Oaths

In Africa, oaths are promises or statements of fact that call on something that a person feels to be sacred and holy, for example, a deity, an ancestral lineage, or a group. The idea is that the sacred object, group, or entity witnesses the making of a promise or statement by the person. Thus, a person who takes or makes an oath expresses certain vows.

When a person claims an office, chooses to lead a campaign against the enemies of the group, or marks an occasion of birth or death, it might be done with an explicit statement of swearing before the sacred or holy object or entity. One is making an oath when the idea of a witness, a holy or sacred thing or person, is considered to be the foundation of the action.

The African oath is taken before the people and, as such, is a ceremony of great solemnity. How one makes an oath, that is, the physical arrangement of sacred things or the holding of special swords, is dependent on the traditions of the African community. Yet it is clear that Africans know that the physical environment or the arrangement of objects is not the oath, but rather the actual making of the statement of promise is the oath. When one says that he or she is making an oath and implies or says that the witnesses are aware of this oath and that if he or she does not complete or fulfill the task required then the oath is broken, an oath has been made, regardless of whether the person holds a sword.

An oath may be made to the royal court of Benin or Asante before giving testimony, or an oath may be made by a newly elected or appointed officer or king in Zulu or Shona societies. One can claim that this is an affirmation, but an affirmation made in a verbal, vocal way before the people is more than a written statement could ever be in the African context.

The concept of the oath is found throughout Africa and is entrenched in the idea that the maker of an oath believes fundamentally in the power of the sacred object or entity. An oath acknowledges the truth of what a person says before a witness because it is a serious attestation of the truth of one's words before the ancestors, the people, or the deities.

One of the classic oaths of the African people is the oath made by Okomfo Anokye, the philosopher and ethical teacher of the Akan people. Standing before Osei Tutu, the new king of Asante, Anokye took one of the swords and said, “I speak the name of the father of Osei Tutu (his spiritual father, the God Otutu), the great forbidden oath that, if I do not go to this war on which you have sent me forth, or if I go and show my back to the enemy, and if I run away, then I violate the great forbidden oath. If it is a choice between dishonor and death, death is my choice. If I go forward, I die, if I flee, I die of the oath; better to go forward and die in the mouth of battle.” Other oaths are found among African societies that have similar structures. Among the Akan, it is also typical to name one's lineage and to state that one is making the oath before the people when [Page 469]taking the oath of kingship. If one does not follow the oath, then one has violated the people. Therefore, the African idea of oath is often connected to the same spiritual idea as the quest for ancestor approval.

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