Igbo Cosmology and Traditional Religion

We also believe in Him and call him Chukwu.

He made all the world and the other gods.

– Akunna in Things Fall Apart

Igbo Cosmology and traditional religion are important folkways that should be

understood by readers of Achebe’s novels, because cosmology and religion seem to be

the concern of every Igbo character in the old and new orders – the old order in Things

Fall Apart and Arrow of God, and the new order in No Longer at Ease and A Man of the

People.

Also, a background knowledge of Igbo cosmology and traditional religion enables

readers to gain useful insights into what informs and shapes the world – view, moral code

and ethics of the characters in the novels: namely, the relation of man to other creatures

or forces in the universe, to his fellow men, and to the supernatural force behind all

creations, variously called cosmic force, God, or as in the case of the Igbo people,

Chukwu or Chinek. It should be noted, however, that cosmology and religion are so

interrelated that they are not treated as separate concepts as the title of this chapter seems

to suggest. Rather, they are given a holistic treatment, following Achebe’s exploitation of

them in his novels.

Chukwu/ Chineke or Supreme God

Igbo traditional religion begins with the Igbo concept of the Supreme God –

Chukwu (translated literally as greater god because of the presence of the lesser gods) or

Chineke (chi[nke] naeke, god – who – creates or Creator) who is so omnipotent, and
ineffable that he is approached by men through lesser gods and deities. Victor C.

Uchendu, an Igbo Professor of Sociology, writing on “Igbo Ideas of the High God” says

in part:

The idea of creator of all things is focal to Igbo theology. They believe in a supreme

god, a high god, who is all good. The logical implication of the concept of god who is

all good is the existence of a devil (agbara) to whom all evil must be attributed. This

is not peculiar to Igbo thought. It is a characteristic of all known religions which

accept the doctrine of a high god who does no evil.1

However, Uchendu does not fail to point out the difference between the Christian

God and Chukwu of the Igbo:

The Igbo high god is a withdrawn god. He is a god who has finished all active

work of creation and keeps watch over his creatures from a distance. [Hence] The Igbo

high god is not worshipped directly. There is neither shrine nor priest dedicated to his

service. He gets no direct sacrifice from the living but is conceived as the ultimate

receiver of all sacrifice made to the major deities. (In fact, Igbo sacrifice to any unknown

and uninvited deities who might be present.) He seldom interferes in the affairs of men, a

characteristic which sets him apart from all other deities, spirits, and ancestors. He is a

satisfied god who is not jealous of the prosperity of man on earth. 2

That means that Chukwu is not omnipresent; neither is He worshipped or

approached directly except through the minor deities to whom sacrifices are offered for

their mediation services to man and Chukwu.

exemplified with the following friendly argument between an Igbo village head, Akunna,

and a white missionary, Mr. Brown:

“You say there is one Supreme God who made heaven and earth,” said Akunna

on one of Mr. Brown’s visits. “We also believe in Him and call Him Chukwu. He made

all the world and the other gods.”

“There are no other gods,” said Mr. Brown. “Chukwu is the only God and all

others are false. You carve a piece of wood – like that one” (he pointed at the rafters from

which Akunna’s carved Ikenga hung), “and you call it a god. But it is still a piece of

wood.”

“Yes,” said Akunna. “It is indeed a piece of wood. The tree from which it came

was made by Chukwu, as indeed all minor gods were. But he made them for His

messengers so that we could approach Him through them. It is like yourself. You are the

head of your church.”

“No,” protested Mr. Brown. The head of my church is God Himself.”

“I know,” said Akunna, “but there must be a head in this world among men.

Somebody like yourself must be in the head here.”

“The head of my church in that sense is in England.”

“That is exactly what I am saying. The head of your church is in your country. He

has sent you here as his messenger. And you have also appointed your own messengers
and servants. Or let me take another example, the Direct Commissioner. He is sent by

your king.”

“They have a queen,” said the interpreter on his own account.

“Your queen sends her messenger, the District commissioner. He finds that he

cannot do the work alone and so he appoints kotma to help him. It is the same with God,

or Chukwu. He appoints the smaller gods to help Him because His work is too great for

one person.”

