Ọkha, Ikhinmwin and Iroko: Intersections Between Beliefs in the Spirituality of Trees and in Witchcraft in Benin Thought: Realities, Questions, Prospects 4

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

                 

                                                                                        

                                                           

                                                               Ọkha, Ikhinmwin and Iroko 

                  Intersections Between Beliefs in the  Spirituality  of Trees and in  Witchcraft in Benin Thought

                                                             Realities, Questions, Prospects

                                                                                           4

                                                                         Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

                                                                                   Compcros

                                                        Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

                                        ''Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge''

                                                             Abstract

A first-hand account of relationships between beliefs in the spirituality of trees and in witchcraft in the traditional thought of the people of Benin-City, Nigeria, in conjunction with questions about these ideas and the creative possibilities they may suggest,  presented through accounts of my encounters with various trees and culture bearers in Benin-City, correlated with other examples of ecosystemic spirituality.

The visual force of trees, specifically the ọkha, ikhinmwin and iroko, among the most significant arboreal forms in traditional Benin spirituality, is projected through  pictures taken and  edited by myself at times suggesting their aesthetic power, their  atmosphere shaping  character and evocative potencies, images aligned with commentary describing their cultural significance and my responses to their inspirational force. The pictures were taken using an iPhone 6s and edited on an HP laptop.

I could not use all the images I would have liked to employ for this essay on account of the limitations of Google Mail, my primary template for essay composition. The essay is also complemented by videos I made and by many other pictures I took, which, ideally, should be referenced in the essay, linking to the online locations of these video and image libraries, a comprehensive mapping of my discoveries which I intend to present with time.

 

Contents

Encountering Mythic Ikhinmwin

Image and Text: Majestic Ikhinmwin  at the Main Gate of the Palace of the Oba of Benin 

Image and Text:  Leaf and Bark from Iroko Tree in Front of the Palace of the Ezomo of Benin 

A Network of Arboreal Potencies

Ethics of Spiritual Practice of Chief Ebengho and his Son Osarobor

Developing an Ethics of Witchcraft in the Benin and Yoruba Contexts

Encountering Mythic Ikhinmwin

                                              

                     Majestic Ikhinmwin  at the Main Gate of the Palace of the Oba of Benin 

The ọkha, ikhinmwin and iroko are among the most significant trees in traditional Benin spirituality, with the ikhinmwin seemingly generally  understood as the first of trees, both temporally and spiritually.

The strategic significance of the ikhinmwin is indicated by its position at the main entrance to the palace known as urho-ikpere, meaning, ''a gate ushering good fortune and prosperity to the palace and Benin-Kingdom,'' as described by Honourable Benjamin Omuemu, the palace librarian. 

 The white cloth of purity is tied round the ikhinmwin tree, stained by sacrifices performed at the location. The significance of the tree is also evoked by the elegant fence within which it is enclosed, the fence's ornate design in silver and gold topped by gold plated spikes, the entire structure marked by the royal symbols of authority, the criss-crossing ada and eben, shaped in gold. 

''The ikhinmwin tree is inseparable from the main gate to the palace of the Oba of Benin as the gate is inseparable from the tree,'' as quoted of one of the priests of the palace by Honourable Benjamin Omuemu, the palace librarian, in my discussion with him on the significance of the tree.

The  ikhinmwin is used in Benin culture as a marker of boundaries between plots of land, as a means of spiritual protection and cleansing and an attractor of well being. As stated at  the Iyasẹ N'ọhẹnmwẹn Family blog:

The ‘Ikhimwin’ tree is believed to be the first and the oldest tree according to Bini myth. It’s regarded as the king of all trees upon the surface of the earth. Always planted as [a] boundary tree for centuries, because of its long lasting [life] and resistance to any kind of weather conditions and is also used when serving ‘Osagbaye’ (God's existence) [in] the initial ritual made to “Osanobua” (God) prior to worshipping.

It is also believed to ward off evil and has medicinal contents used in the treatment of fertility problems in women. Every Benin person is expected to plant this tree in their compound to signify it as igiogbe
[ the principal house where a Benin man lives]. A unique tree indeed!

The ikhinmwin tree's location at the main gate of the palace of the Oba of Benin indicates its position there as a nexus between matter and spirit, a point of intersection of the vitality of nature and the creativity of spirit in the continuum between vegetative matter and the spectrum of existence.

It's character as a multidimensional gateway, located at the entrance to the palace of the Oba, may be seen as attracting to the palace, and the entirety of Benin as represented by that palace, the protection and well being the tree is understood as drawing to a place where it is planted as the first of trees, pre-eminent above all others, as  Honourable Omuemu's summation on the  ikhinmwin's power and significance may be paraphrased and expanded.

These spiritual properties are emphasized through the many sacrifices, ritual procedures for relating with spiritual powers, performed at the gate  during the festivals of Ugieoro and Emobo, festivals in which the Oba and his chiefs perform ceremonies at the gate, as described by Benjamin Omeumu.

