Urhobo Historical Society
Sacred Groves and Tree Worship
among the Urhobo
By Ochuko Tonukari
There has been, of late,
enormous interest in the study of nature conservation
by traditional societies. The protection of
patches of forest
as sacred groves and of several tree species as sacred trees belong
to
the religion-based conservation ethos of ancient people all over the
world.
Although such practices became extinct in most parts of the world,
basically
due to changes in religion, and during recent times due to changes in
resource
use patterns, sacred groves and sacred trees continue to be of much
importance
in the religion and culture of many parts of the world.
According to a very elderly and
learned Urhobo man, “the
concept of the sacredness of trees, from the Urhobo historical past
enters into
every facet of Urhobo traditional religion. It rests on the earliest
conceptions of the unity of life in nature, in the sense of communion
and
fellowship with the divine centre and source of life. The sacred tree
is said
to be deeply rooted in the primitive religious ideas of earliest Urhobo
people.
In the history of Urhobo religious evolution, it lies behind the
primitive era.”�
In the primitive totemic
religion of the Urhobo people of the time
past, there existed within a clan’s hunting territory sacred locations
identified by distinct landmarks like stones, trees, and rivers where
the clans
kept their sacred hoards. The essential feature of totemism
from Urhobo cultural perspective is the belief in a supernatural
connection
between a group of people and a group of objects like certain animal
species,
sometimes plants, or more rarely other objects. Usually there is a
taboo on
killing or eating an animal totem.
In Urhobo totemism,
we find that plant
species may be totems just as animal species or rivers are. On the
other hand,
the protection of plant species or groves or their planting on grounds
of sacredness
could be considered a more advanced stage in the evolution of Urhobo
religion.
Such groves and sacred trees are associated more with agricultural
societies.
Thus in most parts of
Urhoboland, each community had its own
sacred grove. Especially worshipped were sanctuaries built among
enormous
age-old trees which were never to be cut down. The traditional Urhobo
people
worshipped the spirits of nature, especially of woodlands. They also
had their
own sacred forests, which were the venue of public offerings and
various
rituals. When they began uniting, these sites became centres
for various sorts of religious worship. For the Urhobos, the sacred
groves
served the purpose of sanctuaries and temples.
The many landscapes in
Urhoboland in the distant past were dotted
with hundreds of sacred places. Sacred enclosures formed one of the
major
categories of land use. These usually contained groves of trees and
springs of
water; within them the environment was preserved, as a rule, in its
natural
state. As one Urhobo traditionalist noted, "If you come upon a grove of
old trees that have lifted up their crowns above the common height and
shut out
the light of the sky by the darkness of their interlacing boughs, you
feel that
there is a spirit in the place, so lofty is the wood, so lone the spot,
so
wondrous the thick unbroken shade."
Another elder remarked, "Here stands a silent grove black with the shade of one mighty Okpagha tree and numerous Ogriki; at the sight of it anyone could say, “there is a spirit here!” He also indicated that trees were the first temples of the gods, and "even now simple Urhobo people dedicate a tree of exceptional height to a god. Gods favour wild trees unsown by mortal hands"
One aged woman spoke of certain
Igbe devotees
gathering regularly to pray under the trees on a little sacred grove
fenced all
round at Orhoakpor. According to her, this
grove was
ten miles in circumference. Another grove near Isiokolo
stretched all the way down a low
mountainside to the
river. She traces the beginnings of sacred groves in Urhoboland to the
hunting
and gathering era of Urhobo historical past (Awharen). Among the Agbon
people, she says, "Groves of this tree are
sacred. In them no axe may be laid to any tree, no branch broken, no
firewood gathered,
no grass burnt; and wild animals which have taken refuge there may not
be
molested. In these sacred groves cocks, sheep and goats are sacrificed
and
prayers are offered for rain or fine weather or on behalf of sick
children".