“You should not think of Him as a person,” said Mr. Brown. “It is because you do so

that you imagine He must need helpers. And the worst thing about it is that you give

all the worship to the false gods you have created.”

“that is not so. We make sacrifices to the little gods, but when they fail and there is

no one else to turn to we go to Chukwu. It is right to do so. We approach a great man

through his servants. But when his servants fail to help us, then we go to the last

source of hope. We appear to pay greater attention to the little gods but that is not so.

We worry them more because we are afraid to worry their Master. Our fathers knew

that Chukwu was the Overiord and that is why many of them gave their children the

name Chukwuka – ‘Chukwu is Supreme.’ ”

“You said one interesting thing,” said Mr. Brown. “You are afraid of Chukwu. In my

religion Chukwu is a loving Father and need not be feared by those who do His will.”

“But we must fear Him when we are not doing His will,” said Akunna. “And who is

to tell His will? It is too great to be known” (TFA, pp. 162-3).

on Igbo religious practices. It reveals another aspect of Igbo folkways which is not

understood by an outsider. And that is why Mr. Brown alleges that Chukwu is

anthropomorphized by the Igbo. But as Akunna points out, it is to the gods and deities

that sacrifices are offered, a religious rite which does not constitute worship per se. It is

Chukwu, the source of all creation, that is worshipped; but that is done with the

assistance of the superhuman agencies. If we may draw an analogy here, the gods and

deities are regarded by the Igbo as attorneys –a t – law under Chukwu, the Supreme

authority, before whom they plead human cases. The fees paid for their services are the

sacrifices offered to them. Since the gods and deities possess these human tendencies, it

is no wonder then that they are so talked about in human terms.

To emphasize further the human attributes of these gods and deities, the sacrifices

they demand through oracles are sometimes negotiated like human attorneys’ fees:

“Some people say the Oracle warned him that he would fall of a palm tree and kill

himself,” said Akukalia. “Obiako has always been a strange one,” said Nwakibie. “I

have heard that many years ago, when his father had not been dead very long, he had

gone to consult the Oracle. The Oracle said to him, ‘Your dead father wants you to

sacrifice a goat to him.’ Do you know what he told the Oracle? He said, ‘Ask my

dead father if he ever had a foul when he was alive’” (TFA, p.19).

The point is, if the Igbo worshipped false gods, as Mr. Brown asserts, then no one

would impugn the authority of the gods and deities or contradict the words of the oracle

and go free as Obiako here does, for that would be sacrilege; no one would do the kind of

thing that Akunna talks about. That is, “when they (gods and deities) fall and there is no
one else to turn to we go to Chukwu.” Chukwu is worshipped because He is so just that

no sacrifice can influence or obstruct His justice , neither does He need or demand

anything at all from man. The relationship of man to the gods and deities is like the

relationship between a human employer and his employees. The Igbo believe that the

universe is anthropocentric; therefore man can manipulate any other creations of

Chukwu, including the gods, to his advantage by offering them some sort of sacrifice,

especially kola. The idea of manipulation has become synonymous with bribery, and in

the novels some corrupt characters regard kola, one of the items of sacrifice and of

entertainment, as metaphor for gifts, bribes and kick – backs.

In the Akunna – Brown argument, Achebe employs the pedagogical technique of

analogy, comparison and contrast to teach his readers the traditional religion of his native

Igbo. He creates the dramatic moment and atmosphere suitable for the verbal

confrontation between representatives of two divergent cultures. Mr. Brown is persuaded

that Igbo traditional religion is definitely idle – and idol – worship; therefore he confronts

Akunna whom he thinks he could easily persuade, since they are friends. Akunna, acting

as the author’s mouthpiece, is found prepared to meet any challenges to his religious

culture. In answering Mr. Brown’s questions, he compares his religion with Mr. Brown’s.

But Mr. Brown, who sees some sharp contrasts between the two religions, voices his

opposition which, on closer examination, borders on form rather than substance.

However, by making an analogy between the roles of Igbo gods and the various

representatives of the white man’s religion and government, Akunna forces Mr. Brown to

make a tactical withdrawal and replan the attack that he hopes to carry out somewhere

else and at some other times. What we understand from their conversation is that Igbo
traditional religion is not inferior to the invading alien religion, Christianity. Both

religions have the same essence, although their forms of manifestation differ

tremendously.

Chi or Personal God

Next to Chukwu, in order of importance, is chi in Igbo cosmology and traditional

religion. Before discussing Achebe’s use of chi in the novels, it is helpful that readers

have a general understanding of chi and its roles in the lives of traditional Igbo. Like

many other phenomena in Igbo life, chi has dynamic meanings and roles, depending on

given circumstances and the individual lives involved. Hence any reader who depends on

the Igbo dictionary for the meaning of chi (perhaps linking its etymological relation to

Chukwu) may be mistaken in his interpretation or appreciation of the use to which

Achebe puts the notion of chi.

According to Mazi Elechukwu Nnadibuagha Njaka, chi is the manifestation of the

individual ego in the spirit of life; it is that being which links its house, man, to the One

Soul (Chukwu); chi is the sustaining essence of a living man but not the man who dies;

chi is man’s double, linking him to Chukwu, his ancestors, and the unborn, guarding,

guiding, and protecting him in his activities during his lifetime; and chi is omniscient, can

foresee danger, and is concerned only with the person with whom it remains through one

lifetime.3 The point, therefore, is that because the above meanings and functions are

ascribed to chi, one can conclude that the concept of chi is at the root of individualism in

Igbo tradition and that chi does not help an individual who fails to help himself.

Nevertheless, what may appear as contradiction in the meanings and roles of chi (as
Achebe espouses them in his noels) is, in fact, a difference in the contextural

manifestations of chi.

Chi as Achebe uses it in the novels is, variously, a personal god or spirit, guardian

angel, souls, or spirit double. Defined by its roles in a man’s life, chi is creator, fate, or

destiny.4 chi assumes its definite and individual meaning and roles according to the

context in which it is used. In the following instance, chi is a personal god or spirit which

functions as fate or destiny.

Unoka was an ill fated man. He had a bad chi or personal god, and evil fortune

followed him to the grave , or rather to his death, for he had no grave (TFA, p. 16).

Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, is portrayed as a lazy and poor character;

nevertheless, he could not have been that way if his chi were not as lazy and poor. The

Igbo cosmological belief here is that the human being is a reflection of his personal spirit,

chi.

As sprit double or personal creator of the man, chi is stronger or greater than its

human double:

You know more book than I, but I am older and wiser. And I can tell you that a man

does not challenge his chi to a wrestling match (NLAE, p. 37).

Here, one is advised to avoid fighting an enemy when he knows that the enemy is

stronger than he, for that spells disaster; but more importantly, the quotation emphasizes

the importance of one maintaining order in nature. That is, in the hierarchical order of the

universe, spirit comes before human beings. In addition, spirit controls the body,

therefore spirit is superior to body.

Everybody was killed, except the old and the sick who were at home and a handful of

men and women whose chi were wide awake and brought them out of the market

(TFA, p. 126).

To Igbo, good fortune is not a happenstance. It is something brought unto human

beings by a benevolent god or guardian angel. Those who have malevolent chi are ill –

fated and they cannot escape any misfortune coming their way.

Finally, chi is an individual ego or initiative:

But the Igbo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes

also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed. And not only his chi but his clan

too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands (Ibid. p. 25).

Chi as individual ego or initiative seems to suggest that character is fate. In Arrow

of God, Achebe’s narrator says, “If a man says yes his chi also says yes” (p. 28). This

notion of chi seems at variance with chi as fate or destiny; yet the Igbo do not see it so.

The use that Achebe makes of chi is very crucial in characterization for it points

to the Igbo belief in the notion of predestination and man’s apparent helplessness in the

face of his being denied gifts such as children, wealth and good health by intransigent chi

during the process of man’s creation in the spirit world. But such a belief in fate and

destiny is modified by a corollary belief5 that the individual, when still a spirit being, has

a say in his creation as he is being made ready for incarnation or reincarnation into the

human world. At that stage, the human – to – be is allowed to choose what kind of human

life he will lead. The choice he makes is then ratified by Chukwu and chi respectively;
that choice is his fortune which must “follow” him all the days of his physicals life.

