Retrieving Ẹbọ as Spirit: The Foundation of Authentic Christian Pneumatology Among the Igala, Nigeria

Martin Ahiaba

Abstract


Ẹbọ is divine Spirit. It is the creative and sustaining principle with which the Supreme Being—Ọjọ creates and re-creates the Igala universe. It is through ẹbọ as spirit, that Ọjọ reveals God’s self through the earth deity—anẹ, the ancestors—ibegwu and other nature spirits. Therefore, as spiritual beings ẹbọ have autonomous iconic existence apart from its physical representation in Idols, effigies and artifacts—ode. Through symbolic-ritual actions, ẹbọ makes Ọjọ accessible and beneficiary to the human through the ministry of healing and charisma. In the 1920s, while recognizing the positive influence of the ẹbọ—ibegwu cult among the Igala, the Ajokodo Bible translated the spirit as ibegwu. During the later missionary era, ẹbọ was diminished and demonized. As a result, ẹbọ lost its spirit connotation and dangerously become a synonym of idol—ode. On account of this pejorative association the 1970 translation of the Igala bible translated divine spirit as afu—wind, instead of ẹbọ—ibegwu.
The appreciation of ẹbọ as spirit has enormous implication for Igala Christian Pneumatology—science of the spirit and the Holy Spirit. The conception of any authentic Igala Pnuematology must first confront the reality ẹbọ as divine spirits in the Igala spirit—world. In essence, the appropriation of the word afu for spirit constitutes not only an escapism, but a monumental hindrance to theological inculturation.
In this essay, I argue that there is an aspect of ẹbọ as spirit of the divine obtainable only ritual action—worship, that is fundamentally lacking in the concept of afu as spirit. In that, among the Igala, afu has no cult, or ritual significance. My take in this essay can be stated as follows: unless we know what is spirit within the Igala world we cannot claim to know what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of the Igala Christian.


Keywords


Ẹbọ; Ode; Afu; Spirit; Igala Pnuematology; Igala worldview

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abuh, J. (1979). Igala folklore music tilted Ọma Alọ, Recorded.

Achebe, C. (1964). Arrow of God. New York, NY: Anchor Books,.

Bediako, K. (1992/1999). Theology and identity: The impact of culture upon christian thought in the second century and in modern Africa. Costa Mesa, CA: Regnum Books.

Boston, J. S. (1960). The Igala Kingdom. Ibadan, Oxford University Press.

Boston, J. S. (1974). Ifa Divination in Igala. in Journal of the International African Institute,41(4), 350-360.

Boston, J. S. (1971). Medicine and fetish in Igala. Journal of the International African Institute, 41(3), 200-207.

Egbunu, F. E. (2013). Personhood (one) in Igala Worldview: A philosophical appraisal. Cross-Cultural Communication, 9(3), 30-38.

Ejiga A. (1995). Custodian of ẹbọ Iye-unyẹjima in Agala-Ateh. Unpublished Interview Notes.

Gnuse, R. K. (1997). No other gods: Emergent monotheism in Israel. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

Hood, R. E. (1990). Must God remain greek? Afro cultures and god-talk. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Ifesieh, E. I. (1969). Religion at the grassroots: Studies in Igbo Religion. Enugu: Fourth Dimension.

Kim, K. (2007). The holy spirit in the world: A global conversation. London; Maryknoll, N.Y.

SPCK; Orbis Books.

Manfredi, V. (1997). Igbo Initiation: Phallus or Umbilicus? Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines, 145 (XXXVII-I), 157-211.

Medina, J. D. (2010). The knowable-unknowable triune God: Gregory Palamas’s essence-energy distinction from the perspectives of Vladimir Lossky and Catherine Mowry LaCugna. Trinity Blogging Summit.

Meyendorff, J. (1983). The triads. In P. Gregory (Ed.). New York, NY: Paulist Press.

Meyer, B. (1999). Translating the Devil - Religion and Modernity among the Ewe in Ghana. Edinburgh: Edinburgh university press for the international African Institute, London.

Miachi, T. A. (2012). The incarnate being phenomenon in African culture: Anthropological perspectives on the Igala of North-central Nigeria. Nigeria, Ibadan: Kraft Books Limited.

Odih, P. Y. (1979). Igala Agale Music. Recorded.

Okure, T. (1988). The Johannine Approach to Mission: A Contextual Study of John 4:1-42. In Uzukwu, God, Spirit, and Human Wholeness: Appropriating Faith and Culture in West African Style. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock.

Ọtakada, Ọ. Ọ. (1970). The Bible in Igala. Lagos. The Bible Society of Nigeria.

p’Bitek, O. (1970). African religions in western scholarship. Kampala: East African Literature Bureau.

Papanikolaou, A. (2002). Reasonable faith and a trinitarian logic. In L. P. Hemmings & S. F. Parsons (Eds.), Restoring Faith in Reason. London, UK: SCM Press.

Reid, D. (1997). Energies of the spirit: Trinitarian models in eastern orthodoxy and western theology. American Academy of Religion.

Seton, S. R. (1929). Notes on the Igala Tribe, Northern Nigeria. Part I. Journal of the Royal African Society, 29(113), 42-52.

Seton, S. R. (1930). Notes on the Igala Tribe, Northern Nigeria. Part II. Journal of the Royal African Society, 29(114), 149-163.

Shelton, A. J. (1965). Afa Divinity among the Ibo. Part 1. American Anthropologist, New Series, 67(6), 1441-1455.

The Gospels and Acts in Igala. (1920). Printed in England by the White Friars Press LtD, London &Tonbrigde.

The Oxford African Encyclopedia. (1974). London, Ely House: University Press.

Tillich, P. (1961). Systematic theology (Vol. I-III). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tylor, E. B. (1920). Primitive culture: Research into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, language, arts and customs (Vol I). London: John Murray Pub.

Uzukwu, E. E. (2005). Re-evaluating god-talk from an African Perspective: Translating God(s): Thinking the divine in interreligious encounter” in IP Erasmus. Paris.

Uzukwu, E. E. (1997). Worship as body language: Introduction to christian worship: An African Orientation. Minnesota: The Liturgical Press.

Uzukwu, E. E. (2012). God, spirit, and human wholeness: Appropriating faith and culture in West African Style. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock.

Walther, E. (1961). The theology of the old testament. SMC Press.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/%25x

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2015 Martin Ahiaba

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share us to:   

Reminder

  • How to do online submission to another Journal?
  • If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

  • Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/ccc/submission/wizard

  • Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.
  • We only use four mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

 Articles published in Cross-Cultural Communication are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail:[email protected]; [email protected]

Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture