Abwoi

Abwoi was a cult of male ancestral spirits among the peoples of the central Nigerian plateau, such as the Atyap and Bajju. The spirits were held to be ghosts or reincarnations of the dead, and each people told its own story of where the cult began; the Gwong traced theirs to a village called Agabi, probably in the 1800s.

Initiated men kept strict taboos and guarded the cult's secrets from women on pain of death. The Abwoi ranked below the Heavenly Father, Agwaza, but as demigods nearer to the people they healed the sick and were summoned in crises.

At the start of the rains each April they were escorted away for the farming year, and a cry heard afterwards foretold epidemic or drought. Once a year the whole community gathered for common worship.