By Abuchi Obiora
Perhaps Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the executive Governor of Anambra State may not have anticipated the far-reaching implications of his Anambra State Homeland (Agunechemba) Security laws to the practice of traditional Igbo religion and culture before submitting those sweeping and reformative laws to the Anambra State legislature for scrutiny, debate and approval.
But here we are to deal with it, an immediate and urgent necessity in order to get the once vibrant Igbo traditional religion and culture, now polluted, reformed, made pure and straightened up. In order to do this, I present, in this discourse, a study in the limitations of cultural syncretism and the insufficiency of language as they pertain to the conflict of two religious cultures in Anambra State specifically and the Igbo nation generally.
The erudite Professor Ali Al’ Amin Mazrui (24thFebruary 1933 – 12th October 2014) opined in one of his most successful intellectual works titled “The African: A Triple Heritage” (A 1986 Television documentary which was later compiled in a book with the same title) that cultural and religious syncretism have both negative and positive ‘advantages’, depending on how they are managed.
In the brain masters’ intricate world of ink on paper sheets directed with the hands wherefore their combination become words and ideas that guide and shape the society and drive it to virtuous ideals, this Kenya-born American academic, highly respected and celebrated scholar took radio airwaves and television stations by storm during the eighties with that masterpiece which mirrors exactly the conditions that are presently playing out in our dear Anambra State where Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, long embattled by hoodlums who threw the State into unimaginable level of insecurity, decided to employ the sledge hammer style to rid the State of the hoodlums and their accomplices some of whom operate as native doctors and traditional medicine men under the guise and wide umbrella of the revered Igbo traditional religion.
According to Professor Mazrui, cultural syncretism and its consequences of underdevelopment of traditionally-held values including religious belief systems also take the forms of political instability and economic dependency against the “attacked” culture and in favour of the “attacking” culture.
Prof Mazrui recognized these as some of the prices that African indigenous ethnic nationalities have to pay for their triple heritage which he articulated to have been borne of time and climate change, Eurocentric capitalism, and finally of Islamic or Christian religion expansionism.
By the way this discourse is not intended to dwell on the rightness or wrongness of the Anambra State Homeland (Agunechemba) Security laws, so it does not also consider the shortcomings and inadequacies of that necessary and timely laws especially as in the abridgement of the fundamental human rights of people who may after all be innocent of the accusations levied against them.
As an independent observer interested in anthropology and human behavioral sciences especially as they pertain to the nascent behaviors of ‘modern’ men with scientific minds struggling to save themselves from extinction in the hands of myriad competing new technology, forces that threaten their existence, my job here is to find out how the present conflict between the Christian religious practices and the indigenous traditional Igbo religious practices can be resolved without damage to the two religions wherefore both of them would co-exist without rancor.
A former Nigerian military and civilian President, a high chief and retired army general, Olusegun Obasanjo, in his keynote address to Africans who gathered in Lagos, Nigeria, for the African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC ‘77) said that “People and culture are inseparable, for culture is the aggregate of concepts and values which characterize a community.” He concluded by saying: “It then follows that a people without culture are in themselves not in full existence.”
In the same line of thought, Leopold Sedar Senghor (9th October 1906 – 20th December 2001), a former President of Senegal, Poet and cultural theorist observed that “Civilization is the combination of facts and social phenomena, structures and the values which characterize any given society”. He continued by saying that “Culture is within the framework of this civilization, the combination of its values, in one word, its spirit,” the sage concluded that “it follows from this that each race, each ethnic group, each nation, indeed each society has its own values …” and that “… because there is a black race and a black ethnic group, there is similarly a black civilization and a black culture.”
By the implication of the wisdom that is expressed in the words of the two sages quoted above, it is obvious that if not well handled, the present mop-up of criminals and their accomplices in crime in Anambra State who are hidden under the toga of traditional Igbo religious worship and practices will obliterate the sprawling Igbo civilization which has been noted around the world as being responsible for birthing one of the fastest growing ethnic relationalities in the world who have made bold statements in business, sciences and the arts.
A study of the conflict between Christianity and traditional Igbo religion not only reveals the limitations of cultural syncretism in the marriage of western European civilization and the Igbo civilization but also points out interpretative deficiencies of words with the consequent insufficiency of language.
We would be able to find out what happened in Anambra State looking at the ontologies of the two religions. Ontology is the branch of metaphysics which deals with the nature of beings while metaphysis is the branch of philosophy which deals with the first principles, the first things in life (as in the concept of God) including abstract concepts such as being (and the relationship of God with man!), knowing(cognition), identity (recognition) and space (location).
By my little research, I found out that the key component in understanding the concept of God and His relationship with man which sums up to awareness as may be determined through knowing (cognition), identity (recognition) and space (location) can never be the same for two people from different locations and cultures.
No wonder the concept of Igbo God, “Chukwu” (Chi Ukwu – Great God) exactly the same thing as the modified Israelite God ‘Yahweh’ which was modified and passed on through Greco-Roman traditions as simply ‘God’ and handed down to the present-day Christians cannot be the same. But you may say that before its modification, “Yahweh” is the same thing with “Chi Ukwu” in the Igbo traditional religion.
The space available to me here will be too little to completely explore what I have in mind about this interpretative deficiency but suffice to say that in the same interpretative correctness of Igbo ontology, “Chi”, (Chi Nta – Small/Individual God) which is also the guardian angel may be said to play the same role as the Holy Spirit in Christian ontology and theology for so many reasons that I have observed, which reasons also, may not be adduced here for the same reason of exigency of time and space.
Further differentiating “Chukwu” from “Chi”, one would therefore say that “Chukwu” means “Great God”, that is, the Supreme Being of all creations (Chineke) while “Chi” (Chukwu Nta) means small God, the individual God that guides everyone, something like the guardian angel.
Let us also quickly look at the concept of Satan the Devil, supposedly assumed to be exactly the same thing as “EKWENSU” in Igbo traditional religion. Ordinarily, the word “EKWENSU” explains itself because most Igbo words are composed as compound words from the meanings which they convey. “EKWENSU” therefore should mean “EKWE M, MSU”. The literal meaning of this is “if you allow me, I will start” or “I KWE M, MSU!,” literately meaning “if you agree, it starts.”
In Igbo traditional religion, “EKWENSU” is a trickster spirit and a god that is associated with bargains, war, and confusion. In Igbo traditional religion, the concept of “EKWENSU” upholds the power of the will of man to decide what he wants for himself as compared to what God wants for him. It is something like the other side of the coin. It is not the equivalent of the Devil in Christian pantheon and both concepts derive from different ontological foundations of two different group of people from different anthropological origins.
While Satan the Devil is seen in Christian theology as the antithesis of God, it is not exactly so with the Igbo traditional religion where “EKWENSU” is seen as a catalyzing force to ‘Chi Ukwu’ through vibrant competition. ‘EKWENSU’ is tenacious, sees far and works for the purpose of checks and balances to ‘Chi Ukwu’. No wonder its symbol is a soaring eagle with sharp eyes and fast wits.
By the implications of these qualities, “EKWENSU” is a rival God to “Chi Ukwu” in the Igbo pantheon, and not even a deity of lower rank, and therefore do not totally signify evil unlike Satan the Devil in Christian ontology and theology. In Igbo traditional religion “Mmuo Ojo” is the exact equivalent of Satan the Devil. There are many of them, the (Mmuo Ojo) and they work in exact opposite direction from both “CHI Ukwu” and “EKWEMSU”.
By the implication of the above also Igbo traditional religion is not monotheistic but pantheistic or better still, panentheistic. Pantheism is the philosophical and religious belief that the universe and God are one and the same. This means that everything in the universe is a manifestation of a single, all encompassing, God. This God manifests itself in everything and not differently located outside anything.
Panentheism, on the contrary, asserts that God encompasses and is present in the universe but is also greater than the universe. This means that the universe is within the very incomprehensible structure or nature of God. It is important to know that this belief system finds favor with Ecotheology and Process theology both of which seem to provide the foundation for traditional Igbo religion that worships through mediums and effigies.
Unlike as it is wrongly assumed in illiterate and uninformed circles, worshipping through effigies as with wooden objects or graven images does not constitute idolatry in so far as those effigies or objects do not constitute the final object of worship as it is done in both the Igbo traditional religion and the Roman Catholic Church where the later worships God through the saints either engravened or in statues. What constitutes idolatry is where the worshipper, an atheist, directly acknowledges his effigies, graven or wooden objects as his God.
Surprisingly, (though it would want to deny it), Christian theology as applied and practiced today especially by the Church of Rome is not Monotheistic but Panentheistic. But the truth that the Igbo traditional religion is Panentheistic is both undoubtable and incontrovertible.
It is within the purview of this understanding that I see the invocation of “EKWENSU” against Governor Charles Soludo by a lady in a viral video. Most probably, the lady who observed a conflict between her traditional Igbo belief and worship system and that of Christian religion believes that Governor Soludo favors the later religion more in his Anambra State Homeland (Agunechemba) Security laws than the former.
Apart from “Chi Ukwu” (Supreme Being) there are seven major deities in Igbo traditional religious pantheon. “Chi Ukwu” is worshipped through individual “Chi Nta” by offering sacrifices to them. These deities are:
- Ala (the earth goddess).
- Anyanwu (the sun God).
- Ikenga (god of wealth/achievement).
- Agwu Nsi (god of health and divination).
- Amadioha (god of thunder).
- EKWENSU (the balancer, trickster god)
- Ogbunabali (angel of death).
Let me quickly observe that there are localized gods in the Igbo pantheon. They include Igwekala, Egwugwu, Idemmili, Kamalu, Mbari, Ahiajioku, etc.
Having gotten these background facts, let us go straight to find out what Governor Soludo must do in order not to throw away the baby with the dirty bath water as he cleanses the Augean Stable that has mired the Igbo traditional religion. But before this again, let us glance through Governor Charles Soludo’s Security laws.
The Anambra State Homeland (Agunechemba) Security laws of 2025 came into effect on Friday 17th January 2025. The major components of those laws are captured in:
- Clause 8 (Establishment of the Agunechemba)
- Clause 5 (Power of the Agunechemba)
- Clause 4(The functions of the Agunechemba)
- Clause13 (Duty to make monthly security report to the governor’s office) etc.
The Anambra State Homeland (Agunechemba) Security laws with sweeping powers which have been criticized in some quarters have so far recorded many successes in the curbing of crime in the state and putting fears into people who may still contemplate going the criminal way.
Next week, I shall round-up this discourse by articulating what the Anambra State Governor must do in order not to throw away the baby with the dirty water as the government reforms the Igbo culture and engenders a renaissance, a rebirth in the practice of Igbo traditional religion.
To Be Concluded.
Abuchi Obiora
Global Upfront Newspaper
The Kaleidoscope Archives
https://globalupfront.com/section/the-kaleidoscope