Some Nigerian fertility cults

"Some Nigerian fertility cults" by Percy Amaury Talbot is an ethnographic monograph written in the early 20th century. It examines fertility-focused beliefs, symbols, shrines, and ceremonies among the Ibo, Ijaw, and neighboring peoples of Southern Nigeria, especially the Earth Goddess Ale (Ala) and the Thunder God Amade Onhia, Mbari/’Mgbe temples, and great drums such as the Ikoro. Based on field observations made during colonial administrative work, it links sexuality, agricultural plenty, ancestor veneration, and social control through detailed ritual and iconography. The opening of this study sets its scope and sources in Degama Division, then moves to vivid case studies: a rebel episode around a blood-smeared “great drum,” the Ikoro war drum with headhunting rites, and its carvings (serpent as phallic emblem, tortoise as feminine symbol, crescent moon of growth, crocodile, horn, dog, and a lingering double‑axe motif). It introduces Mbari houses at Omo Dim and elsewhere—complex, frescoed temples explained locally as ancestral but read by the author as shrines to Ale and Amade Onhia—detailing their secret construction by selected men and women under priestly command, nocturnal clay-gathering from termite mounds, strict taboos, and public rites to “release” the workers, all credited with boosting crops and human fertility. The narrative records explicit fertility tableaux, the ape Ogbango as the form of wicked souls and a sexual aggressor in lore, an Otaminni river-spirit Mbari, and widespread moon and rainbow symbols, including a Mbolli yam shrine with blood running over moon-shaped hollows. It describes twin houses for Thunderer and Earth Mother at Obogwe, the “big woman who cooks” nurturing moon-faced boys and star-marked girls, and juxtaposes sexual license in ritual with everyday prohibitions (no intercourse on earth or in daylight, modesty rules, and severe taboos). Notes on neighboring practices—bestiality tests, homoerotic clubs like Obukere tied to magical

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