Diviners are usually chosen people by the Supreme Being and gods blessed with special powers to perform these rites and more. Aside from this, they are also healers and protectors of their people and keepers of history popularly known as Griots in West Africa.
Diviners mainly use objects and creatures as mediums of communication with the higher or spiritual world, as well as, the land of the dead. Different animals were used for different purposes depending on the type of request the diviner was asked to answer.
Among the Higi and Kapsiki people of Cameroon, crabs were used by diviners to predict the future or read meaning into an unclear message. Higgi is a tribe and
language from the Michika Local Government Area in the Adamawa State of Nigeria. The language has 24 dialects with two major dialects of Aghummu and Kammwe.
Although the people of the dialects are mixed, Aghummu is predominantly in Michika South and Michika West State Development Areas, and the latter in Michika North and Michika Central Development Areas. Minor dialects are in various localities across the Development Areas.
A significant number of Higgis people live in other parts of Nigeria and beyond (diaspora). In cosmopolitan cities and towns in Michika Local Government Area, Higgis people live with members of other tribes.
The Higgi tribe has faced a lot of controversies after some elders from the Nkafa dialect predominantly EYN Christians, decided to opt for a new name ‘Kamwe’. The new name ‘Kamwe’ means mountain dwellers or people from the mountains.
This name has, since its inception been rejected by the majority of the people in Michika as it is of Nkafa origin and can lead to the marginalization of the other 23 dialects of the Higgi tribe. Other dialects like Dakwa will translate ‘mountain dwellers’ as A’ghumo and it is the same with the remaining dialects.
Apart from this reason, the Muslim community in Michika also rejected this modified name ‘Kamwe’ as it might sideline and marginalize the Muslims in Michika. This has been an issue of debate since 2005 when the name Kamwe began to surface. For these two et
hnic groups, the diviners mostly used the crabs to read into people’s lives and predict their future.
Special chants were said to possess the crabs which were then left to freely walk their path on the sand. Usually, the patterns left by the crabs or the manner in which they walked, either in a straight path or in circles, were used to reveal a person’s fut
ure or current situation.
Crabs and spiders were also used among the Mambila people of Nigeria for similar reasons, however, there was no exact difference between a crab and a spider and they could be used in place of the other.
