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279 11 The Fon’s Wives In Nso’ PAUL N. MZEKA2 Introduction The part of the palace occupied by vikiy nto’, literally wives of the palace,! is called nsan or la’ vikiy nto’. The latter means home for women of the palace and the former means passage. The Fon of Nso’ has many wives. In 1913, Father Emonts found that the Fon then, Ngga’ Bi’fon, had slightly over 300 wives and female dependents; Mbingkar Mbinglo (Sam III) had about 100. But the present Fon at the time of my survey had 89 wives. One reason for the diminishing numbers may be the equally diminishing significance of Nto’ Nso’ as an administrative, social, economic and political centre of the Nso’ state. This diminishing importance is a product primarily of the modern administrative set-up and changing values. One who had a daughter or a relative who was a wiiy nto’ (Fon’s wife) could easily through the agency of the daughter get his case or complaint listened to by the Fon far more rapidly, if not far more easily. Not long ago, this could make a lot of difference. To have any connection with royalty was by itself socially prestigious. Again, any member of a wiiy nto’ family who sojourned at the capital was assured of his feeding. To the visitor at the capital, Kimbo’, feeding in those bygone days was a great problem. There were no daily markets, no restaurants and no food stalls. A visitor in town depended on the generosity of his near or distant kin resident in the capital. Again, if one of the Fon’s wives delivered and was sent to some village to nurse her baby, as is the custom up to the present, the compound where she stayed became a place of refuge. No one from the capital could enter such a compound for fear that he or she could be accused of bewitching the infant prince or princess.  2 This chapter is taken, by kind permission, from Paul N. Mzeka’s The Core culture of Nso’, Agawam, Mass., 1980, copyright by the author; he is a grandson of Fon Mapiri (1907-10). The material on which it is based was collected from informants between 1968 and 1977.  280 Persons sent-from the capital to capture people for compulsory services prevalent at the time of the German occupation and the early part of the British colonial rule, could therefore never enter such compounds. Villagers who were lucky enough to escape there were safe. In traditional Nso’ society, wives of vibay (great lords) and the Fon were completely nude except for strings of black fibre tied around the waist. They were expected to be scrupulously courteous and respectful. The public was equally expected to behave in like manner towards them. The popular view as to why they were nude is that nudity discouraged adulterers. Row the vikiy nto’ are organized In the present Nto’ Nso’ built, on the site of the old one which fire destroyed in 1959, houses on the vikiy nto’ sector are roughly in line with paths running between them, more or less from north to south. This contrasts with the previous pattern in which the houses had no discernible arrangement. Three, four or more wives who stay in one house under the leadership of the eldest wiiy nto’, belong to one of the five groups called lav which literally means ‘House’. In fact, lav in this sense is a social unit. The five ‘houses’ are Lav Nso’, Lav Ngkar, Lav Nsheelav, Lav Nggoran and Lav Ndzeen.3 Of these, only the first four still exist. Each lav is headed by a leader called yeesum which means mother of the farm. A yeesum is selected and installed by yeela’ and yaa woo nto’ (see below) after much investigation and consultation with the elder vikiy nto’ of the lav concerned, and also taking into consideration the wishes of the deceased yeesum who normally nominates a successor before she dies. A yeesum is chosen only from among the inmates of the lav that needs a yeesum. A yeesum is installed only on a Kiloovey which is the second day after the Nso’ market day and in the nggay, the royal family hall. For a week she is rubbed with camwood supplied by the Fon. She is bathed, fed, and washed by the elders of the lav concerned. The ayeesum (plural) are seized and installed in the same manner that afaay (lineage heads) are...

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