The Urhobo people of Agbon extraction,
in ancient times had many sacred groves. Such areas ranged from a
quarter of a
hectare to three hectares; in them tree cutting was taboo. Some of
these groves
survived up to the 1980s, providing excellent sites for examining the
vegetation that had existed a century earlier, as several species of
trees were
rare or not seen at all elsewhere.
In the past, diverse stories
concerned with descent, beliefs and
taboos are closely connected to the forest, its animals and land, with
conservation as a value inherent in most traditional beliefs and
reflected in
them. Urhobo people respect certain regions of the forest as the
resting places
of their deities. Nature has such an overwhelming influence that
various clans
in Urhoboland refrain from hunting animals like the Orhua, Ogborigbo, and a host of others due to
a totemic relationship with these species.
Also there are a lot of trees
that are considered sacred among
Urhobo people. For instance, the Okpagha
is considered sacrosanct. Streams are often found
around mature Okpagha
trees. Most traditional Urhobos believe that spirits reside in these
trees. Those
from Avwraka believe that sacred spirits
dwell deep
within forests. One Igbe woman has a
picture that
illustrates the Urhobo forest ecosystem in which plants, animals, human
beings,
spirits and devils live together .
There could be many reasons why
the groves vanished from
Urhoboland. A kind of multiple uses was allowed in groves. Although
they were
strictly protected in most places, religious use of their resources was
allowed. As much wood might be taken as was necessary for sacrifices.
Animals,
such as goats, might be captured and offered to the deity. Trees in the
grove
could be used in building a temple inside it or even away from it. Wood
from
the sacred trees was believed to keep its magical powers when fashioned
into
other objects and was used for making a variety of objects like statues
of
gods, staffs, sceptres, etc. Wood was even
supplied
to private persons at a fixed price for sacrifices.
It seems the groves also
suffered from the pressures of
urbanization, as baths, roads, hospitals, churches, stadia,
gymnasiums, schools, etc., were established. At times they also had to
cater to
the timber needs of the ever-increasing population.
What caused the final downfall
of the groves in Urhoboland?
The groves lasted as places of
religious importance down through
the Christianization of the Urhobo country. As centres
of pagan worship, they became the objects of Christian zeal. Some
over-zealous
pastors issued that the groves be cut down unless they had already been
appropriated for some purpose compatible with Christianity.
No doubt, due mainly to the
rise of dogmatic religions like
Christianity which advocated faith in one God and was explicitly for
the
eradication of ‘pagan practices,
the tradition of maintaining sacred groves and sacred trees vanished
from most
areas in Urhoboland. Urhobo tradition itself has grown out of the
amalgamation
of scores of local cults which are often nature-based. Therefore the
worship of
plants, groves, animals and natural objects like rivers, mounts,
ant-hills and
rocks continues to have some place in it. Outdoor sanctuaries were the
first
temples of the gods. A sacred place demarcated for a deity was called Ogua.
Urhobo has rich folk traditions
that centers on the veneration of
the “ecosystem people.” The protection of whole communities as
sacred ponds and groves is a remarkable feature of Urhobo landscapes.
One of
the most widespread of the traditions in Urhobo is the protection given
to
certain trees, which dot the countryside and are often the only large
trees in
the midst of towns and villages.
The sacred groves of Urhobo are
"sacred places where trees
and plants were allowed to grow undisturbed and where reptiles, birds
and
animals could have free living without fear of poaching or interference
by
man". These sacred groves are of two kinds. Some are in the midst of
human
habitation and in most cases attached to households or not far away
from them.
These sacred groves used to have Edjo
of various categories as deities; but of late these
distinctions got blurred due to different beings worshipped in the same
sacred
groves. The other types of sacred grove, the Eghwarode, on the other hand,
exist in the ranges engulfed in forests.
Sacred trees like Ogriki, Okpagha,
remnants of sacred groves, or intact groves with
rare plants and sacred ponds, are associated with the Mother Goddess
temples.
