Kepon (patriclan) is one of the institutions among the Yakurr People that holds or glues the political, social and economic fabric of the society together.
One of the distinguishing and unique features of Yakurr social structures is the coexistence of both the Matrilineal and Patrilineal clans coterminously. Kepon therefore is the embodiment of patrilineality among the Yakurr. They (Kepon) are the Trustees of all the lands belonging to the paternal family.
The kepon is a sort of Confederation comprising of all family lineages or subgroups or houses that are related by consanguinity.All members of the patrilineal clan or family regard themselves as having one common ancestor from where all lineages or subgroups within the patriclan descended from.
Therefore a member of the patriclan is forbidden by tradition from marrying fellow member or even having sexual intimacy with such member. It is indeed incestuous to have sexual relationship with a member of the patriclan. Any such relationship, if discovered, attracts sanction such as banishment, excommunication, stigmatization and paying of heavy fine.
Members of the same paternal family are brothers or sisters (as the case may be) and if in difficulty, you are required to accord him or her support. Adoption is extensively practiced within the patriclan.
A man may adopt the children of his deceased brother or cousin. He may also adopt the children of his sister and incorporate them into his Kepon. In the days of slavery, a man may buy a slave and adopt/integrate such slave to be a member of his Kepon with all rights and privileges that accrue to other bona fide members of his kepon.
Within the Kepon, there are several lineages, but all believe that they are related to an ancestor that founded the Kepon.
Land in the kepon belongs to these lineages (mpon-namma) but if a member from another lineage wants land that belongs to different lineage, he has to take wine to the Obol kepon who will invite the head of the lineage that owns the land to discuss and appeal to him to give out the land.
Each kepon has a minister of farm land who has the responsibility of sharing out farms to members of the Kepon upon payment of a small fee each farming season. Female members of the kepon belong to the kepon even if they are married. However they also belong to the Kepon they are married into.
Kepon also exercises judicial functions and settles disputes such as family feud, land, matrimonial causes.
Each member of a Kepon is forbidden to shed the blood of another member. Whenever that happens, the offending member can be subject to serious sanctions such as banishment or excommunication.
The Kepon has a family shrine belonging exclusively to that family. The jurisdiction of the shrine is limited to members from that family. Members of the kepon (or patriclan) usually live together in designated localities.
In Ijiman Town of Ugep, there are 10 patriclans namely:
- 1. Lekpankom 1
- 2. Lekpankom 2 (Letamkpankom)
- 3. Ugom
- 4. Kebong
- 5. Lebolkom
- 6. Lebulibulikom
- 7. Utom
- 8. Obioko
- 9. Otalosi
- 10. Letamkom.
..who ollectively have one family shrine (Epon-del).
When a member of Kepon dies, it is obligatory for each and every member of the kepon to come together to bury. Every member makes a financial contribution on the day of burial which will be put together and given to the most senior member of the deceased immediate family to help offset expenses they might have incurred during preparations for burial and thereafter it is obligatory for each member of the kepon to be celebrated in a traditional burial ceremony which will have in attendance his age grades and members of his maternal family.
A divorced female member of the kepon is free to return to her kepon with her children and the children can also be adopted and incorporated into her kepon.
Also a female member of the kepon who has lost her husband is free to leave her husband’s family and return to her kepon with the children who become members of the kepon.
When those children grow up they are free to return to their father’s kepon or remain with their mother’s kepon. There are numerous instances where those children remain and permanently become members of their mother’s kepon. Each kepon is headed by a king known as Obol Kepon. I have been the Obol kepon of my paternal family since 2008.
Note: The kepon structure you have in one community in Yakurr (example say in Ekori) may be slightly different from what you have in another.
For instance within Ugep there are slight variations within kepon structure depending on which ward one is taking about.
By: Okoi Obono-Obla