kakaki instrument was used to announce important
community events. Among the Tiv, the kakaki was
used to announce a birth, a marriage, or a death.
They also used the ilyu, a wooden instrument, to
call members to the public square, the palace of
the leader, or the market. The indyer was used for
all festivals, ceremonies, celebrations, and masquer-
ades. Also, the agbande and ageda instruments
were employed in the festivals. However, the
adiguve, a stringed instrument, was used for danc-
ing. It could also be played when announcing the
death of a leader. Therefore, the Tiv of Benue State
in Nigeria and Cameroon use their traditional
instruments to maintain their cultural community.
The Tiv created a system of marriage, where
each man was the guardian of his sister, and at the
time of marriage the sister was exchanged for
another man’s sister who then became his wife.
This form of marriage caused many arguments
and violent outbursts among family members. It
was discontinued during the British intervention
in 1927. Marriage by bride price became the sub-
sequent form of gaining a spouse after the prohi-
bition of the exchange system.
Religion among the Tiv centers on ancestral
respect. A community can only create harmony
and balance by attending to the needs of the patri-
lineal lineage ancestors. To assist the people with
the ordinary situations of daily life, the culture
defines akombo, magical forces, as the key to
interpreting the meanings of life. One is said to
have mastered or used akombo effectively when
one employs the emblems necessary to harness the
best powers of the ancestors. A person who mas-
ters the akombo is a diviner who might be used to
carry out certain rituals for curing the community
of evil. Most men study the traditions and learn
the secrets of mastery of akombo to protect their
kinship lineage. Using their knowledge, the divin-
ers ensure that the community is protected from
all forms of disrepair and evil. They learn to use
decorative art, sculpture, and graphic symbols to
control akombo. Of course, akombo is not alone
in the process of community survival. There are
no shrines or temples to akombo because no par-
ticular personalities are attached to them. Each
akombo might be tied to a disease or symptom
that would need to be regulated by sacrifice or
some other form of intervention such as medicinal
rituals. The akombo exist, but must be activated
by tsav that might be called charisma, talent,
energy, dynamism, or ability. One can employ tsav
to create a new environment for a family or estab-
lish an authoritative interpretation of some event.
Some people even claim that tsav is evil or people
can manipulate tsav for wicked purposes.
However, it is clearly used by some to protect,
pacify, ritualize, and galvanize the ancestral
world. Those people who possess the value of tsav
are said to be thembatsav.Molefi Kete AsanteSeealsoNgewo; ZuluFurther Readings
Bohannan, L. (1952). A Genealogical Charter.Africa,
22 , 301–315.
Bohannan, L., & Bohannan, P. (1953).The Tiv of
Central Nigeria. London: International African
Institute.
Dorward, D. C. (1969). The Development of the British
Colonial Administration Among the Tiv, 1900–1949.
African Affairs, 68 , 316–333.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1940).The Nuer. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Middleton, J., & Tait, D. (Eds.). (1958).Tribes Without
Rulers:Studies in African Segmentary Systems.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.TOTEM
In Africa, a totem (mitupoin the Shona language
of Zimbabwe) is any animal or object that is con-
sidered a guardian, protector, or assistant to an
ethnic group, clan, or family. An African totem is
identified with a kinship or descent lineage. When
the apical ancestor of a kinship group is nonhu-
man, it is called a totem. Many African ethnic
groups or clans claim their descent from animals
such as antelopes, monkeys, lions, horses, dogs,
eagles, or leopards.
When a group presents itself to the world, it
normally represents itself through a totemic narra-
tive that explains how the particular people
emerged from the kindness, fortune, tenderness,
wisdom, or courage of a particular nonhuman
animal.666 Totem