Additional Steps in the Umundri Coronation Ceremony

Abstract

The Umundri coronation ceremony as described in Africa, vol. viii, no. 3, requires the addition of two more steps. Though they are not recorded by Hocart in his Kingship yet one of them, the Prostration or the Humiliation, is described by Professor James in his book, Christian Myth and Ritual. The other, the Scourging or Buffeting, has not been described before as a ritual step. Though neither were recorded in the Umundri coronation ceremony, yet there are good grounds for believing that either these two steps do occur but were not narrated, or else that they did occur but have recently dropped out, because they are found in the coronation rituals of other Nigerian and associated tribes. These two steps make a total of sixteen more to be added to the twenty-six described by Professor Hocart.