A Network of Arboreal Potencies

A conglomeration of spiritually potent trees, located in various sections of Benin-City, suggesting a network of possibilities, perhaps a matrix of power representing the city as a convergence of potencies  which those awake to their nature and capable of relating with them may take advantage of.

" How can I become one of such initiates?'' I would ask Chief James Okponmwense, the Ezomo of Benin, one of the Uzama Nihiron, the kingmakers of traditional Benin,  in front of whose compound overlooking the vehicular and pedestrian busyness  and commercial dynamism of  Ekenwan Road is located an ancient and massive  iroko tree, it’s pictures shown above, a white cloth of ritual purity tied round its base, the cloth stained with the fluids of sacrifices, some of which are visible at its base, sacrifices represented by eggs and other organic forms in ritual calabashes, money stuck within the assemblage, a zone to which I added a little money myself in my own supplication to the tree and its associated powers  to assist with my explorations of the spiritual cultures of Benin, particularly sacred trees.

''Those people who navigate in and out of the spiritual nexus embodied by that iroko you see in front of my compound are witches. Various traditional spiritual personalities, native doctors and others, belong to the coven represented by that tree. They assist those who appeal to them through sacrifices at the base of the tree, hence that natural shrine is open to all who wish to take advantage of its precious presence, its potency attested to by various people who have come there for help, some in the depths of night as they furiously seek assistance for woes to which they have found no respite,'' he explained.

''Can you pay the price for belonging to such a fraternity in the world of spirit?'' he asked. ''What of if you are required to give up something precious to you, a priceless aspect of your existence, since you have also partaken of such precious sacrifices from others?'' as I may cryptically represent his more explicit account, but in a way those who are informed about Nigerian witchcraft lore, particularly in connection with the iroko, would more clearly understand.

'' I no advise make you chop winsh,'' he concluded, alluding to the belief that witchcraft can be assumed by eating substances that catalyze the witchcraft identity, switching to pidgin as many Nigerians are able to do between Pidgin English, Standard English, and, at times, their native languages.

''What is the assurance that you can vomit or egest what you have ingested when you want to again assume your previous identity?,'' he puzzled aloud.

He eventually permitted me to cut a leaf of the tree and peel off a little of the bark. ''People would normally pay heavily for such a privilege, but I am attracted by your sincerity and humility in your hunger for knowledge. May your faith take you where you want to go,'' he concluded, responding to my stated desire to chew the leaf of the tree and bathe with its bark in order to experience the outcome, a move I later put aside, satisfying myself instead by making a small shrine consisting of those items.

                    

                                                                                          

                         

           

                               Leaf and Bark from Iroko Tree in Front of the Palace of the Ezomo of Benin 

                                                                       

"Baba knows how a person can become one of those Powers of the Night, but he will not tell you, being an Ifa priest whose remit does not extend to such initiations,'' insisted Chief Obaseki, in response to my question to Chief Ebengho on the subject, Ebengho having requested Obaseki's services, as a better English speaker than himself, to help with responding to my curiosity about Ebengho's spiritual practices and his magnificent shrine.

''I do know how one may enter into that affiliation,'' Ebengho corroborated, ''but I cannot tell you beceause I don't know the contents of your heart,'' he concluded.  ''Such powers as are demonstrated by the Powers of the Night may be used for evil and I would need to know of your deeper orientations in order to share such knowledge, '' he added. ''I understand my calling as a divine service,'' Ebengho had told me in our first discussion, ''therefore even though I house and maintain mini-shrines for others inside my larger shrine complex, I don't charge the shrine owners for that service.''

 Ethics of Spiritual Practice of Chief Ebengho and his Son Osarobor

''Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you,'' Ebengho's son and ritual assistant Osarobo had quoted to me  

 as his guiding principle one of Jesus's central dictates, expressing the profoundly humane orientations, within a profound sensitivity to the divine, that make the founder of Christianity one of the world's greatest ethical teachers, Osarobo describing himself as correlating his father's spiritual practice with Christianity, in the understanding that all spirituality is essentially a quest for God. "Before I go to bed every night, I reflect on my entire day. Have I offended anyone?', I would ask myself. If I have, I make haste to apologize'',  he concludes. ''I am building on the orientation in terms of which I was brought up,'' he asserts.

Developing an Ethics of Witchcraft in the Benin and Yoruba Contexts

Reverberations of possibility. A priest of arcane powers who understands himself as operating within a divine mission in which care for others is central. An inclusive spirituality, in which individuality of identity is vital but multi-religious harmonies are cultivated.

May the arcane possibilities of Benin and Yoruba azen and aje spiritualities be developed along such lines, forms of witchcraft cultivated in terms of humane principles in which power is subsumed in caring, creativity understood in terms of building human community, of constructing life transforming possibilities, as Ebengho stated is exemplified by the mysterious creativities represented by Western science and technology, which he describes as outcomes of the Western form of witchcraft, while access to the depths of nature's powers in the contexts he has observed in his own culture's practice of witchcraft has been too often given over to selfish  goals?

To Be Continued