Variant spelling: Obwoi; (Gworok): A̠bvwoi, A̠bvoi; Jju: A̠bvwoi, A̠bvoi; Hyam: Ku, Buboi, Bomboin; Kyoli: Amboyinye;[1] Nghan: Nezhen; Hausa: Dodo) is an African traditional religion institution which operated more like a cult of male ancestral spirits viewed as ghosts or reincarnates of the dead, whose physical forms remained invisible but voices audible, with origins among the central Nigeria plateau or Nenzit peoples such as the Adara, Atyap, Bajju, Bakulu, Batinor, Ham, Irigwe and others.

Atuk (March 2008: 30–33) noted that the idea of the Atyap religion (the Abwoi cult) was introduced by the Anghan, courtesy of the oral history narrated by an informant, Atyoli Abwui Kato, who narrated that: The Anghan people came to Kanai or Sanai or Bafoi Kanai to mourn the death of their indigene - Kura Yanga, a woman in Atyap land.

It was an all-men affair i.e. only men were allowed and all adult males in each village belonged to the local Abwoi lodge after their initiation.

[9] The Agwam Abwoi (chief priest) afterwards sips some of the beer from the a̠sum (small pot) and asks for a good agricultural year or season from the ancestors.

Older initiated men usually went into the shrine, while the younger males and women stayed beneath a shade such as a large tree, while the ceremony commence.

As at when dancing begins, the loud resonating voices of the Abwoi is heard from the concealed roof of the shrine disguised by the use of a two-ended large gourd, covered with spider's egg capsule.

They also received serious beating within the period and told if any reveals the cult's secrets to women, such would be killed and the corpse dragged into the forest.

The initiation by 'swallowing and vomiting' signified the graduating of the male children into manhood, introducing them into the cult, and also remind them of the consequence of revealing the common secret.

The five days of silence (the period of their stay in the Abwoi shrine) is a portrayal of the early years of children who have not yet learned to speak.

Henceforth, that child would be impaled on a sharpened stake (a form of execution used by the Abwoi) and all the initiated would begin to sing and dance around to drown the screams of the victim.

The device was crafted with the gourd of a snuff-box tree (oncoba spinosa; Hausa: Kukan ciki) by taking out the seeds from it and two holes borne on its opposite sides.

[14] The advent of lesser Abwoi called A̠kursak, Kursak in Tyap or A̠kusak, Kusak in Jju, was a sort of 'good news' to the women who were for the first time allowed to go into the shrine with men.

It is normally a masked person (masquerade) who dances to the delight of the on-lookers, with his attire consisting of beautifully selected colours and woven in such a way that there are little air-spaces but no skin could be seen from outside.

With the advent of the Kursak and with its attendant demands, women started composing songs to match with its dancing steps.

With him always is his "personal attendant" who continually sprays on him liquor, said to freshen him, being that his attire does not have adequate airspaces which would have allowed for easy breathing, according to Atyoli Nanam Kuje, an interviewee of Atuk's.

One of such is: While in the shrine, no worshipper was allowed to eat food or drink wine without the permit of the a̠gwam a̠bwoi (Abwoi chief priest).

[4] In an oral interview with Atyoli K. Nka, conducted by Atuk, the Abwoi were also said to be worshipped as demi-gods by the people due to their proximity to them than the real Heavenly Father, Agwaza (Jju: Ka̠za; Hyam: Nom).