Those who make bad choices (including Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, in Things Fall Apart)

are said to have ajo chi (literally bad chi). Since the Igbo believe in this myth of free will

and choice at creation, it becomes proper for them to talk of bad chi not as a criticism of

God’s ordination of man’s life in a certain way, but as that of the man who makes the bad

choice, even if that choice was made in ala mmo (the spirit world) before birth.

Achebe’s treatment of chi is somehow ambiguous, because he neither defends nor

condemns the Igbo belief in chi. Rather he exploits the various belief as he lets his

readers into the inner lives of his major characters. For example, Okonkwo’s

determination to fight his father’s bad chi, in Things Fall Apart is a ruling passion in the

life of the hero – a passion that derives from the concept of chi as individual ego and

initiative and accounts for his success. Nevertheless, whenever the ego or initiative is

mismanaged, it seriously brings about the hero’s alienation from his family:

….. but his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It

was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of

magic…. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion – to hate everything that his

father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness

(Ibid. pp. 12- 13);

At times chi as personal ego makes the hero commit offenses against the earth

goddess, Ani:

You have committed a great evil ….. The evil you have done can ruin the whole clan.

The earth goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us her increase, and

we shall all perish (Ibid, p. 28);

Umuofla:

In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete. The messenger couched to avoid the blow.

It was useless. Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his

uniformed body (Ibid, p.184).

As Okonkwo fights his father’s chi, he wrestles with his own. The Igbo’s belief in

chi, coupled with the myth of reincarnation, tends to suggest that the child in the spirit

world knows and accepts before hand the family into which he is reincarnating. 6 Once he

is born into it, he may strive to improve its lot but not to repudiate totally whatever the

family stands for. It he does, there could be disorder. It is one of Okonkwo’s problems

that while he succeeds in bringing honour to himself, his family, and his clan, he

completely rejects the gentleness of his father, whom he fails to accord a decent burial.

His failure thus violates a family tradition and hence brings a curse. We are reminded of

this in No Longer at Ease when Okonkwo’s abandonment of his father’s ways is

indirectly reciprocated by his own son, Nwoye, who leaves him and becomes a Christian

convert, Isaac Okonkwo. Isaac in turn abandons his father’s ways including his

traditional religion. Isaac’s son, Obi, disobeys him by deciding to marry Clara, an osu.

Isaac reminds Obi of the heavy penalties for such disobediene:

I [Isaac Okonkwo] was no more than a boy when I left my father’s house and

went with the missionaries. He placed a curse onme. I was not there but my brothers told

me it was true. When a man curses his first child it is a terrible thing. And I was his first

son…… When they brought me word that he had hanged himself I told them that those

who live by the sword must perish by the sword. Mr. Braddeley, the white man who was
our teacher, said it was not the right thing to say and told me to go home for the burial. I

refused to go (NLAE, p. 125).

This boy [Obi Okonkwo] that we are talking about, what has he done? He was told

that his mother died and he did not care, it is a strange and surprising thing, but I can

tell you that I have seen it before. His father did it (Ibid, p. 145).

Unlike his father, Isaac, Obi was born and raised in a wholly Christian home. This

may have encouraged him to expect his Christian parents to ignore the “pagan” cult of

osu and support his marriage proposal to Clara. Maybe the young Nwoye would have

done so but not the mature Isaac who is, at this point, lamenting his own adolescent

disobedience to his father, Okonkwo. By allowing the traditional practices to triumph

over the Christian, the narrator realistically demonstrates that, in spite of the success of

Christianity in traditional Igboland, there were some traditional ways, however bad, that

the white man’s religion could not (and still cannot now) wipe out. The question of osu in

the first three novels is a case in point.

Honoring the Ancestors

To disobey one’s parents and elders is a very serious offense which could earn

one a curse, but a worse offense than that is the dishonoring of the ancestors whose

importance in Igbo cosmology has made foreign commentators such as David Carroll say

that “the Igbo religion transcends local boundaries. It consists of three major categories of

belief – the worship of the great public deities, the cult of personal gods, and the worship

of ancestors.”7 But, the Igbo know that the ancestors are “honored”, not “worshipped” in

the strict sense.8 The importance of the ancestors in Igbo religious life is rooted in the

Igbo’s belief in life after death, chi, reincarnation, and reciprocity.

world. While the living man tries hard to lead a decent life on earth, acquiring wealth and

titles as a passport to the sprit world where he hopes to continue his existence, with all his

earthly titles and status, his sprit double, at the threshold of reincarnation, makes choices

of good or bad things which Chukwu and chi will then ratify as his fortune onearth. One

of such spirits could be a deceased ancestor, who must be honored and courted by the

living relatives in order that he will reincarnate into their family. In fact, young married

couples have been observed competing to take very good care of an elder in his death –

bed in the hope of having him reciprocate their favors by reincarnating to them as their

first child.9

After Okonkwo commits a females ochu10 and is banished from his own village of

Umuofla, he goes to take refuge in the home of his mother’s kinsmen in Mbanta. While

there, Okonkwo takes time to reflect on his misfortune. When it dawns on him that

“clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things and that a man could not

rise beyond the destsiny of his chi,” he seeks to contradict the saying of the elders, “that

if a man said yes his chi also affirmed” because here he is “a man whose chi said nay

despite his own affirmation.”11 The narrator reports that “the old man, Uchendu, saw

clearly that Okonkwo had yielded to despair and he was greatly troubled.”12

Consequently, Uchendu talks to him, giving him the kind of guidance and protection that

he needs to survive the traumas of exile. In this sense, Uchendu becomes the true

representative of Okonkwo’s deceased ancestors. If Okonkwo never cared for them in the

past, Uchendu’s present duties to him ought to remind him of the importance of honoring

one’s ancestors.
 In fact, before his exile, it is one of such elders, Nwakibie, that gives Okonkwo

some seed yams to sharecrop; the yams he gets from his farm enable him to feed his

mother, sister, and his own immediate family. In such a society, where men are willing to

become “their brothers’ keepers,” it is mandatory to respect old age since there are a lot

of material, psychological, and social benefits that one can enjoy, if one respects his

elders and works hard. Hence, “age was respected among his people, but achievement

was revered,”13 becomes a germane phrase. Also, since the Igbo traditional society had an

oral tradition, no one could bypass his first teachers (parents and elders) to acquire the

knowledge he needed; but one could do that in a literate society, where great minds are

stored in books or other forms of record. The achiever in Igbo traditional society is one

who submits to the instructions and authority of such parents and elders.

Primarily, however, the ubiquitous presence of the ancestors in Igbo life makes

them apparently more important than Chukwu or chi: they occupy the “three worlds” of

the dead, the living, and the unborn and exercise enormous influences in all of them.

Trust in their cyclic movement and existence is due to the Igbo’s belief “that Chineke

(Creator) created this world for man and that man will not die, although individuals may

die to be reincarnated to continue on earth.”14

Ways of honoring the ancestors (which will be discussed in detail in subsequent

chapters)15 include invoking their presence with palm wine, kola nut, and white clay

before meals, during meetings, and when one has visitors; naming one’s children after

them; and according the deceased first and second burials. For instance, before the kola is

broken, the oldest man present in the house or in an important gathering invokes, through

incantation, the spirit of the ancestors who are believed to live beneath the earth. The
libation poured with palm wine palm wine not only slakes the ancestors’ thirst, but also

softens the holes on the ground through which they physically appear in the dead of the

night, and the lines drawn with white clay symbolize their peaceful welcome.

The wine and kola offered to the ancestors are expected to be taken by them

because once they are invited, they can assume human forms and, therefore, can drink

and eat as humans. A fist burial rite ushers them into ala mmo (the land of the dead, and

the second puts them among the rich and the titled; hence only the very rich and titled

men are given second burials. The spirits of those who are not buried are believed to

inhabit the “evil” forests, from where they disturb human beings, and such spirits are

encountered especially at night as ghosts. In fact, some of the un exorcised spirits are

believed to reincarnate as ogbanje 16 in order to torment their ill- fated mothers in a cycle

of births and untimely deaths. To exorcise the evil spirits, chase the ghosts away, and

prevent the ogbanje from further reincarnation, oracles are consulted, sacrifices are

offered, and the Ogbanje’s iyiuwa (evil stone) is exhumed and made impotent by a

powerful medicine man. We will come back to all these matters later.

