and weakly. Strange to say, the boys and girls of the family before puberty may eat the fruit of this tree without any evil consequences.

Another family has a plant with red leaves (called nkungu) as a totem. When a woman of this family becomes enceinte for the first time a nkungu is planted near the hearth outside the house, and it is never destroyed, or the child will be born thin and weak and remain very small and sickly. The healthy life of the children and family is bound up with the healthiness and life of the totem tree as respected and preserved by the family. The killing of a fowl by a member of the snake family, and vice versa, does not affect the family whose totem it is.

When a free woman marries she takes her totem with her and observes not only her own, but also her husband’s totem. And any child born to them takes the totem of both parents until there is a family council of the paternal and maternal branches, when it is generally arranged that the child shall in future observe its father’s totem.

These notes contain all the information I could gather relating to their totems; and I received the impression that the totem taboo is gradually dying out. This is also the impression I have about the totems on the Lower Congo, where one finds only a vestige of what was once probably a potent factor in their family life.

Then there is the permanent taboo (called ngili). This taboo is put on any kind of food, as, “You must not eat goat’s meat”; or, on going to a certain place, as, “You must not go across the river to a particular island”; or, on performing a particular action, as, “You must always drink sugar-cane wine through a reed, never straight out of a vessel of any kind.” This taboo must be carefully observed by the person under it as long as he lives or serious consequences will follow the breaking of it, such as a return of the sickness from which the person was suffering when placed under this taboo, or a loss of property and life, or the sickness and death of a child.

Every kind of food is ngili to someone, and it is no uncommon sound to hear a person going through the town crying out: “Exchange for piece of antelope.” That means that someone has come into possession of a portion of antelope to whom it is taboo, so he (or she) is trying to exchange it for fish or something else that is not taboo to him with someone to whom antelope is not taboo.

This permanent taboo (ngili) is very frequently an inherited one. A man has, say, elephantiasis and the “medicine man” says he is not to eat either elephant or hippopotamus flesh (both these animals have stout legs), and the man will pass on this taboo to his sons, who will carefully observe it lest their legs become “swollen like an elephant’s.”

Milk is tabooed by all and regarded with great abhorrence. Anyone drinking it is considered unclean (bosoto) for several days, and is not allowed to eat with his family. They may touch milk, for they milk our goats and sheep and carry it to us without suffering any defilement, but it must not touch their lips. A house boy of mine was known to have drunk some water out of a milky glass, and he was not permitted to eat with his family for five days. The natives could give no reason for this, but only stated that it was their custom. The eating of raw eggs is also tabooed by all, and the breaker of this taboo is not allowed to eat with his family for a few days. They eat well-cooked eggs no matter how unsavoury they may be through age. I may say in passing that the more ancient an egg is the better it is liked by the native, and they do not appreciate our preference for fresh eggs. If a native gives an aged egg to a white man as an expression of gratitude it does not mean that he is giving it because it is bad and worthless to himself, but because it is to him better than a fresh egg, and he thinks it is so to you until he learns better, and then he will bring fresh ones.

The temporary taboo (mungilu) covers a large number of different circumstances that, according to the native view of life, call for a taboo. During pregnancy a woman is placed under a taboo, generally that she is not to eat a certain kind of food—not the same article of food to every woman, but according to the momentary whim of the “doctor”—and this she observes until the medicine man removes it either on the birth of the child or when it is weaned, or the first time the child has its hair cut.

Some pregnant women are told not to throw the ashes of their fires away until their children reach the age of twelve or fourteen. The ashes are therefore carefully gathered and put into a special place. These women, however, belong to families which have trees and shrubs for totems, and for fear of scattering the ashes of their totem trees inadvertently burnt they have to put all the ashes of their fires in a particular place, thus honouring all ashes to avert the possibility of being disrespectful to the ashes of their totem trees.

A witch-doctor may say that on account of a certain sickness the patient must not eat a particular kind of food, and the food he may eat must be prepared in a special way, say, cooked in forest water and not in water taken from the river. When, however, the man is better a feast is prepared, and then all kinds of food are cooked in the ordinary way, including the interdicted articles, and the patient partakes of them and the prohibitions are removed.

Lads who have been circumcised must remain indoors until the wounds are healed, and during that time they are not to eat the heads and tails of fish. When a man is making a canoe he ties a piece of a cactus-like plant to the log he is working, and while working on it he must not drink any water, otherwise the canoe will leak. The charm also wards off evil influences and keeps the canoe from warping. Members of a deceased person’s family are forbidden to sleep for two or three weeks on their ordinary beds, and must sleep on leaves spread on the ground. After the mourning they have a drinking-bout of sugar-cane wine, to which all the town is invited, after which they return to their ordinary sleeping-mats on the raised frame. The prohibitions on fishermen and hunters have already been mentioned.

Sometimes a man in a rage will put himself under a taboo. A wife by her conduct has irritated him beyond all endurance, and at last in anger he strikes on the ground with a stick, and says: “May I be cursed if ever I eat food cooked by you.” He is now under a taboo (mungilu) not to eat food from that woman’s hands. Such a mode of procedure will bring the woman to her senses, for undoubtedly the taboo and curse go further than the mere non-eating of food cooked by her. It means that he has put a taboo on her and will have nothing more to do with her, or the curse will come on him in the form of a severe disease.

