BEYOND MYTH: A HISTORICAL DISTORTION OF THE MWAGHAVUL TRADITIONAL RELIGION

Resumen

Distortions and changes occur in almost all religions of the world. While some religions experience drastic and holistic changes, some have very slow and insignificant changes that may never be noticed for a long period of time. The case with Mwaghavul traditional religion is not different, distortions have occurred for a very long period of time even before the advent of Christianity and Islam . In an attempt to look at some changes that have occurred in prehistoric times in this part of the globe, this paper investigate the distortions that have occurred in the traditional Religion of this Chadic speaking group within the Jos plateau. Being an ethnographic studies, the qualitative method of research is employed where the researcher analysed some historical facts which are today seen as myth about the religion. Women who were known to be the custodians of the religion were today seen as performing mere roles of subordination and are kept at the background. This change is considered a distortion because it left behind some basic component not fully captured thereby leaving some loopholes or contradictions about some major tenets of the religion, for example the feminine nature of Mwaghavul God, the masquerades were all feminine with the exception of one. The researcher interviewed aged individuals who were practitioners of the religion, elderly women who though are no more practising but were witnesses to some of these practices and discovered that women were the custodians of the religion from those early times. The researcher recommends that women should not be relegated to the background today even in the new religion being practiced today by Mwaghaavul people for they will help in uplifting its propagation in a very significant way.