The book by David Doris, Vigilant Things, is a study of the Yoruba socio-cultural and religious landscape through the exploration of seemingly useless common objects known as aale. The Yoruba make up about twenty million of Nigeria’s people and are of diverse ethnicity, speaking many dialects of one language. They also share a common ancestry. This book provides an interesting and enlightening account of everyday objects that are imbued with power, thereby transforming these things into useful objects. Aale are discarded objects that have outlived their usefulness, but are deliberately used as anti-thievery “gadgets” to protect people’s homes, properties, plots of land, farms, and other personal items. They are visibly recognized socio-cultural items that are employed to cause great bodily and spiritual misfortune to thieves or to people who invade the personal space of the creator of the aale.
The book explores the power relations between the creator of aale and a would-be-transgressor, the symbolic uses of ordinary objects, the power of the word, and whether aale can be regarded as parts of African art history, to mention only a few topics. In this engaging, frank, and insightful documentation of how insignificant things are transformed into art pieces in the Yoruba cultural milieu, the author negates some Western myths about the Yoruba--specifically, that they are primitive and therefore lack development.
Doris recognizes two types of aale: the medicinal and the symbolic. The former, aale ogun, is used to protect homes, persons, and outdoor spaces, while the latter, aale ami, announces ownership of buildings, plots of land, farms, and machinery, warning the thief that there is the presence of defensive power hovering nearby. Objects used as aale include torn clothing, worn-out slippers/shoes, pepper, brooms, palm fronds, snail shells, corncobs, rope, cowries, pens, ladders, staffs, padlocks, and dried cocoa pods. When any of these, either individually or in a combination of at least two items, is placed or hung on the person or thing seeking protection, it becomes a sort of aale. In other words, it is an aale in the ordinary sense of the word--it plays on the element of fear. Here, the gaze/vision of the intruder draws out his/her fear in relation to what s/he is about to do. The first reaction a would-be transgressor experiences is fear--s/he recollects all the punishments that await one if the moral code of respect for the other’s space and property is broken. It is this fear that might act as a deterrent to the prospective offender. On page 29, there is a picture of an ordinary piece of pepper, pierced with a broomstick and placed on a row of eggs. The simplicity of this particular aale belies its effectiveness: the ability to prevent an anti-communal act, thereby confirming the position of aale as a positive cultural agent. However, aale is more potent when it possesses a combination of the spoken word, the gaze, and medicinal substances (juju). There are many instances in the book of a combination of worthless and thereby useless things tied together; words/invocations (ayajo) of the creator are said over them to carry out particular punitive acts against a prospective offender. It is these words that transform the objects into meaningful articles which change the social status of the thief.
Generally, the aale does two things: it reminds the would-be thief of the common cultural heritage that has moulded him or her since childhood; and secondly, it reminds the offender of the punishment in store for him or her if s/he goes ahead to commit the crime. Aale could be visible or invisible and each item of the aale portends a symbolic function which the thief may be able to decode or not. Worn-out objects signify suffering and uselessness; corncobs portend poverty; pepper, suffering and epilepsy; and an old broom, comb, or a rag are symbolic objects for poverty. The colors red, black, and white are commonly seen in aale; they have their own symbolic meanings, too. The aale transforms the private gaze and action of a thief into a public gaze, shame, and punishment for the offender. The aale is a vigilant thing, which acts in place of its creator and owner, guarding his or her possessions against an intruder, a thief. It is presumed to be more effective than police dogs or other security apparatuses.
The narrative approach, the glossy and colorful pictures, the use of attractive subtitles, the quotations that act as openers after each subtitle, the general feel of the language of the Yoruba, as seen in the proverbs and incantations that are present in many of the pages, all make Vigilant Things a must read and an important contributor in light of the insufficiently detailed books on the subject of these insignificant objects.
However, in some parts of the book, the author repeats some information that the reader has encountered in earlier pages, especially in the description of the nature and functions of particular aale. The book does not sufficiently address some issues, for instance, the moral stance of the aale creator. It is implied in the book that an aale is effective because (i) its creator is honest and morally upright; and (ii) the possessions of the aale creator are not stolen goods, or goods gotten through illegal means. Is the aale still effective in the absence of these conditions?
Another issue is the closure of an opportunity for a second chance for the offender or the thief. The thief has been publicly disgraced by the potency of an aale; because of the publicity involved, s/he can never be happy as long as s/he resides in the community in which the offense was committed. Can the aale then be regarded as correctional in nature, or retributive? Generally, in what ways has the aale contributed to the moral development of people in Yoruba communities in Nigeria today? The book also does not address the issue of a non-Yoruba vis-à-vis the potency of an aale. Can a non-Yoruba thief living in one of the southwestern states be affected by an aale?
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[Review length: 1004 words • Review posted on April 25, 2012]