Behind the facade of certain villages, the colourful
cultural festivals of the beautiful temple complexes, with their
caparisoned
elephants, men masked as demons or deities, sword-wielding oracles
dressed in
red and dripping blood, the exhilarating Omiovwor
the
music from seven instruments, with the drum in the lead are the rapidly
fading
folklore about entangled groves and their mysterious deities.
Most times, sacred trees and
small groves encompass larger sacred
forests in Urhoboland. Such groves and forests are often the only
remains of
the original vegetation, whose presence in the landscape is
dramatically
observable on large deforested and terraced slopes.
Not only did sacred groves
exist in more favourable
climatic conditions, but their presence is noticed even in compounds of
certain
Urhobo traditionalists, herbalists and some Igbe
devotees.
The Okpagha
and Ogriki
trees have had a conspicuous position in the cultural landscape of
Urhobo
people’s collective memory for more than 500 years. It was alleged that
Aziza himself found enlightenment under Okpagha
and
Owe trees. In fact, a lot of Urhobo women in the past, who experienced
difficulties in child deliveries were reported to have put to bed in
sacred
groves.
The destruction of forests with
their wild animals amounted to
weakening the power base of sacred groves. Also the burning of bushes
during harmattan seasons was said to have
desecrated a lot of
sacred groves. Although adequate ritual measures were carried out to
appease
the gods, but they seem far too offended, too defiled to uphold their
usual,
assumed efficacy
Okpagha tree, for instance, was highly
venerated
by traditional Urhobo people. This huge tree is a sacred tree of Urhobo
and
grows in the shade of humid tropical evergreen forests. The writer has
seen
other trees growing in many locales in Urhoboland which are sacred to
the
people. Somewhere around
In the association of gods with
particular plant species we have a
parallelism with ancient Urhobo people. Okpagha
or
Owe tree was said to belong to Aziza, Ogriki
to Edjo Ughere,
Omiovwor
tree to the goddess Omiovwor, Akpobrisi
tree (though nobody dare near it) for the Akpobrisi
god, and so on. However, inside the grove the deity was not identified
with any
special plant species.
An elder stated that, most
Urhobo deities that are worshipped
under sacred groves could be found in the forest, in a place surrounded
by
water, rivers, meeting places under trees, new-grown groves, etc. The Akpobrisi tree is likened to Akpobrisi
himself. Some aspects of Urhobo tradition hold that he is the owner of
all the
forest land that surrounds its abode. Aziza is essentially considered
by the
Urhobos as a deity of the woods, whose province is to guard the fields,
crops
and herds of the peasantry and to drive away their enemies.
Most gods and goddesses whom
the indigenous population of Urhobo
worshipped were not accustomed to dwell in the secluded atmosphere of
temples;
they loved the open air. Even today, for the Edjo Orerhe
(village deities) there are no
temples in many villages. The deity may be in the shadow of a big tree.
Generally they are lodged in small shrines. In a good number of
villages no
object is placed to represent the deity and the tree itself is regarded
as the
embodiment of the deity.
Bountiful rainfall and
relatively low population promoted the
growth of luxuriant forests which, though subjected to heavy commercial
pressures during the last 10 years or so, still cover nearly 70 per
cent of Urhoboland’s surface. It is a
meeting place of
several ecosystems, namely marine, estuarine, riverine and a variety of land-based ones.
The
forests belong to the tropical evergreen, semi-evergreen, moist
deciduous and
dry deciduous types.
The waters support rich
fisheries and cultivation is confined to
73 per cent of its land surface; there is a bewildering variety of
cultivated
crops which include cassava, plantain, okra, palm tree, cocoyam, yam,
and
fruits like mango, coconut, banana, pineapple, pawpaw, cashew, guava,
and so
on. Small patches of sugarcane, pepper, tomatoes and vegetable are
found all
over the neighborhood.
