Little information on the Ogboni cult is readily available as the cult has apparently not been the focus of exhaustive research. Specific information on:

1) is currently unavailable to the IRBDC in Ottawa.

2) Published information on this subject is currently unavailable to the IRBDC in Ottawa. According to a representative of the Embassy of Nigeria in Ottawa, contacted on 7 May 1991, the government does not recognized the Ogboni society.

3) According to Peter Morton-William, the Ogboni members or "those who have Ogboni" were elderly people, predominantly men, with a small number of women, "usually six ... whose duty is to represent the interests of the women in the town" (Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 1960, 368).

Further information on this specific question is currently unavailable to the IRBDC in Ottawa.

According to anthropologists Susan Druker-Brown of the University of Cambridge, Michelle Gilbert of Yale University and Smith College, and Karin Barber of the University of Birmingham, Emeritus Professor Peter Morton-Williams of the University of Ulster is considered as one of the leading experts on the Yoruba Ogboni cult, specifically the Ogboni of the Oyo region of Yorubaland. However, Professor Morton-Williams' publications on the subject were written mainly in the early 1960s.

Yorubaland formerly contained several hundred chiefdoms and occupied most of what is now western Nigeria. Each chiefdom had an Alafin, the Oba or King, which, in Oyo region, was checked by the Oyo Misi (Council of State) which in turn was restrained by the chiefdom's Ogboni. The "Ogboni is a secret and ritually united corporation of political and religious leaders and its special priests" (Morton-Williams 1960, 364).

According to The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Yoruba people are now mainly located in southwestern Nigeria, with scattered groups in Benin and northern Togo (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica 1989, 12: 855).

The word Ogboni is derived from gbo, to be old and eni, a person (Morton-Williams 1960, 368). The cult itself worshipped the "earth spirits" and its judicial functions were mainly concerned with the settling of disputes in which "blood had been shed on the earth" (Morton-Williams 1960, 366). According to J.S. Eades, Lecturer of Social Anthropology at the University of Kent at Canterbury, the cult's "wider political significance lay in the fact that it provided an opportunity for the leading elders of the town to meet in guaranteed secrecy" (Eades 1980, 98).

The initiation into the Ogboni goes as follows:

Initiation rites are performed at entry into the senior grade only, with a further rite marking induction into a titled office. There is no initiation into the grade of juniors, this being really little more than a state in which potential membership of the higher grade is recognized. It indicates that an individual is a patrilineal descendant of an Ogboni and, because Ogboni are still recruited from the descent group, some spiritual protection is extended to him. It also entails the duty of contributing to the funeral expenses of lineage Ogboni members. Boys may accompany their fathers into the "iledi", when no sacrifices are to be made and when no sacred images shown, but are threatened with death if they mention anything seen of heard there (Ibid., 368).

Secrecy was an important part of the Ogboni cult and according to Morton-Williams, the cult "has the right to impose sanctions over those who reveal its secrets and procedures to others" and these "sanctions are imposed not only to guard secrets but also to protect agreements reached at the Ogboni meetings" (Morton-Williams 1960, 362, 366).

Sanctions tend to vary according to the perceived offenses but details about the sanctions such as the type, the mode and the enforcement are scarce. If blood was spilled in a fight, the fighters would have to pay a fine and provide animals for sacrifice. If a wrongdoer denied a charge against him, he would be compelled to declare "If I am innocent, I will come to no harm. If I did the thing they are inquiring into, may I die in two days" (Ibid., 366). Most Ogboni rituals involved the sacrificing of animals, but according to Morton-Williams, some rituals used to include forced suicide, poisoning, human sacrifice and cannibalism. For example, if an Oba embarked on a course of action of which the Obgoni disapproved, he would have been coerced into committing suicide (Ibid., 367). If someone in the Obgoni cult broke the code of secrecy, "the Ogboni will try to poison him, or to paralyse him by casting a spell on his footprints" (Ibid., 370).

Concerning a major issue which deeply divided the Ogboni and following a majority decision, a human sacrifice would be offered to Ikuku-oro and Aiwo-oro ("Spirit of Death" and "Unseeing Spirit"). Morton-Williams does specify that he had never been given an account of a particular occasion when such a sacrifice was made but he does add that he is "satisfied that it would be regarded as a compelling sanction even in political issues" and that "in comparison to their neighbours to the east or to the west, the Yoruba were not a bloodthirsty people, and regarded human sacrifice as very awesome" (Ibid., 370).

In another ritual, after a Yoruba Alafin died in the Oyo region, his successor would be given the dead Alafin's heart to eat and later he would be handed the skull of his predecessor, "which has been filled with a corn gruel which he must drink" (Ibid., 371).

During a telephone interview on 4 May 1991, Professor Morton-Williams stated that according to him, the Ogboni had lost its judicial role in today's society and government although it still commands some fear and exerts some influence but not to the extent it did in the past. Morton-Williams added that to his knowledge, the last case in which the Ogboni had requested that a leader commit suicide by poisoning was in the late 1940s. The request was flatly rejected by the concerned leader. Morton-Williams also rejected any notion that the Ogboni was associated with any form of cannibalism.

Morton-Williams tends to agree with Mrs. Maureen Eke, a Nigerian Ph.D. student and the Associate Outreach Coordinator of the African Studies Centre at Michigan State University, when she states that the main purpose of any society like the Ogboni claiming the use of rituals involving human sacrifice and cannibalism is to deter inquiries into their affairs; to promote a sense of mysticism and a sense of the occult and to build themselves up in the eyes of the impressionable in order to keep some sort of influence and control over the people.

Professor Morton-Williams added that in general the Ogboni have always been a very tolerant society which, rather than clinging to its exclusivity, tended to accept into its ranks most faiths as long as the members conformed with the Ogboni's ways.

Morton-Williams also added that he heard that a new group, the Reformed Ogboni Cult, now existed and that although he had very little information on the subject, he believes that the occult stories surrounding this Reformed Ogboni Cult are being circulated in order to enhance its mysticism and therefore achieve a greater influence and control over the targeted individuals and groups.

Bibliography

Africa: Journal of the International African Institute [London]. 1960 Vol. 30. Morton-Williams, Peter. "The Yoruba Cult in Oyo".

Druker-Brown, Susan. 2 May 1991. Telephone Interview.

Eades, J.S. 1980. The Yoruba Today. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eke, Maureen. 6 May 1991. Telephone Interview.

Gillon, Werner. 1986. A Short History of African Art. London: Penguin.

Morton-Williams, Peter. 4 May 1991. Telephone Interview.

The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1989. 15th ed. Vol. 12. Micropaedia. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc.