Fwd: [NaijaPolitics] A SUMMARY OF IGBO RELIGION
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Date: 2009/8/9
Subject: [NaijaPolitics] A SUMMARY OF IGBO RELIGION
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This summary of Igbo religion is in response to a letter that I received this afternoon from an Igbo student at the University of Maryland, College Park, for information on Amadioha. Today, many Africans are ashamed of their traditional religions. I believe that whereas we do not have to return to every particular of African religions that we must embrace aspects of them to be at peace with ourselves. A person who is ashamed of his heritage cannot be a happy person. A house divided cannot stand. |
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This summary of Igbo religion is in response to a letter that I received from an Igbo student at the University of Maryland, College Park, for information on Amadioha. Today, many Africans are ashamed of their traditional religions. I believe that whereas we do not have to return to every particular of African religions that we must embrace aspects of them to be at peace with ourselves. A person who is ashamed of his heritage cannot be a happy person. A house divided cannot stand.
A SUMMARY OF IGBO RELIGION Ozodi Thomas Osuji
Onyemobi:
I do not know what article of mine that you read. I have written several of them on Igbo religion. Since I do not want to rehash what I wrote elsewhere, I will merely summarize Igbo religion for you (Amadioha fits into the larger picture of Igbo religion).
THE HOLY TRINITY, TRANSCENDENT GOD
Igbos believe that there is a Supreme God called Chukwu. Chukwu is unknowable.
Chukwu somehow became a creator God called Chineke (God the creator). Chineke created this world. Chineke created Chi
Chi is tantamount to what Christians call the individual’s soul, the spirit of God in each of us, the son of God.
For all intents and purposes, this Holy Trinity of Chukwu, Chineke and Chi are one God; their names are interchangeable hence we say Nwachukwu, Nwachi meaning the same thing, son of God. (Interestingly, we also call these three gods in one God “Obasi di neelu”. Obasi is Efik and Ibibio name for God; this shows that we were interconnected with the Efiks.)
THE EARTHLY, IMMANENT GODS
In addition to the Holy Trinity, Igbos have what, for lack of a better name, can be called the here and now earthly gods or functional gods. These gods are not as powerful as the other three gods in one God. In the Owerri area, where I am from, each town has a female god, a goddess called Ala (please note that the Arabs call their God Al (lah). My town, Umuohiagu, where we have Owerri (Imo State) airport, has a goddess called Ala Umuohiagu. Every village in the town also has an Ala goddess, hence my village, Umuorisha, has Ala Umuorisha.
FUNCTIONAL GODS
Additionally, we have functional gods, gods for every activity, such as Ahanjoku (the god that helps the people have good harvests, crops) hence the ahanjoku festival celebrated when Yam is harvested. The Ahanjoku high priest is always called Njoku or Osuji (the name alternatives in the same family, for example my great grandfather was called Njoku and his son was called Osuji).
Then there is Amdioha. This god is pervasive. It is interpreted in many ways, including the god of thunder, the god of light and the god of knowledge (light is metaphor for knowledge, darkness is metaphor for ignorance). People come to this god to consult him about their future and get information on why things are not working out well for them. The high priest of Amadioha, “onye ishi muo of Amadioha” tell them what to do to correct their situation. For example, if a man had committed incest, defined as having sex with any one in the village, for all members of the village are related, he is said to have “omeruola ala”, (committed sacrilege), and must make amends by bringing assorted animals to sacrifice to the god, usually a ram, goat, chicken, even cow, depending on his economic means. Amdioha performed a whole host of services for the people, for example, at the end of the year, before the New Year began, the Amadioha high priest would predict what would happen to the people during the coming year. The people would gather at the Amadioha shrine, temple, and the high priest would go into deep trance and supposedly the spirit of the gods or ancestors would speak through him (his voice would be different from his normal everyday voice) and tell the gathered people what would happen to them during the coming year. (Please hesitate in calling this phenomenon primitive, for these high priests were almost always able to predict the future; they did for the people what modern so-called psychics and fortune tellers do for people.)
IN ALAIGBO HIGH PRIESTHOOD IS INHERITED
In Alaigbo (Igbo land) the high priests of the earthly gods and goddess are always in the same kindred. The high priest of Amadioha comes from the Umuamadioha kindred (which is the name of my kindred). When the current high priest dies or is getting old, the members of the kindred consult a Dibia (dibia is equivalent to anthropologists’ notion of shaman, what Christians call mystic) and he tells them which son-child in the family would replace him. When my uncle, Akakporo, the then high priest was getting old, I was said to be the next high priest. I was born at Lagos and grew up there. But upon hearing that I was to replace Akakporo, my parents yanked me away from my school, Ladi Lak Elementary School, Apapa GRA, and sent me to their village to go live with their grandparents and understudy the practices of Amadioha. I was in the village for two years, ages eight and nine, and then came back to Lagos and completed elementary school and proceeded to secondary boarding school (after which I went to the USA). Igbos had the practice of dedicating folk to the gods. Njoku, Osuji or Osuchukwu (God’s servant), for example, is a child dedicated to the god of Ahanjoku. In this case, in a positive sense, for the child is always a Diala (free born) and leads the freeborn, Diala, in performing the Ahanjoku ceremony, a very important ceremony in Alaigbo. The Amadioha high priest must conduct the opening prayer and offer libation to the ancestors before Igbo gatherings start their deliberations; such gatherings are called Amala or Nzuko umudiala, the meeting of free men. Osus were excluded from these all important meetings where Igbos ruled themselves. Igbos did not have formal authority figures like chiefs (Ezes), except those Igbos who were influenced by the Edo, the Onitcha, for example, have Obi, that is, chief.
OSU, NEGATIVE ASPECT OF IGBO RELIGION
The negative side to Igbo religion is that in Alaigbo gods and their high priests had persons dedicated to doing their work for them. These were called Osus. Osus are not slaves in the Western sense of the word but slaves to the gods. In my town we have a large pool of osus (they serve the various gods, essentially they serve the high priests of the gods, for example, in my kindred we still have a few families who live with us but who are not part of us; in our traditional society they were the osu serving the high priest of Amadioha). Umuohiagu has a quarter for osu folk, called Amuga. The osus are not related to folk in the town; they were bought from other places, some from non Igbo places. I must emphasize that at present they are no longer treated as osu except that no Diala (freeborn) wants to marry an osu, for they believe that to do so is to have committed sacrilege. I have done my best to teach folks to accept the osu as coequal. Osus were folk like you and I who were bought and dedicated to serving the needs of the gods, specifically the high priests’ needs; they farmed for the high priests and that way leaving them not to worry about farming hence had time to perform their priestly functions. Many of the children of the high priests, since they did not have to do backbreaking farm work, became artists, sculptors, painters etc. In our modern world these families tend to have the preponderance of Western educated persons in the town. (I do not believe that there is an adult in my kindred who does not have, at least, a bachelor’s degree; many of them have doctorate degrees and are scattered all over the Western world; some are at prestigious universities like Columbia, Stanford etc and some at the best research institutions like the CDC.) OHU OR INDENTURED SERVANTS
Igbos also had the institution of Ohu (indentured servants); here, a man in a financial pinch sold himself to another man and became his servant, moved to his master’s compound and did his farm work for him. When he pays off his debt he returns to being a free man, again. The osu, on the other hand, cannot pay off his debt and become a freeman!