Since population was thin and
forest patches cleared for
cultivation small, the forests must have recovered in most places
except in
lands maintained as savannas through periodic burning. Therefore the
vegetation
of sacred groves, the relics of which remain to this day, disputes the
theory
of climatic change as the reason for forest decline and spread of
savannas in
Urhoboland.
Burnt ash enriches the soil
with nutrients and has a neutralizing
effect on soil acidity. Unlike the fire-sensitive and tall primary
forest trees
of evergreens, the secondary vegetation which sprouted on the
cultivation
fallows would provide more usable biomass like easily harvestable leaf
manure
and coppice shoots and hardwoods and bamboo for a variety of purposes.
At the
same time, the loss of evergreen forest would result in a decrease in
scores of
useful plant species. Streams and springs are adversely affected and
fire-proneness increases in the ecosystem. The Urhobo village
communities would
therefore learn to set aside substantial area of forest close to their
settlements as safety forests. Before the arrival of organized
religions, when
paganism, with deities in the groves or mountain cliffs or water
sources would
be more common, the safety forests would naturally turn into sacred
places as
well. Tree cutting here would be taboo, which is true to this day in
many parts
of the Urhoboland.
In the past the Urhobo forests
are patches of often climax
evergreen forest protected by shifting cultivators primarily on
religious
grounds. A lot of trees in Urhoboland are rich in biological diversity,
and are
also places of worship for Urhobo peasant societies. All along the
places,
shifting cultivation was a very important form of land use which
involved the
clearing of primary forests, at least initially. However, there is
growing
evidence to suggest that the shifting cultivators followed certain
ethics while
dealing with the forest ecosystems. The most important aspect is the
retention
of often sizeable patches of forests from few hectares to a few hundred
hectares as inviolable sacred groves.
According to one elder, the
forests are the property of the gods
of the villages in which they are situated, and the trees ought not to
be cut
without having leave from the Osedjo of
the village,
whose office is hereditary, and who here also is priest to the
temple of
the village god. The idol receives nothing for granting this
permission; but
the neglect of the ceremony of asking his leave brings his vengeance on
the
guilty person. The taboo on cutting trees in the sacred groves
continues to
this day in certain parts of Urhobland.
Another elder’s statement
referring to village gods is
relevant here:
Each Urhobo village has a
different god, some male, some female,
but by the Urhobos they are called Edjo as
requiring
bloody sacrifices to appease their wrath.
From this statement, we may
infer that the forests were virtually
under the control of village communities with well-defined territories.
Thus
the common property resources of a village, like forests, were used by
a small
number of people under a well-regulated social system without the need
for
policing. The sacred groves, with their deities requiring bloody
sacrifices,
were evidently under the control of Urhobo peasant societies.
The groves undoubtedly were and
still continue to function as temples
of worship all along the tracts of Urhoboland. In spite of the
Christianization
process that has swept through most parts of Urhoboland, the interior
villages
continue to be the centres of primitive
cults, where
religion in its early form is still in vogue.
We in Urhoboland have always
felt the magic of the trees. They
represented natural enigmas where many things happened as constituent
of an
overall cosmic order and under which lay the source of enlightenment.
Hence we
never felt the need for much enclosure, comfortable with the idea of a
simple
parasol that could shield us from heat and rain whilst allowing the
breeze to
flow over our bodies. The most profound social images such as those of
worship
and education were not that of a closed building, but a place under the
spreading boughs of a tree confirming our affinity to the natural, and
our
propensity to an open-to-sky place. So in traditional Urhobo society
where the
forest was as ubiquitous as the breeze, it was natural that wood rather
than stone
or earth was the secular and sacred building material.
According to one erudite Isiokolo
leader, the abundance of trees on Urhoboland coupled with the
philosophical and
religious notions of the culture engendered a unique receptivity
towards timber.
There was a saying in traditional Urhobo society - trees and plants
always have
something to say - confirming the Urhobo traditional belief that trees
had a
soul and were the abodes of spirits. It is said that Urhobo traditional
religion partly was founded on this belief of the divinity of trees.