By and by the woman is sorry for her conduct, and begs the husband to remove himself from under the curse by removing the taboo of having nothing more to do with her. Should he after a time relent, the curse is removed by the following ceremony, which is called reversing, or undoing, of the beating of the ground: A trench is dug while some women sing: “Remove the curse, the curse of beating on the ground” (Bondola bondo mobondo bondo). A spot of red camwood powder is rubbed on the woman’s chest, or as they say, “over the heart,” the taboo and curse are removed and the pair are reconciled.

Men and women to express their sympathy with a sick parent or relative will make a vow, saying: “I will not eat fowls,” or, “I will not go to Lulanga until my father is better.” Should the father die, then the person who made the self-imposed taboo must not eat any more fowls, or must never go again to Lulanga. These vows are very carefully observed, or a disease will result from breaking them.

A person therefore can be under four taboos, viz.: (1) The totem taboo (mokumbu) of his family. (2) The taboo (ngili), because of a serious illness and the desire to avert a relapse. (3) The inherited taboo (also ngili), to avoid a complaint from which the father suffered. (4) The temporary taboo (mungilu) of anger and sympathy.

This may be the best place in which to mention their curses, for they are often interwoven with their taboos. A very common curse employed on most occasions is to strike on the ground with a stick, and at the same time mention the name of the person cursed; and the person thus cursed will have a very bad form of dysentery, and the curser may say: “May I be cursed if ever I do such and such a thing”; thus the curser will become subject to the disease should he break his word.

A person curses an adult relative in the following manner: He rubs his thighs, bends down, and turns his back towards the one to be cursed and shouts: “Be accursed.” This is also done in the face of an enemy as an insolent curse on them. Early morning is said to be the best time for making it effective. I have seen this performed several times, and the person so cursed has hurled his knife or spear at the curser.

A father, or guardian, curses his child by words, and then the child will neither grow properly nor become wise or rich; but this is only resorted to on great provocation. Should the child become penitent and apologize for his evil ways, he takes a large fish or monkey or a goat to his father and begs him to remove the curse. The father accepts the present, and then chewing the stem of a certain shrub (called munsangasanga), he expectorates the pieces out on to the palm of his child’s hand, saying; “What I said I said in anger, and I now remove the curse.” The child is comforted and the two are reconciled.

To kick or touch a person accidentally, while passing him, with the foot is equivalent to cursing him. The person must turn round and slightly kick again the person whom he touched with his foot, otherwise bad luck, etc., will come upon the person kicked. Where we apologize they kick again, and the phrase used for the second kick means, “to reverse the effects of the first kick.” They are exceedingly careful not to touch a person with the foot in passing—that brings bad luck, and not to step over a person—that is an insult. A person moving out of a sitting crowd of folk shuffles his feet along the ground so as to avoid stepping over anyone, and will tell those squatting around to draw their feet up out of the way so as not to touch them.

There are other curses used by old and young alike during fits of passionate anger, as, “May you die by witchcraft”; or, “May you die by euphorbia poison”; or, “Cry for your mother,” i.e. May your mother die. The last is a curse bitterly resented, and is only uttered when a person is greatly exasperated. When a person is undergoing any ordeal test he repeatedly uses the word ngambu, which means: “If I am guilty, let the ordeal work against me; but if I am innocent, then let my accuser be accursed and die.” The ngambu curse is greatly dreaded by all natives.

Promises and oaths are ratified by each contracting party putting a curse on the other should he break his oath; and illness and bad luck are often regarded as due to unfaithfulness to one’s oath. Sometimes taboos are put on one another by the contracting parties, and so long as the taboos are carefully observed they are reckoned as faithful to their promises and oaths. This is specially so in the covenant of blood-brotherhood, and to disregard the taboo is to court either death or some great disaster. Many of their folk-lore stories are illustrative of the evil consequences resulting from the breaking of blood-brotherhood taboos.

Oaths are freely used by the Boloki in their conversation, and such liars are they that they feel it necessary to back their statements with, “I swear it” (ndai). The commonest form of oath is, “Cut my throat” (tena nkingu), and is always accompanied by the speaker wetting his finger and drawing it across his throat. “By my mother” (nta mama), and “By my father” (nta tata) are very strong oaths and are felt to be binding on the user of them, otherwise disaster will follow if the statements to which they are affixed are not true, or the promises to which they are attached are not fulfilled. “Truly so, by my mother” (bwele unko mama), and “Truly so, by my father” (bwele unko tata), are not regarded as being so strong as the former two, but they infer that the speaker pledges himself that his words are true, otherwise his mother or father will suffer.

A piece of stick, tin, or anything handy is cut into pieces, and each combatant or disputant takes a portion as a token that all matters of dispute are finished, and he who again starts one of the old quarrels calls down a curse upon himself. This cutting of a token (tena ndanga) is also done by the party who loses a case. He gives a portion of the cut token as an earnest of the payment of expenses, and of the fine imposed by those who judged the case, and if he does not redeem it he is under a curse and will suffer accordingly.