The people called “Bwatiye” popularly known as
“Bachama” just like any other ethnic group have their customs and traditions
which serve as norms in their day to day activities.
Custom is said to be a set of agreed, stipulated or
generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form
of a custom according to Wikipedia Dictionary.
Having understood what custom is, we can now see that
the people called Bwatiye have their set of rules or standards by which they
live their lives. The word Bwatiye actually was coined from the word ‘Bwara’ or
‘Bwata’ singular, meaning human, while Bwatiye plural means humans or people. A
Bwata man regard himself as ‘human’ due to his way of behavior which means
there are certain behaviors that you exhibit and he will look at you and say,
you are not human. While a Bwata man calls himself Bwara; he sees and call
other people ‘Nzo kwasome’ singular or ‘Ji Kwasomye’ plural meaning person or
people with different dialect or language. Bwatiye people bear another name
which had come to become popular which is “Bachama”, meaning to glean, gather
or adopt, hence the adoption of cluster ethnic groups into the Bwatiye. For more on this, please refer to An Overview
of Bachama History from https://adigaproductions.wordpress.com.
Occupation:
The main occupation of the Bwatiye people are fishing,
farming and hunting and later civil service and military service.
Marriage:
Just like any ethnic group, the Bwatiyes have their
way of conducting marriages, the do’s and don’ts. Even though with the
globalization and influence of civilization, all this have changed. In this
discussion, we will not go deep into the traditional marriage but we will just
touch some aspects for the purpose of our study. However, in our subsequent
publications, we will bring the full details of the Bwatiye traditional
marriage; just follow us as we move on.
In Africa generally, marriage is preceded by so many
rituals without which the marriage would not be seen as legal or valid: the
defaulters may even be threatened just because they fail to meet some
traditional obligations ranging from barrenness to failure of the marriage. In
order to run away from such, you are forced in one way or the other to do the
ritual despite your new belief and the so called civilization. As a young man
of marriageable age, when you see a girl that you would like to marry,
tradition demands that you first talk to your parents about her; your parents
in turn will conduct an investigation on her and her people. This investigation
is important for the following reasons:
1.
Whether she is from a good family.
2.
Whether they are witches and wizards in their family.
3.
Whether they have thieves in their family.
4.
Whether they are wayward and so on.
This is done in order not to corrupt the lineage and
also that their son marries from a very good home that they can be proud of.
Having done that and satisfied, they will immediately notify their son and give
their approval of which they will take a step and inform the parents of the
girl in question. They too will conduct their investigation, and when
satisfied, they will inform their daughter to know whether she will consent. Upon
acceptance, they will begin what is known as courtship. During this period,
they are not to be seen alone. She doesn’t visit him but rather he does the
visiting in her parents’ house and they can only sit meters away from her
father and have their discussion while he keeps an eye on them: When it is time
for him to leave, she only sees him off to the gate and cannot go further than
that. This is done to ensure transparency.
Engagement: This is a
period where a suitor takes a step further to show his level of commitment by
bringing items that will be required of him by the parents of the bride to be
which of course is three mats and some token and also some wrappers. One mat is
for the father, one for the mother and the bigger mat goes to the girl in question.
Same thing goes with the token the man brings;
the lion share goes to the girl, part of which she will use to buy what she
will use to serve the suitor whenever he come visiting. It is important to note
here that the mat that goes to the girl, no one else in that family is
permitted to sit on that mat except the girl. This is what the man sits on
whenever he come visiting. The next step is to arrange on the bride price;
meanwhile, the suitor is expected to be helping his would be father in-law in
his farm and to also build a hut for his father in-law. Once the bride price is
settled, they immediately begin preparation towards their traditional marriage.
This was the only marriage rites known to Bachama people then before the advent
of Christianity. The girl is not expected to be seen with any other man other
than her suitor and the payment of the bride price will give her the right to
visit her suitor’s home, this is called “Na hwodiye”, literally to see the
house. After which they can go ahead and marry.
Before the woman finally go to her husband’s house,
she will get all the necessary items like cooking utensils, foodstuffs, items
with which to decorate the house and others depending on the capability of her
parents and relations: Relations and neighbors also contribute in one way or
the other to ensure she doesn’t starve in her husband’s house. Haven prepared
all these, then the bride and her friends and other relations will help her
convey these items with the view to escort her to her husband’s house, while on
their way, they would have to branch to see some elders who will give her wise
counsel on how she should live her life with her husband and neighbors before
finally going to the husband’s house; this is called “Lamato.” One of the
important things which the women mostly consider is to part of walking round
the village with all the items with the bride and her friends well dressed.
This is done to show how much she has and is going to her husband’s house with.
During this period, a cow that the father of the bride gave her will be
slaughtered and the blood will be collected and cooked, which will be eaten by
those present. It is important to state here that, after the lokai (wedding),
the bride is not supposed to be seen in the market for a very long time because
of the foodstuff she had taken to her husband’s house.
Please note that, I took the pains to write some of
these details in order for you to see how greatly Christianity affected the
Bwatiye people in respect to some of these practices.
The
Influence of Christianity
Christianity came to Numan, Adamawa State in the year
1913 by a Danish Missionary of Sudan United Mission (SUM) called Neils Bronnum.
Before this time, the Bwatiye were pagans who devoted their time in idol
worship, they so much believe in demi gods until the coming of Christianity,
all those faded with time.
The Bwatiye people’s acceptance of Christianity had
greatly affected the way they do things. Christians among the Bwatiye people
kicked against some of the traditions as they claimed is against their beliefs.
Though at first, they met stiff resistance but eventually they prevailed and
almost everybody is going that way now. For instance, beer was one of the items
or refreshment you must provide at a wedding, but because the believers kicked
against it, it has become an easy sail for even those that couldn’t have stood
against the tradition or even the non believers. Thus, Christianity changed the
way most of the things were done. Another typical example is “Poshi Lokai”, a
situation where they would have to walk round the village with the bride’s
belongings to proudly make a show of it, Christians believed it was pride and
was therefore not necessary. As a matter of fact, in some churches, if you do
that, the church washes her hands from your wedding! Some churches now
especially where they wield a lot of influence over their members are even
determining bride price so as not to over burden the young men and discourage
them from getting married. The eating of blood of a slaughtered cow also is
seen as a taboo by the Christians. It is important to state here that couples
are not considered married until the pastor blesses their marriage and makes
pronouncement; that is why the Christians while agreeing with some aspects of the
tradition, rejected some and marry the good aspect together with Christian
wedding (Church wedding). Even after the lokai, the lady either stays in the
pastor’s house or in a relative’s house until when joined together in the
church before she can move into her husband’s house even though in the eye of
the tradition, they are already married.
In the area of names also, we can see that those that
converted to Christianity adopted Christian names, and this has influenced even
the pagans among the Bwatiyes to also adopt the Christian or western names. The
Bwatiyes did not only embrace Christianity but they love it and that is why
they stick to it all along.
At a later time, we shall bring you the full details
of Bwatiye traditional marriage: We only pick some points and skip others
because it was not the main subject of discussion. Hope you enjoyed it! You can
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