the congregation, the patient is anointed and
blessed, and the matter is regarded as closed.
An elder invokes the ancestors against a
Kinsperson whom he considers to have betrayed
the community through an act or an omission.
He thinks the necessary words to himself,
whereas in his own house in the evening or by
the granaries during the daytime he does not say
them aloud. For an elder to invoke the ancestors
is a serious and secret affair and is part of the
expected role of the elder. He generally conceals
his actions until sickness seizes the offender and
only acknowledges his part in the affair when
oracles reveal it.
The Lugbara do not specify what constitutes
the actual power of invocation or how it develops,
except that the elder who is responsible for the
invocation should be without a father. In fact, his
father should be dead. Although in principle even
a child may have the power if his father is dead,
it is mainly older men who exercise it. This may
be seen to be akin to spiritual powers that are
reserved for older people. Thus, the older men are
more likely to have this power than younger men.
The man whose status is such that to insult him is
seriously disruptive to the family cluster is the one
who can carry out the invocation. In other words,
an elder invokes because he is outraged, in his role
of head of the kin group and not as an individual,
at the antisocial behavior of the offender. His
authority has been challenged or flouted, and the
kinship relationship of which he is a part has been
threatened and must be repaired.
The specific actions that may lead to olero
(invocation) are
- striking or fighting a Kinsperson that is older
than oneself; - swearing or shouting at a Kinsperson;
- deceiving a close Kinsperson by stealing,
cheating, or lying; - quarreling with an older Kinsperson;
- a woman quarreling with or striking her
husband; or - denying her husband the exercise of conjugal
relations, for a man to fail to carry out the
duties of a guardian or heir.
These may all be considered offenses that violate
the fundamental social relations that are at the
basis of orderly community and family life.TheRangeofInvocation
Typically, it is the elder of a family cluster who
invokes ancestors against certain of his close kin
and dependents, especially against a disobedient
son. The elder must erect a shrine and thus
acquire the power to invoke ancestors as part of
his newly acquired status as head of a family
segment. The range of invocation is limited by
kinship; unrelated persons living under a man’s
protection are controlled by the threat of violence
and not by mystical means.
Sickness is directed against an individual, not
against a group as a whole. In some cases, the
offender may not suffer sickness at all; rather, it
may fall on a member of his family who is junior
to him—his son, daughter, wife, or junior sibling.
If the offender is a woman, however, sickness may
fall on her, her child, or a sibling, but not on her
husband. A man rarely invokes against agnates
who live outside his own family cluster. He may
do so against female agnates and kin traced
through blood, but to do so is to invade the sphere
of authority of another elder and is not done with-
out ample justification.OrilyVengeance
This is the bringing of sickness by the ancestors
on their own account, without invocation, if their
living kin neglect them by not placing meat and
beer at their shrines for a long time. According
to the Lugbara, the Dead are said to murmur
together: “Our child is bad, he does not care for
us now.” As a result, the ancestors cause sickness
to be visited on the relevant living kin. The Dead
are also thought to watch over one another’s
sacrificial offerings jealously. This is how the
Lugbara describe the process.
An alternative way of considering ancestral
vengeance is in the context of disputes over lineage
authority. If the living talk or grumble among them-
selves about the behavior of a Kinsperson, the
Dead, on secretly hearing this discussion, may take
it on themselves to send sickness to the relevant
party. The distinction then is that in Ori invocation,388 Lugbara