The Eyu and Motio Rites of the Bakweri
Culled from: Edwin Ardener. Coastal Bantu of the Cameroons. (The Kpe-Mboko, Duala-Limba and Tanga-Yasa groups of the british and french trusteeships territories of the Cameroons). London, 1956. 116 pp.
Formerly it was the custom to hold a large supplementary rite (Eyu) for an important man [upon his death]. This would be performed as soon as possible after the normal rites, but might be delayed up to six months or perhaps a year. 
When the decision to perform the ceremony was made, his heir would send word for all the dead man's relatives to meet together and fix their contributions of livestock (chiefly goats) to the celebration. Large numbers of these were necessary to make the eyu a big occasion.
Sometime before 1920, Bakweri historian ESASEA WOLATAE made very detailed notes about Bakweri funeral customs. Around 1946 he handed over these notes to M. D. W. Jeffreys (pictured). Spurred by the realization that "old customs and manners are disappearing [along] with the generation that still remembers how the old customs were performed", Jeffreys submitted these notes to the African Studies Journal for publication in 1961. Today, some 45 years after its first publication, and close to a century after Mola Wolatae jotted down his notes, Bakwerirama offers its readers this unique "refresher course" on Bakweri funeral customs from the perspective of a master of pre-colonial Bakweri culture.
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