DIBIA, IGBO MYSTICS
Igbos have the Dibia institution. Dibias are men and women that have intense interest in spirituality. Usually, in childhood the elders identify such children as “onye agwuishi” (a child whose head is possessed by the god of knowledge). Such children are usually precocious, very bright and know a lot. In the West they would say that they have superior intelligence. When a child is identified as “onye agwuishi”, the elders would insist that he goes through the initiation ceremony to become a dibia. This ceremony is called “Isa agwuishi”. It takes several months to go through this initiation. Upon completion the person is called Dibia (or duru in certain parts of Alaigbo). If it is a female she is called Lolo. People consult such persons for predictions of what is going to happen to them in the future. Some Dibias and lolos become herbal medicine specialists and healed all sorts of diseases (they were Igbo traditional medical doctors). Some of them simply predict the future (Igbala aja). They are usually very uncanny and correct in what they say. When a child is born the parents consult dibia and he tells them who that child was in a previous life time (Igbos believe in reincarnation). When folk die they are said to have gone to Igbos ancestors land. They stay in the ancestors land (Alamuo, spirit land) and can choose to reincarnate. Some children play tricks on their parents; they come only to die and come to die, over and over, again. These children are called “Ndi Ogbanje”. If a dibia is consulted he would say that such a child is “onye ogbanje” (Ndi is plural, onye is singular) and prescribe what needs to be done to prevent the child from dying and coming back (such children are often named “Onwubiko”, meaning, please death don’t take this child away from the parents). In sum, the “onye ishi” (high priest of) Amadioha played a critical role in traditional Igbo society. Today, most Igbos are Christians. Virtually every person in my area is a Catholic (as my parents are and as I was socialized into). Our traditional religion is desecrated, called heathenish, paganish etc. Western missionaries considered African religions satanic (ekwensu), so people are now ashamed of being associated with them. Our traditional religions are not dead; they merely have gone underground. They still exist but no one wants to be openly associated with them. Whereas most people would still consult the various high priests and dibia when they are in distress, however, they would not want to do so openly. Whenever I am at home folk come to me asking for help with their spiritual matters (they assume that I have the power of the high priest to help them). Some would bring goats, hen, dogs etc for such consultation. These same people go to church and would not want any one to know what they do when no one is watching them. Even some of the high priests are ashamed of their functions. The Ala Umuohiagu high priest, a chap called Anthony Echebe, lives in San Francisco, California. I asked him to get involved in meeting our people’s spiritual needs and he dissociated from his function. Like me, when he was young (he attended Stella Marris College, Port Harcourt) he was deemed the high priest of Ala Umuohiagu. He felt shamed by that function and considers himself a good Catholic. With regards to knowledge of Amadioha what I know can be put into the framework of general knowledge of African religions (a subject on which I have written on a lot, as well as on other religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen, Christianity etc). I do not know whether what I said here is of any help to you or not. If you are one of those persons who are extraordinarily interested in religion and spirituality, may I suggest that you explore becoming a Dibia. To do so you have to go home and undertake the initiation ceremony (It took me a month to go through the ceremony). That is all I can say. Some persons are into spirituality despite their training in the scientific method (as I am). Ultimately, I cannot explain why some persons are intensely interested in spiritual matters. All I can say is that if you are an “onye agwuishi”, a person interested in spirituality you should not deny your nature just because the white man told you to be ashamed of your African religions. It is from folk like you that our ancestors had their spiritual leaders, their dibias, those who guided them, mediated between heaven and earth for them. My hope is to do my part to help resurrect our Igbo and African religions. I believe that until we, Africans, free ourselves from the foreign religions that our minds are colonized with we shall not do the right thing, and will not be able to govern ourselves correctly. We are still the mental slaves of Arabs (Islam) and Jews and Europeans (Christianity). No one who denies his heritage, his people and his ancestors is a freeman, is a peaceful and happy man.
Good luck.
Ozodi Thomas Osuji, PhD (UCLA) August 7, 2009
Dr Osuji is the President of Africa Institute, Seattle (www.africainstituteseattle.org). He can be reached at (206) 529-4745: or oz...@africainstituteseattle.org
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toyin adepoju
From: Dominic Ogbonna <summ...@gmail.com>
Date: 2009/8/9
Subject: Re: [NaijaPolitics] A SUMMARY OF IGBO RELIGION
To: NaijaP...@yahoogroups.com
Cc: UmuIgbo Forum <Umu...@yahoogroups.com>, BeliefsAndReligion <BeliefsAn...@yahoogroups.com>, ozodi...@gmail.com, naij...@yahoogroups.com
Dr Osuji, Ndi Igbo:
Most of the stuff written in this article is wrong and misleading. Dr Osuji's account of the mythical "Igbo Religion" is revisionist. It is NOT historical. At best, it is an awkward attempt to christianise Igbo beliefs IN RETROSPECT. Allow me to discuss the most glaring errors:
1. Dr Osuji wrote: "Igbos believe that there is a Supreme God called Chukwu. Chukwu is unknowable."
Historically, this makes no sense. First of all, NO DEITY was common to every part of Igbo land. "Chukwu" may be a supreme deity in 2009, but 200 years ago, he was just another localised deity, just like "Chineke", just like "Obasi", just like "Ezechitoke", "Igwekala", "Alusi", and a million and others.
