Religion In Igboland

By Staff Writer

It is a fact of history that in Pre Colonial Era, Igbo people believed in Odinani. It's the common name for the traditional Igbo religious practices. The main characteristic of this religion is a monotheistic attribute. They believed in one God, but he also had a lot of spirits (Alusi)

At first we cannot just dabble into this work without first identifying who are actually the Igbo People

The Igbo People who believes themselves to be among the lost tribe of Israel are the people that lives in the South Eastern part of Nigeria and are polygamous in nature until the advent of Christianity

This ethnic group  speaks Ibo or Igbo as it has variously been  called as their language .

Now that we have done justice to the background of who the Igbos are let us go into the main narratives: *The Religion of the Igbo People.*

Simply put Igbos believes in the existence of a supreme being God Whom they refers to as Chukwu or Chineke as it's variously been called.

Though the Igbos also believes in the existence of smaller gods and deities like Ngene (male deities), Ogwugwu (female deities) but Chukwu Okike (that is God of creation) is the supreme being and all other gods and deities are seen as agents of Chukwu Okike or Chineke  (God) In Igbo tarditional religion revelation of the will of the deities or gods is sought by divination and oracles.

In other words, Igbo Religion like l have said earlier, Chukwu is the supreme being of Igbo spirituality. In the Igbo pantheon, Chukwu or Chineke  is the source of all other Igbo deities, gods and is responsible for assigning them their different tasks. For instance in Igbo Religion they have god of fertility known as Akwali.

More so Igbos acknowledge the existence of an earth goddess (Ala),as well as a belief in ancestors who protect their living descendants.

No wonder whenever they want to pray, brake kolanuts,perform some incantations  or pour libation they call on the people of the old ( invoking the spirit of their dead loved ones)  ie. gods of our ancestors, our fore father's etc. . Here wines are poured on the ground to first serve the ancestors and summon  their spirits for a particular purpose.  Sacrifices are offered from time to time either to the gods or deities to seek favour from Chukwu (God) or as atonement for wrong doings to cleanse the land.

This they do sometimes via objects or articles of worship like ikenga, okpensi, ofo, ojii,nzu  etc.or through oracles and deities like ngene,agbala and ogwugwu etc.

One can rightly say that  Igbo's traditional beliefs in some contextual meaning can resemble Christian cosmology. This is due to the fact that they believe in monotheism ( Existence of One God)

Each person has a guardian spirit which was called Chi. Chineke or Chukwu assigned these spirits to every person. The closest concept to Chi spirit is the guardian angel in Christianity. This spirit also follows the person into the world of spirits. Igbo people believed that they could speak with ancestors who lived in the spirit world.

It might interest you to note that the Igbos sees the world as two( from two perspectives)

The Igbo Odinani religion acknowledge the fact and existence of the physical and spiritual world and that everything that happens must first be sanctioned in the spirit realm hence the importance of continuous (be it yearly or quarterly) sacrifices to the gods and deities to ensure protection, prosperity and to enjoy the goodwill of the gods.

Igbo in Pre Colonial Nigeria also had a system of priests. They were divided into two types:

- Hereditary priests. They were mere servants of one particular god or spirit.

- Seers. These priests were empowered with justice functions. They had symbols of power and almost limitless authority.

Igbo people also had ancestral shrines. They tried to keep in touch with their ancestors by providing them offerings.