Sexagenarian Adelani Alabede, a farmer in remote Amosun village in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State, finally returned fully to tilling the ground, a job he once did for years to merely augment his earnings from a skill he inherited from his father.
When patronage was high, he never imagined that a time would come when tribal mark making, a job that brought him and his forefathers so much fame and fortunes, would become irrelevant and no longer economically viable to sustain him and his family.
Although Alabede saw the current doldrums he has now found himself coming a long time ago, he could not but help himself in coming to terms with this reality. Finally, the ‘bad’ days are here! Tribal marks making is fast losing popularity amongst many Nigerian ethnic groups. And Alabede has now been forced to join the legion of those Nigerians living on dwindling means of livelihood.
Aside from Amosun village, neighbouring villages like Idi Oro, Idi Ori, Apaapa, Aba Odan, Iware and many other communities respected Alabede as a professional in the trade of tribal marks making, especially having inherited the skill from his fathers. He also inherited the fame of his fathers in the venture, which earned him a robust clientele. He was, therefore, not only popular in the community and among the people, his fortunes also attested to that fact.
Sixty four-year-old Alabede had then taken farming as a part-time job and only planted some food crops on a subsistence level, just during planting season of some crops and, more so, to put to use some nearby portion of the vast arable lands he had also inherited from past generations.
The days of people beautifying children’s faces with tribal marks are over. I have been a victim of tribal marks making. My mates in school in those days would make jest of me incessantly. Sometimes I wished I had means to erase these marks from my face, but it’s impossible. So, there’s no way I will allow any of my children to be given tribal marks by anyone
To Alabede, life can never be the same, again having lost a job he had so much passion for and more so, one that is regarded as a “family pride.” Alabede inherited the skills of making tribal marks from his late father, whose father also passed down the trade. Just like people would have family doctors, family lawyers and so on, so also had many families in the rural communities retained Alabede as their family tribal marks maker.
However, he was not carried away by the euphoria. He knew when the clientele started dwindling that the trend might be irreversible. So, he decided to seek an alternative in ‘serious’ farming to keep body and soul together.
In times past, the proud father of a new-born child would naturally prefer that his son or daughter’s face was adorned with peculiar tribal marks to prove that he/she was a legitimate child of his family lineage or ethnic group.
In fact, tribal marks then served as the best form of identification for people of the same lineage or ethnic group to enable them to always protect their filial affiliation and common interests.
In traditional Yoruba societies, patrilineal clan members share names, cognomen (oriki), taboos and facial marks. The facial marks on a child’s face confers on him full clan membership rights while families or individuals lacking the normal features consistent with the tribe are not considered as having acquired full standing. They are usually seen as lacking the capacity for meaningful behaviour such as greetings.
Each tribe of the Yoruba ethnic group has different inscription patterns, which appears in different sizes and shapes at different locations within the face or body. The location and position of the inscription depends on the tribe and culture.
The tribal marks could be inscribed on the breast, arm, lap or buttocks, but the facial ones are the commonest. But today, this traditional cosmetic culture is fading and very fast, too.
As the name implies in the Yoruba speaking communities, ‘abe’ connotes a small surgical blade-like material used in inscribing marks on the skin before applying some powdered concoction made from leaves and herbs.
The word or name ‘Alabede’ thus refers to the arrival of that skillful person, who goes from one place to the other for the purpose of helping interested persons to make tribal marks and to circumcise kids.
The signs were rife and the warnings of eventual loss of clients by those engaged in this trade were, however, imminent in the face of modern trend and increased aversion for tribal marks, especially among the people who have become more exposed and informed, especially on the dangers of sharing sharp objects and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
In a chat with our correspondent, Alabede recalled many years back, when people took pride in adorning their faces with tribal marks. He noted that even parents willingly brought their newborn babies for tribal mark inscriptions, depending on the choice of the family, especially the father.
He stated that some families had certain peculiar tribal marks and many members of such families used it as a form of ‘family identity.’ Aside from facial tribal marks, Alabede also engaged in inscribing names, dates and signs on any part of the body. He explained that back in the olden days, the marks served as a sort of identity.
“Irrespective of where you are, when you see certain tribal marks on some people, you don’t need any other form of identification regarding where the person was from. You easily recognised people and immediately knew their background.
More so, it is often seen as additional beauty, years back, as people would take pleasure in touching the marks in appreciation of its beauty”, he said.
Alabede added that dates of birth were also inscribed on some people’s body just as a way of reminding them of the time they were born and who their peers were, as many families lacked proper record keeping in the olden days. But the drawbacks associated with this dying culture of tribal marks making have greatly detracted from its cosmetic and identification purposes as well as its merits. Now, anyone still found in the practice of tribal marks making is viewed as belonging to the archaic civilisations.
Adebimpe Aderibigbe, a civil servant, has three separate strokes on each side of her cheeks. Bold and clear! As she grew in age, she could not understand why such marks were there.
She was later told that the mark was peculiar to her family. She added that while growing up, she never forgave her parents as many of her friends at school often made a jest of her and even tease her with her tribal marks, especially those of them who did not have any of it on their faces.
Aderibigbe lamented that she had thought about the idea of erasing the tribal marks, but she did know how to achieve that. She stated that, in recent times, she had learned to forgive everybody and to live with her tribal marks. Still in her late twenties, she noted that she still suffered some form of discrimination, especially when in the midst of strangers and people not familiar with her. She complained that she’s often perceived by others as a “local lady.”
She added that except she had the opportunity to express herself, she’s often overlooked by many, who were usually shocked whenever she spoke. Due to her experience, Aderibigbe vowed that none of her children would have tribal marks, adding that it had become a “fading fashion.”
“The days of people beautifying children’s faces with tribal marks are over. I have been a victim of tribal marks making. My mates in school in those days would make jest of me incessantly. Sometimes I wished I had means to erase these marks from my face, but it’s impossible. So, there’s no way I will allow any of my children to be given tribal marks by anyone,” Aderibigbe said.
Although there’s little or nothing Alabede can do to stop the current trend of events to snatch away the means of livelihood handed down to him by his father, he said he not lost the skill required in tribal mark making and was ready to offer his services to anybody in need of his services. He had no one to blame for the change in the trend, but he felt so sorry that the profession that had been handed down to him from one generation to another was finally being brought to an end.
Alabede lamented that none of his children had shown any interest in inheriting the tribal mark making skills from him, adding that save for a few people, who visit him once in a blue moon to seek his services, “Many would not want their children to have any form of tribal marks anymore, as it is no more fashionable, in the actual sense.” He observed that the decline in patronage worsened in the late eighties and early nineties, when people suddenly developed aversion for tribal marks as many people would rather not want their children to carry any tribal mark.
Alabede also lamented the decline in traditional beauty care, wondering why nothing could be done to arrest the development. He, however, recommended that efforts should be made by the custodians of culture to ensure that this aspect of culture was not allowed to go into oblivion.
