CHAPTER VII

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

1. MARRIAGE BANS

Marriage bans occupy a crucial place in the social order of the Bulsa. I have often been assured that a transgression of an explicit marriage ban is one of the most shameful things a Bulo can imagine.

As a general rule, I was told that people who sacrifice together to an ancestor or ancestress cannot marry each other. However, this rule does not apply if the ancestors or ancestresses lived a sufficiently long time ago. Thus, a man from Wiaga-Kubelinsa can marry a woman from Abapik Yeri (Wiaga-Badomsa), even though Kubelinsa sacrifices to Abadoming’s mother (the section founder of Badomsa) in Abapik Yeri.

 

a) Marriage bans for large groups

By this type of ban, I refer to prohibitions that a single individual has in common with segments of his lineage or with groups beyond a clan section. Moreover, marriage prohibitions of an individual related to a larger group, such as another clan section, will be discussed here. The distinction between these and the ‘individual marriage bans’ listed below is fluid and has been made here more for work-related reasons. The most fundamental marriage bans that apply to large groups are:

1. A Bulo may not take a wife from his father’s own clan section, i.e., his clan section. The ambiguous term ‘section’ (English: section or division, Buli dok or yeri) requires further clarification. The following social units can be understood under this term {242}:

a) Exogamous clan sections. These usually comprise the patrilineal descendants of a lineage founder who lived about 7–10 generations ago and after whom the section is usually named (e.g., Kalijiisa after Akaljiik). Inclusions of smaller foreign lineages (assimilated or attached lineages in the sense of M. Fortes) [endnote 1], which may, for example, trace their origin back to a slave, usually respect the marriage bans of their host section (cf. p. {254}).

b) Local groupings. On the surface, these ‘sections’ are often already recognisable by the fact that their names cannot be derived from a founder but instead have a descriptive character, e.g. Yipaala (new houses), Yisobsa (dark houses), Yimonsa (red houses), Belezuk (by the river), Goluk (valley), etc. Of course, such local units can simultaneously be exogamous clan sections.

c) Administrative units. Most likely, the administrative sections under a kambon-naab (English: ‘sub-chief’ or ‘headman’), created within the web of lineages, were not made until the British colonial administration began. These sections often combine several smaller exogamous clan sections. The following administrative sections of Sandema, for example, consist of two or more exogamous units – usually called subsections in such a case – which are mainly allowed to intermarry within the same administrative unit or section:

BALANSA. Subsections: Akuriyeri, Anyabasiyeri, Apaabayeri, Bagunsa, Banyinsa, Banyimonsa, Daborinsa, Sanwasa, and Yiriwiensa.

BILINSA. Subsections: Bilinmonsa, Bilinsobsa, Farinsa, Pungsa, and Tankunsa. Bilinsa-Pungsa and the Sandema-Fiisa section do not intermarry. A Fiisa man does not even marry the daughter of a Pungsa woman.

KALIJIISA. In the past, Kalijiisa was divided into two exogamous units, namely Choabisa, the section of the blacksmiths, and Kalijiisa in the narrower sense. Marriage prohibitions between these units have only been lifted quite recently.

KANDEM. Subsections: Kanwaasa and Tolensa.

KORI. Subsections: Apaisibasi, Belingmai, Kanaansa, Katuensa, Kori (in the narrow sense).

In Wiaga, too, some administrative sections (e.g., Chiok, Sinyansa, Tandem and Yisobsa) consist of several exogamous clan sections (cf. table ‘Wiaga’s marriage system’, Chapter VII, 1a, p. 248).

On the other hand, there is (or was) often a ban on marriage between politically independent sections, as the kinship relationships between these groups are still considered too close. In Sandema, for example, marriage between the Kalijiisa, Kobdem and Longsa sections was forbidden until the 1950s; even today, many men in these areas are reluctant to intermarry.

In Sandema-Kalijiisa, marriage was forbidden among all subsections, including the immigrant blacksmith subsection, Choabisa. At an old man’s funeral (in 1973), an elder announced that marriages between Choabisa and the other subsections of Kalijiisa would henceforth be allowed. This announcement took several years to be widely accepted. In one case, when a young man from Choabisa courted a girl from another Kalijiisa section, it aroused general merriment before his rejection, and people gossiped that ‘someone wanted to marry his sister’.

In Wiaga, there was a marriage ban between Yisobsa and Farinmonsa ‘in the time of the grandfathers’, which has been unilaterally lifted in recent years. Although many Farinmonsa men do not scruple about marrying an unwed Yisobsa woman, Yisobsa continues to abide by the marriage ban (in 1974).

In Wiaga-Sinyansa, marriage was banned between its (sub)sections until the 1950s; the ban on those with a common ancestor (Badomsa, Kubelinsa and Mutuensa) lasted the longest. Today, almost all sections intermarry. Only between Kubelinsa and Mutuensa, which is sometimes referred to as a subsection of Kubelinsa, does the ban still exist.

2. A Bulo is usually not allowed to marry a woman from his mother’s clan section. However, there is an exception: Suppose a woman of his maternal section grew up outside the section territory (e.g. in southern Ghana) and will continue to live there with her husband. In that case, their marriage is allowed if the groom’s wife and mother are not from a too-small or close segment of their common lineage. Marriages from the sections of an individual FM (paternal mother) [endnote 2], MM, FMM and MMM are often also mentioned by informants as not permitted. Still, in practice – especially if large sections are concerned – these unions are often limited to a somewhat smaller segment of the lineage within that section.

In addition, marriage restrictions sometimes refer to groups with no blood relationship, even according to European concepts. Thus, a Bulo (A) cannot marry a girl (B) from the house of his FFWF without further ado (cf. genealogical sketch below), as the girl’s parents would never give their consent. He (A) can abduct her (B) against the will of her parents but must accept that, in the case of a later separation of the marriage, the wife (B) {244} will return with her children to her parental home; if she marries another man (C), husband A will have even more significant difficulties in getting his children back, since he cannot count on the help of his parents-in-law.

There is often disagreement about whether a groom is still too closely related to his bride in the female line. In this case, lively discussions ensue. Whether the marriage was correct often only becomes apparent after a few years, such as when no children are born or the marriage suffers other misfortunes. If one discovers afterwards that one is married to a close matrilineal relative, e.g. a grandchild of the same grandmother, the marriage is usually dissolved unless children have already been born between the husband and wife. However, the impression must not be given that marriages into a matrilineage are avoided only because of the possible lack of child blessings. I have been assured several times that such marriages are also considered immoral outside these concerns.

No discussion as to whether marriage to a matrilineally related person is permissible will arise if the groom’s family has taken a ma-bage from the bride’s compound. The bride and groom, especially if they had eaten from the soil of this shrine, would die immediately, and further blows of fate could befall the two families (cf. p. 178).

3. Although until now, only too-close family relations have been cited as reasons for prohibitions of marriage between larger groups, enmity (dachirini) between two groups is also an obstacle against marrying a ‘daughter’ (Buli lie), i.e. a female member of the other section. Once the social relations {245} between two sections have been disturbed, for example, by murder, they cannot be much worsened by further hostile acts, such as the marriage of a wife of a third section who was already (or is) married in the hostile section, even if such marriages help perpetuate the poor relations between the two involved sections. In today’s Wiaga, the initial reason for bad relations between two sections is often forgotten, and people only refer to the feuds of past times. The exact distinctions between sections from which one is not allowed to marry at all and from which one is allowed to marry ‘daughters’ (lieba, sing. lie), already married women (pooba, sing. pok) or ‘daughters’ and (or) ‘wives’ has led to a complex marriage system in Wiaga, depicted in a table below.

Sometimes, the elders (kpaga, sing. kpagi) of a section must intervene and force a member of their lineage to yield, as the following example shows:

In 1966, a man from Wiaga-Yimonsa married a woman married in Sinyansa (Bachinsa?). Later, a young man from the same Sinyansa section took a ‘daughter’ of Yimonsa home as a bride, probably against the wishes of his section (Sinyansa). Consequently, the Yimonsa elders arranged for the ‘wife’ to be returned to the Sinyansa section.

If, on the other hand, someone marries a ‘wife’ of section N, it follows that no other person of his section may marry a ‘daughter’ from section N before some time has passed {246}.

As the examples have shown, marriage opportunities between sections in a locality (e.g. Wiaga) are not rigidly fixed. Instead, they are subject to change over time. The continued marriage of ‘wives’ from one section may thwart the marriage of ‘daughters’ for a long time.

The following table (1973–74) contains information from exclusively older or ex officio knowledgeable men (e.g. almost all kambon-nalima of Wiaga). According to my instructions they were interviewed about their section by Clement, the now-deceased son of the Wiaga chief, Asiuk. However, the overview still reveals numerous contradictions. Apart from other reasons, these contradictions can be explained by the vast number of ‘foreign houses’ in many political sections, i.e. kinship groups that do not belong to the section’s central lineage. Moreover, in the interviews, political sections have frequently been confused with lineages. Sometimes, a marriage ban with a certain section is also reported because the informant is personally related to this section through the female lineage (although the older men should be made aware of this error by my assistant).

As the Yisobsa-Farinmonsa example above (Chapter II, 1a; p. 243) shows, misinformation cannot automatically be inferred {247} if the table shows that section A marries from section B, but section B does not marry from section A.

Notes and abbreviations for the following tables (Wiaga’s marriage system):

D (for daughters): Only ‘daughters’ (yeri-lieba, daughters of the compound or lineage) from this section are married.

W (for wives): From this (hostile) section, one marries only married women (who, of course, come from a third section by birth).

DW: From this section (e.g., from different sublineages), ‘daughters’ or ‘wives’ are married.

D-: From this section, ‘daughters’ are married only with restriction, i.e., not from all subsections or parts.

W-: Only from certain parts (subsections) of this section are wives married.

– From this section, one does not marry ‘daughters’ or ‘wives’ (for reasons of too near kinship).

 

{249} In Sandema, such a complex marriage relations system is largely unknown. Sections that marry only ‘wives’ of each other seem to be exceedingly rare; I am only aware of Kobdem and Kori. Sections that have recently abandoned their mutual marriage ban (e.g. Kalijiisa, Kobdem, Longsa) only marry ‘daughters’ of each other.

Even murder cases and feuds have not led to long-term marriage bans between whole sections of Sandema. A member of Kalijiisa killed a man from Chuchuliga some time ago. I was told that in the initial period after the manslaughter, the two concerned sections generally did not intermarry. Today, this prohibition exists only between the specific houses to which the murderer and the killed person belonged.

It may be worth investigating further whether a connection exists between joking relationships and marriage bans due to enmity. In Sandema, unlike Wiaga, there is a distinct system of joking relationships (gbieri, v. or ale chaab leka, v.n.) between individual sections. As I have often been assured, joking relationships may arise from former enmities or feuds. The joking relationship between Bulsa and Zabarima – the ethnic group of the notorious slave raider Babatu [endnote 3] – also supports these claims. In one case of joking relations between two Sandema sections, the origin allegedly goes back to a murder case. The assumption that in Sandema, former enmities express themselves through joking relationships, while in Wiaga, they are expressed through marriage bans of ‘daughters’ or permitted marriages of ‘wives’, cannot yet be proven [endnote 4].

In most smaller Bulsa villages, such as Siniensi, Kadema, Gbedema and Kanjaga, it is generally  forbidden to marry someone else’s wife from the same village. A young man from the Siniensi chief’s house explained that a small village with only a few sections cannot afford to let quarrels arise among its inhabitants. If a man from Siniensi has married a woman married in Siniensi before {250}, he must either give her back or leave Siniensi with the woman. Neither are strangers of the village allowed to marry a woman already married if they want to keep their residence in Siniensi.

Since the chiefs of Sandema and Wiaga want to get along well with all lineages in their village, they are also forbidden to marry wives from their village.

In Uwasi, the supposedly older lineages may only marry ‘wives’ from those that later settled in Uwasi as foreigners (Angmong Yeri, Wasik, and Achang Yeri). It is similar in Doninga, where ‘daughters and wives’ can be married only from Yipaala-Kong, a foreign subsection where they still speak Sisaali.

In Wiesi (Wiasi) and Fumbisi, too, people only marry ‘daughters’ from most other sections. Still, in both localities, there are also sections from which people only take married women, without these sections being proven to be foreign groups.

Earlier, the rules of individual marriages with enemies (dachaasa) applied to marriages from hostile ethnic groups. All foreign tribes had to be regarded as potential enemies, and marriage was risky. Nevertheless, marriages with people from other ethnic groups were also likely occurrences of sufficient frequency in earlier times. During his field research, M. Fortes [endnote 4a] learnt that the Tallensi Bangam Teroog went to Sandema 50–60 years ago and met relatives everywhere along the way who welcomed him as their guest.

4. Marriages between certain groups are also forbidden for reasons that may be described as part of politico-ritual.

Some years ago, Robert Asekabta, a Sandemnaab (Abilyeri) relative, applied to marry a young girl from Suarinsa-Niima. It was known that Robert and his family were unrelated to Suarinsa. Nevertheless, his father had to enlighten him that he could not marry this girl because men from the Suarinsa-Niima subsection were involved in installing the chief. Since the chieftaincy house had already received a ‘daughter’ [endnote 5] from Suarinsa-Niima, namely {251} the chieftaincy, a member of the chief’s house could not demand another ‘daughter’ from the same subsection.

 

b) Individual marriage bans

In addition to the exogamy rules of entire groups, the individual still must observe marriage prohibitions resulting from their unique position in the kinship system.

1. A man shall not marry two daughters of the same father and mother if they were born directly one after the other in the order of birth [endnote 5a]. If this has nevertheless happened, the two wives must observe a whole series of rules. For example, they must not sweep out their living quarters at this time and must use different entrances to the compound. If the mother of these two daughters had a stillbirth between their births, the aforementioned marriage prohibition remains in force. However, if a child born between the two daughters lived for a while and then died as a baby, the marriage prohibition described above does not come into force.

Even two full sisters with other living siblings in birth order should not marry the same husband if possible. G. Achaw believes that the husband’s obligation to the in-laws’ house becomes too great otherwise: He would have to help his parents-in-law with the field work twice yearly (one day for each wife). However, such cases rarely happen. If, for example, the funeral service of the two sisters’ father is held, the house from which the two sisters come will be worse off, as the two sisters’ husband will contribute to the funeral service only once. G. Achaw (Kalijiisa-Yongsa) already had substantial difficulty in getting the consent of his bride’s parents to marry because a man from Kalijiisa {252}-Choabisa had married one of the girls’ sisters, even though Choabisa is a ‘foreign’ subsection and can now marry those from Yongsa.

2. A man and his sister who immediately follow in terms of birth order may not marry a daughter and son of the same parents (Inf.: G. Achaw).

3. A man may not marry a daughter from a former marriage of his father’s wife if he grew up with this daughter. If this girl has grown up in her father’s family, a marriage usually does not occur because the two families are enemies (cf. Chapter. VII, 1a; p. 244).

4. After performing a ma-bage ritual, a marriage ban will exist between the host compound’s and guests’ families (Cf. Chapter V, 3d; pp. {169–173}).

 

c) Violation of a marriage prohibition: an example

Non-compliance with an explicit prohibition of marriage is neither a private matter nor a misstep forgotten after a few years. Such a transgression is, according to Leander, ‘the only mortal sin we Bulsa know’. The lives of the whole group are threatened in such a case, which will be illustrated by a case of kabong (pl. kabonsa) in Wiaga-Sinyansa-Badomsa, the story to which Leander made me privy. Kabong is a particularly grave variant of adultery.

Around the year 1950, a certain Agaab (name changed) from Badomsa married the wife of Apusik (name changed) from Siniensi. The woman was from Kubelinsa and could have married a Badomsa man before marrying Apusik. The kinship relationship between Agaab andApusik can be depicted as follows:

{253} The Siniensi family is related in the female line to the descendants of Ayarik because the children of Ayarik’s daughter came to Badomsa to live in their mother’s section. Only Apusik’s father left Badomsa again to move to the section of his patrilineage. The kinship relations between Agaab and Apusik were such that Agaab could probably have married a daughter of Apusik without difficulty. However, marrying a wife from a lineage to which one was related through a woman and of whom one family branch lived in Agaab’s section is considered kabong. Akanming, the head of the Siniensi lineage in Badomsa, thus reported this action to Anmang, then the elder of the Ayarik-bisa, who had to sacrifice to Ayarik’s wen. Anmang (who is said to have been over 100 years old at the time) sent his son Adiak to Abui, demanding that his son Agaab immediately return the woman.

Abui, however, did not react. He allowed his son to keep the woman and thereby made himself complicit. ‘This, in fact, became family adultery, and it is a dirty affair [endnote 5b] among our ancestor[s]’ (Leander told me). Anmang soon died (of natural causes), and Ayarik’s and Agbana’s bogluta passed to Abui, the next eldest of the Ayarik-bisa line. Without having cleared the offence, he sacrificed to Ayarik and Agbana. As a result, three days later, he was paralysed and died after a week. The wena were passed on to Atiim (Leander’s brother), the next eldest of the lineage (Ayarik-bisa).

When Abui’s brothers transferred Ayarik’s and Agbana’s bogluta to Atiim, they did not inform him what had happened in their family. Atiim sacrificed to the wena and died after a few days. Then, Leander took Atiim’s place. He consulted a diviner and finally learnt from him what a dangerous situation he was in. He stopped all acts of sacrifice to Ayarik and Agbana and gathered the elders from Ayarik’s line. Asandiok’s family admitted their guilt, and they promised to send the woman back. After this, Leander (through his nephew Ayomo Atiim) offered chickens and millet water, all provided by Asandiok’s descendants, as an expiatory sacrifice to Ayarik and Agbana. However, these ancestors refused this sacrifice. The diviner discovered that chickens and millet water were insufficient for such a severe offence. The ancestors demanded a larger animal (dung, pl. dungsa), i.e., a goat, sheep or cow. {254} to which Asandiok’s descendants agreed. According to L. Amaok’s latest information (1980?), the matter would soon be wholly settled [endnote 5c].

 

d) Summary

Marriage bans generally exist for the following four reasons:

1) Kinship proximity

2) Enmity

3) Political interdependence

4) Local and emotional proximity

Re 1) Only from this first factor has a genuine taboo developed, which, if not observed, entails automatic sanctions (e.g. miscarriages, quarrels, misfortune) and sanctions from the section (e.g. expulsion).

Re 2) Marriages between hostile families are hardly conceivable for the Bulsa because a marriage contract is supposed to strengthen friendships between families and sections or create new friendly relations. A son who wants to marry is expected to respect not only friendships but also the enmities of his father or his group.

Re 3) I am only aware of one example of marriage bans for reasons of political entanglement that were described above (Abilyeri – Suarinsa-Niima). Further research on similar ideas in other chiefdoms would undoubtedly be worthwhile.

Re 4) The fourth factor sometimes has only a modifying effect, such as when a man is allowed to marry a distant relative from his mother’s section in southern Ghana but not within his father’s section in the Bulsa area, where his mother lives or has lived.

Local proximity is also significant when foreigners settle on the territory of a section. In Kalijiisa-Yongsa, there are two compounds whose ancestors came from South Bulsa a long time ago (at the end of the 19th century?) and settled here during warlike conflicts. They {255} still respect other totem animals of their former home (e.g., fiok monkey instead of waaung monkey) [endnote 6]. Nevertheless, no one from Yongsa can marry into or from these houses.

This marriage ban, in the case of resettlement, does not come into effect immediately after the move. I was told that around the time of the death of the last housemate who still bodily witnessed the resettlement, the time for a marriage ban with the host section had come. However, the house dwellers’ emotional (and probably political) attachment likely plays a role. The two houses in Yongsa had lost all contact with their home section after their resettlement, and today, they (allegedly) no longer know which section they came from.

Today, in any case, they consider it an insult to be told that they are not Ayong-bisa. Nevertheless, the three offshoots that seceded from the chief’s family in Sandema-Abilyeri, who have found a new residential section in Suarinsa, still regard themselves entirely as members of Abilyeri.

The principle of local and emotional proximity as an obstacle to marriage is not always observed. Even though the marriage of a father’s divorced wife by his son would be inconceivable during the father’s lifetime, the sons are allowed to marry the father’s wife or wives after his death and funeral if she is not their biological mother or a woman from their own mother’s section. The local and emotional closeness between the son and the father’s wives is shown in living together and in the fact that the son called these wives ‘mothers’ (maba) while these women often performed maternal functions towards him.

For the rarer case (and a very controversial one in the lineage) of a father marrying the deceased son’s wife, I have encountered one example in Sandema-Kalijiisa.

Moreover,  when a little girl is taken into a house as a doglie [endnote 7] and grows up almost like a sister with her age-mates in the house, in order later to be given to one of these children as a wife, marriage is contracted, although emotional, kinship-like relations {256} of a non-sexual kind already existed beforehand.

Among the Bulsa, no prescribed or particularly recommended marriage unions exist, such as cross-cousin marriage among many Akan peoples. Nevertheless, genealogical studies show the following two tendencies in the choice of partners:

1. There is a tendency in polygamous marriages to take more than one wife from the same section. In many of the cases studied, it may well be that an older wife took a younger girl from her family or relatives as a domestic servant (doglie) to offer her to her husband as a wife when she is of marriageable age. The reasons against brothers marrying from the same section as given above (Chapter VII, 1a; p. 251) speak against this custom, especially if the women come from the same house. Of the 69 women married into Yongsa, [endnote 8] for example, 5 come from Abilyeri, who a few years ago all lived in the same house (Abiako Yeri). Of one of these women, I know that she came as a doglie. In Akumkadoa’s compound, three of the four wives of the compound head, are from the same section in Siniensi. Is it a coincidence that the three women who married into a Yongsa house from Wiaga are all from the Chiok section?

For the Tallensi, M. Fortes has shown [endnote 9] that women preferably marry those from geographically close areas and that tribal borders are also crossed [endnote 9a]. This will be tested for Yongsa, a Bulsa subsection. As I realised too late, Yongsa is not particularly suitable for a representative study for the following reasons:

a) More than other sections of Sandema, the men of Kalijiisa, especially Yongsa, have devoted themselves to the kola trade and thus come to distant areas more often than the young men of other sections.

b) Yongsa borders sections to the south and southwest (Kobdem and Longsa) from which Kalijiisa was not allowed to marry women a few decades ago. Even today, quite a few men avoid {257} entering such a marriage. Thus, investigating whether Yongsa men prefer to marry women from neighbouring sections is challenging. Yongsa borders other subsections of the large Kalijiisa section to the northwest, north and northeast, separated from Chana by a strip of bushland about eight kilometres wide to the north. To the west, Yongsa is adjoined by a few houses in the Kalijiisa-Chariba subsection, followed further west by one of the largest uninhabited savannah areas in Bulsaland. The only border section from which Yongsa men are allowed to marry women is Bilinsa (Tankunsa) to the southeast.

The following overview shows the localities and sections from which Yongsa men took their 69 wives (cut-off date: 1 July 1974).

A) Bulsa: 56 (women)

1. Sandema: 36

a) Bilinsa: 14

Tankunsa: 7

Pungsa: 4

Bilinmonsa: 2

Bilinsobsa: 1

b) Balansa: 6

c) Abilyeri: 5

d) Nyansa: 4

e) Suarinsa: 3

f) Fiisa: 2

g) Kandem: 1

h) Kalibisa: 1

2. Siniensi: 9

3. Chuchuliga: 4

4. Wiaga (-Chiok): 3

5. Fumbisi: 1

6. Gbedema: 1

7. Uwasi: 1

8. Kadema: 1

B) Kasena:

Chana: 13

Despite the concerns outlined above, the investigation in Yongsa has produced the following results:

1. More than 60% of all women married into Yongsa houses come from the same locality of Sandema {258}.

2. The ethnic border (Bulsa-Kasena) has proved to be less of an obstacle than the great distances to other Bulsa localities: Kunkwa, Kanjaga, Doninga and Wiesi are not represented at all; Fumbisi, Uwasi, Gbedema, and Kadema are only represented by one woman each.

3. The only Bulsa section adjacent to Yongsa from which women could be married without restrictions in the past ranks at the top of all Sandema sections. It is Tankunsa in Bilinsa, the subdivision next to Yongsa, where proportionally, most Bilinsa women were married off to Yongsa men. Within Yongsa, the house directly bordering Tankunsa (Amoanung Yeri) has the most marriages from this subsection (three women).

 

2. COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

a) Marriage without courting [9b]

A marriage union can come about almost entirely without courtship, such as when a married woman brings a young girl from her kinship into her house as a domestic servant (doglie) and later gives her as a wife to her husband or another man of the house. As has already been described (1,3: p. 41), such authorisation of the married woman over a younger relative can be ritually justified, such as when the ceremonies of putting on the waist string of a pregnant woman are performed. Notably, however, the mere fact that a young relative helps the wife gives her powers over the girl.

The husband’s consent is the prerequisite for establishing a new marriage union, but a ‘no’ will rarely come if the man is willing to live in a polygamous arrangement. The girl herself can express her contrary wish to marry another man of the house; if one does not respect this wish, one may expect the girl to flee to her parental home {259}, which also happens if she wants to marry a man from another section. In one case I know of, the parents exerted no further pressure on the returned girl to marry a man of her choice.

In Yongsa, Abiako Yeri, the wife of an over 70-year-old compound head, has taken a female relative of about 3–4 years from her section into Abiako Yeri. There is no thought of the her marrying the yeri-nyono, but later marriage to one of his adult sons, who now care little for the young child, is not ruled out.

 

b) Getting to know each other and courting (lie-yaaka or dueni deka)

In traditional Bulsa society, markets and large festivities, which representatives of other lineages and sections attend, are the prime occasions to seek a marriage partner of one’s choice.

The latter include harvest festivals [endnote 10], funerals for the dead of great personalities and weddings. The older generation usually does not object to the secondary purpose of these events as a marriage market. At the funeral of a great warrior in Sandema-Choabisa, an old man made a speech in which he wished that all the present bachelors would find a spouse. It was demonstrated above that further marital links are easily forged between the two clan sections at weddings and subsequent visits.

However, the actual meeting place for young people eager to marry is the market, which occurs every three days in most Bulsa villages. Here, a young man who has often admired a girl he does not yet know may be able to meet and begin courting her. The following characteristics of unknown girls that arouse admiration, affection and desire for marriage were frequently mentioned by male informants {260}:

1. Beauty

2. Physical strength and ability to work

3. Health

4. Fitness for childbirth and child-rearing (wide hips and not-too-small breasts)

Generally, Bulsa men report that a healthy-looking, strong and not-too-thin girl with pronounced feminine features is seen as beautiful. A light brown skin colour and a small gap between the upper incisors are also considered special beauty features.

It is relatively common for a young man to spontaneously fall in love with a girl without being able to describe his motives. As an example, a part of the life story written by a 20-year-old man from Wiaga-Yisobsa-Guuta is quoted below:

Now the last and most interesting is Agnes from Kania… I got to know this girl at a native dance in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. They were dancing in the name of a new chief who was selected to look after the Bulsas in Accra. As the marvellous drums were in action, this girl jumped [into the circle of visitors] and started dancing. All the people around her were so surprised that [each] Tom, Dick, and Harry [were] clapping hands and placing money on her forehead. I was compelled to pull out a cedi and place it on the girl’s forehead, as it is done according to our traditional activities. So, on that very evening, I started to discuss love matters with the girl. She also became interested in me, and we started corresponding through letters… Although I am not yet married, I cherish the hope that sooner or later, I will marry. My mind is telling me that my future wife will be Agnes.

Some young Bulsa men emphasise that it takes a great amount of courage to approach an unknown girl; sometimes, they feel too shy to approach whomever they admire. A point of contact for a first conversation does not always present itself. In this scenario, G. Achaw believes that a good trick is to prove the girl wrong {261}, saying, for example, that she bumped into the applicant and did not greet him or something similar. If the young man is too shy, he can ask his friends to help him. G. Achaw writes:

I went and told my companions and showed them the girl, and they called her and spoke to her because it is not my companions who are after her, and, as such, they don’t fear her. When my companions spoke with her, they found out that she was [too] shy to speak. She could not stand before many people to speak.

Along these lines, Augustine Akanbe describes a first interview as a suitor might have at the market. Although everything is presented almost as the norm, this recollection may be autobiographical.

He will have to ask, ‘Hey girl, are you a daughter of the house where you come from? Or are you a wife to that house?’ The girl will not answer him at first, but she will put a return question to him: ‘What do you mean by that? Do you want me to be a daughter of that house, or do you want me to be a wife of that house?’ The man will then say to her: ‘My reason for asking you these questions is that I love you, as I saw your face.’ The girl will then say: ‘I see. What do you mean by love? Do you love me to be your girlfriend, or do you love me to be your main friend?’ The man will say to her: ‘I love you to be my future wife, but if you have a husband, and as I saw your face, I shall still love you to be my main friend.’

Note: By main friend (Buli: pok-nong), Augustine means the friendship between a married woman and a close friend, of which the woman’s husband knows and to whom he has consented. In return for the usually ‘platonic’ love, the suitor does some field work for the married woman and her husband. As the quoted conversation shows, the reason for a pok-nong relationship is sometimes a marriage prohibition. If a woman desired by a man is not allowed to marry the suitor because of a too-close relationship, he may still be able to win her as his pok-nong {262}.

G. Achaw’s remarks and the dialogue quoted by Augustine show that the girl may not immediately respond to the man’s courtship. Depending on her temperament, she may be reserved or try to elicit more concessions from her partner without making a concession herself. The quoted dialogue also leads to the most decisive questions: whether the girl is already married and whether any marriage prohibitions speak against a marital union. The second obstacle is usually much more serious than the first. The suitor does not always ask the girl as directly as he does above. Often, he will make these inquiries from elsewhere, and his friends can help him with this.

On several market days, conversations may be held between the suitor and his friends on the one hand and the girl on the other until the crucial question comes: whether the suitor can go and see the girl’s parents. The courted girl has no right to answer this question in the negative; a positive answer, therefore, in no way implies an acceptance of the man’s courtship. In Augustine’s account, the suggestion for this visit even comes from the girl as a fallback answer to the question of whether she wants to marry the suitor:

Then the man will ask her: ‘Will you marry me, or don’t you like me?’ She will answer, ‘Why don’t I like you? Are you not a man? You are a man, and I am a woman. So, I have to like you, but you have to come and visit my parents and tell them that you have met me at this place, and you have begun to love me.’

Upon this answer, the applicant can hand the girl a small gift or give her money so that she can buy something for her parents to make them feel favourably towards his courtship.

 

c) Home visits

On the way to the girl’s section, the applicant and his friends are already subject to certain restrictions. If a huntable animal (e.g., a hare) runs across their path, they are not allowed to {263} kill it, and this prohibition also applies to further visits to the courted girl’s parents’ compound [endnote 11]. They contact a neighbouring house before the suitor’s group enters the girl’s parents’ house. The neighbour inquires about the following things in the house of the courted person (as far as he cannot give information himself):

1. Is a mat (tiak) being woven?

2. Is shea butter (kpaam) being prepared?

3. Is pito (daam) being brewed [endnote 12]?

4. Is a funeral being held?

5. Has someone died in the house who has not yet been buried?

If one of the five questions is answered with ‘yes’, the courting group must return immediately. If they nevertheless visited the woman’s house, she, the courting man, or both would die in the first period of their marriage. According to other information (from Augustine), the marriage would remain barren, or the woman could not bear living children and suffer miscarriages.

According to A. Akowan (Sandema-Longsa), courtship can continue under certain circumstances even if the applicant accidentally enters a house where a mat is being woven or shea butter is being prepared if the bride’s parents give the mat or part of the shea butter to the applicant as a gift. This is also seen as a sign of tremendous goodwill towards the suitor. Otherwise, the young man must cease all courtship efforts.

If there are no obstacles for the suitors, the group moves to the girl’s house and is received (possibly after a short greeting from the compound head in the kusung) in or in front of the girl’s mother’s room (dok). The girl caters for them, i.e. fetches them stools or chairs and offers them water and, sometimes, food. The applicant’s friends can accept water, but the applicant himself rejects the water ‘because the girl will always have to fetch water for him later as his wife’ (G. Achaw). The same applies to the food offered.

When the mother finally enters the scene, she asks the guests again if they want to drink water, even though she knows that {264} her daughter has already asked this question. The mother only complies with the request for an exchange of greetings after hesitations and evasions. When it is time to explain the reason for the visit, a young man may say something like they saw the daughter in the bush (wuuta); since it is assumed that she does not live in the bush, they would like to meet at her parents’ house. The mother says that is good, and a general conversation can begin, but the applicant does not participate. Whether the mother has anything against her daughter marrying the suitor, is asked of her directly. Still, she does not answer this question, instead promising to answer at the next visit.

Finally, the applicants ask permission to greet the other women of the house, and the group enters other parts of the compound. Often, the father and the other men of the house only receive greetings at the end.

On the first visit, the applicant does not need to offer any official gifts yet, but he can buy pito or other alcoholic drinks for the girl’s brothers or give some kola nuts to the father and the other older men. After the first house visit – but not necessarily on the same day – the compound heads inform the wena of the most important ancestors of the two houses concerned about the coming marriage. For this purpose, clear water from a calabash is poured over the wen stone, or the sacrificer lays his hand on the stones when he speaks to [endnote 13] the ancestors. Later, the ancestors can be informed about the matter’s progress and asked for assistance via a sacrifice [endnote 14].

The suitor tries to court the girl and her family in every possible way between the first and second home visits. The girl and her brothers’ wives are given money when they meet them at the market, the brothers are given pito, and the helpful neighbour is also invited. The girl herself is accompanied home by the applicant group after the market has closed, and on this occasion, one can also fix the time for further visits.

The applicant group can immediately move into the girl’s {26} parents’ house on the second visit. Again, they go to the mother’s dok; again the applicant refuses water; again, the mother objects to being greeted. This time, however, the mother is given a sum of money, which used to be 20–30 pesewas, but in 1974, it was about 2 cedis. When handing it over, some applicants say you can buy salt for this money. In Chuchuliga, as in Navrongo and Chana, the suitor gives the mother a guinea fowl and salt. The courted girl herself receives a gift of money of any amount.

The applicant is free to give small coins of money to the house’s children to endear himself to them. Other older women can also be freely given money. In Sandema, the men of the house do not usually receive money.

The suitor must give kola nuts (goora) to the girl’s father and to all the men of their house who are older than her father; he can give presents to the younger ones. For example, the applicant tells the father that he has just bought some kola nuts – since he still has some left, he wants to give them to the father. The father chews one nut and puts the others in the chickens’ water trough (kpa-chari, pl. kpa-chaa). Other men may also take nuts from this pot later if needed.

The house’s women are not supposed to spend their money on gifts before the wedding, as some suitors will ask for it back if the marriage does not occur. In this case, some men also buy new kola nuts to give back to the suitor. This reclaiming may harm the young man’s reputation, and there may be difficulties if he later courts another girl of the same lineage, as the parents of the first courted girl often inform the parents of the other girl about the reclaiming.

It occasionally happens that a girl calls all her suitors to her house on the same day. They are then taken to different rooms (diina), and the mother and daughter go from one room (dok) to another to greet their guests. It is said that the girl loves most the suitor with whom she stays the longest.

The third home visit is like the second but occurs without obligatory gifts in some parts of the Bulsa country. During this visit, the suitor asks the mother if he may take her daughter home {266} as a bride. The mother replies that she has nothing against it but that the decision lies solely with her daughter. As soon as the suitor can speak to the girl alone, he will also ask her when he can take her away, and she will again make excuses, such as that he has not yet visited her often enough. Then, it is time to ask friends of the girl’s house which suitor the girl prefers. A forcible abduction (yigrika) can be planned if one’s chances are not very good. Even if one gets the impression that one is ‘well in the running’, a forcible abduction may be the only means to prevent an abduction by another applicant.

 

d) Violent abductions [endnote 14a]

Violent abductions are often planned to occur at the end of a market day. The courting group can lure the girl to a house close to the market and belonging to relatives or friends. There, the courted girl is held until night falls so that the male group can safely take her to the applicant’s house. If other suitors, who usually do not let the girl out of their sight, have discovered the plans of their rival, there will be a quarrel, and often, the girl’s relatives will come and take her to her parents’ house. Recently, it is more common for the suitor group to offer the girl a ride home on a bicycle or, better yet, on a motorcycle. If the offer is accepted, one of the friends rides at great speed to the suitor’s section.

The following case is known to me from Kalijiisa-Yongsa:

The applicant gang from Yongsa kidnapped a young woman from Bilinsa-Tankunsa and brought her to their residence on a motorcycle. The girl’s father was furious about this abduction because his daughter was still wearing the undyed waist string (cf. Chapter I, 5; p. 44f.). The young men of the Tankunsa house were to bring her back, not knowing which house she was now in. When they came to the Yongsa house, they were allowed to search it. The girl, who agreed to everything {267}, was dressed in long trousers and a man’s smock (garuk, pl. gata) and put on a straw hat. My informant, G. Achaw, thus led the bride past her brothers and took her to a neighbouring house.

M. Arnheim reports from Gbedema: A woman married in Gbedema was abducted consecutively by men from Kanjaga, men from Fumbisi, and friends of her first husband from Gbedema. All three abductions took place over three months.

 

e) Abduction with the consent of the bride and the following marriage rituals

If no forcible abduction is planned or no opportunity arises, the suitor will urge the girl to tell him when he can take her home as a bride. She will eventually tell him where to meet at night. This meeting place is sometimes a spot haunted by evil spirits (kokta) or harbouring some other danger. Sometimes, the bride does not come to this place at all but only wants to test the courage of the suitor. As an excuse, she may say that her parents were watching her.

The applicant can ask her if she will give him a piece of clothing as a sign of her affection. The applicant can be sure of her honest intentions if she does so. If he feels betrayed, he can use the garment, or more precisely, the body dirt (daung) contained in the fabric, for a spell of harm against her out of disappointment.

Sometimes, the girl orders two or more applicant groups to different meeting points simultaneously, and only on the following day does one or the other group realise that they have lost the game if the girl has not preferred to stall all the groups again. To be kidnapped by the selected suitor, the bride frequently spends the night on the flat roof of a dok (as is typical on warm, dry evenings). The girl’s parents often know about the planned abduction or the day is even set in conversation with the girl’s parents. Nevertheless, the bride is usually taken away at night. I have been told that her mother sometimes accompanies the kidnapping party and spends the following night in the groom’s house, richly endowed. However, I have not encountered any concrete cases of this kind myself {268}.

In addition, it is common for suitors to come to the bride’s house in the afternoon and stay on the roof talking to the girl until late in the evening when all the other occupants have gone to bed. The house inhabitants usually know of the young men’s intentions, but they will pretend not to suspect anything if they have no objections to this marital union. At a later hour, the suitor and bride will climb over the wall and move to the groom’s house. The men’s group takes the bride into their middle while they make their way to their area without making a fuss or too much noise. If they are already singing the traditional wedding songs in a neighbouring section, you must reckon with the fact that the residents will try to take the bride away from the group.

As soon as the group has crossed the border into its own section, all the men in the group sing. The following song, in particular, is sung often in different variations:

A ku waali ba, a ku waali ba nong-liewa ku waali ba

A ku waali ba, a ku waali ba nong-liewa ku waali ba

D(u)erobai loa cheng chirika la – ooo –

Abiako biik laa cheng chirik la – ooo -.

 

They (the other applicant groups) have been punished (tormented, insulted) (twice),

The (other) lovers, they have been punished (repeated)

The men who walk by moonlight – ooo –

Abiako’s (name of the founder of the house) son is the one who walks in the moonlight. – ooo —

Another variation of the wedding song is also sung in Sandema:

Akatooknueri biik ga lie po ga tom we d(u)eroba.

D(u)erobai le cheng la.

Zula, zula.

The son of Akatooknueri goes to a girl and goes to report to the other friends (of the girl) that they (the successful group) are going (i.e., that they have kidnapped the girl).

Zula, zula (insult word against the other applicants) {269}.

Other songs that the young groom’s age group may sing strongly emphasise the ‘we’ feeling of the younger generation, who have not yet moved up to the position of compound owners. Some songs conspicuously lack courtesy and reverence for older people, which younger people usually show to the older generation despite many disagreements. These feelings are evident, for example, in the following two songs, which Ayarik (Wiaga-Tandem-Zuedem) says are sung almost exclusively when a bride is brought home:

Dandem jog yam, dandem jog yamoa, jog le po yiila.

Ba nyiam ya’eramiak, ba yaa yiti ka baano cheng, ate baano ga lerige lerige.

Ti sebla da ming te ba zag baandoari nag baano.

 

Old people have no sense; old people have no sense and no reason (yam and yiila are almost synonyms; yiila: dark Buli).

When they are sick, they get up and go to the diviner, and the diviner lies to them, lies to them.

If we (they?) had known, they would pick up the divination stick and beat the diviner.

 

Yeri-nyama ni ngaanga

Mi yaa la te ni ngaan’erami ka ni kan siag ya.

Mi yaa la te ngaang ge ni siaga.

Compound-owners, greetings to you [endnote 15].

I greet you, and you do not answer.

I greet you, and you do not answer.

Shortly before the wedding party arrives at the groom’s parents’ compound, its head informs his ancestors (wena) that a stranger (the bride) will stay in the house. Ayarik (Wiaga-Tandem-Zuedema) reports that at his wedding, his father, who was also yeri-nyono, poured a calabash of water over the bride’s head before she entered the house (Cf. a similar custom in Chapter VII, 4). This custom, however, exists only in {270} his house, not even in the other houses of Zuedema.

During the tour of a bride to the groom’s compound, which I attended myself, a bride was taken from Bilinsa to Kalijiisa. Apart from the woman, the group comprised seven young men of almost the same age. Most were from Kalijiisa, and some were the groom’s relatives, but I could also recognise one young man from Longsa. The groom held the bride by the wrist and pulled her behind him. Sometimes, he was relieved by another member of the group. Even from a distance, wuuliing cries could be heard from the groom’s house.

About 100 m before the house, the groom’s mother met us to accompany the group on the last part of their journey. We paused in front of the house, then climbed into the groom’s father’s living quarters. The latter could hardly hide his evident happiness; this was the first wife his two grown sons had brought into the house. He sat in front of a dok on which his weapons (bows, arrows, and skins of captured animals) were displayed and greeted the arrivals one after the other with a handshake but without official greeting phrases. The groom’s age group climbed onto a roof to continue singing there. The bride was seated on a mat in the middle of the courtyard. She spoke almost no words the whole evening. There was singing, dancing, eating, and drinking until about 3 a.m. [endnote 15a].

In Badomsa, I observed and documented part of the wedding celebrations [endnote 15b] in Abasitemi Yeri. The young son of the yeri-nyono had already taken his bride to his paternal compound, although the bride’s parents did not consent. They accused him of not having made enough visits.

During the ceremony, the bride was sitting in the room (dok) of one of the groom’s brothers, who was supposed to look after her. Later, several friends of the groom joined them. The bride was not as silent as I had experienced at two other weddings. She participated in all the offerings and brought the millet beer to the guests and household members in a large vessel.

What struck me was how the music was played.

The groom sat on the courtyard floor, and a medium-sized calabash lay on his lower legs. He beat it with slightly bent sticks. A friend had placed a calabash on a cushion and beat it with his bare hands. The assumption that no real drums were at hand would be incorrect; several membrane drums were in the house. Instead, these calabash idiophones are prescribed. Apart from these, a neighbouring boy beat two calabash rattles (sin-yaala), and another man a vessel rattle in the shape of a closed calabash. The children were the main participants in dancing, but the compound head’s mother also danced with a little girl. The bride sat quietly in a corner. When I took some photos of the group, she made a point of including her in the photo.

 

 

 

Evans Atuick mentions the activities of the compound head in his essay (2015: 95–96), from which the following quotation is taken:

After the singing had gone on for some time, the landlord [yeri-nyono] would come in with one or two fowls, a guinea fowl and some refreshment. He would ask the singers to stop singing and listen to him. He would then express his joy at having a new addition to his compound in the form of a wife and also for having the musicians with them to entertain and make merry with them. He would then pray to his forefathers for a fruitful and blissful marriage and also for the protection of all who have come to the compound to join them [in welcoming] the new bride. After saying this, he will just hit the fowl on the ground and throw it onto the [rooftop] for the yi’yiilisa (‘musicians’) while the guinea fowl is given to them to prepare something for the new bride to eat following her long and tiresome journey to the compound. He is also expected to give another fowl to the friends of his son who helped bring the new bride to the compound, but this is not obligatory. The singers must also be given some pito (da-moanung) or z’m-nyiam (‘millet/sorghum flour water’) when foreign drinks (e.g., akpeteshi) are not available to motivate and strengthen them to be able to perform well. After taking the refreshment, the singers would descend from the gbong and prepare their musical instruments (usually calabashes stocked with racks, metal buckets, etc.) to begin the jong-naka (making of entertaining and danceable calabash music). Meanwhile, the fowl for the singers would be de-feathered, and the feathers scattered all over the floor for the new bride to clean the next day as a sign of her readiness to take care of the house. Thereafter, there is drumming, singing, and dancing throughout the night until the morning when the landlord [yeri-nyono] shall come again to kill another fowl for them and bid the singers farewell.

Such celebrations usually extend over three days, or, better said, over three nights because, during the day, every guest goes about their work in their compound, returning to the wedding house in the evening for new celebrations.

The (classificatory) brothers do not only entertain the bride by providing her with delicacies (e.g. chicken meat). Often, their behaviour also takes on a very lewd manner (Inf. Sebastian Adanur, Sandema-Kalijiisa, 1979). They squeeze her breasts, pat her buttocks and in the past, they would even put her on the floor and check if she was already mature. With this behaviour, they also want to check whether she remains calm during all this or whether she insults the brothers. The husband is not jealous and withdraws from such actions. Educated or Christian Bulsa may reject the activities described.

Unlike many Southern peoples of Ghana, the Bulsa do not prescribe a particular day of the week or season for marriage, but a man should not bring a new bride home to his compound more than once a year.

Among the Bulsa, a young married woman (nipok-liak) is not forbidden from going out. After being shown her new home, she can return to the market. However, she is typically followed by many from her husband’s household since one can never be sure whether a gang of rejected applicants has not since plotted a violent kidnapping. On her first visit to the market, {271} the bride and all her female companions did not wear the traditional leaf dress (vaata), but a purple-coloured fibre tuft (also called vaata, cf. Fig. 15) at her front and back.

 

f) Older forms of marriage

While in 1974, the abduction of the bride without the knowledge and participation of the parents and sometimes against the will of the courted woman was the common form of bride acquisition, more regulated forms were common in the past.

After several suitors had paid their house calls, the parents asked the girl whom she wanted to marry. Although many parents might try to influence the decision, the final say lay with the daughter. The girl’s parents then notified the parents of the successful applicant, who came to the bride’s home on the morning of a specified day. The bride’s parents filled a large basket with food to be given to their daughter: for example, ground and unground millet, salt, dawa-dawa, and some slaughtered guinea fowl. A new sleeping mat was also provided. The groom’s parents, accompanied by some relatives, carried this dowry the same morning to their compound, where the bride would later live. All these things were considered the personal property of the woman. However, if she later married another man, she could not take the straw mat and the basket with her.

Before the evening came, the bride said goodbye to all the inhabitants of the house, who gave her small gifts (dried meat, dried fish, etc.) to take with her. She also said goodbye to her parents, crying to show that she was reluctant to leave them. In the evening of the same day, the girl, accompanied by a group of young relatives, went towards the groom’s house. Halfway, they met the groom, whom a group of friends accompanied, and together, they covered the last part of the way. The groom’s friends sang wedding songs when they reached their clan section {272}.

To the evolutionist reader, it may seem strange that here, the ‘bridal robbery’ appears chronologically after the ‘bride-acquisition contract’. Bride kidnapping is considered a modern degeneracy among the Bulsa and was made punishable, for example, by the Sandemnaab (the paramount chief of the Bulsa), especially if all home visits were omitted, and violent means were used.

Here, the impression must not be given that parents’ influence is lessened in all cases today. I know of several recent marriages where the initiative came from the groom’s and the bride’s parents. Mothers and fathers sometimes even choose a wife for their son living in southern Ghana and send her to his southern town of residence. Visits by the groom’s father to the courted girl’s home still occur today (information from R. Schott). Nevertheless, according to my observations and the statements of several informants, more and more young people seem to resist the interference of their parents in their courtship. Investigating whether the individualisation process has made marriage more or less stable would be worthwhile.

In recent years, marriages that come about through parents contacting in-laws are rare and seem to be resorted to when all other means of courtship have been unsuccessful. In 1988, I experienced such a situation with my assistant, Danlardy (or Dan). After several unsuccessful attempts to find a wife, he wrote to me that he would marry a daughter of the Kadema chief. However, she soon died in Sandema Hospital. Danlardy himself could not attend her transfer and funeral for emotional reasons. After an attempt to marry a doglie of his parental family also failed, he handed the matter to his mothers. A younger wife of his father’s eventually found a suitable girl in her birth section, Guuta, but she was still in school (class F3 of Sandema Continuation School) and was about 18 years old. On the morning of December 12, 1988, two of Danlardy’s stepmothers went to the girl’s compound. They took the bride first to Wiaga-Goansa, where Danlardy was living, and then to the traditional compound in Badomsa (See Chapter VII, 2n: Costs).

 

g) Marital sexual intercourse

The groom does not yet spend the first three nights after the bride comes to his house on the same sleeping mat, i.e. he does not yet have sexual intercourse with her. She sleeps with the groom’s classificatory brothers. Although there is a permissive relationship between them and the bride (see above), there is no sexual intercourse here either (Inf. by R. Schott). On the evening of the third day, the bride and groom bathe together in a corner of the compound without spectators. They use a calabash or a bathing clay pot, which must not be European or industrially made. This bath has a hygienic as well as ritual purpose. With the bath, all wrongful actions of their past life, especially {273} regarding sex (e.g. the wife’s premarital sexual intercourse) are washed away, and it would be a gross breach of custom if the husband later rebukes his wife for no longer being untouched. Previous marital ties of the woman are also supposed to be dissolved by this bath.

According to Sebastian Adanur (Sandema-Kalijiisa), this bath only occurs if the woman has previously had sexual intercourse with another man (for example, her former husband). The bath water is supposed to remove the power of the former husband, especially his influence, through a harmful medicine called song [endnote 15c].

My informant from Gbedema restricts the necessity of joint bathing even further: It only occurs in Gbedema if the woman was married to her new groom before, left him to live with another man, and then returned to him. Should the woman have engaged only in premarital sexual intercourse, the common bath is not performed in Gbedema.

If the house has a nipok-tiim – a shrine consisting of two ceramic vessels and some accessories – the compound head (yeri-nyono) sacrifices a chicken and millet porridge (saab) to it. The bath described is then performed using water from the nipok-tiim vessels. Later, the bride and groom eat a medicine made from the charred roots of the nipok-tiim and shea butter. There do not seem to be any special rites preceding sexual intercourse with a girl who has never had intercourse. According to some informants (e.g. Ayarik from Tandem), the hymen is destroyed by the man’s penis (yoari); others claim that the husband does this carefully with a finger (e.g. Leander Amoak).

At least in the past, sexual intercourse was performed such that the woman lay on one side (usually the right), and the man attended to her from behind. As a justification for this position, I was told by G. Achaw that this was the usual sleeping position, wherein the woman lies in the middle of the mat on the right side, the man behind her, and possibly one or two younger children in front of the woman on the mat. In the sexual position described above, the parents would be less likely to attract the attention of the children present. Still, it is common to wait until the children have fallen asleep to initiate intercourse.

Pre-stimulation, e.g. rubbing the woman’s nipples, is known and used when, as G. Achaw says, the man ‘has romantic feelings’. However, the woman cannot demand that intercourse only starts when she is sexually excited. Touch and other manipulations, rather than visual cues, are typically used to stimulate the male partner for intercourse. Seeing a naked woman usually does not cause an erection; some men are even said to be incapable of sexual intercourse if they have previously seen a vagina (Inf. Gbedema).

According to my inquiries, coitus interruptus was known before the arrival of the Europeans but was rarely practised because, according to an old man, the feeling of pleasure suffers, and, in addition, people usually desire a fertile conception. More than one orgasm in a day is seldom desired, as the man loses part of his nying-yogsa-pagrem (health power) through sexual intercourse (cf. Chapter V, 1 p. 145). During sexual intercourse, the participants are in great danger. Insignificant incidents can have {274} a decisive effect here. G. Achaw gave the following information to R. Schott [endnote 16]:

There is a belief that when you are sleeping with your wife, and she happens to pass urine on the bed or whatever you are sleeping on, or a white ant bites any of you, the one who is bitten by the ant dies. When you are having sexual intercourse with your wife, and you cough, you shall get tuberculosis if you fail to say it out so that they may bring the medicine and perform the custom. The custom is performed in the room where you were sleeping; they close you, your wife, and the owner of the medicine inside the room. While the medicine is burning in the fire, you are to continue having sexual intercourse with your wife.

 

h) Akaayaali

For the validity of a marriage, the akayaali and the nansiung-lika rituals that occur later are very necessary.

The long name of the first mentioned ritual is ‘Akaayaali ale wa boro’ (‘Do not seek her [the bride]; she is [here with us]’). Usually, a few days after the abduction (though sometimes a few years pass), the groom sends an intermediary (san-yigma or sinyigmo) to the bride’s home to officially inform the in-laws that he has brought their daughter into his home as a bride. The intermediary is commonly from the groom’s section and is often related to the bride’s lineage through matrilineal descent or marriage. He not only an intermediary for the wedding of two people – but is also asked for in many other situations and rituals involving the married couple.

The akaayaali ritual is also described in the chapter on my assistant Danlardy’s payments for the wedding. The kayiita ritual (visiting brothers, Chapter VII, 2i; p. 276) can be considered part of akaayaali.

 

E. Atuick described these marriage rituals as follows:

A day or two after the akuwaaliba [taking the bride to the husband’s house], the young man (groom), in the company of a friend or two, must return to the compound of the bride to formally inform her father that they should stop looking for her because she is with them and that they are willing and ready to formalise their union. The young woman’s father would then tell them everything they needed to know about how to formalise the marriage. Having officially informed the landlord [yeri-nyono] and heard what is demanded from them, the young man and his friend(s) would bid him farewell and depart for home. Following their return to their compound, the brothers of the bride will follow up to the compound of their sister’s husband for the poi-deka (eating of the womb), the symbolic killing of an animal (either a dog, sheep or goat) for the brothers, who must eat everything with the exception of the waist, which must be handed over to the head of the girl’s family upon their return home. This actually confirms that her sister or daughter is actually married and that her brothers have been treated well by her husband and his family.

After the poi-deka, the family must recruit a san-yigma (‘the link-man’), usually a man whose mother or grandmother hails from the community of the bride or a nearby community, who performs the actual marriage rites on behalf of the groom. Once a san-yigma is found, they provide him with all the necessary items for the ‘akaayaali-ali-wa-boro’ so that he can proceed to the compound of the lady to initiate the rites. The items for this rite vary from place to place; in some areas, they collect goora, tabi (‘tobacco’) and money (kuboata pisinu, 50 pesewas) while in other places, they collect only goora and money (kuboata pisinu). The san-yigma, [upon arriving] to the area where the woman hails from, would usually find the san-yigdiak (a man who has relations with the place of origin of the groom, especially one whose mother hails from that area or an area closer to that area) to assist him performing the rites. The two of them then proceed to the bride’s paternal compound and hand over the required items after going through the customary greetings and formalities. The acceptance of these items virtually signifies that the woman’s family have accepted and formally given her hand in marriage to the man on whose behalf the san-yigma and san-yigdiak have come to greet and offer the items. It also means that another man cannot come to seek the lady’s hand in marriage since the family is now aware of her marriage to that particular man. Once the items have been accepted, the san-yigma must return to tell the groom and his family what transpired over there and what else is expected of them.

 

i) Visit of the bride’s brothers [endnote 17] {276}

In Buli, there are several terms for this ritual: kayiita, kayiita-deka (deka = to eat, to perform), biak-ngobika (eating the dog), or, more rarely (?), taa-ngang-sangka (= to follow the sister, sangi = to fix); E. Atuick uses the term poi-deka (eating the stomach).

The kayiita ritual can probably occur immediately after the akaayaali ritual (E. Atuick) or even a long time before, as I experienced in Danlardy’s house.

After the bride’s parents have been informed that a suitor has abducted their daughter, it is time for the bride’s brothers to visit the groom’s house. They stop outside the house and ask if their missing sister might be there {277}. They are asked by the head of the house to come in, but at first, they refuse, saying that they have no time. They would have to look for her in other compounds if their sister was not in this house. The house’s inhabitants can bring out a roasted chicken to make the brothers stay.

In the meantime, they discuss whether they can kill a dog for the brothers, as is the tradition, or slaughter a goat or a sheep as a substitute. The brothers are brought in to examine the live animal. One of them will now put his hand into the animal’s side and say that ‘a hole still needs to be stuffed’. The brothers will be given a live chicken to ‘plug the hole’ with. The brothers may ask for more chickens for other ‘holes’ in the animal until the head of the compound becomes angry (in mock anger). The boys may take all the donated chicks home with them.

Now, somebody slaughters the dog, and after preparing it, they entertain the brothers with its meat and TZ. After some time, the brothers may say they were not given all the meat. However, according to G. Achaw, this complaint is only a trap. If the homeowner also provides them with the roasted head of the dog, the brothers would immediately say that they had been bitten by the ‘owner of teeth’ (nyina nyono; a euphemism for dog), and the yeri-nynono would have to give them a sum of money as atonement.