Chukwu was merely the local deity in Aro-CHUKWU town. As everyone knows, the Aro people eventually acquired an over-sized influence on the rest of Igbo land. This factor, together with the rise of christianity, is how "Chukwu" the local deity graduated into "Chukwu" the Christian God and Supreme Being. Contemporary beliefs are one thing, and historical beliefs are another. We must not confuse the two, or seek to christianise historical Igbo beliefs in retrospect.
2. Dr Osuji wrote: "Chi is tantamount to what Christians call the individual’s soul, the spirit of God in each of us, the son of God."
This is another depressing attempt to christianise Igbo thought in retrospect. No, Dr Osuji, "Chi" is not tantamount to the "son of God", whatever that is. It is very hard to translate accurately, but Chi is a little bit like your personal "fate", a little bit like your personal "fortune", a little like your personal "Guardian Angel".
That's why the Igbo say: "Onye kwe, chi ya ekwe".
Rough Translation: when a man says Yes, his Chi will invariably agree!
3. Dr Osuji Wrote: "For all intents and purposes, this Holy Trinity of Chukwu, Chineke and Chi are one God; their names are interchangeable hence we say Nwachukwu, Nwachi meaning the same thing, son of God."
The above is, of course, complete and utter rubbish, and another ultra-desperate attempt to christianise Igbo thought in retrospect. The statement speaks for itself. I will not even waste time debunking it.
4. Dr Osuji's other neat and logical categories: "the earthly gods", "the imannent Gods", "the functional gods", bla-bla-blah, are all just that: fictional classifications invented and imposed by an American-based scholar who is seeking to impose order and coherence where none existed. The system is too tidy and to artificial too fit anything historical. Again, I will not waste time commenting on them.
Let me say this though: people like Dr Osuji who have a desire to be Catholics or christians should please go ahead and be good catholics and christians. Christian scholars should not try to catholicise or christianise Igbo beliefs in retrospect. If you are especially in the position of being asked to educate a younger person about the history of a particular religion or culture, please, please, do not start out with the unspoken assumption that one Religion or culture is superior to the other. If you start with that assumption, either one of two errors will happen:
1. The supposedly inferior religion or culture will be dismissed outright on that ground that it doesn't look like the supposedly superior one! Mere difference becomes enough grounds for dismissal! This is the error you find in euro-centric, whiteman's versions of African history.
2. The not so-favoured religion will be twisted into looking like the supposedly superior religion! This is the error you find in afro-centric but pro-christian scholarship. Dr Osuji is a perfect specimen of the genre. As we have seen, that sort of attitude also leads to retrospective revisionism. It is the perfect recipe for falsehood and historical inaccuracy.
In conclusion, the Igbo they did not have any one deity. Even the concept and practice of Osu and Nwadialla were by no means universal in Igbo land. All these generalisations about Ndi Igbo are fabrications and reconstructions from people who are eager to show that we, too, thought like christians!
Dominic
Forum members are reminded that NaijaPolitics is established to be a moderated forum for gavel-to-gavel discussion of political developments in Nigeria, Africa's largest democracy. Freedom of opinion/expression is inherent in NaijaPolitics. Views and opposing views expressed in NaijaPolitics forum are the rights of individual contributors. Mutual respect for people's views is the corner stone of our forum. Freedom of speech applied responsibly within the guiding parameters of Yahoo! Inc (our hosts) and NaijaPolitics Rules and Guidelines (broadcast monthly and accessible to all subscribers in our archives) is our guiding principle. Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.
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