Affinities or “Bush Souls”

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The term “affinity” is in use among educated natives throughout the West Coast to express the mysterious link believed to exist between human beings and the plant or animal into which they are thought, under certain conditions, to have the power of sending forth their souls.

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With regard to West Coast “affinities”, many are thought to be hereditary in families, but at times a babe is born to a house, no member of which has ever before been known to bear the “mark” of any animal, yet the likeness of some such can be clearly discerned upon the new-comer.

The explanation for this was somewhat confusedly given me by a woman, who herself had borne a babe belonging to the baboon totem, although, as she sadly said, no “monkey soul” had ever before been known in her family. ... My informant seemed to hold that the likeness to a baboon, clearly discernible in her son, though in no other member of the family on either side, so far as could be traced, was due to the fact that a “baboon soul” chanced to be awaiting reincarnation in the precincts of the sacred pool at the time when she went down thither to pray for the speedy coming of a babe. Under the term “baboon soul” she included both the ghost of a man who in a former existence had belonged to this totem, and of one who, during a long series of earth-lives, had been in the habit of sending out his soul into the form of a baboon “affinity”, and so, by constant wearing of the were-shape his human body had gradually taken upon itself signs of likeness to its “affinity”.

No very young child can send out its “bush soul”. Only after about the age of ten years does the desire to do so begin to assert itself. Should the “affinity” be hereditary, the parents will be sure to notice signs of restlessness, and will then explain all that is necessary. Otherwise the “Drang” — to use a German word which gives the meaning of the Ibibio expression more nearly than any of our own — grows with the physical growth. First, in dreams, those possessed by animal souls see themselves wandering in were-form, and after awhile the desire to do so at will becomes so strong as to drive boy or girl to seek out someone to whom the secrets are known, in order to learn the rites necessary for the conscious taking on of animal shape. Afterwards they practise sending forth the soul into its were-body with ever increasing success, until they have at length acquired the power to bring this about at will.

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The most ordinary were-forms are those of leopards, crocodiles, snakes and fish. The following story was reported to Mr. Eakin of the Kwa Ibo Mission by one of his schoolboys named Etok Essien of Ikotobo:

“One day, a few years ago,” he said, “I was sitting on the veranda of my house when I heard loud cries proceeding from another compound. I ran with others to the place whence the cries came, and saw a woman rocking to and fro, holding her hand to her throat and calling, ‘I must die. I must die, for Akpan Nwan has shot me in the neck.’

“A crowd of people had gathered together, drawn like myself by the cries. Among them was a native doctor, who, at the woman's entreaty, cut open the place which she pointed out to him, and there, before us all, a lead bullet fell from it to the ground. When the woman was asked to explain how it came there, she said:

‘My soul dwells in a leopard, and, when I first cried out, Akpan Nwan shot this my “affinity”. ’

“Enquiries were made, and it was found that the man mentioned had indeed shot at a leopard, which, at the very hour when the woman cried out, entered his compound to steal a goat. He: succeeded in hitting it in the neck, but it managed to escape to the bush.”

Countless such stories might be quoted. We ourselves came across many people who claimed that, against their will, at certain seasons of the year their spirits went forth to wander in animal guise; but none was willing to own to consciously sending forth his soul, because such a power is thought to savour of witchcraft. In every town, however, there are some inhabitants suspected by their fellows of using this uncanny power in order to wreak vengeance on enemies, or for the unlawful acquiring of riches.

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Beside “animal souls”, the bodies of new-born children may be occupied by spirits of the great trees, such as camwood or cotton trees; or of climbing palms, lianes and even flowers.

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As a general rule, only those belonging to the families of powerful chiefs can join the “affinity” of the great trees. The mother of one of the principal men of Afa Atai near Eket was thought to embody the “spirit” of a climbing palm; and at death her soul is said to have gone to dwell in a splendid specimen of this strange growth, which springs by a sacred water not far from the town. Thither, each year an offering is borne by her son, who consults her upon all points of difficulty, and obtains answers through the rustling of the leaves amid which her soul dwells.

Dorothy Amaury Talbot (d. 1916)

from Woman’s Mysteries of a Primitive People: The Ibibios of Southern Nigeria (1915)


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