100 likes | 361 Views
Ogbanje. By Darby McDermott. The Myth. “Children who come and go” Evil spirit who plagues a family Child dies to cause family grief Comes back to repeat the cycle Used to explain high mortality rate. Getting rid of the o gbanje. Female circumcision Finding the Iyi-uwa
E N D
Ogbanje By Darby McDermott
The Myth “Children who come and go” Evil spirit who plagues a family Child dies to cause family grief Comes back to repeat the cycle Used to explain high mortality rate
Getting rid of the ogbanje Female circumcision Finding the Iyi-uwa Cut/mutilate the dead child
The Iyi-uwa The ogbanje hid it somewhere secretly Bound spirit of child to the world Iyi-uwa: stones, dolls, omens, or offerings Dibia discover the location and destroy it
Ogbanje in Things Fall Apart Ezinma is an ogbanje Ekwefi had 9 children who died Medicine man says Ekwefi shouldn’t sleep in her hut Mutilated third deceased child
Ogbanje in Things Fall Apart “After such treatment it would think twice before coming again, unless it was one of the stubborn ones who returned, carrying the stamp of their mutilation – a missing finger or perhaps a dark line where the medicine man’s razor had cut them.” ~Page 79
Ogbanje in Things Fall Apart Shows struggle of Ekwefi Ezinma is constantly sick Ezinma’siyi-uwa
Current Day Belief in ogbanje continues Referred to as Abiku in South-west 2005: 97-120/1000 children under 5 die Ogbanje myth can contribute to this Soyinka and Clarke’s poems in 1967 Medicine man used
Current Day Christians also believe Go to God for deliverance Mother keeps hut untidy Study done by Alex. E. Asakitikpi
Works Cited http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11286364 http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/T-Anth/Anth-10-0-000-08-Web/Anth-10-1-000-08-Abst-PDF/Anth-10-1-059-08-383-Asakitikpi-A-E/Anth-10-1-059-08-383-Asakitikpi-A-E-Tt.pdf Things Fall Apart