AS I indicated earlier, it is admittedly rather late in the day to cordon off Koma territory. But I still think it would be very much in Nigerias strategic interest to do so. By declaring the Koma off-limiMALARIAts, to foreigners and the general public, policy makers can salvage what remains of the scientific, historical, sociological and anthropological knowledge that is being lost.Credible Nigerian scientists, social scientists and scholars generally ought to be given at least two decades to study Koma social organisation, traditions, science, technology and cosmology.A check of the Internet, for example, will show that two scientists from the University of Benin questioned 100 Koma about the plants they use for medicinal purposes.This type of research needs to be done continuously and on a very massive scale, involving almost every academic discipline. Lodging, laboratories, communications facilities, security, transport, etc. should be provided for researchers.Perhaps it would help, if I cite some examples to illustrate my point. But let me remind you first, of the proven evolutionary principle that any behavior trait an organism exhibits, must have (or have had) survival value.Take the widely reported penchant of Koma men for sharing their wives with male visitors. An untutored mind, devoid of anthropological or biological reasoning, would no doubt interpret this as moral depravity.It is nothing of the sort. Ive never been to Koma land. But according to all the reports Ive read, they live in a harsh mountainous area, in which tight social bonding is absolutely essential.What better method could one think of, to cement bonds of loyalty between males, who are mutually dependent, than for them to share their most valued asset.It can hardly be accidental, that wife-sharing is also widely practiced in the rugged and highly inhospitable Himalayan Mountain region of Asia.Many cultures which engage in wife-sharing also practice polyandrya system or marriage that is traditional in the Himalayas as well. In it, a woman is allowed to have two or more husbands.Ive not read anywhere that the Koma are polyandrous. (This, of course, does not rule out the possibility.) But many other cultures that have evolved in rugged environments are.In Nigeria, this includes the Irigwe of the Jos Plateau where, before legislation curtailed the practice, it was quite common for a woman to have six or seven secondary husbands.What Im driving at is this: Marriage and other cultural institutions are survival strategies that evolve in response to specific social and material environments. The form they take has nothing at all to do with morality.Accordingly, it is anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists who should be living and working among the Koma, rather than missionaries and evangelists.However well-intended they may be, religious zealots, through their blind assault on the institutions and belief systems of the Koma, are eradicating a strategically important knowledge base.This knowledge base almost certainly includes astronomical systems. The proficiency of the Koma in herbal medicine, for instance, would require a keen awareness of the lunar cycle and the solar azimuth.To be continued
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