 

 

 

 

The millet porridge (TZ, Buli saab), which the house’s women bring in a calabash, also meets with the brothers’ criticism. They complain that the calabash wobbles. The husband or the head of the compound then puts a coin under the calabash, but now it wobbles to the other side. The brothers are often unsatisfied until coins support the calabash on all sides. In the past, the head of the house could also remedy the evil of the wobbling calabash by sending a little girl who had to hold the calabash in her hands while the brothers ate from it. When she was marriageable, this girl was given to one of the brothers as a wife. The brothers’ parents immediately decided which brother should have the girl when they returned to the family home.

Today, some young men who go to their brother-in-law’s house demand the dog (or goat or sheep) alive to {278} sell it at the market. Such a demand, however, is considered by many Bulsa to be a modern degeneracy.

The brothers usually go home with their gifts the following morning after being entertained for a whole night.

When Ayarik (Tandem-Zuedema) received the visit of his wife’s four brothers after his marriage, he gave them two bottles of akpeteshi [endnote 18] and a total of 2.10 cedis in addition to the gifts listed above. This amount of money, worth a guinea (21 shillings in the old currency), would not have changed even if more of the wife’s brothers had come. No dog was available in the house, so a goat was slaughtered. Ayarik’s wife also received some of its meat, while Ayarik’s father got the neck. The brothers took the goat’s head home.

In modern times, the kayiita custom seems to have changed slightly. According to M. Arnheim, only ‘greedy’ brothers of a bride would still perform it. The young men come from the bride’s house and other compounds in her lineage. Sometimes, they are even strangers who could have married the bride themselves.

R. Schott drew my attention to the fact that there may be reciprocity between the permissive behaviour of the bride’s brothers and the later, equally permissive behaviour of the son from this new marriage union towards the mother’s brothers and father. The right of claim of the bride’s brothers and later of the child towards his mother’s brothers is institutionalised in each case. For example, a ‘nephew’ can catch a chicken in his ‘uncle’s’ (MB) house with impunity and take it home. This permissive behaviour is often associated with a joking relationship (gbiera).

In Gbedema, I learnt that the ‘nephew’ can take liberties not only in his biological ‘uncle’s’ compound but in his mother’s whole section, only not to the same extent. Catching a sheep from a distantly related house would probably lead to trouble.

 

j) Visit of the bride’s mother {278}

A few months may pass before the groom, together with his intermediary (san-yigma) [endnote 19], visits his parents-in-law to invite his mother-in-law (nganub) to his house. This visit is called jo dok (enter the room). Before the young husband and the san-yigma enter the bride’s parents’ house, they consult on how much money the husband should give the mother-in-law during this visit. The amount of this money was about 5–20 cedis in 1974. The bride’s mother must accept any amount the san-yigma gives her. If there is any discrepancy, the san-yigma is reprimanded, not the spouse. If the bride’s biological mother has already died, another wife of the bride’s father receives the money.

After this visit (jo dok) and these payments, the mother-in-law {279} can visit the newly married husband in his house. She can bring her daughter some gifts (e.g. millet flour). If the daughter has not yet given birth to a child by this visit, the mother is entertained with one or two guinea fowls and TZ available to eat. Slaughtering a sheep or goat for her is only allowed if the daughter has already given birth. The bride’s mother can stay in her son-in-law’s house for several days and nights, and every day, she is served guinea fowls and TZ. In the evening, compounders and guests sing, play music, and dance as if the wedding just occurred.

When the bride’s mother indicates that she wants to go home, the compound’s men discuss what presents to give her. They will fetch a large busik basket [endnote 20] and possibly enlarge it by inserting sticks. First, all the male members of the house bring their gifts, including millet and sorghum (ground or unground), rice, slaughtered guinea fowl, dawa-dawa, salt, and money. The women of the house give presents for the upper part of the basket, such as dried meat (poultry or game), dawa-dawa, or salt. The head of the compound will slaughter a goat or sheep and give her some of the meat roasted and some raw in the animal’s skin. Often, more baskets must be brought in to hold all the offerings.

Some young married or unmarried women of the house – the visitor’s daughter may be among them – accompany the bride’s mother home and carry the gifts. When the group arrives at the bride’s parents’ house, everyone is served with prepared guinea fowl and TZ. They will then sing, dance and drink again, often until the early hours of the following morning.

The female companions sleep in the hosts’ house. They are, in turn, accompanied home by a corresponding group of men who have already attempted to meet them during the festivities of the preceding evening. These young women and their partners often maintain an exchange relationship of services and counter-services in return. The male partner may help the married woman on her farm, while she may provide him with a bride from her residential or natal section. The married woman’s lover, who courts her with the husband’s knowledge and consent {280} but is not entitled to any sexual practices, is called a pok-nong (friend of a wife) (cf. p. 261). If the woman is unmarried, a later marriage with her partner is possible.

A few days after the bride’s mother has left the husband’s house, the husband and his friends will pay a short visit to the house of the parents-in-law to inquire whether his mother-in-law has arrived home safely. Such a short return visit to inquire about the homecoming of an important guest is a common custom among the Bulsa (cf. Chapter V, 3 d; p. 172) and is called jianta (tiredness) since one also inquires after the tiredness (exhaustion) of someone returning home after a long walk.

Note that the visits of the brothers and the bride’s mother and the nansiung-lika payments do not necessarily have to proceed in the order described here. The ‘gate’ (nansiung) is often only ‘closed’ well after the official visits. In contrast to the brothers’ entertainment, the visit of the bride’s mother can also occur when the groom is not at home. It is more common, especially in recent times, for the visit of the bride’s mother to take place before the brothers’ visit, especially if the groom lives in the south.

I am also aware of a case where a mother visited her married daughter without making an announcement, and she was entertained like an ordinary guest. The official visit of this mother is still pending and is planned for a later date.

 

k) Nansiung-lika (the closing of the gate)

This is the final ritual in the marriage process, always held after the akayaali. Sometimes, all payments to the bride’s house are subsumed under the term nansiung-lika; a bride price that does not exist with the Bulsa is even called nansiung-lika.

The expression ‘close the gate’ (lig nansiung) could imply that the gate to the parental home is closed for the wife, i.e. that she now belongs to her husband’s household (even though visits to her parental home are frequently paid) [endnote 21].

Margaret Arnheim (Gbedema) suggests that the expression means that this ritual closes the entrance of the woman’s parental compound to other suitors.

G. Achaw (Sandema-Kalijiisa) explains the term nansiung-lika and the payments associated with it as follows: When the successful suitor takes the bride from the house at night, he usually has no time {275} to lock the main entrance with clubs; the gate thus stands open for a whole night, and animals can run away, or thieves and wild animals can enter the house. Therefore, the groom must close the gate again with gifts. However, these gifts must also be given if, as is quite common, the couple escapes over an outer wall.

If the new wife has not yet given birth during her marriage, the gate is closed with one chicken, one hoe blade, some tobacco and four pesewas (the ritual formerly used single coins [endnote 22]). If the wife has already given birth to a child during her marriage, the gate must be closed with a goat or a sheep [endnote 23]. A wealthy husband may also send a cow, but this is only advisable if the husband’s father has already given a cow on such an occasion; otherwise, it looks like the son is trying to outdo his father. An error in practice might result in the death of an overly generous son [endnote 23a].

When the mediator (san-yigma) approaches the bride’s house, a boy runs towards him helping him to bring the gifts. There, the men discuss whether to accept the gifts, but it seldom happens that the gifts are rejected in this meeting. A negative attitude on the part of the household would have caused the san-yigma to advise the groom against payments at this time. The mediator converses with the yeri-nyono, who also receives the gifts. The san-yigma may stay at the bride’s house one night or return the same day. He receives no official payment for his errand, but the newlywed spouse can buy him an alcoholic drink on occasion.

 

For Akanming’s daughter, who was married in Farinsa, the following nansiung-offerings were made in 1988: one hoe blade, two rings of tobacco, one chicken and one goat (the daughter had already given birth to a child). Akanming then sacrificed to his father Awasiaboa the following gifts:  millet water (perhaps brought by Farinsa), the chicken, and the goat after placing its collar on the shrine, and again, millet water. After some of the meat had been roasted, Akanming placed small pieces of kuusiri (chest), bogi (front leg) and pangi (liver) on Awasiboa’s shrine.

 

The sacrificed meat was distributed immediately in the courtyard of Akanming’s first wife, with the recipients as follows:

Two hind legs (nangsa): For Akanming’s wives in the compound.

Two front legs (boga): Likewise, but if the children of Akanming’s daughter who married in Farinsa had been present, they would have had one front leg.

Head (zuk): To the children of the house.

Neck (ngiiri): To Akanming.

Chaarik (5 ribs between chaarik and ta-liirik): To Akanming’s son, Akangir.

Kuusiri (front part of the breast): One half each to Akanming and his two wives.

Chiak (waist with ribs): To the daughters of Akanming still living in his house.

Ta-liirik (?): To the one who locks the compound every evening (here, the youngest son).

Stomach (puuk) and intestines (nyueta): For all the women of the house, the intestines were cut into equal pieces beforehand; Akanming’s first wife prepared a soup for him from the nyue-goatik (a specific part of the intestines).

Anus (bita-fiik): To the children of the house.

Skin (gbang): For Akanming (practical use).

The following body parts of the goat were thrown into the cattle yard: Yaam (gall), ovaries (?), and ja-chelim (allegedly a solid round lump found in various parts of the body).

As mentioned, no such payments may be made during a woman’s pregnancy. A young woman from Siniensi (chief’s house) reports that she was already pregnant before her husband’s house visits; in this case all other payments and gifts to the in-laws’ house are forbidden, too.

E. Atuick (2015: 97–98) states that nansiuk-lika is ‘the last and most important phase of the marriage process’. Some men wait with their payment until they are sure that the woman can bear children. The san-yigma takes the gifts to the house of his new wife’s parents and presents them to the men gathered in the kusung.

 

l) Farmwork of the husband for his parents-in-law (chichambiri) {380}

If the wife’s parents need labour help in the field, they can ask their daughter’s husband to help them. Then, the husband is obliged to come. He will ask those of his age group who have already helped him with his courtship, as well as other friends and relatives, to come with him and help his in-laws. The more helpers he can bring, the better the husband’s reputation in his in-laws’ house. In the field, a group of friends works together. They {281} sing work and praise songs [endnote 24] in honour of the husband, mainly corresponding to the songs sung at the wedding. Here, too, the husband is referred to only by his name of honour (busein). In contrast to the wedding songs, however, the work songs seem to have more often obscene lyrics, of which the following song (Inf. Ayarik) is an example:

 

Ma cheng Yiwasa wom yaa baano.

A ga pai te liewa jue kali gbongoa piak za.

Wa tan-piiring ka ziiga [zuisa?].

Mi da kuli man ngman cheng du.

I went to Yiwasa (Wiesi) to visit (literally: listen to) a diviner.

When I arrived there, the daughter (of the diviner?) climbed onto the flat roof, sat there and ginned millet cobs [by stripping them].

Her private parts had no hair.

When I return home, I will not go there (to Yiwasa) again.

While wedding songs sometimes emphasise the ‘we’ feeling of younger generations, the songs of the working group can also express the wishes, opinions and feelings of men who want to their wives, as the following example shows:

 

Nipooba dan bo yeri po, kan bisa la, ba jaab ja kan de.

Ka zulenga te ti ta yai, ti kan yaali ba jaaboa.

Ka zulenga …

When the women are in the house, and they do not speak or laugh, no one can get anything to eat.

We want respect; we want nothing else.

After working in the fields, the husband’s in-laws provide the group with food and drinks, but they receive no other gifts or payments.

At the day’s end, the group’s work can be made visible in various ways. In Wiaga, workers sometimes form a larger-than-life representation of a crocodile (pi-nyung) out of earth, and next to it, they place a stick with the skull bones of the animal donated by the host. I was unable to find out more about this custom. It does not seem to have a religious component [endnote 24a].

The parents-in-law can claim the help of their son-in-law if he is married to their daughter. However, they cannot do so more than once a year – and preferably not for two consecutive years {282}. My informant, Danlardy Leander, told me that this chichambiri work has recently declined in frequency, as the costly hospitality towards the work group has made it financially more expensive for the ‘father-in-law’ than paying wage labourers. Nowadays, many young chichambiri workers prefer payment in money to lavish hospitality.

 

m) Costs of a marriage

As mentioned before, the Bulsa people do not know any bride price as it exists through the payment of cattle among some neighbouring ethnic groups, such as the Frafra and Nankana. All Bulsa are aware of this non-existence. If a Bulsa woman marries a man from one of those neighbouring tribes, her family cannot accept higher payments, even if the suitor is willing. It would result in deaths in their families or in the whole section.

Jack Goody, one of the most respected anthropologists of our time, published a table based on the Population Census of 1960 in his work Bridewealth and Dowry. Goody (1973: 9) shows that in acephalous societies, high payments are made; in centralised societies, only low payments are made (the word ‘brideprice or bridewealth’ is not mentioned here). In the table, the Bulsa appear correctly in the group of formerly acephalous societies. However, the statement that their marriage payments are high is unsupported.

Even without payment of a fixed bride price, the applicant and later husband of a Bulsa woman shoulders numerous costs and obligations. In addition to the fixed expenses for akaayaali and nansiung-lika, there are many other demands on the future husband; these vary depending on his wealth. A refusal would diminish his reputation with his in-laws and possibly impact the stability of the marriage, although it has no significance for its validity.

Ayarik (Wiaga-Tandem-Zuedema) still remembers exactly the payments he made to his parents-in-law in Wiaga-Bandem in 1971 {276}:

First visit to the in-laws: Kola nuts for the mother, tobacco for the father (voluntary payment), 50 pesewas for the bride’s grandmother, 10 pesewas for each of the bride’s five younger brothers.

Second visit to the in-laws: Kola nuts (worth 20 p.) for the grandmother, 30 p. for the mother, 40 p. for the father, and 5 p. for each of the young children.

Third visit to the in-laws: 60 p. for the mother, 30 p. for the grandmother, 40 p. for the father (voluntary payment), and 10 p. for each of the bride’s younger brothers.

Payments after the bride’s coming to the husband: As the bride had already given birth to a son by this main payment (nansiung-lika in the strict sense), Ayarik paid a male goat, one guinea fowl and tobacco. All presents were given to the yeri-nyono, who sacrificed the animals to his ancestors. If no child had been born to the young couple, Ayarik would only have paid for a chicken.

More gifts: When Ayarik’s mother visited her son’s in-laws, she gave kola nuts to the bride’s mother and tobacco to her father.

All payments of the mentioned amounts are customary in Ayarik’s wife’s section (Wiaga-Bandem). Ayarik inquired before from his bride about the nature and amount of payments there, as they are different in each section. The gifts to the bride’s father can be omitted, as he has no say in the marriage of his daughter.

 

Danlardy’s costs

In their frequency, the required payments and gifts place a relatively heavy burden on the new spouse. My assistant, the primary school teacher Danlardy, who recorded the amount of all these costs and provided them to me, once remarked, ‘If I had known [all these costs], I would not have married at this time’.

Costs incurred by the kayiita, i.e. taking the bride to Danlardy’s home (20 December 1988 until 7 January 1989).

(Prices: 1 bottle of akpeteshi, palm brandy: 310 cedis, 1 chicken: 300–320 cedis, 1 guinea fowl: around 500 cedis). In 1988, 100 cedis were equivalent to about DM 0.70 (0.35 Euros).

20 December 1988: Even before the first official contact of Danlardy’s family with the family of his future wife Kenkenni in Wiaga-Guuta, Dan’s stepmother, Afulanpok, a native of Guuta, chose Kenkenni as her stepson’s future wife. On 20 December, Michael (the yeri-nyono of Asik Yeri as well as hospital assistant) and Atongka (from Danlardy’s family with kinship ties to Guuta) went to the bride’s house and handed over Danlardy’s gifts: two bottles of akpeteshi and kola nuts (worth 100 cedis).

22 December 1988: Maami – the first wife of Dan’s late father, Leander – Afulanpok, and a friend go to the bride’s house to lead her from there to Asik Yeri, the traditional compound of Danlardy’s family in Wiaga-Badomsa. Many relatives, neighbours and friends are waiting there or appear later. A drumming group provides entertainment. As usual, the festivities extend over three days. However, many guests only appear in the evening and perform their regular work during the day.

Numerous gifts are provided and are listed below according to their givers:

Dan: 500 cedis and two bottles of akpeteshi for the Guuta family and five bottles of akpeteshi for all guests in Asik Yeri; one bottle of akpeteshi for friends; cigarettes (200 cedis) to supply to all men (?); a roasted chicken (320 cedis) to the drummers. At certain intervals, Dan gives another 250 cedis to the drummers and 100 cedis to the women’s group, probably the primary party responsible for preparing food and drinks and minor organisational matters.

Maami: 200 cedis to the Guuta family in Asik Yeri, two bottles of akpeteshi to all, 200 cedis to Kenkenni, and five cigarettes to the drummers.

Afulanpok: 100 cedis to the Guuta family; in Asik Yeri: 50 cedis to Kenkenni, 50 cedis to the drummers, and 40 cedis to the women.

Friend of Maami: 100 cedis to the Guuta family.

Bibiana (Dan’s sister): 100 cedis to the women’s group, 50 cedis and one cloth [endnote 24b] to Kenkenni, and 40 cedis to the drummers.

Mary (Dan’s sister and the bride’s friend): One ‘new jumper’ to Kenkenni, half a bottle of akpeteshi to the women, and half a bottle of akpeteshi to the drummers.

Atongka: One chicken worth 300 cedis to the drummers and, later, another 200 cedis to the drummers.

Atongka’s wife: 50 cedis to Kenkenni.

Ayomo (the acting compound head of Asik Yeri): One guinea fowl worth 500 cedis to the women’s group.

Ayomo’s wife: 50 cedis to Kenkenni.

Kofi (a neighbour): 50 cedis to the drummers.

Agaadula (a neighbour): One guinea fowl and 100 cedis to Kenkenni, 50 cedis to the drummers, and 50 cedis to the women’s group.

Agberuk’s son (from Kadema; lives in Asik Yeri): One bottle of akpeteshi and 300 cedis to Kenkenni and 100 cedis to the women.

A woman from Chiok (who lives in Asik Yeri): 500 cedis to Kenkenni and 20 cedis to the drummers.

23 December 1988: Celebrations continued at Asik Yeri:

Danlardy: One bottle of akpeteshi to all and 100 cedis to the women.

Atongka: One roasted rooster to the drummers, 100 cedis to Kenkenni, and 50 cedis to the women.

Agaadula: 100 cedis to Kenkenni, 50 cedis to the women’s group, and 50 cedis to the drummers.

Ateng (a neighbour’s wife): 50 cedis to Kenkenni and 40 cedis to the drummers.

Kofi (a neighbour): 50 cedis to Kenkenni and 40 cedis to the drummers.

Agberuk’s son: 100 cedis to Kenkenni, 100 cedis to the drummers, and 40 cedis for kola nuts to the women.

24 December 1988: The celebrations at Asik Yeri continue. Kenkenni is in the constant company of Danlardy’s younger brother, Lucky, who is probably guarding her.

Note that the recipients of the gifts are partly missing in Danlardy’s notes; what was recorded is as follows:

Danlardy: Two bottles of akpeteshi (for all).

Michael: Two bottles of akpeteshi (for all).

Atongka: One bottle of akpeteshi and 100 cedis.

