According to Christopher G. Beehner, contemporary society has been established on a foundation of human-made institutions and structures. Most indigenous cultures recognize the interconnectedness of nature and humankind, and that we cannot live and survive outside of nature. He argued that “a holistic, comprehensive way of living often characterizes indigenous spirituality.” This is apt and takes us to indigenous spirituality in warfare, why it matters, and its various implications.

Historically, precolonial African societies are replete with tales of warfare, usually between kingdoms. With an emphasis on strategy and tactics, tremendous instances abound where indigenous spirituality was displayed, and the attendant outcomes of the war. The role of divination was pronounced and it worked wonders. Although regarded by Eurocentric scholars as unscientific, illogical, and irrational, divination remains a reliable source of knowledge, especially in warfare. It plays a pivotal role in indigenous spirituality and its underlying epistemology.

I stumbled on a quote recently. It says “The communion of spirits reassures us that spiritual beings and angels care for us and guide us. They hear our thoughts and prayers and never abandon us”. This quote should remind us that there is an intersection between Strategic Spiritual Intelligence (SSI) and Strategic Empirical Intelligence (SEI) in warfare. They go hand-in-hand. Indigenous spirituality was integral to warfare in African societies. It shaped military tactics, boosted morale, and aided decision-making. It consists of divination, ancestral guidance, rituals and ceremonies.

Our history is replete with various rituals and ceremonies performed to invoke divine support, protection, and guidance before, during, and after battles. For example, the Amazons of Dahomey, an all-female military unit played a significant role in military campaigns and defence systems in the Dahomey kingdom in the 17th century. The Amazons worshipped Gu for strength, protection, and victory in battle. Gu is a deity associated with war in the kingdom. They also believed in honouring their ancestors, who were believed to provide guidance, protection, and spiritual support by performing rituals and ceremonies to invoke the protection and blessings of their deities and ancestors.

The Amazons of Dahomey recorded several successes in battles. For example, it played a significant role in defending the Dahomey Kingdom against French colonial forces in the late 19th century. They fought bravely in several battles, including the Battles of Dogba and Atchoukpa. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, the Amazons inflicted heavy casualties on the French army. They relied on indigenous spirituality in their military campaigns. Their artillery was essentially Dane guns, cutlasses, spears and knives. And they yet fought several battles with invading French forces heavily armed with sophisticated artillery.

Another example is Yaa Asantewaa, a queen mother of the Ejisu people in the Ashanti Empire (present-day Ghana). The Ashanti people believe that stools (chairs) hold spiritual significance, representing the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds. The Golden Stool, known as Sika Dwa Kofi in Ashanti-Twi, represents not only the royal throne of the Ashanti people but also embodies the divine symbol of power and unity within the Asante Confederacy. Yaa Asantewaa rallied the Ashanti people to resist British colonial rule. She relied heavily on traditional spiritual practices, including divination, to guide her decisions and actions in determining auspicious times for battle, interpreting omens and signs, and seeking guidance from ancestors and deities to inform strategic decisions. She was subsequently celebrated for her bravery and leadership during the War of the Golden Stool against British colonial rule in 1900.

There are many more examples of indigenous spirituality in warfare. The point I am trying to make is that indigenous spirituality might not be scientific as propounded by Eurocentric scholars, however Afrocentric scholars have also argued that it is a potent weapon in warfare, and an appendage of Strategic Spiritual Intelligence in informing military strategies and tactics. For example, the Ashanti people of Ghana used spiritual practices to guide their military decisions and tactics. Same for the Amazons of Dahomey and others too numerous to mention.

The question now is its applicability to warfare in contemporary times. For example, the war against the Boko Haram insurgency. In my opinion, why it seems the Boko Haram insurgency is yet to abate is the intersection between Strategic Spiritual Intelligence and Strategic Empirical Intelligence in warfare. There is hypocrisy in accepting the effectiveness of indigenous spirituality in warfare by the relevant authorities. I will give an example. In 2013, Seventy-four security operatives were killed by a local militia, in Alakyo, Nasarawa State. The slain security operatives died in an ambush on their way to arrest the spiritual leader of the Ombatse cult, Baba Alakyo. The mystery of that unfortunate event has not been unravelled to date using Strategic Empirical Intelligence because it enforces the role of indigenous spirituality in warfare.

The concept of spirituality and the role of the supernatural in warfare cannot be simply waved as non-existent despite the non-recognition of it by conventional states. The examples I quoted in the body of this article are indicative. It is what it is and we must come to terms with this reality. I think debates should begin on whether or not there should be a revisit of the application of indigenous spirituality in the conventional military. Godfrey Maringira, an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Sol Plaatje University in South Africa gave a brilliant account of indigenous spirituality in warfare in his work “When Soldiers Became Spiritual: Wartime Beliefs” he highlighted that during the Democratic Republic of Congo War, one of the greatest challenges of soldiers is the inability to read and understand the landscape in which they are deployed in. On being deployed to the DRC, soldiers carried with them the conventional military understanding of the war landscape: how to read the landscape, navigate, and locate and do obstacle crossing to attack rebels.

He narrated that the DRC landscape was somehow different from what the soldiers could imagine. It was a spiritual landscape, a sacred one. “The soldiers’ areas of deployment were infested with ghosts and very big snakes. Soldiers, especially those on sentry duties could see ghosts in the night.” As noted by one of the soldiers interviewed, “It was another war, a war in which we were not trained. Every night I could see ghosts, I could see a long and twisting flame of fire moving across the deployment. But I could not trigger the gun because that was not the target which I was taught in field craft lessons. This was an invisible target. Some soldiers opened gunfire and shot towards voices in the night, but on the following day, those soldiers got sick. What was surprising was that the sickness, that the soldiers suffered from, could not be diagnosed by army medics. The soldiers were weak and unconscious. They later explained what happened the previous night, that they opened fire on ghosts in the deployment area. The situation was helped by one of the seasoned soldiers who was in his late 40s. He had fought in the Zimbabwe liberation struggle. He took them to a nearby village where they were told by the village head not to fight the ‘ghosts’, as these were the spirits of the land. The land was said to belong to the ‘spirits’, including the deployment area.”

As mindboggling as this narrative is, it happened and there is no taking away the fact that indeed indigenous spirituality plays a key role in the outcome of warfare. As it stands, this concept should elicit debates on its applicability in the prosecution of warfare in Nigeria with the Boko Haram insurgency in focus.

Ocheja, PhD, is a scholar and communicator specialising in Nigerian and African military documentation.

Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheCable.