May 29, 191 



NATURE 



\2 1 



Aro Chuku and the recent recrudescence ol the 

 horrible rites nipped in the bud by the District 

 Commissioner. Mr. Thomas writes: "We have, 



it is true, at the head of the pantheon a supreme 

 god known as Cuku," who "seldom appears to 

 figure in creation myths." The old men say thai 

 they knew nothing of 

 Cu k u before the 

 coming of the white 

 man. This may be 

 quite correct, for our 

 experience is that the 

 idea of a supreme god 

 is seldom reached by 

 people living in the 

 clan stage. To have 

 a god like the Yoruba 

 Olorun, or the Bini 

 Osalubwa, people 

 must have reached tin- 

 kingdom stage of de- 

 velopment. If the 

 Aro Chuku juju had 

 not been suppressed 

 it is possible that the 

 Ibos would be well on 

 their way in their de- 

 velopment of a great 

 I bo kingdom under 

 the supreme god 

 Chuku. It is rather 

 remarkable t h a t a 



hip. At any rate, if the chief of Uri is not yet 

 king, it would appear that he, as a great 

 piritual leader, is on his way to kingship if his 

 progress is not interfered with. 

 It is impossible to do justice to 

 this part of Mr. Thomas's re- 

 port in the space available. All 

 his chapters are intensely in- 

 teresting. 



Part ii. is the dictionary, the 

 materia! for which was, Mr. 

 Thomas says, collected in 191 1 

 from natives of Awka and 

 Onitsha. It seems a pity that 

 the vast and interesting material 

 collected by the various mis- 

 sionary societies has not been 

 taken into account. They must 

 have dictionaries, at any rate in 

 manuscript, and they have made 

 translations in the Ibo language. 

 We notice that Onitsha is spelt 

 Onica, and that Mr. Thomas, in- 

 stead of adopting the geo- 

 graphical system of spelling as 

 officially gazetted, has given us a 

 system of his own — a good one, no doubt, but 

 a new one. There are thus three systems of 

 writing in Nigeria — the system adopted by the 



S.NIGERIA. 



LINGUISTIC GROUPS AND SUB GROUPS. 



^Yoruba groiup 

 == Ibo 



iHEFIK 



_ Uo 



trained anthropologist □ V $EMIBANTU " /0 frlrfiS 



hke Mr. Thomas ^ErvOl. MlTNSHI.E TC.j 



should call the chief 

 of Uri king in his 

 chapter on priestly 

 kings. The father of 

 the family prays for his 



.5° 

 Fie. 2.-F 



Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking Peoples of Nige 



people, the head of the 



house does the same, the elected judge or head 



of a number of clans, or a tribe, does the same. 



The priestly office is there, but surely not king- 



NO. 2274, VOL. gi] 



missionaries, the system enforced on officials by 

 the Government, and Mr. Thomas's system. 



Mr. Thomas has shown his caution by omitting 

 the words " God " and " Cuku " from his dictionary. 



