Nupe Religion by S. F. Nadel

Author:S. F. Nadel [Nadel, S. F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, African Studies, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9780429945946
Google: KRBqDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-09-03T03:40:42+00:00

3. THE FAITH IN MEDICINE

The distinction between ‘great’ and ‘little’ medicines is drawn only by the practitioners and ‘owners’ of cigbe. The bulk of the people know little about these implications, and so grade the medicines differently. For them, medicines are simply either easily procured or not, available to the ‘public’ or monopolized, by families or perhaps communities. And they conclude, equally simply, that the more secret and private a medicine, the more powerful it must be. Experts and public, we may say, speak different languages. And here certain other discrepancies also arise. There are a great many stories current about extremely powerful (and extremely secret) medicines ‘owned’ and rarely if ever disposed of by certain villages, families or occupational groups (blacksmiths, hunters). When you know the ‘owners’ you will usually discover either that they credit the medicine with far less impressive powers or that it is by no means as secret as the public believes, or even that the medicine in question does not exist. Again, the people generally are convinced that certain very ‘private’ and miraculous medicines can yet be acquired at exorbitant prices: in reality, the medicines so described may not be for sale or, once more, may not exist. The public is also impressed or swayed by certain clever tricks which the experts perform with the ingredients of medicine in order to astonish the layman and advertise their skill but which they never regard as a true part of their craft. Thus a certain medicine for headache and stomach pains can be shown to extinguish flames or, more wonderful still, to make hands and feet insensible to burns; a piece of ironwood used in a very secret anti-witchcraft medicine can be shown miraculously to sink in water. But the Nupe expert rarely resorts to this method of self-advertisement; rather, he strongly insists on the difference between cigbe and enya mã, mere ‘conjuring tricks’, such as the Hausa charm peddlers and ‘magicians’ are fond of performing. Nor does he ever offer ‘fakes’, of this or any other kind, for the ‘real thing’ or show any cynicism regarding the value of his products. He believes in them as much as do his clients; and if their trust shows in the eagerness and awe with which they approach the expert, his seriousness and scrupulous attention to detail leave no doubt as to his good faith.

The question arises, what concrete proof the believers can have of the efficacy of the more fantastic and ‘magical’ medicines. In the case of the therapeutic remedies there exists, as I suggested, at least the possibility of some apparent if spurious empirical support; also their efficacy is understood to be in some measure uncertain and subject to the will of God. But no amount of belief in those medicines which turn a man into a miraculously successful farmer or make him invulnerable and invisible can conjure up the desired proof. The confidence inspired by their possession may indeed make the owner a keener farmer or

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