The tree
was Idjere Akpor ve Odjuvwu, the road by which
heaven and earth meet; and thus old trees struck by lightening were
often
revered objects, considered evidence that the Gods had indeed landed.
Almost every
building type, be it a house, shrine, temple or palace used wood as its
major
structural material bearing the extremes of climatic conditions. It was
amidst
these arduous and sensitive rhythms that evolved Urhobo's
culture of wood.
What thus remains most
noticeable in this dialogue is the
ever-dwindling voice of Urhobo culture with regard to the worship of
trees, not
because there is no single culprit this culture can point to and
accuse, but
because the culture itself is dying. For is it not a post-industrial
inevitability that one no longer hears the hammers joining timber
beams; and
only natural that the electric drill dominates a steel-driven urban
frequency?
With every rare and remnant traditional townhouse razed to the ground,
does not
Urhobo express a helplessness, an involuntary desperation to keep alive
its
modernity, at the cost of renouncing its past? The sacred grove and the
worship
of tree is nostalgia, a slice frozen in Urhobo myth. The culture of
wood is
dead!
But in observing today's Urhobo
towns, it occurs that buildings
are designed in the expectation not that they will stand the test of
time, but
that they will be torn down sooner rather than later and replaced by
something
more appropriate to the economic and technological demands of the
future. The
annual degree of change within the densely built urban zones is about
30%,
encompassing facade improvements to entire new structures. In Warri
more than a
6 square feet of building is demolished every day, more than six times
that
number constructed on a daily basis. On its scarce and notoriously
expensive
land the list is long of the many small and large structures - obscure
and
prominent, dilapidated and fresh - that challenge any simple
understanding
about the normal course of aging, necessitating a substantial
reinterpretation
of the meaning of durability and ephemerality
in
architecture. This peculiar outlook to apprehending the city as a
series of
fleeting events rather than an object of substance echoes the age-old
profundity of transience, change and renewal. In Warri, which so
constantly
seems under construction - urban skylines crowded with forests of
cranes - the
ghost of its ancient culture of wood still possesses the 'brand new
city' built
everyday.
And so like the 'Angelus Novus'
in Paul Klee's painting, Urhobo
seems like the angel of its own history looking as though he is about
to move
away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring,
his
mouth is open, his wings are spread. His
face is
turned towards the past where he sees a deep-rooted culture. He
perceives a
chain of events, a single catastrophe that keeps piling wreckage upon
wreckage
and hurls it at his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the
dead, keep alive what is being wrecked. But
a storm is blowing
from
INTERVIEWS
|
Interview
with Madam Eunice Ekperhie, an Igbe member, age 66
years at Sapele. 15th August, 2001. Interview
with Madam Obakorhe
Ogunah, an Igbe
member, age
70 years at Sapele. 16 November 2001. Interview
with Madam Ikebe
Ahwinahwi, a former Igbe
member, age 61 years at Sapele. 11
January, 2oo1. Interview
with Mr. Johnson Agiri, a former Igbe member, age
61 years at Sapele. 16 January 2002. Interview
with elder Agumu
Isiokperhe, an Igbe
member,
age 79 years at Abraka P.O. 9 March, 2004. Interview
with Madam Ochuko
Ogoro, an Igbe
priestess,
age 64 years at Effurun-warri. 12th May, 2004. Interview
with elder Onoriode
Apiloko, an Urhobo traditionalist,
age 88 years at Isiokolo. 2nd
July, 2005. Interview
with Miss Comfort odjuvwu, an Igbe devotee, age 31
years at Sapele. 13 July 2006. Interview with Madam Janet Ibitoye (nee Udi),
a former Igbe member, age
55 years at Isiokolo.8th September, 2006 . Interview
with Mr. Jude Oguejor, a local historian,
age 73 years at Orhoakpor. 10th
February, 2007. |