Ayomo: 100 cedis to Kenkenni.

Lamisi (Anyiok Yeri): Kola nuts for 100 cedis (for all), 200 cedis to Kenkenni, 50 cedis to the drummers.

Ayigmilie (doglie in Goansa): 50 cedis to Kenkenni.

Dinah: 20 cedis to Kenkenni.

F. Kröger (presents are given to Ayomo): One bottle of akpeteshi, 100 cedis for kola nuts (for all?), and one cake of Lux soap to Kenkenni.

25 December 1988: After midnight, a mixed group leads Kenkenni from Asik Yeri to the house in Goansa. Danlardy buys two bottles of akpeteshi for the companions; his friend from Sandema adds two bottles of beer and one of Fanta. In Danlardy’s house (in Goansa), Kenkenni sleeps for the first time as his wife on Danlardy’s mat. She cannot be kidnapped by other suitors after this (unless the offence of kabong for Sinyansa kidnappers and the creation of enmities for foreign sections manifest).

That same morning, Kenkenni walks to Guuta with Lucky and Afulanpok to get Sunday clothes for Christmas (she is a Catholic candidate for baptism). Later, Kenkenni’s parents report that their daughter will not return unless Dan’s parents pick her up. Ayomo wanted to pick her up, but the parents had refused him. As a result, Maami goes to Guuta with two bottles of akpeteshi, 500 cedis from Danlardy and 200 cedis from her pocket. However, Kenkenni’s parents continue to refuse to hand over their daughter. Then Danlardy goes to Guuta and gives 200 cedis to Kenkenni’s mother, 100 to her stepmother, and 50 to her younger siblings. The parents still refuse to let their daughter go. They should fetch her at night. Atongka and Ayomo buy half a bottle of akpeteshi in the evening, while Danlardy buys one bottle. This time, Kenkenni is allowed to move back to Goansa. However, she has brought her younger brother, who sleeps in the Goansa house at night and has to be provided with food there.

26 December 1988: Danlardy gives 200 cedis to Kenkenni’s younger brother, and Dan’s biological mother, Adaaminyini, gives 100 cedis to Kenkenni’s brother. They also slaughter a chicken for him.

27 December 1988: At night, Kenkenni and others go to the traditional compound of Asik Yeri. There, the joint bath of the couple with diluted medicinal water from the nipok-tiim shrine (see above) takes place.

28 December 1988: Dances and music are performed again at the Goansa house.

Most guests bring drinks for general use (gifts of money are primarily for Kenkenni):

Danlardy: Half a bottle of akpeteshi to the drummers and others

Maami: Half a bottle of akpeteshi

Michael: One bottle of akpeteshi

Atongka: One bottle of akpeteshi

Kwame (from the Wiaga chief’s house, contestant for the new chieftaincy): Half a bottle of akpeteshi and 100 cedis

Adaaminyini’s girlfriend: A quarter bottle of akpeteshi and 100 cedis

Afulanpok: Half a bottle of akpeteshi

Ansula (neighbour): Half a bottle of akpeteshi, 100 cedis for Kenkenni

Sinyansa ex-serviceman: One bottle of akpeteshi; 200 cedis for Kenkenni, 100 cedis for the drummers

Danlardy’s friends: 50 cedis or 100 cedis each to Kenkenni

Abi (?) and friends: 100 cedis to Kenkenni, half a bottle of akpeteshi to the drummers

A guest (name unknown): One guinea fowl for immediate preparation, given to Maami

29 December 1988: Danlardy collects his salary in Navrongo and cannot write down details about the gifts. In his absence, more gifts are given:

A guest: Two guinea fowls and two bars of soap (for Kenkenni)

A market vendor: Ten sweets (for Kenkenni)

Another market vendor: Two bars of soap (for Kenkenni)

Jatena Awie (a girl from the chief’s house): Two Lux, one Sunlight (soap), and two pieces of red Guardian Soap.

Thomas (a teacher): Two large packets of Omo (for Kenkenni)

Note: The money given to Kenkenni is received by the women of the house (i.e. Dan’s mothers). For example, if someone gives 500 cedis, they only give 300 to Kenkenni. Moreover, Kenkenni must give some of the soap to Danlardy’s mothers.

29 December 1988, from the evening to the early morning of 30 December: Kayiita.

In the evening, Kenkenni’s classificatory brothers come to the Goansa house and demand their dog (see Chapter VII, 2i). After their arrival, Danlardy donates a bottle of akpeteshi (later another one) and gives them a roasted chicken. Ayomo and Danlardy also go to Asik Yeri for information and to buy a dog. Their neighbour, Kofi, sells his dog to them for 1800 cedis, and Danlardy buys a chicken (300 cedis) from his younger brother.

After Dan’s return, the dog’s meat is cooked. Although the dog is exceptionally large, the brothers say it is still too small, so Danlardy gives them his rooster (worth 700 cedis). When the brothers realise this is insufficient, Dan gives them a third chicken. Then, the brothers say they feel cold, and Dan gives them three bottles of akpeteshi. He also gives one bottle of akpeteshi to the women (his mothers and the doglie) who cooked the chickens and one bottle to Ayomo, Atongka, and other relatives. Michael (yeri-nyono) buys and gives away a bottle of akpeteshi, and Danlardy gives his sixth bottle before the meal.

From his immediate family, the following relatives support him with gifts of akpeteshi for the brothers and other guests: Michael: half a bottle, Maami: half a bottle, Atoalinpok (Dan’s stepmother): half a bottle, Dan’s sisters: half a bottle for all guests, Maami: for 50 cedis kola nuts, Adaaminyini (Dan’s biological mother): for 20 cedis tobacco, Ayomo: 100 cigarettes; Michael: 10 cigarettes. The brothers leave the house in Goansa around 7.30 a.m. (30 December 1988), bringing the meat they have not yet eaten.

At noon, Kenkenni cooks for the first time for her husband, herself, and some friends; in the evening, she prepares food for the entire household (including the families of Danlardy’s other mothers). From the next day onwards, she cooks only for the family of Dan’s biological mother, Adaaminyini. On this same day, Adaaminyini gives up her cooking duties but continues to help and advise her first daughter-in-law. Every day, Kenkenni will prepare a dish, possibly including a chicken, for Danlardy’s late father, Leander Amoak, and place it in Leander’s room for an hour. Subsequently, all other family members can eat this dish except Maami, Leander’s first wife. This custom is discontinued after some time by Maami’s decision and is only performed once on other festive days (New Year, Easter, Christmas). Until then, Leander’s youngest wife, Afulanpok, had cooked for Leander on feast days.

1 January 1989: At the Goansa house, the festivities, including dancing, are continued. I (F.K.) am invited to buy a bottle of akpeteshi. Asaaluk (the san-yigma from a neighbouring house in Badomsa) and Atongka pay a five-hour-visit to Kenkennis’s family in Goansa with gifts from other people:

Danlardy: two bottles of akpeteshi, 500 cedis (cash), 100 cedis for tobacco, 100 cedis for kola nuts

Maami: 200 cedis

Adaaminyini: 100 cedis

Bibiana and Mary together half a bottle of akpeteshi

2 January 1989: Danlardy goes with Kenkenni to her parents’ house and greets her mother with 200 cedis; he voluntarily gives two men from the house 50 cedis each.

Note: Danlardy determines the amount of prescribed and voluntary payments at his discretion. However, he must report to Maami, his senior mother, how much he has given. He can inform his mother, Adaaminyini, at his discretion.

In the afternoon, Danlardy sends his brother Oldman with Kenkenni to Sandema to buy cloth for 2700 cedis. He also gives them 300 cedis for the bus fare, food, soup ingredients, etc.

3 January 1989: Kenkenni’s mother officially visits the house in Goansa as mother-in-law (nga-nubi). Danlardy is not at home (He is working with me on ethnological topics). He gives 500 cedis (through Maami) to her. Each of Danlardy’s mothers gives presents to Kenkenni’s mother (prices not recorded as Dan is not home). The mother-in-law returns to Guuta in the evening.

4 January 1989: Kenkenni goes to her parents’ house to spend a few days there. Danlardy, who accompanies her, buys two guinea fowls (for 850 cedis together), a large package of OMO (250 cedis), millet flour and soup ingredients (price?), salt for 100 cedis, jong (dawa-dawa balls) and small fish (biila) for 100 cedis in Wiaga. Kenkenni prepares a meal from the food at her parents’ house after Danlardy has left it.

7 January 1989: Danlardy and I (F.K.) visit Kenkenni in Guuta. She does not greet us but leaves immediately (Is there an upset?). Gifts from this visit were not documented.

On this day, the celebrations and set activities of ‘bringing the bride to the husband’s home’ were completed for the time being. Danlardy is planning the akaayaali rites for Easter and would like to combine them with the ‘nansiung-lika’ ritual on the same day, as it is possible in Badomsa but not in most other sections of Wiaga. The traditions in Guuta are crucial. Later, akaayaali cannot be performed yet because Michael, Atongka and Ayomo have to perform this ritual in their families beforehand. Thus, it is postponed indefinitely.

Dan’s wish regarding the Easter date for the akaayaali leads to an argument with Kenkenni, who wants the ritual only to be performed after she has left school, but Danlardy and his mothers insist. A reconciliation occurs after Danlardy has provided her with several plastic bags full of gifts from Bolgatanga.

5 April 1989: Akaayaali. In the evening, Atongka, who is matrilineally related to Guuta, goes to Kenkenni’s parents’ house to prepare the akaayaali ritual (gift: 200 cedis and kola nuts). Danlardy gives kola nuts worth 200 cedis the following day while Kenkenni is at Danlardy’s house.

7 April 1989: Asaaluk, the san-yigma, and Atongka go to Kenkenni’s parents with two bottles of akpeteshi and 500 cedis (as voluntary gifts). According to the stipulated rule, he gives 50 cedis and tobacco for 100 cedis to the yeri-nyono.

8 April 1989: Danlardy has another talk with his parents-in-law. They think that akaayaali took place too early because Kenkenni is not yet pregnant and is still at school. Danlardy has, therefore, given them another 5000 cedis and two bottles of akpeteshi. Before that, they did not allow Kenkenni to return to Danlardy’s house.

Atongka gives Kenkenni’s biological mother 1000 cedis for the time when Kenkenni lived in her parental home because Danlardy has to pay for her upkeep (payment is not part of the akaayaali). Such payments are only customary for newly married wives.

A diviner orders (for a different reason) Maami to offer millet water to her wen, her husband’s wen, her husband’s brother’s wen, and her father’s wen (at the Wiaga chief’s compound), and Maami requests the presence of her daughter-in-law, Kenkenni, for the sacrifice at the chief’s compound (perhaps it is some introductory performance).

Kenkenni stays at Danlardy’s Goansa house during the akaayaali ritual and for a fortnight afterwards. Then her parents request her again. Danlardy sends her back with the following obligatory gifts: three calabashes of millet (3 x 300 cedis and 100 cedis for grinding), smoked fish (300 cedis), salt, and dawa-dawa (together, 100 cedis). These obligatory gifts were requested before the akaayaali.

Note on the costs of marriage

The above list demonstrates a confusing give-and-take of gifts and obligatory payments. While the primary part of all material transactions flows from the groom to the bride’s family, many other givers and receivers exist. Sometimes, the same people are both givers and receivers, for example, the groom’s mothers, who partly participate in the transactions at the bride’s parents’ house and partly are also rewarded by the guests through gifts for their services (here, the preparation of food would be most important). The gifts to the bride Kenkenni cannot be understood exclusively as transactions to her parental lineage, especially since she must give part of them (about one-third for monetary gifts) to the groom’s mothers.

To understand the meaning and function of giving in its entirety, the question of reciprocity between givers and receivers arises. In part, the actors are probably also aware in some form that the gifts to the bride’s parental home compensate for the loss of her capacity to bear children and her labour: Through marriage, the woman’s lineage loses a female person and her offspring.

Beyond this most comprehensive, reciprocal relationship, there is also a certain reciprocity related to individual acts. These sometimes take on the character of payment (for example, the gifts given to the bride’s companions as she walks from one compound to another or the remuneration of the drummers for their playing). It was previously noted that the permissive behaviour of the bride’s classificatory brothers after her entry into the groom’s house (kayiita) is reciprocally related to the subsequent behaviour of the sons from the newly contracted marriage to the bride’s father and brothers.

The nature of the gifts is diverse, as the following overview shows:

 

Type	Frequency	Sum and monetary value
Money	69 times	15,810 cedis (in 1988 ca. 1100 DM)
Akpeteshi	46 times	50.25 bottles for 310 cedis each = 15,577 cedis
(Guinea) fowl (cocks)	12 times	10 animals
Kola nuts	9 times	for 100 cedis each
Soap	6 times	10 pieces
Omo	3 times	3 x 250 = 750 cedis
Cigarettes	4 times	ca. 200 cigarettes each time (=  800)
Tobacco	3 times	on average per 100 cedis (300)
Dog	once	1,800 cedis
Toffies	once	10 pieces
Fanta and beer	once	together 3 bottles
Cloth	3 times	together for 2,700 cedis
Sweater	once	?

Ingredients for one meal, bought from Dan: Fish for 300 cedis, 3 calabashes of millet (3 x 300 cedis = 900 cedis), soup ingredients (biila fish, dawa-dawa, salt), total approx.. 1,800 cedis.

In terms of frequency, monetary gifts rank first. Their total value is close to that of akpeteshi. Money, as a gift, is suitable and flexible for various occasions; very small gifts, in particular, are best given through money. Gifts of money on ritual occasions are by no means a recent affair. Even before the introduction of the British and cedi currencies, ritual transactions were also remunerated through cowries, the number often having a symbolic value (four = female, three = male).

In recent times, monetary gifts seem to have become more prominent, as shown in the account by E. Atuick (2015: 92–103, and Chapter VII, 7c). Affluent applicants for a Bulsa girl often give the corresponding value for a goat or a sheep in money, for which others then buy the animal.

The potent alcoholic drink, akpeteshi, ranks second in frequency and first in value. However, Danlardy and Ayarik do not mention the traditional, low-alcohol millet beer (Buli daam), which scarcely serves a purpose as a genuine gift and is, at most, a beverage suited for entertaining visitors.

From the list, it was calculated that over 50 bottles of akpeteshi were given away and probably consumed almost exclusively during the festivities. More recently, the often-intemperate consumption of strong alcoholic drinks during domestic festivities (especially at funeral celebrations and weddings) has been strongly criticised for helping increase alcoholism in the Bulsa region and elsewhere (endnote 24c).

Non-alcoholic beverages and beer appear only once in Danlardy’s records. Kola nuts are the traditional gift for a host but are less important here. Somewhat surprising is the relatively large proportion of cleaning products (soap and washing powder), which probably do not have a long tradition among the Bulsa as gifts to the bride. Finally, at ritual events, such as nansiung-lika, tobacco – but not cigarettes – is one of the compulsory gifts to men in the bride’s parental home.

 

3. POLYGYNOUS MARRIAGE

The husband can take a second wife one year after the first marriage. He does not have to wait long until he can marry the third or fourth wife, but he should not marry more than two wives in one year. The wedding ceremonies, payments, gifts, and associated costs are the same as for the first wedding, except that men can afford celebrations of more opulence if their wealth has increased. A minimum requirement for a further marriage is that the husband can offer his new wife at least a separate dok [endnote 24d] in the compound. She will usually only get a separate living section with a courtyard after giving birth to one or more children.

The first wife (pok-kpagi or nipok-kpagi) [endnote 24e] does not need to consent for her husband to marry again. However, I know of a case where the childless sole wife of a compound head had, thus far, successfully prevented all further marriage intentions from her non-Christian husband. As soon as she heard of her husband’s marriage plans, she stirred the millet porridge (TZ) with the wrong end of the stirring stick. If the husband married a second wife after eating millet porridge prepared in this way, his relationship with the second wife would be terrible, and quarrels would come into the house.

Often, however, the first wife (pok-kpagi) urges her husband to marry another wife, or she provides him with a second wife herself because then she would receive help in the household and move up in status because the first wife (dok-nyono [endnote 25]) has a particular headship in the household. She allocates the grain from the storehouse to the younger wife or wives and usually has a say in the upbringing of the other wives’ children.

In the dok of the first wife, the husband keeps ritual things, while in the dok of the youngest wife, he can store valuables and things for daily life. The husband spends the nights with his wives in a regular rotation, changing his sleeping quarters every night or market day. Women with whom he cannot have sexual intercourse, such as if {283} they have recently given birth, are not excluded from this rotation. Older women who are no longer capable of procreation are ostensibly included. In practice, however, they are often omitted.

The cohabitation of several wives of one man in the same compound may often stir conflict. Envy of the number of children of the other wife, special favours on the part of the husband, mutual accusations of witchcraft, questions of food and work distribution, or other topics provide enough fuel for quarrels and serious conflicts. The following excerpt from the life story of a man of about 30 from Sandema-Balansa is intended to give an example of such a conflict and record the role played by the Ama [endnote 26], the first and oldest wife in the compound.

The informant said that he became life-threateningly ill in his early childhood and then continues:

At last, my grandfather called my father and told him that it was his first wife who was trying to kill me, that he had gone to a fortune-teller [diviner], who told him this: Because my father’s first wife did not want my father to have a boy with any of his [other] wives or to have more children [from another wife] than [from] her; because any time she [the first wife] gave birth to a child, by three or four years the child died. So, by that time, she was having one boy, and (my) mother was having two (children): one boy and a girl.

After they had gathered facts about her behaviour, my grandfather gathered all the house people, including my stepmother. They called my great-grandfather’s wife, who was still living but (who was) very old, more than a hundred years [old], and blind. She was then called the mother of the house (Ama), [saying] that if any matter comes to the house like disputes, she settles them. So, this old lady was presiding over the matter…

These were her words to her (the accused woman) [endnote 27]: ‘Please, my daughter, I am the founder of this house in which you are living now. You came to meet more women and men in the house. I like you just the same [as] I like the others. For a couple of months now, something has been happening in the house. I am proving this to you. I am not dead yet. So, from this hour on, if this my great-grandson dies, you are going to be {284} hanged on that big baobab tree in front of the house for vultures to eat you up. I will surrender myself to the police if there is any case.’

There, she ended the case, and they all disappeared to their various places. Four days later, I could sit upright myself, but not for long. Gradually, I could walk out myself to watch my mates playing outside.

Regarding the number of wives, the husband is only limited by economic considerations. He must be able to feed his wives and their children. There were no worries about clothes when the women only wore ‘leaves’ (vaata). Today, however, most women also own clothes made of cloth, at least for going to market, the purchase of which heavily burdens the husband’s household. Therefore, it is unsurprising that the number of wives, combined with the number of cows a man owns, is considered a measure of his wealth. Thus, the average number of wives of chiefs, sectional heads (kambon-nalima, sing. kambon-naab), and other influential and wealthy men is usually considerably higher than that of ordinary peasants.

The following table gives information on the number of wives to whom the 47 husbands of the Sandema-Kalijiisa-Yongsa subsection were married in June 1974 [{284} endnote 27a].

 

Wives (number)	Marriages	Total number of wives: a x b	Wives per marriage in %
1	35	35	74.5
2	9	18	19.1
3	2	6	4.3
4	1	4	2.1
Total:	47	63	100

On average, the recorded Yongsa men (47) were married to 1.34 women. This number closely matches the figure (1.4) found in the 1960 Population Census, based on a larger sample (see footnote 27a).

