SPACE, POWER AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE ISHOR DIVINATION PRACTICE OF THE TIV OF MAKURDI, BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Ishor divination practice is the central organising principle of life among the Tiv people of northcentral Nigeria. Existing studies on it however, have focused on its roles in Tiv religion, culture and traditional medicine; literature on space, power and knowledge in the Ishor divination ritual is scanty. This study was, therefore, designed to examine how the notions of space, power and knowledge are constructed in the Tiv Ishor divination with a view to underscoring their significance and influence on the divinatory practice. The study was premised on Foucault‘s Power/Knowledge Theory and employed ethnography as design. Purposive sampling method was used to select 44 knowledgeable Ishor diviners cutting across the eleven council wards of Makurdi Local Government Area. Data were generated using two life histories, two Key Informant Interviews with diviners; 11 In-Depth Interviews and two Focus Group Discussions with selected divination clients. Forty-four Participant observation sessions was used to source information during divination sessions. Data were content analysed. The Ishor divination space is regarded as a sacred ground and as such clients are required to take off their footwear before they enter into the divination hut and throughout their period of stay, they are expected to be in a state of reverence. The space is marked by taboos forbidding clients to mention death, wear charms, whistle, fight, and cross legs. Women menstruating are also forbidden from it. Power, as the ability and capacity to influence the behavioural patterns of someone else in a situation of social interaction, is observable between the diviner and the client. Such powers are exercised through the display of the diviner‘s incantatory prowess, supernatural knowledge of causations, and issuing of commandments. Clients demonstrate their powers through deliberate withholding of information, muteness, shaking of head to signify disapproval, and outright taking back of their consultation fee as a mark of not being satisfied with the diviner‘s proclamation. Diviners exhibit knowledge of Ishor divination through supernatural call, intergenerational transfer, and critical agency of symbolic organisation and linguistic codes. Ishor divination code responds to the pressures of contemporary social change through Western education and challenges of Christianity and Islam, economic hardship, modern medical sciences, ecological degradation and lack of governmental support. These pressures and challenges have engendered code alteration in relation to linguistic intelligibility, space organisation and confidence in divination, all of which have threatened the centrality and importance of the practice in the Tiv culture and society. Space, power and knowledge are three significant elements that influence and shape the social construction, interpretation, and understanding of Ishor divination practice among the Tiv of Benue State, Nigeria. To preserve and sustain Ishor divination practice, these elements must be addressed and improved upon by relevant institutions.