Mbwiri

On the beach path a great tree has fallen across the way, and anyone who wants to pass has to stoop under the trunk. The upper side of the log is crowded with small things left by other hands: pebbles, a few shells, a scatter of leaves, each set down by someone bending low to go beneath. No carved shrine marks the place and no priest keeps it. The people who leave these offerings are paying a quiet toll to whatever lives in the wood and the stone, and along the forest paths of the Gabon coast such little heaps lie on many logs and boulders, wherever an ombwiri is thought to keep its home.

An ombwiri, called mbwiri in the shorter mouth of the word, is a guardian spirit, and among the Myene peoples of the coast, the Mpongwe around Libreville, the Orungu of the Ogooué delta, the Nkomi and the Galwa upriver, almost every person has one of their own. A man builds it a small house beside his house. Everything good that has come to him and every harm he has slipped past are set down to its account. When something happens that no one can explain, a strange shape in the land, an odd light in the sky, a run of luck too large to be earned, that too is the ombwiri’s doing. It is the author of whatever in the world is marvellous or unaccountable, and it asks in return only silence and a little respect when you cross its ground.

It is almost never seen. When it is, it is white, and not the brown of a living body but chalk white, an old white man of fine and admirable bearing who keeps to the summits of high hills, the mouths of deep caves, the great rocks, and the roots of the largest forest trees. On the coast its home is the sea. There it stands as the deputy of Anyambe, the maker who shaped the world and then withdrew from it into indifference, too far off to be prayed to directly. The ombwiri is near enough to be dealt with. It is the one spirit of them all that has no priesthood, no class of specialists standing between it and the people; a person speaks to his ombwiri himself.

The awiri, to give them their plural, are the souls of distinguished men, chiefs and others who were large in life and did not simply dwindle into the anonymous crowd of the dead. Each keeps mostly to the country of its old tribe. It can travel anywhere but rarely troubles to, and if the people it belonged to move away or die out, it stays behind on the deserted ground and attaches itself to whoever comes to live there next. This is why the pale strangers who arrived by ship were themselves taken for awiri, chalk-skinned and coming out of the sea, without anyone being quite sure whether they carried the returned spirits of the local dead or had drifted in from somewhere else entirely.

What the awiri can give is worth having. They turn harm aside and hand out good fortune, and to a person they favour they can grant the thing most wanted, children. They are not cruel by nature; the fear people feel at their rocks and trees is a careful reverence, not the flat dread kept for common ghosts. But they are not tireless either. Through the four months of the cold dry season, from about May to September, the awiri fall quiet. They shrink, grow slow, and lie almost lifeless, the way a snake goes dull before it sheds, and only with the return of the wet warmth do they wake to their full strength. No spirit among them can do everything. Each runs along its own narrow line of power, and each has to be fed and remembered or it withdraws its hand.

It was, first of all, a protector. The darker face later fixed to the name belongs to a different scene. When a person falls into fits, when the limbs jerk beyond any control, the teeth grind, the mouth foams, and a strength comes into the body that several men together cannot hold, the trouble is laid at a spirit’s feet, and the ombwiri’s name is among those spoken. Then a temporary shanty goes up in the middle of the street, and for ten or fifteen days there is no rest in it. Drums, dancing, feasting, drinking, kept up day and night at the cost of the sick one’s nearest relative. The logic is plain: the spirit cannot bear such rich and riotous living, and the noise and the feast are meant to make the body an unbearable lodging and drive the thing out.

The patient, often a woman, is streaked with red and white chalk across her face and arms and legs, her head dressed with red feathers. She walks the open ground before the shanty with a sword in her hand and swings it at the onlookers, wearing the look and the gait of a mad thing, and it is understood that whatever she does in this state is done by the spirit and not by her. When at last she is judged cured and the fees are paid, the cure comes with conditions. She must raise a little house for the spirit near her own, carry it offerings, and keep away from certain foods and certain places for the rest of her life. Neglect any of it, and the fits are expected to return, the spirit reaching back for the door it was only pushed out of.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Mbwiri?

The Mbwiri, more fully the ombwiri (plural awiri), is a guardian spirit of the Myene peoples of coastal Gabon, including the Mpongwe, Orungu, Nkomi, and Galwa. Almost every person has a personal ombwiri, credited with the good fortune they enjoy and the harm they escape. It is also regarded as the author of anything marvellous or unexplained in the world.

Where does the Mbwiri live?

The Mbwiri makes its home in prominent natural places: the summits of high hills, deep caves, large rocks, and the roots of the greatest forest trees. On the coast it is said to dwell in the sea, where it serves as the deputy of the withdrawn creator god Anyambe. Travellers leave small offerings of pebbles, shells, or leaves at spots where an ombwiri is thought to reside.

Is the Mbwiri good or evil?

The Mbwiri is fundamentally a benevolent guardian rather than a malignant demon, and people treat its dwellings with careful reverence instead of dread. It protects its keeper, hands out good luck, and can even grant the birth of children. Its fearsome reputation comes from the possession sickness blamed on spirits like it, in which a victim suffers violent fits until the spirit is driven out.

How was Mbwiri possession treated?

Mbwiri possession was treated with a long public exorcism led by a priest and lasting ten to fifteen days. A temporary shanty was built in the street, and drumming, dancing, feasting, and drinking were kept up day and night at the expense of the patient’s nearest relative, on the belief that the spirit could not endure such rich living and would abandon the body. Once cured, the person had to build a small house for the spirit, bring it offerings, and avoid certain foods and places to keep the sickness from returning.

What does the Mbwiri look like?

On the rare occasions it is seen, the Mbwiri appears white, described as an old man of chalk-white rather than flesh colour, fine and admirable in bearing. Because of this pale appearance, white foreigners arriving by sea were themselves sometimes taken for awiri. Most of the time, however, the spirit stays invisible, known only by the fortune and misfortune credited to it.

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