Note on the table: In contrast to the table on p. 257 [wives from other sections], all widows who were married to a man from Yongsa and now live with their sons in Yongsa without having remarried were not considered here {285}.

 

4. ADULTERY {285}

Adultery, in its narrower sense (kabong, pl. kabonsa), only includes the illicit sexual intercourse of a married woman with another married or unmarried man from the husband’s lineage.

The sexual intercourse of a married woman with a man from a foreign lineage is also considered a moral offence; the male partner is subsequently considered an enemy (dachiak), but this adultery has differing ritual repercussions. According to Sebastian Adanur (Sandema-Kalijiisa), the woman, guilty of adultery with somebody from a foreign section, retreats out of shame to her parents’ house after it has become known. When she returns to her husband’s house, a daughter of the house (yeri-lie), for example, hides behind a millet store and pours water from a calabash over the returning wife’s head and genitals.

These activities resemble a ritual I observed and documented in Anyenangdu in 1988. I was not told at the time that it was performed because of immoral sexual intercourse but because of the woman’s prolonged absence for several years (who had supposedly been nursing her sick mother during that time). At my yeri-nyono’s request I had brought the woman with her young relative, a new doglie, from Fumbisi market to our compound in my car while her husband was staying in Fumbisi. As the new and old wife passed through the compound entrance, an unmarried daughter of the compound head poured water from a calabash bowl on her face amid general laughter. The water had been taken from the nipok-tiim of the house and mixed with clear water by a son of the compound head. The woman and her new doglie were immediately led to her living quarters and began working the same day, preparing leaves for several household soups.

A married woman’s sexual intercourse with other foreign men is permitted on certain occasions, e.g. at funeral celebrations of noteworthy or influential men, at the harvest festival, Fiok (November–December), and during the festivities connected with necessary sacrifices to the earth (teng or tanggbain). Other taboos, such as marriages between sections that do not otherwise intermarry (in Sandema, formerly Longsa, Kalijiisa, Kobdem), are also lifted during these large festivals. However, marriage from within one’s own lineage is never allowed. Unconfirmed information notes a compound in Doninga (name of compound and section known to the author) where brothers, fathers and sons have their wives in common. Alleged descendants of the slave hunter Babatu settled in this compound.

If a married woman has unauthorised sexual intercourse (kabong) with another man of her husband’s lineage, she must inform her husband as soon as possible and he will immediately inform the yeri-nyono. If the husband is yeri-nyono himself, he must also tell other household members about the incident. If the unfaithful wife remains silent, the case is aggravated and usually ends in separation, but even then, the purification ritual (fobka kabonsa) described below must be performed [endnote 27b].

For this purpose, the yeri-nyono of the woman’s compound has the adulterer come to his house to confirm what he has already experienced through the woman or others and, at the same time, set a date for the purification rites. R. Schott has already described these rites in detail [endnote 28]. As I learnt from a Kanjaga informant, in some Bulsa places, e.g. in Kanjaga, the head of a black hen, rooster or dog is beaten against the genitals of the two adulterers.

An informant from Wiaga, who lives in Fumbisi, reports in a generalising way that after adultery, people meet in the evening in as small a circle as possible. The unclothed adulterers beat (fobi) a black dog or a black chicken against each other’s heads and then stroke the animal over the chest down to the genitals {286}. According to R. Schott [endnote 29], the animal is then killed by beating it against the ground.

An informant from Sandema told me that the black animal is never eaten but thrown into a tree and left hanging there. This last statement speaks for the possibility suggested by R. Schott [endnote 30] that ‘the animal possibly plays a proxy role in the manner of a scapegoat’: by eating this animal, the consumers could reappropriate the guilt that had been passed onto the chicken. The belief [endnote 31] that a child dies when an adulterer or adulteress takes it in their arms during their confessions also supports the assumption that the guilt passes to the living being held in the hands during confession.

Usually, the male adulterer also must pay a fine to the house of the betrayed spouse, which in Kanjaga, for example, may consist of a cow, a chicken and tobacco. Relations between the two houses involved have deteriorated despite these fines.

The adulterers usually feel deep shame at the purification ceremony. Still, they cannot escape it if they want to continue playing their role in the village’s social life. The only way to escape this ceremony is to flee to ‘Kumasi’, i.e. southern Ghana.

 

Kabong in Wiaga

In 1979, a kabong-fobka ritual occurred after a first-time adultery between the two guilty parties. The cuckolded husband had learnt of the transgression by visiting two different diviners (notably, both were from the section and from the neighbourhood where the event occurred; they had undoubtedly already heard of this transgression). Afterwards, the husband called all his lineage’s compound heads (yeri-nyam) and informed them of the incident. An old yeri-nyono of the section – considered a nephew – performed the ritual with two white chickens. The guilty husband did not turn up. Although the husband’s children roasted the two chickens for themselves, adults would have been forbidden to eat them.

On 3 August 1981, I observed a fobka-kabong ritual in a Wiaga compound and documented its details thoroughly via notes and photos. In the following description, however, to preserve participants’ anonymisation, I refrained from publishing discriminatory photos of people.

This case involved the same guilty couple as in 1979: An elderly woman and a neighbour from the same lineage who was related to the husband. The ritual was to be performed by a nephew of the neighbour. When he refused, a 12-year-old boy from a neighbouring section stepped in for him (the husband’s BDS). After offering sacrifices with information to some ancestors of the husband’s compound, the husband, the son of the guilty wife (representing his refusing mother), and the boy from the neighbouring section stood in front of the entrance (nansiung) of the compound with a small white chicken.

The spoken text was recorded on my tape recorder.

The husband took the chicken and threw it violently on the ground so that it died. The boy hurled it in a high arc into a field.

 

 

No adult is allowed to eat the chicken because they would absorb all the guilt again (small children, however, sometimes fry this chicken). No beating or rubbing of body parts took place in the case I observed. After this ritual, the betrayed spouse is said to show no more open resentment towards the two culprits, but he revealed intense anger during his conversations with me.

I know of one case of kabong from Sandema-Kalijiisa where the male culprit refused to perform the ritual. Instead, he went to southern Ghana. He can only return to his section after the death and funeral of the betrayed husband and can live there again after performing the kabong-fobka ritual.

Especially in the large chiefly compounds, where the chief can hardly control the marital fidelity of his numerous wives, there is a more straightforward purification ceremony: One egg is broken in front of the male and female adulterers. Some chiefs are said to break an egg in front of all their wives at certain intervals, thereby clearing all the women who have been unfaithful to them since the last purification ceremony from their guilt [endnote 32].

Children from an adulterous union enjoy the same rights as the children of the lawful husband, but their half-siblings sometimes tease them at a young age, and later, there is often discord between them and the husband’s children {287}.

As already described (Chapter 1, 1; p. 36), a husband who is ill, impotent, or too old to father any more children may permit his wives to have sexual intercourse with other husbands (e.g. his brothers) to increase his household with more children. This relationship is also considered kabong, so the purification ritual must be performed regularly.

 

5. DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE

According to G. Achaw, there is one main reason for a divorce [endnote 32a]: witchcraft by the wife. In this case, the suspected wife leaves her husband’s compound with all her children because witchcraft is transmitted in the female line, meaning that a witch’s children are all predisposed to witchcraft. Before the wife is sent back to her parents’ home with her children, the parents are informed of the reasons for the dissolution of the marriage.

In the case of other grounds for divorce, the children always remain in the spouse’s home. These other causes for dismissing a wife may be, for example:

1. The woman cannot keep secrets.

2. The woman steals.

3. She often has intercourse with other men.

4. She grossly neglects the duties of a wife and housewife.

Infertility alone is not considered a ground for divorce, but it often leads to the dissolution of a marriage. In the four cases listed above (1–4), official information to the wife’s parental home is unnecessary. The husband often brings his wife to the parental home under the pretext that she looks ill and needs a change of place, a return to her parents’ environment, or other such reasons. Visits of a married woman to her parents’ house, often lasting several weeks, are not uncommon, even in a happy marriage. Only if the woman is not picked up by her husband after a month and has not received any visits from her husband’s house can she be sure that her marriage is formally over {288}.

If the husband dismisses his wife without her wish, the relationship between the previous in-laws’ houses will inevitably deteriorate. Another marriage between the two houses concerned will be impossible for a lengthy period. If, however, a marriage is separated by mutual consent of the two spouses – for instance, because the marriage remained childless – the friendly relationship between the two houses need not suffer. Leander, who separated from his first wife because both partners assumed they might have children in another marriage, married another woman from his first wife’s house a few years after the divorce.

Marital separation does not always start with the husband. A woman can also return to her parental home for good without an important reason. I know of a case where, after an argument with her drunken husband, a woman departed from Sandema with her children to her parents’ house in Fumbisi. When her husband found out, he ran after her and persuaded her to return.

Another elderly husband sent his first wife from his Kumasi residence to his elder brother’s home in Sandema with her consent and stayed in Kumasi with his second wife and his first wife’s children. When his first wife received fewer remittances than expected from Kumasi, she ran back to her parents’ house and soon married another man. When her first husband decided to come back to Sandema for good about six months later, she immediately returned to her first husband and children.

I know of quite a few cases involving a girl returning to her parents’ house after a few days in her husband’s house. It seems that among the Bulsa [endnote 33], relatively many marriages are dissolved in their early days before the birth of the first child, while the birth of a child contributes to the stability of a marriage.

While going to get water, a male gang from another part brutally abducted a Wiaga schoolgirl. After a few days’ stay, she realised she still did not like living in her husband’s house and could not realise her school plans as a wife. So, she left all {289} the clay pots at the well while fetching water for her husband and ran back to her parents’ compound.

During my stay in a Kalijiisa compound, a girl of about 12 years did not return from a visit to the market, and it was learnt that a group of suitors had abducted her. In the ensuing discussion between the girl’s mother and the yeri-nyono of the house (he is the brother of the mother’s husband), it turned out that no one approved of this marriage. The mother had believed that the yeri-nyono favoured this marriage; the yeri-nyono had thought that the mother had arranged this marriage. The girl, who was still very young, seemingly had no strong opinion of her own. Four days after the abduction, the mother went to the house of her daughter’s “husband” and took her back to her home, where she became a shepherd girl again. Although this ‘marriage’ was short-lived and probably not consummated, the episode does have far-reaching consequences. The girl can never marry into her ‘husband’s’ section again. For another man from this lineage, the marriage would be kabong. Her later husband (from another lineage) will be the enemy (dachiak) of the whole lineage of her first husband because he took away a married woman.

Against a woman’s will to live with a particular man, even court rulings sometimes are futile. A young Bulsa woman had grown up as a doglie in the house of a Kasena man in Paga; he later considered her his wife. It was impossible to say later if he had given the in-laws all the requisite payments.

After a stay at her parents’ house, the young woman did not return to her ‘husband’ but married a man from Sandema. The Kasena husband sued the Sandema man in court for abducting his wife. He was proven right and took the wife back to his compound in Paga, but the next day, the wife ran back to her Sandema husband. After a few years, the Kasena man sued his rival again. He also wanted the woman’s son this time, as she had allegedly been pregnant when she was ‘kidnapped’. The Sandema man feared for his son but not for his wife, who immediately promised him to come back the next day if she had to move back to Paga again. This time, however, the court dismissed the Kasena man’s case.

In a compound in Kalijiisa, I discovered the wen-bogluk of a young Kalijiisa woman who had married less than a year before. As a girl’s bogluk is usually detached from the ground and destroyed on marriage, and a similar bogluk is rebuilt in the husband’s house, I expressed my astonishment to the head of the house. Through him, I learnt that this is his daughter’s first marriage; therefore {290} it is presently unknown whether she will stay with her husband. As soon as she is sure she has married the right man, the bogluk will be removed. However, once a bogluk has been established in the husband’s house, the wen can never return to her parental house, although it can be enshrined in the house of another husband [endnote 34].

According to my inquiries, there is no actual divorce ceremony or symbolic act by which an existing marriage is dissolved among the Bulsa people. However, among other ethnic groups of northern Ghana, such as the Tallensi [endnote 35], a divorce may find symbolic expression through the husband blowing ashes towards his wife.

In the case of separation, the usually less-valuable household items (e.g. pots, household goods, potter’s tools) remain in the husband’s house, but clothes belong to the wife. In addition, costly material goods can cause problems. If the wife owns a sewing machine, for example, she will often take it to her parents’ house for safekeeping before moving out.

If spouses with children together separate, the children belong to the father’s line. However, if they are still very young, the mother can take them into her parental home or even temporarily into her new husband’s home. Nevertheless, these children can only inherit from their biological father. A woman impregnated in a previous marriage and married by another man will see the latter husband try to keep, hide or deny the child after birth; the first spouse will also sometimes try to take the child from the second spouse’s home secretly or by force.

Many conflicts are fought out in court because of such facts. Often, it is almost impossible for the judge to dispense justice because there is testimony against testimony, and until recently, neither marriages nor births were officially registered. If the new spouse can keep the child with him, this child has full inheritance rights in the home of the second spouse, even if the latter knows full well that he is not the procreator [endnote 36].

Older children sometimes get into emotional conflicts when their mother leaves their father’s house. A young man from Wiaga met his ‘divorced’ mother at the market every day, and she tried each meeting to persuade her son to move into the second husband’s house. She returned to her first husband’s house {291} when unsuccessful.

As some examples show, a husband may have inadequate legal means to prevent his dissatisfied wife from returning to her parental home and marrying another man. Thus, it is unsurprising that many men obtain a nipok-tiim (pl. nipok-tiita) from areas outside the Bulsa country (e.g. the Kasena) if they have not inherited it from their fathers. This bogluk usually consists of two large clay pots with medicine, a stone in a triple-branch fork (chagsa) and a forked stick from which various objects (e.g. calabashes, horns) hang (cf. Fig. 44). If a wife has left her husband’s house to marry another man, the old husband sacrifices, for example, a chicken to the nipok-tiim [endnote 36a]. The unfaithful wife will then close her hands in a spasm, and her body will become stiff and tremble. She could jump from a flat roof without hurting herself. If her new husband also has a nipok-tiim, he will make offerings to it to free his new wife from her condition. A comparison of powers between the two nipok-tiita now takes place. If the new husband’s nipok-tiim does not prove strong enough, the woman has no choice but to return to her first husband’s house, where the nipok-tiim can help her.

U. Wanitzek (1998) has attended several cases at the Sandemnaab’s court, preferably dealing with ‘women’s issues’ (claims of different spouses on one woman). She also collected material through interviews about such ‘cases’, concluding that some women often leave their spouse to marry another man, move back to their first spouse or marry a third one without a previous marriage being formally dissolved (ibid. p. 140). Also, the rituals akayaali and nansiung-lika, often called ‘legal steps’, do not play as significant a role to keep a wife as is often claimed. Other reasons are often more decisive.

U. Wanitzek (p. 142) reports:

The woman’s [new] cohabitant seems to acquire the status of a husband through the birth of children and (to a lesser extent) the passage of time while cohabiting with the woman. In contrast, the first husband loses his marital status gradually through his wife’s departure and her prolonged desertion.

 

6. REMARRIAGE OF THE WIFE AFTER HER HUSBAND’S DEATH

(Cf. also chapter on funeral celebrations.)

 

If a married man has died, on the last day of his Juka funeral or a short time later, the men of the compound gather in the kusung (shady roof and meeting room in front of the compound); the widows and other women of the house and, possibly, some neighbours, gather in the bedroom of the deceased man. The men send a messenger to the women, asking whom the widows (or widow; Buli: pokogi) want to marry. Usually, the messenger is sent back without an answer. Only when the women have decided do they send a messenger with a positive answer to the men {292}.

The women in the dok who are unaffected have only advisory functions; the decision rests solely with the widow. After she has chosen her future husband, the men send back a male messenger who expresses their agreement or asks the woman to choose another man. The women can consult again, naming other candidates or sticking to their first choice. The men can reject the women’s choice three times and then must accept it.

In her choice of a new husband, the widow is expected to marry again into the same compound or at least into the expanded family of her late husband [endnote 37] (houses that separated not very long ago and are still under one head, i.e. the kpagi or yeri-nyono). If the widow has chosen another husband of the same section, she will leave her former husband’s house even before the ‘election day’ and go to her new husband’s house. The two houses of the same section do not become enemies through this incident.

If the wife remains in the same section, the new spouse does not have to make any more payments to the deceased husband’s house. Instead, the spouse informs the head of the compound and the widow’s parents’ family. There are neither any wedding ceremonies nor celebrations. However, if the deceased has not yet made all payments (e.g. nansiung-lika) to the wife’s parents’ house, the new husband is not released from this obligation, i.e., the new husband takes over all the rights and obligations of the deceased.

If the widow does not wish to marry a man from her deceased husband’s section, she usually returns to her parental home. If she wishes to marry a man from another section, the new marriage is contracted with all the wedding ceremonies and obligations described above. The new spouse is now considered an enemy (dachiak) of the deceased spouse’s relatives, whose house is not officially informed about the new marriage. The choice of the new spouse is ultimately decided by the widow alone {293}.

If an older woman does not want to enter a genuine new marriage but still wants to remain in the compound of her deceased husband, she has several ways of expressing this desire:

1. She reports to the men in the kusung that she wants to marry her deceased husband’s grave and may express it like this: ‘N kali n chorowa boosuk zuk’ (‘I am sitting on my husband’s grave’).

2. She may choose a young boy from her late husband’s compound and exhibit a more maternal relationship with this child. Even if the boy has grown to adulthood, no sexual acts will happen. However, the boy may sacrifice to her personal wen-shrine (tintueta-wen), as her husband did before.

3. If the woman wants to stay in the compound with her adult son, she tells the men in the kusung: ‘N kali n biika ngaang’ (I sit behind my son). This son will then also pay for her upkeep.

The men in the kusung usually respect all these responses. However, the compound head of Anyenangdu Yeri was somewhat upset when, after the death of his polygynously married son, some of the widows of childbearing age did not want to enter a genuine new marriage.

Even if there are no major conflicts about the widow’s choice over remarriage in the late husband’s compound, some may occur in his lineage and some annoyances or tensions can thus remain on occasion. After an old man (Ad) died, a widow married his brother (Ak) in a neighbouring compound. However, after some time, she returned to her children in her late husband’s compound. When she died, her funeral celebration was not held by her new husband (Ak) but at the compound of her first husband (Ad) by his son (As). There have been discussions and annoyances about this, which, among other things, may cause a new compound to be founded. As, a son of Ad, left his compound and built a new one in a neighbouring section near a (non-related) friend’s house; however, he returned to his old section after some time.

Since this conflict, two new taboos (kisita) have been observed between the compounds concerned (i.e. of Ad/As and Ak): If a man dies in the compound of Ad/As, his wives are not allowed to choose a new husband from Ak’s compound or the new compound of his sons after the funeral. This would only be possible if the wives returned to their parents’ home after death and started a completely new marriage, after which their new husband would be considered a dachiak (enemy). Furthermore, no funeral may be held in the compound of Ak or his sons by a woman who died outside these compounds.

In the following, some examples of remarriages, as they became accessible to me through genealogical surveys, will be presented. Of note is that when a woman takes a husband from another generation, the relationship between her children from different marriages can become unclear.

1. Apapa Yeri (Wiaga-Yisobsa, as well as in many other cases):

 

 

After his father’s death, B married one of his father’s wives, who was not his biological mother. According to Leander, the children of a deceased man have the privilege of marrying their stepmother since they later make sacrifices to the deceased. Only after them do the dead man’s brothers have such a claim.

