Pin-Casting (Igba Ntutu) and Piosoning an Art of Witchcraft Mechanism for Negatives in Traditional Religion: A Case Study of Agulu People of South-Eastern Nigeria
- March 17, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRISS, Religion & Society
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue II, February 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186
Madukasi Francis Chuks, PhD1, Okoye Rita Chinyere2
1,2Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Department of Religion & Society. Igbariam Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria. PMB 6059 General Post Office Awka. Anambra State, Nigeria
Abstract: – This study investigates the meaning Agulu people of South-Eastern Nigeria attribute to the notion of Pin-Casting (Igba Ntutu). This approach has frequently been misunderstood. Critics have objected the idea that it tends to distort the undeniable distinction between traditional and scientific thinking; that indeed it presents traditional thinking as a species of science. In the perception of the Agulu people, pin-casting is an aspect of African indigenous religious practice which they engage with through the mediation of its symbolic acts of negativities in other to make life very miserable for the people. Nonetheless, the fears and aspirations of the devotees are equally identified in the course of the potency ascribed to this indigenous ideology. Witchcraft is a novel ground breaking study in the area of religious scholarship and it has been shown to be intrinsically important in aiding of religious communication of any kind as it pertains to Igbo tradition and culture through the mediating use of pin-casting in Agulu belief system. Pin casting is an essential negative medium in attacking individuals in the cult of witchcraft religion. Belief in pin-casting as an act of witchcraft in Agulu cosmology is one of the focal point of negativity why mother African is under development in African Traditional Religion. The objective of this work is to investigate the symbolic acts of negativities through ethnographic method as my analytical lens and how it concerns those aspects of its use in Agulu community to bring out its religious, cultural, political, ethical and economic significance. The referent point of pin-casting as an instrument of indigenous negativity is loaded with the ritual symbolism it evokes, which imbues it with mystical power that is played out of Agulu rituals. Born out of fieldwork and interviews, the author found that in traditional Igbo religion and especially among the Agulu people, the practice of pin-casting is significant and related to one function that brings religion and science as a discourse. This paper focuses on the negativities of the witches through the mediating power of pin-casting from the members of the cult an indigenous religious movement – a collective ritual of group of devotees who worship the tutelary spirits and uses their powers negatively to inflict hardships on individuals. It explores how this negative ritual emerges as a manifestation of the group’s intrinsic power of accomplishment, adaptation, and invention. Moving through ritual spaces and will, these mediums or devotees utilize their independent and ritual performative power in order to actively develop their religious practices through the mediation of pin-casting.
Keywords: Devotees, Pin-Casting, Potency, Power, Witch.
