The Criminal Native Secret Societies of the West Coast of Africa
| Author | F. W. Butt-Thompson |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3100400211 |
| Published date | 01 April 1931 |
| Date | 01 April 1931 |
The
Criminal Native Secret Societies
of
the
West
Coast
of
Africa
By
CAPTAIN
F. W.
BUTT-THOMPSON
Author of West African Secret Societies, Black Magic, etc.
THE West Coast of Africa still teems with native secret
societies of many kinds, from the age-old ones of tre-
mendous importance and membership to the newest of the
rapidly increasing democratic and patriotic associations.
The
great mystic and religious societies, such as POTO of Sierra
Leone and
Egbo
of Nigeria, keep up their prestige and power,
even in the face of advancing civilization. But those subversive
and criminal are now few in number and not important.
In
that fact there is tribute to the excellent police staffs of the
Coast.
Of course all the societies were once ' criminal ' from the
point of view that they observed laws other than those made by
the European protecting powers. As witness the inclusion
amongst their officials of an ' executioner,' who, true to his
title, punished the breaking of society law with death. They
still include such officials, and many writers assure us that the
executioners yet find work for axe or sword or poison, although
there is no proof of this that would satisfy a court of law.
In
some of the districts of the Belgian Congo and of Angola and of
the Kamerun where the society called N
dembo
is in power, re-
membering (since a Head or Grand Master, who died in the
eighties, had a crooked spine) that the signs or marks of the
organization are twisted and malformed things, it iscurious the
number of people one notices who are distorted, wry-necked,
hump-backed, and contorted of limb.
And many of the societies were ' criminal ' because they
practised war either against each other or against the European
263
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