An Ethnopragmatic Study of Libation Rituals among the Kiong-speaking Okoyong People in Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

Libation rituals are essential components of African culture and spirituality. They are a rich mixture of religious, social, and cultural performances that bind members of the audience together by emphasizing their common roots through the invocation of supernatural powers on particular sociocultural occasions. Among the Kiong-speaking Okoyong people in Odukpani, southern Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria, libation rituals are part of a way of life that is used to promote human welfare in the physical and spiritual worlds. In this article, we examine the phenomenon of libation rituals from ethnographic and ethnopragmatic perspectives by analyzing the features and structure of the language of these culturally originating performances. We argue that libation rituals among the Okoyong people are locally coherent and meaningful performances that offer a renewed sense of security that is vital in sustaining the transition, mobility, and sacredness that connect the living with the ancestors, who are the sources of tribal tradition and its stability.