Appropriation

The Igbo people’s belief in Chukwu, chi and ancestors is their religious

imagination which one gleans from the stories of individual men acting among their

fellow men. Being familiar with Igbo village storytelling habits – habits which include

giving moral tags to each story – Achebe could not have written about Igbo religious life

without raising some universal moral issues. In other words, he appropriated the Igbo

world view as a means of asking, in his own way, some ontological and theological

questions which have puzzled man for ages. Initially, there is a tendency for readers and
critics to localize the tragedies of the major characters, attributing them to Igbo or

African problems. But carefully examined, some of the issues Achebe raises prove to be

human problems which are presented as universal parables.17

Death is one of such human problems that people of all cultures have no answers

for; therefore, men endure the loss of their loved ones by hoping in the life after death

which, for the Christians is realized in paradise or heaven. For the Igbo it comes in the

form of reincarnation of the deceased ancestors. Hence the ancestors are accorded

impressive first and second funeral rites. Achebe accords such a farewell address to

Ezeudu in form of a monody presented by a one – handed spirit, consistent with the Igbo

custom, that the deceased ancestor must be addressed only in the language of spirits:

“Ezeudu!” he called in his guttural voice. “If you had been poor in your last life I

would have asked you to be rich when you come again. But you were rich. If you had

been a coward, I would have asked you to bring courage. But you were a fearless warrior.

If you had died young, I would have asked you to get life. But you lived long. So I shall

ask you to come again the way you came before. If your death was the death of nature, go

in peace. But if a man caused it, do not allow him a moment’s rest” (TFA, p. 112).

Although this passage is prose, it has poetic qualities that make it suitable for the

festal occasion: incantatory in tone, repetitive in structure, and choric in its oral

performance. No wonder the people danced, following the example of the one – handed

spirit who “danced a few more steps and went away.” And more importantly, Achebe

loads the passage with as many Igbo folk beliefs as he possibly could – the criteria for

measuring a fulfilled life are given and they include riches, courage or fearlessness, long

life, and peace. Juxtaposed with them are their opposites such as poverty, cowardice,
short life, and lack of peace. Both the positive and the negative criteria constitute the Igbo

belief in dualities and otherness. In the passage, too, one learns that reincarnation is a sure

thing with the Igbo, and they try hard to work for it, thus making each rebirth a higher

cyclic movement in the perpetuation of the human race.

The traditional Igbo characters in Achebe’s novels, as a result of and less

skepticism than people within the urban setting. Unlike the Christians who tend to believe

more in life after death, the practitioners of Igbo traditional religion do not distinguish

between life here on earth and that lived after death; there is life – in – death and death-

in – life. Thus, each of them aspires to live a good moral life which they believe will be

the same in the spirit world. Even in these divergent religious attitudes we are introduced

to the overall conflicts between the traditional and the modern, the indigenous and the

foreign, that the novels dramatize.

With such metaphysical outlook of life, religion seems to be the foundation of the

social, political, and legislative institutions of the people; hence the Igbo religious leaders

such as priests and their surrogates enjoy a theocratic status and reverence. However,

while the Igbo cosmology and traditional religion can make the social control of the

people a lot easier, thereby producing unity among villagers and clansmen, too much

trust in oracles, gods, and goddesses, in the ordination of chi, and in the pronouncements

of such divine agents as priests and priestesses, oracle tellers, and powerful medicine men

could produce social disaster. Hence, as we shall see later on, twins and their mothers are

mercilessly killed because diviners consider them an abomination to the gods, and those

who suffer the “swelling” disease known in modern medicine as dropsy are sent away to

die miserably in the “evil” forest.

and manliness, personal aggrandizement for patriotism, and sheer personal dreams for the

will of the gods. Aware of these weaknesses in the traditional Igbo society created by

individuals in authority, Achebe argues that the success of the white man in establishing

his influence in Igboland could not have been without local assistance. One finds such

weaknesses in Okonkwo and Ezeulu. They tryto fight the fight of their gods instead of

functioning only as “arrows of god.” How they are punished by the gods is examined in

the next chapter.