Carved Ogboni figures from Abeokuta, Nigeria: Adugbologe who shines like the new moon. There is no place where he is not known on this earth

As might be expected, local (i.e., non-Christian) institutions quickly became a source of worry for the missionaries. Uneasy about the power wielded by Ogboni in particular, the C.M.S. conducted a formal inquiry into its affairs. After considering the various governmental and religious functions served by the association in Abeokuta, the C.M.S. issued a response in 1861, which in part read:

   That whilst there is a wide difference
   of opinion amongst those
   equally well informed respecting
   the connexion of the Ogboni system
   with idolatry, yet as all agree
   that it is inconsistent with the principles
   of the Christian religion and
   must fall when those principles
   prevail in the country; it is necessary
   that the Native Christian
   Church should maintain its high
   position of witnessing for the truth
   by a broad separation from this
   and all other questionable "country
   fashions." (18)

Another C.M.S. document is rather more blunt about it; the writer declares that Ogboni "must be exterminated by the gospel." (19) Despite such vociferous outcries, Ogboni was not exterminated, and two quite different versions of it would later come to be--the Aboriginal Ogboni Fraternity (based on traditional Ogboni) and the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity (created in 1914 and heavily influenced by Christian ideology and European Masonic traditions). (20) Ironically, some European missionaries, including the Reverend Henry Townsend, realized that they would have no power in Abeokuta unless they joined Ogboni themselves, and so they did (Ayandele 1967:270; Lawal 1995:39-40).

Hans Witte maintains that the carved Ogboni figural groups might best be understood in the context of Abeokuta's vibrant political scene (personal communication, June 4, 2001):

   ... from 1850 onward Abeokuta
   was a fast growing city that harbored
   several kings, several Ogboni
   lodges and quite a number of war
   chiefs, locked together in an ever-shifting
   power balance. There must
   have been an enormous demand
   for prestige symbols as we can see
   in the number of scepters, ceremonial
   pokers, walking sticks and
   staffs of office from Abeokuta that
   are left.... In such an environment
   the Ogboni lodge, [which brought
   together] the social elite, must have
   been an ideal center for political
   maneuvering and intrigue [and
   was therefore] much more than a
   place for religious reflection.

These are important points, for in 1904 the British government appointed a central authority in the Alake of Ake to rule over the diverse groups in Abeokuta--a move that significantly curtailed the traditional powers of Ogboni to select, advise, and, when necessary, depose kings (Wolff 1985:100, citing Ajisafe 1964:215). Until then, the society's influence on the politics of Abeokuta was great, as indicated by Burton: "The power of the Ogboni is unlimited ..." (1863:248). Twenty-five years later, the Reverend Baudin, a Catholic missionary who visited Western Yorubaland, would concur. "Among the Egbas," he noted, "the Ogboni are more powerful than the king" (Baudin 1885:63).