Mammy Water and Her Oguta Female Religious Cult During the Nigeria-Biafra War

The Nigeria-Biafra war was a war of self-determination and independence for the Igbo people. It was a war against the alleged injustice and marginalization by the Nigerian nation on Igbo people and thus they fought it with all they had. The services of able-bodied men were employed and recorded but not much has been said about the involvement of Igbo deities and women in a war that was termed Oguejiofor (the war of justice and truth). Though women have always been seen as victims of war and the efficacy of the gods in modern-day wars doubted, this paper examines the involvement of the Oguta lake goddess and her Oguta female religious cult during the Nigeria-Biafra war in Oguta. It studies the activities of the cult during the war and in particular the deity’s protection of the natives from the rampaging Nigerian soldiers that wanted to lay siege on the town. The goddess through the activities of the female religious cult is credited with capsizing the enemies’ gunboats and making them a spoil of war for the natives. Using this as a template, the paper investigates the ever-reaching influence and role of local deities and women in conflict resolution and peace-building in the society. The methodology used in this paper is the historical phenomenological method of qualitative research.