2. Amoanung Yeri (Sandema-Kalijiisa-Yongsa):

The numbers refer to the genealogical overview and table in Chapter V, 4; p. {183–84}

When 18 died, 16 married his two wives, 15 and 17. After the death of 16, 15 became the wife of 33 {294}.

3. Awaanka Yeri (Yongsa):

 

Father A marries a wife of his deceased son, B, i.e. she becomes the wife of her former ‘father-in-law’. To my knowledge, a case like this has occurred only once. Other informants also describe such a marriage as unusual since it usually is a son who survives his father, and the age difference between a father- and daughter-in-law is usually quite considerable. Later (after 1978), the family members urged the old man to give this wife to one of his brothers or sons. The children born of A’s new marriage union (not in the genealogy) call B’s children ‘sons’, although they are much older.

 

7. MODERN TENDENCIES IN THE YOUNGER GENERATION {294}

a) Observance of marriage bans and prescribed enmities

Whether educated or Christian, Bulsa people undoubtedly still abide by the fundamental marriage prohibitions – not because they have realised the usefulness of these institutions but because they fear traditional society’s strong sanctions. A Bulo man who takes a wife from his father’s or mother’s exogamous unit can only move southwards, never to return or give back his wife. Although the younger, educated generation seems strongly inclined to live in the south, they do not remotely think of burning all bridges to Bulsaland, as would happen through a forbidden marriage {295}.

Robert Asekabta wanted to marry a daughter from his maternal great-grandmother’s house. So far, no ma-bage from this house has been transferred to Robert’s father’s house. His parents nevertheless advised him against this marriage union. Robert, however, overrode his parents’ advice this time, having previously given up another bride when his parents found an obstacle (cf. Chapter VII, 1a, p. 250). Another middle school graduate married a girl whose mother is a ‘daughter’ of the neighbouring house, belonging to another Kalijiisa subsection. Such a marriage is not directly prohibited, but many older people warned against it.

It remains challenging to determine how much the younger, educated generation respects the enmities created by marrying a woman already married to another man of a related family. It is not uncommon for the sons or daughters of two such hostile groups to be in the same school class. I was assured that such children usually talk and play together, which would not be the case if they did not attend school. However, a genuine friendship between such students usually does not develop.

For example, a young man from Kalijiisa-Choabisa wanted to marry a middle-school student from Sandema-Kori a few years ago. However, she initially refused him because a man from Kalijiisa-Yongsa had previously married her father’s wife. Notably, Choabisa’s affiliation with Kalijiisa is very loose. Moreover, marriages between Choabisa and Kalijiisa-Yongsa are allowed today. For their part, the young suitor from Choabisa and his friends (some from Yongsa) refused the water offered to them during visits to the girl’s parents’ house, fearing they might be poisoned.

Prescribed enmities between families seem less respected by young people in southern Ghana. Here, the pressure of the foreign environment is so great, and the sense of belonging to the Bulsa ethnic group is so pronounced that enmities {296} between other relatives living in the north are greatly neglected. I am aware of a case for Cape Coast where friendship exists between two young men whose families are enemies in the north. If both men go to the north, however, this friendship, I am assured, will hardly continue.

A man from Gbedema was befriended with a distant relative from Fumbisi, for whom he even procured a wife from Wiaga. Later, this woman left her husband and married another relative of the Gbedema man. Only later were the kinship relations clearly recognised, and the second marriage was identified as illicit (kisuk). However, the Gbedema man does not want to give up his friendship with the Fumbisi man. He sleeps in his house and borrows his motorcycle. Outsiders (here from Sandema) rebuke him for this and ask him if he does not know the kisita of the Bulsa.

 

b) Courtship, marriage and school [endnote 38, {296}] 

Introducing schools into the Bulsa area has brought about fundamental changes in myriad aspects of social life, including the coexistence of the sexes, forms of courtship, marriage customs, and choice of partners. Whereas in traditional society, courtship tended to lead to marriage as soon as possible, the duration of courtship and friendship between the sexes has been artificially prolonged by school because it includes at least the years of secondary school education, especially for girls.

Marriage during schooling does happen, but teachers do not like it; the students also fear that they will not achieve their school goals if they marry prematurely.

Of the 16 girls who took their exams at St. Martin’s Middle School (Wiaga) in 1974, five were married at the time of the exam, one was divorced, nine were unmarried, and one had a marital status unknown to me. One girl married shortly after the exam, and another student had been living in a household as a doglie for some time but had not decided on a particular housemate at the time of the exam (listed here under ‘unmarried’). Two married girls already had one child each; in one of the two cases, the husband was the child’s father.

Of the eight pupils who took their exams at Sandema Continuation Boarding School (previously ‘Middle School’) at the same time, none were married, to my knowledge. However, one girl was often regarded as ‘married’ because she lived with her sister, who was married to a teacher at the school; this girl helped her sister in the household. She was considered a doglie of the teacher’s household, although her sister’s husband, a Catholic teacher, thought as little of marriage as the student {297} herself.

A middle school girl who experiences friendships, dalliances, and love affairs has a choice of marriage that no Bulsa girl ever had in the past: not only does the school girl have a lengthier courtship period at her disposal, but the number of her suitors and marriage prospects has also increased. By no means do schoolgirls reject traditional forms of courtship. They often walk long distances to neighbouring villages on market days to meet their mixed-age group. Nor are illiterate applicants rejected on principle [endnote 39], but the circle of applicants also includes secondary school graduates who have returned from the South for a short time to look for a wife, foreign civil servants or teachers from other parts of Ghana who have obtained employment in Sandema District.

The places of encounter include the market as well as the school – where one seeks out one’s friend during breaks and where young, more-or-less educated villagers appear – especially at school festivals, sports events and dismissal celebrations.

A young man from Wiaga-Yisobsa-Guuta (cf. Chapter VII, 2b, p. 260) reports that after a football match in which he had actively participated as a middle school student, a female student unknown to him handed him a letter from her girlfriend and immediately disappeared. It was an anonymous love letter. He made investigations, and while preparing for a central sports competition in Sandema, he was able to speak to the letter writer for the first time and later met her more often.

Azuma from Chiok (cf. Chapter VI, 1; p. 198 f.) mentions in her life story how she was courted by her present husband (text slightly improved):

My first time in a friendship with a boy was on my first day in the middle school. When he wrote a letter to me, I replied with gladness and joy. It happened that he invited me to their house, and that was my first visit to their house. When we went there together, all his parents were happy with me, and they went and bought drinks, and we all enjoyed ourselves {298} there. At the time I wanted to go home, I was drunk, and I could not even go home, so they took me to our house. Then, we wrote letters to each other, and if anybody [else] asked me for love, I would tell that person that I was not ready to have a friendship with him. The time came [when] we promised to be with each other in the future. So, all our hearts lie on each other. Immediately after I finished school, I married him, and that was on August 4, 1974, when all lorries were moving on the right, and I hope I will not forget that day.

The experiences described show apparent differences from traditional forms of courtship. Contacts are made at school, the love letter plays a significant role, and marriage only occurs after passing the exams. In the first account, the courtship starts with the girl, not the boy; in Azuma’s account, the girl visits the boy’s house; house calls by the male suitor to the female student’s parents’ compound are not mentioned. Intriguingly, Azuma mentally links her wedding day with a supra-regional event: Ghana’s switch from left-hand to right-hand traffic.

If illiterate girls have no difficulty finding a husband, a schoolgirl can choose her future husband from an even larger pool of suitors. Illiterate, less well-off men often do not even dare to join the crowd of more affluent, educated, European-dressed suitors. If a poorer, illiterate man does manage to marry a schoolgirl, there is sometimes talk of magic, as I experienced in Kalijiisa.

The following factors, among others, may contribute to the girl student’s extreme attractiveness:

1. Great cleanliness (many students take a full bath three times a day).

2. Attractive, modern clothing (e.g. long trousers, shorts, miniskirts, etc.)

3. Beauty: Schoolgirls do much less demanding physical work than their illiterate peers. They also {299} know many cosmetic tricks to make their appearance more attractive.

4. Education and open-mindedness: School attendance alone makes a woman more desirable and gives high prestige to the successful applicant. Also, her often great linguistic fluency (in Buli and English), entertainment skills and greater open-mindedness to modern things increase the attractiveness of a female student to many suitors.

Items 1–3, as mentioned above, involve increased financial expenses (soap, clothing, cosmetics, etc.). How can the student meet these special costs? Although I noticed that, especially at Sandema Continuation Boarding School, many female students come from chiefs’ or other well-off families, this cannot be the only reason female students have much more pocket money and are conspicuously better dressed than male students of the same age.

The explanation for these financial differences came from the male students and, somewhat more tentatively, from the female students: Gifts from boys help the schoolgirl to be attractive. Some female students refuse the acceptance of money from friends and speak contemptuously of the ‘money girls’ who take money for sexual services. Still, others also find it quite natural to have money given to them. However, they all take it for granted that their friends pay for pito and other drinks at the market, buy something for them to eat at lunchtime and settle special requests (e.g. soap, sugar, oil sardines) whenever possible. With wealthier suitors, a girl also requests clothing material, clothes, jewellery, or the like without inhibitions.

As shown above (Chapter VII, 2c, p. 262 ff.), in traditional society, the bridegroom also had to be generous with gifts, and the schoolgirls make the same demands. However, a significant change has occurred. Whereas in the first case, the gifts brought about a marriage as quickly as possible, in the second case, they are considered a condition for a prestigious friendship with a schoolgirl and possibly a gratuity for sexual services. The girl’s parental home is usually neglected altogether if there are no firm marriage intentions on the applicant’s part.

The older (male) secondary school students are often linked to female students of their own or other schools through comradeship, learning communities, or even a love affairs {300}. As is common among unmarried non-student girls, female students do not want to be tied down to one partner. The male students seem to accept other suitors’ courtship of their girlfriends calmly, especially since most do not intend to marry immediately after leaving school. They first want to build careers through further education or profitable work in the South. If one is successful, it is not difficult to find an attractive younger student as a spouse later, especially if there is a prospect for a girl to live in the South via marriage.

As a result of these behavioural patterns (which may have changed in the meantime), husbands are often much older than their wives. According to the Population Census of Ghana (1960, p. 230), out of 8,930 recorded (male) Bulsa heads of households, 2,227 are 20 or more years older than their wives.

Further modern tendencies in the younger, educated generation are described below (Chapter VII, 7), especially from the perspective of Evans Atuick (quotations from E. Atuick 2015: 92–103).

 

c) Christianity and marriage

On the rites of passage discussed thus far, the Christian churches take a stance that fluctuates between benevolent toleration and rejection. Most churches see traditional marriage customs as components and prerequisites for a Christian marriage. Often, the churches only agree to a church blessing when the Christian spouses have completed the traditional marriage customs. Notably, a marriage that has only come about through traditional marriage rites is still considered valid, meaning, for example, that a Christian can by no means marry a man’s wife if this first marriage was concluded only on a traditional level [endnote 40].

A new problem thus arises. Through which ceremonies and rites is a traditional marriage concluded and valid for Christian churches? As explained above, a lengthy series of rituals and acts, sometimes separated by several years, establish a traditional marriage. In the second issue of the Builsa Herald (October 1973: 3–4), a journal close to the Catholic Mission of Wiaga, the author, a member of the Parish Research Committee, distinguishes three ‘stages at which our traditional marriage is sealed and legalised’:

1. ‘Akayaali ale wa boka de’ (‘Don’t look for her, for she is here’), see Chapter VII, 2h

2. ‘Lig nansiung’ (‘Closing the gate’) see Chapter VII, 2l

3. ‘Nyiem soka’ (‘Common bath’) {301} see Chapter VII, 2g; [endnote 41].

Most likely, all Christian churches consider it a priority to incorporate the highly valued traditional rites into Christian liturgy in some form. As a practical suggestion, for example, it is proposed by an anonymous author in No. 3 of the Builsa Herald [endnote 42] that at a church wedding, the bride should bring along the calabash she received from her parents as a sign of consent before her abduction [endnote 43] and that she should offer water to her groom in this calabash, as is usually done with water or TZ in the groom’s house.

Nevertheless, incorporating those crucial three steps into the Christian ceremony will likely be fraught with more difficulties. Neglect of traditional forms by strongly acculturated Christian youth can have far-reaching consequences. When G. Achaw, a nurse, once took a female colleague to his parents’ house, this act was interpreted as showing the intention for marriage (kidnapping with the bride’s consent) by all the house residents and neighbours. However, they had no serious intention of marriage at the time.

c1) Case studies and conflicts

It seems improbable that there will be religiously motivated conflicts in the attitude of young Christian Bulsa after this generous handling by the churches. Although the church blessing may only seem to be the last in a series of wedding customs, many young married couples surprisingly refuse to combine the church blessing with the old marriage ceremonies right away. If they are already considered legally married in Bulsa society, as well as before the law, a church blessing can only bring them difficulties, as many Christian Bulsa have experienced. As explained, the Bulsa marriage does not seem very stable in the first few years. Some young women prefer to return to their parental home, particularly if no pregnancy occurs. I was thus often assured by Christian Bulsa that they intended to have a church wedding after the birth of their first child, not before. It is, therefore, not uncommon that at church weddings, the bride carries her youngest child on her back {302}.

The wedding of my assistant Yaw, an enthusiastic member and preacher (later pastor) of the Restoration Power Chapel, went off without a hitch. He had known his future wife for several years before marriage (2015). After a church service, he took her to his paternal compound without compulsion.

For three days, she was held there and amused by the locals before Yaw brought her to his own home. Both were now considered married. Yaw had made several visits with gifts to the girl’s compound before, without these probably being directly regarded as courtship visits. The woman’s parents said marriage was a matter for the young people alone; they did not want to interfere. Nevertheless, Yaw had obtained a san-yigma (intermediary) from his section with kinship ties to the bride’s section. The dog ritual was not performed, allegedly because Yaw could not find a suitable dog at the time.

Ayarik, residing in Cape Coast in 1974, intended to marry in a Wiaga church. He and his wife would then receive bridal tuition from the White Fathers. Ayarik wanted to give his wife a gift and have an advertisement put in the newspaper, although there was no way to buy a newspaper in Bulsaland in 1974. His non-Christian father would throw a party, have a band come and serve pito to all the guests. Registration of new marriages required by the state did not exist in northern Ghana in 1974 (See Excursus in Chapter VII, 7c).

Important for Christian spouses is the question of residence. The first Catholic missionaries in Wiaga believed it was almost impossible for young Christians to practise their faith in a pagan environment without ongoing conflicts. They thus recommended that young married people build their own mud house near the mission station. Augustine Akanbe, a Presbyterian catechist, still considers such a measure an ideal solution today, even if it is associated with difficulties in practice. Only in this way, he says, can a baptised person lead a genuinely Christian life. Otherwise, there would be constant disputes with the parents or the yeri-nyono concerning child-rearing, taboo observance, or performing ‘pagan’ ritual acts. As a Presbyterian Christian who wanted to keep the ‘pagan rituals’ to a minimum when he married, Augustine refused to do field work for his in-laws, which caused him severe isolation – socially and economically – from his relatives.

The conflicts are exacerbated if there is a large educational gap between the two spouses, often concurrent with the degree of Christianisation. It is commonly said that Christian women, in particular, often strictly adhere to all ‘pagan’ rules out of timidity. This statement has yet to be proved or disproved. In Yongsa, at any rate, the three {303} first illiterate Christians will be women, all of whom live in polygamous marriages and who, according to the Presbyterian pastor, will try to live a Christian life there.

c2) Christianity and Polygyny in E. Hillman’s study ‘Polygamy Reconsidered’ (1975)

In his study, the Catholic priest E. Hillman,  S. S. P.) strives for a defensible attitude of the churches towards polygamously married couples who want to convert to Christianity.

He mentions compromises advocated by various Christian churches in different parts of the world. These range from destroying the polygamous family structure to offering baptism to all members of such a family. Between these extreme attitudes lie many other attempts at compromise.

In the Anglican Church, for example, the proposal was discussed to baptise only the wives of a polygamous family, as they are ‘involuntary victims of the custom’ (p. 32). This proposal was not generally accepted, although ‘Anglicans … in West Africa allow the wives of polygamists to be baptised’ (p. 33). The ‘Lutheran Church in Liberia’ decided ‘that polygamous husbands, as well as their wives, may be admitted to baptism and communion, although normally they may not hold official positions of leadership in the ecclesiastical organisation’.

Some independent African churches ‘have positively accepted polygamy as part of their conscious indigenisation of Christianity in Africa’ (p. 33).

In the last part of his study (pp. 205–208), Hillman outlines his attitude towards polygamous marriage and its compatibility with the Christian faith.

…the traditional ecclesiastical discipline regarding African polygamy is not as well founded, biblically and theologically, as has been supposed [before]… it should be possible to adopt at least a new policy of toleration, along the lines already tested by the Lutheran Church in Liberia. Persons who have previously entered polygamous marriages, in good faith and according to the socially accepted practice of their time and place in history, should not be prevented from participating in the sacramental life of the Church (p. 206).

…it should be made clear to them that no additional polygamous marriages are permissible once they have entered the Christian community through baptism… (p. 206)

Among the Bulsa, a break with the Christian church usually occurs when a monogamously married Christian husband takes a second wife – few mission churches are prepared to allow a Christian to enter a new polygynous marriage. For example, the Presbyterian Church of Sandema allows women living in polygynous families to be baptised, and polygynously married men can also be baptised but cannot hold office in the church.

I could not inquire about the solution proposed by some Christian churches, especially for older converts, that the polygamously married convert remains in communion with all women and, economically speaking, in one household but may only have sexual intercourse with one woman of his choice because I was not aware of any case of such a marriage among the Bulsa.

A Christian’s decision to marry a second wife usually also entails abandoning many Christian habits (e.g. churchgoing, prayer) and a readaptation to traditional forms of religion. For example, when Leander Amoak became Catholic as a young man, he destroyed his wen-bogluk, stopped all sacrificial acts, attended church regularly, and immediately had a church wedding with his bride. The marriage remained childless; the wife returned to her parental home; he successively married two other women who, similarly, did not bear children and returned to their parental home. Then, Leander Amoak had his wen-bogluk restored, married a relative of his first wife, and, after a year, fathered a daughter. Today (1974), he is married to four wives, all of whom bore him children, still attends church – mainly at Christmas and Easter – performs all the sacrifices or divinations of a compound head and has his children raised in the traditional faith. However, he has not failed to have almost all his children baptised soon after birth {304}.

c3) Registration of marriages required by the state

In 1985, the state enacted the Customary Marriage and Divorce Law, which makes registering a traditional or Christian marriage or divorce mandatory. U. Wanitzek (1998: 160) comments: ‘…failure to register such a marriage does not affect its validity, as has been confirmed by an Amendment of 1991’.

Today (2021), according to Lawyer Frederick Asamoah, only the monogamous form is allowed for a state marriage (marriage under ordinance), and a violation is punishable by a prison sentence of half a year. According to customary law, however, any number of marriages can be contracted (simultaneously) (Ghanaweb 6 October 2021).

 

c4) Modern marriages, according to Evans A. Atuick (Buluk 8, 2015: 92–103)

The author gives a detailed account of traditional wedding rites in the first part of his essay and then devotes several pages to ‘Changes and Developments’ (pp. 98–103). As a san-yigma of three marriages between a Bulsa woman and a non-Bulsa groom, he has observed the following changes:

1. The marriage process has been truncated so that some people can now ‘carry out all three phases in one day’ (p. 99). A second visit to the bride’s compound is feigned by the applicant group moving from the compound to the parked car and, from there, back to the compound to perform the ‘akaayaa-ali-wa-boro’ ritual. All greetings in the compound are performed again for this purpose.

2. The san-yigma of the wedding negotiation was, in contrast to the traditional customs, somebody (here: Evans Atuick) who was neither related to the bride’s nor the bridegroom’s lineage.

3. The amount and scope of gifts and payments to the bride’s family have increased immensely and are preferably settled through monetary payments. When Evans asked what they had brought, he was shown three marked envelopes (labelled elders, brothers, and mother) with money, a fowl, a sheep, a hoe, tobacco, kola nuts and bottles of dry gin. Straight away, Evans told the young woman’s mother that ‘once she [the bride] had not delivered, the big ram was not necessary’, but she insisted they took it along; otherwise, the suitor would think he got her daughter cheap (p. 100).

4. Another change in the process is disregarding most of the taboos and values accompanying the marriage process. Young men now ‘eat’ the ‘forbidden fruit’ several times and sometimes even impregnate or have a child or two with the young women before starting the process: ‘Quite clearly then, the good morals and chastity that have to be strictly adhered to during courtship have long been thrown to the dogs and forgotten’.

Notably, the taboo that forbids young suitors from marrying a young woman once they visit her paternal compound and see someone in the process of making Bulsa-kpaam (shea butter) or tiak (mat of elephant grass) no longer means anything to young men and women of today. Thus, most young men, especially the ostensibly educated ones, no longer believe in that warning. They would still go ahead with the marriage rites even when they encountered such ‘bad luck’ activities at the house of a would-be-bride on countless occasions (p. 101).

When the wedding rites are performed in the big cities of southern Ghana, the deviations from the traditional norm are even more significant (Evans Atuick 2015, p. 101).

It is also not uncommon for a young woman or man getting into marriage in the city to just arrange for any elderly Bulsa, who may not even be a relative, to sit in as his or her parent and receive or give whatever is required for the marriage. On rare occasions, some of the items (sometimes just a bottle of schnapps, a cloth, and some money) given for the lady’s hand in marriage are packaged and given to somebody travelling home to give them to the family of the lady and explain everything to them. Finished!! In most cases, the man who is seeking such a lady’s hand in marriage eventually does not even know where she hails from, nor do the actual family members know the man personally. Some Bulsa men are also guilty of this, as many have married women from other tribes and have never bothered to bring such women home to know where they actually come from. Such men eventually die wherever they are, and their children are lost to the family and tribe of the woman. This is quite dangerous because, in the event of any problem occurring in the marriage, family members would not be there for such a person since they are not aware of such a union. There is also this unhealthy practice whereby young women are always eager to jump at an opportunity to marry men who are either in the city or abroad as a way of ensuring financial and social security for themselves and their families. Some parents, especially mothers, push their daughters into marrying rich and influential men because of the financial, social security and prestige benefits accruing from such unions, regardless of whether the young girl would be happy in the union or not. Some young girls have even agreed to marry men merely by seeing their pictures, which are posted to relatives at home. Eventually, the marriage rites are concluded by the relations without the family of the girl knowing the man, and then the girl is ‘posted’ to her new husband, whom she barely knew before. In most cases, such marriages run into problems and collapse, with dire consequences for the unprepared young woman.

According to Evans A. Atuick (2015: 102), the Bulsa and other Africans readily accept the outer form of a Christian marriage:

Over the years, it has become the vogue and the norm for a young girl or man to have his or her marriage blessed in the church with pomp and pageantry, as well as lavish banquets with every kind of food or drink available for patrons. The young woman being wedded, usually immaculately dressed in a white wedding gown that is either bought, sewn or borrowed, became the envy of all other single ladies who would do anything to be in the bride’s position!!! Oh yes! Almost every single woman is now crazy to [have] a Western-style wedding in the church and wants it to be bigger than that of her colleagues even if not ready… Even those who do not have cars would often borrow or hire them for only the wedding ceremony and continue walking, riding or using the ‘trotro’ (public transit) afterwards. …Indeed, the upsurge in church weddings and the craving for them by most young women or men have not only scared a lot of young men, who are not on sound financial footing, from contemplating marriage but has also led to the disregard for our traditional customary marriage practices and protocols among so-called Christian Bulsa. Indeed, some have even refused to engage in the customary marriage practices, regarding them as idol worship-related practices, which are unchristian and should be avoided by so-called Christians… The fact, however, remains that such foreign-style forms of marriage inevitably have a detrimental effect on Bulsa customary marriage practices since they are bound to erode such customary values and norms (Atuick, p. 102).

 

ENDNOTES

CHAPTER 7: COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

 

1. Fortes 1945: 40 us 52 (The Dynamics of Clanship).

2. In this work, the generally used abbreviations for kinship relationships were used: F = Father, M = Mother, W = Wife, Sp = Spouse, S = Son, D = Daughter, B = Brother, Z = Sister, LA = in-law, etc. {368}.

3. Marriages between Bulsa and Zabarima are not forbidden in principle but are associated with great difficulties in traditional society, as the rites of the other group are not taken seriously. For example, gifts can be refused. Cf. J.J. Holden, ‘The Zabarima Conquest of North-West Ghana, Part I’, Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, vol. VIII, Legon, 1965: 60–86.

4. Marriages (of ‘daughters’) from sections with whom one ‘jokes’ are also permitted among other ethnic groups of northern Ghana. See M. Fortes, 1945, p. 91, footnote on ‘The Dynamics of Clanship’. R.S. Rattray, The Tribes of the Ashanti Hinterland, 1969: 390: ‘We, Kusase, also “play together” (deem taba) with the Mampruse and the Gurense, because these tribes intermarry with us…’

4a. Fortes 1967: 293 (The Web of Kinship). See also the Population and Housing Census of Ghana 1960: 239: Marriage of Bulsa from other ethnic groups.

5. The ancestor-bogluk at the chief’s compound’s entrance is sometimes called ‘Suarinsa’s daughter’ (Information: R. Asekabta).

5a. Cf. I. Heermann 1981: 41: ‘Affinity hardly plays a role, at least in marriage relationships. It is considered positive to marry a second wife from the house of the first. The only thing forbidden is the marriage of daughters born one after the other’. However, my assistant, G. Achaw, noted that the marriage of two women from the same compound can bring material disadvantages.

5b. In Buli, the word daung (pl. dangta) is used here to denote not only external dirt and bodily excretions to be used for magical purposes but also an offence (a ‘sin’) in the ritual sense (e.g. kabong).

6. Fiok (often called black monkey): large, dark monkey species (e.g. baboon, chimpanzee, etc.); waaung (often called red monkey): several smaller monkey species, but not all prosimians and guenons (baluk, pl. baluta). As R. Schott has shown, the shared respect for the same species as a totem animal alone does not justify prohibitions of incest or exogamy. Cf. R. Schott 1973: 456 (‘Kisuk animals of the Bulsa’).

7. Cf. Chapter 1,3; p. {41}.

8. Reference date: 1 July 1974. Like the list (Introduction 2, p. {10}), the foreign houses of Yongsa (assimilated lineages) and the families living in southern Ghana on the reference date were also counted. ‘Divorced’ women no longer living in Yongsa on the reference date were omitted.

9. The Web of Kinship, p. 287 ff.

9a. Cf. Vermot-Mangold 1977: 73f: The author reports on investigations among the Kabre (northern Togo). Of 51 women from the Akaide neighbourhood in Kare, only 19 come from another village, 21 from Akaide itself and the rest from another neighbourhood of Kare.

The statements of Fortes, Vermot-Mangold and myself will probably no longer be entirely accurate in recent times, thanks to increased mobility.

9b. The word ‘courtship’ can be rendered in Buli differently: lie-yaa(li)ka or cheng-yaa(li)ka. Yaalika is a verbal noun to yaali = to love, desire, seek, marry. ‘Marriage’ can be translated as nipok-yaa(li)ka, chaab-yaa(li)ka (marry each other) or faarika. Faari (to marry) can only be used for the male partner of the wedding couple (‘to take a wife’).

10. While the harvest sacrifice celebrations (fanoi) in the individual compounds are undoubtedly firmly rooted in the traditional order, Sandema’s Fiok festival, with its public durbars and only a few ritual elements, was founded in 1974 by the Sandemnaab Azantilow with the collaboration of the Bulsa Youth Association (see Buluk 8, 2015: 107–112). {369}

11. Inf.: Alfred Akowan, Sandema-Longsa.

12. Information (3rd question) by R. Schott, Unpublished field notes 1966/67.

13. When I lived in Amoanung Yeri (Kalijiisa-Yongsa), Apatanyin, the head of the compound, informed the wena of his ancestors that a ‘stranger’ (the woman) would soon come to the house.

14. See also: ‘Builsa Traditional Marriage’, Builsa Herald, 3 (1974), p. 8.

14a. A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (1951: 20) writes of violent abductions:

…Every anthropologist is familiar with the custom by which it is represented that the bride is captured or taken by force from her kinsfolk. A first collection of instances of this custom was made by McLennan, who interpreted them historically as being survivals from the earliest condition of human society in which the only way to obtain a wife was to steal or capture a woman from another tribe…

Viewed in relation to social structure, the meaning or symbolic reference of these customs ought to be obvious. The solidarity of the group requires that the loss of one of its members shall be recognized as an injury to the group. The taking of a woman in marriage is represented as, in some sense, [an] act of hostility against her kin…

A completely different historical interpretation of predatory marriages can be found in Thurnwald (in Adam/Trimborn 1958: 170): ‘The formerly widespread assumption that marriages used to be contracted by way of theft of girls originated in romantic ideas about the savagery of ‘primitive’ humanity. Marriages are sometimes concluded via robberies when old marriage orders break down…’

15. ‘Ngaanga’ (the literal translation causes difficulties) is called when visiting a compound and before seeing someone you can address.

15a. The wedding songs sung on the flat roof are called nangbiena (Robert Asekabta: naamgbiena). The songs and rhythms played with instruments in the courtyard are called dabiak-yiila. Even if there are membrane drums in the household, only upturned calabash bowls or buckets laid flat (Evans Atuick 2015: 95) are beaten with two sticks or with the hands.

15b. E. Atuick calls the festivities in the house (together with the songs when reaching the house?) akuwaaliba. After this, the bride is considered married. Cf. also the song A ku waali ba. ‘They have been offended’ quoted in Chapter VII, 2e, p. {268}).

15c. The spouse of a previous marriage relationship can cause an illness in a newly married woman through song medicine, which manifests itself through strong fits. It occurs suddenly, is very painful and lasts about a day. The woman cries loudly and runs around, and no one can hold her. The woman is taken to her father’s house, and her body is smeared with ashes from her husband’s rubbish heap (tampoi).

16. Unpublished field notes 1966/67, p. 75.

17. The main informant for this section was G. Achaw (Sandema-Kalijiisa).

18. Alcoholic drink of southern Ghana, distilled from palm wine.

19. On the role of the san-yigmo in a miscarriage, cf. Chapter II,6; p. {60}.

20. Busik, pl. busisa or busa. An illustration can be found in R. Schott (1970), Aus Leben und Dichtung…(1970, photo attachment, fig. 28), a detailed description of its production, function and meaning in Kröger 2001: 319–325.

21. The Bulsa use the term tiak-lika for closing the entrance of a dok with a mat (tiak, pl. toata). For payments to the bride’s parents, only the expression nansiung-lika is used. Cf. also K. Dittmer, Die sakralen Häuptlinge…, p. 19 ‘…Verschließen’ imaginärer ‘Pforten’ [closing imaginary gates]) and the remarks of van Gennep 1981: 27–30 and R. Schott 1978: 630.

22. The number four must again be interpreted as symbolic of the female gender (payments for a woman). See also Wanitzek 1998: 134–135: ‘The amount of money used to be 4 pesewas and increased later to amounts such as 4 cedis, 40 cedis, 400 cedis, 4,000 cedis’.

23. The sheep can only be used for sacrificial purposes. According to information from Kanjaga (Peter Anab), it is usually offered to the tintueta-wen of the bride’s biological father.

A detailed description of the sacrificial acts after receiving the nansiung-lika offerings and the distribution of the sacrificial animals is found in Chapter VII, 2l. In southern Bulsaland, it is said to make no difference whether the woman has already given birth to a child; a goat is given as a gift regardless (p. 168).

23a. For a treatise on the orientation of the Bulsa to past rituals and events and the establishment of ritual deviations, see Kröger (2012).

24. Some prize songs in Buli with German translation were published in R. Schott, Aus Leben und Dichtung (1970): 32–33 {370}. p. 169. The negative and sometimes aggressive statements in these songs about the opposite sex find their counterpart in the nanzuk-yiila (songs while grinding millet) of the women. For example, a young married woman complained: ‘I only got married because of the many gifts [at the beginning of the marriage]. If there are no more guinea fowls here in the house, I will run back home’. S. 170

24a. Heermann (1981: 132) writes in a footnote: ‘Prof. Schott observed several times in 1974/75 the placing of heads of slaughtered goats as a sign that the son-in-law and his friends had come to work and had been entertained’. But R. Schott [in Sandema?] and F. Kröger in Wiaga also observed crocodile sculptures with skull bones [of the prepared animals]. p. 170

24b. One ‘cloth’ (ga-tiak) corresponds to a width of about 1.10 m and a length of 1.70 m and is sufficient for making a blouse, a tight, long skirt or a loose hip scarf. It takes three cloths to make a traditional woman’s costume (see Kröger 2001: 589).

24c. The Sandemnab has banned the sale of akpeteshi in compounds without any far-reaching consequences and is probably planning an all-encompassing ban (cf. Buluk 10, 2016: 23).

24c. Here: single round house with flat or conical roof. The residential section around an inner courtyard can also be called a dok; see also endnote 25.

24d. The first wife (pok-kpagi), sometimes also called the senior wife, is the first wife of a man to marry, not the oldest in years. She has a leading position with limited authority among her husband’s wives and the wives of her husband’s younger brothers. If one wants to give a gift to one of the ‘younger’ wives of a husband, one gives it first to the pok-kpagi. The first wife of a yeri-nyono has the title Ama.

25. Literally: owner (mistress) of a dok. Here, dok means a residential section around a courtyard.

26. The prefix A- gives the term the character of a name; really, this ‘title’ often supplants the woman’s proper name. Ma = mother.

27. The informant can, of course, no longer remember the exact wording of the speech. He freely recreated the speech’s text with information his parents provided.

27a. According to the Population Census of Ghana (1960, p. 221), of the 12,800 male married Bulsa (urban and rural) recorded at the time of the census, 67.4% were married to one wife, 25.2% to two, 5.4% to three, 0.8% to four and 1.2% to five or more wives. On average, a man was married to 1.4 women.

27b. More recently, Rev. Stephen Azundem has compared the Jewish concept of ritual cleaning with the purification rites and the function of the kabong. He has also concluded that the scape-chicken and the scapegoat of the Old Testament have a similar function: to take on the guilt of people who then kill the animal in a bloodless way (Azundem 2020: 41–48).

28. R. Schott (1973/1974): 90 (House and wildlife).

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid.

31. Freely quoted after R. Schott 1973/1974: 290.

31a. Further photos of the kabong ritual in Wiaga are not published here for data protection reasons.

32. R.S. Rattray 1969: 86 (iReligion and Art in Ashanti) reports an ordeal that a bride used to have to undergo before her wedding at a crossroads to prove her sexual integrity. Here, the girl would take an egg in her right hand and cast it upon the ground, taking at the same time the following oath: ‘If anyone has eaten me, may my obosum (god) kill me’.

32a. Divorce in Buli is called yierika. The verb yieri also means ‘to remove, to discharge’ and can also be used for a separation based on a too close relationship between husband and wife. The expression (literally, ‘to refuse a wife’) denotes a divorce that originates with the man. According to the Population Census of Ghana 1960, vol. VI, p. 210, out of 1,980 married Bulsa, 1,600 men and 380 women were divorced.

33. See also M. Fortes 1967: 84 (The Web of Kinship).

34. On the whereabouts of female wen-bogluta, cf. also Chapter V,3a; p. {165}.

35. Cf. M. Fortes, The Web of Kinship, p. 108.

36. On special proper names (of the child) in such a case of ‘adoption’ cf. Chapter III B, 3h; p. {105}.

36a. Inf. by Leander Amoak, who has a nipok-tiim in his house.

37. Cf. M. Fortes, The Web of Kinship, p. 69.

38. I researched this complex of topics in depth at Sandema Continuation Boarding School. However, only some of the results can be reported in this paper. I gained insight into the pupils’ problems, especially during my teaching work at Sandema Boarding School (middle school, later Continuation School) in 1973 and 1974. All the pupils were forthright with me in conversations about love and marriage.

39. In a questionnaire, the overall evaluation of which is still pending, I asked 148 male students and 76 female students of grades 3 and 4 in the six Bulsa ‘Middle Schools’ the following question: ‘If you are going to marry, must your wife/husband have attended a school?’ The question was answered as follows:

‘Yes’: 74 female students, 108 male students

‘No’: 2 female students, 37 male students

‘I don’t know’: 1 male student

‘I don’t want to marry’: 2 male students

That students are more willing to marry an illiterate partner is unsurprising in a predominantly polygamous society (with a scarcity of women). However, such a strong rejection of illiterate marriage partners by the schoolgirls, as the result shows, did not quite correspond to my observations. I also know of quite a lot of marriages between former schoolgirls and (often wealthy) illiterate men.

40. According to the Population Census of Ghana 1960, vol. VI, p. 214, out of 2160 married Bulsa men in urban areas, 2,140 were only traditionally (customarily) married, while in rural districts, out of 14,020 men, 13,860 were traditionally married. Of the 1,560 married Bulsa women in urban areas, 1,540 were married only traditionally. In rural districts, 13,860 out of 20,200 women were married traditionally. I could not find further information (e.g. on Bulsa married only in church) or data in later editions of the Population Census.

41. In court cases I attended in Navrongo, in trials between two Bulsa counterparts, a marriage was only considered legal if the ‘bride price’ was paid. The amount of ‘bride price’ is often given by the Bulsa as a multiple of the real nansiung-lika payments paid because small gifts are often not accepted by the courts as ‘bride price’.

42. February 1974: 8–10.

43. This custom seems to be particularly common in Wiaga. It could not always be proven for other parts of the Bulsa country. In southern Ghana, it only exists if the parents have consented {372}.

44. Compare this to the Catholic cleric E. Hillman’s (1975) recommendations for Christians to live in polygamous families.

 

 

 

 

• Title, Contents and Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter I: Pregnancy
• Chapter II: Birth
• Chapter III: The Guardian Spirit, Naming and Names
• Chapter IV: Scarifications
• Chapter V: Wen Rites
• Chapter VI: Excision and Circumcision
• Chapter VII: Courting and Marriage
• Chapter VIII: Death and Burial
• Chapter VIII (contd.): Funeral Celebrations
  • The Kumsa Funeral Celebration
  • The Juka Funeral Celebration
  • Funerals and Rites of Passage
  • The Role of Women in Funerals
  • Redundances in the Two Funeral Celebrations
• Conclusion
• Appendix