Igbo Chi 2

8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

1/17

Chi in Igbo Religion and Thought: The God in Every Man

Author(s): I. ChukwukereSource: Anthropos, Bd. 78, H. 3./4. (1983), pp. 519-534Published by: Anthropos InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40460646 .

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8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

2/17

I.

Chukwukere

Chi

in

Igbo

Religion

nd

Thought:

The God

in

Every

Man

Abstract. Thispaper ttemptsoshowthat heconcept fchigives he gbo-

speaking

eople

of

Nigeria

central,

nifying

heme hat

ntegrates

he various

ields

of

their

hought

he uthor

rgues

hat

hi s

nextricably

inked

with

ke,

complemen-

tary

piritual

orce,

nd

both

re

associated

with

he ct

of

"natural

reation."

hus,

hi

constitutes

he

foundation

f

Igbo

intelligence,

roviding

"satisfactory"

xplanatory

model

or

the diversities

f

human

ersonality

nd

the

broad

ategory f

causation.n

the

ight

f

this,

he uthor

ejects

he

"established"

dea thatChineke enotesGod in

the

monotheistic

ense

f

the

evealed

eligions.

ather,

e

suggests

hat

view

f

chi nd

ckc as

inseparable

ual

divinity

its

n

with

gbo way of

"thinking"

s a

whole.

n

any

case

the

emphasis

s on thecrucial

nterpretative

ole

chi

plays

n

gboreligious

hought

and

philosophy.

Igbo,

Nigeria,

eligion,

World

iew

The

categories

re

.

.

priceless

nstruments

of

thought

which

the

human

groups

have

laboriously

orged hrough

he

enturies

nd

where

they

have accumulated

he

best

of

theirntellectual

apital

Durkheim

915:

32).

1.

Introduction

Emile Durkheim's

1915)

classic

pioneer

tudy

of

religious

nthropol-

ogy

offers

ot

only

general

ociological

heory

f

religion

ased

on

Australian

"totemism"

but also

a

significant

ntroduction

o

the

sociology

f

knowl-

edge.

The

impact

f

the atter

heme

n

anthropological

tudies

f traditional

I.

Chukwukere,

.A.

(London),

B.

Litt.

Oxford),

ead

Social

Anthropology

t

postgraduateevel t Edingburgh,cotland; everalyears f lecturing

t universities

n

Ghana

nd

the

USA;

now Senior

ecturer

n

the

Department

f

Sociology

Anthropology

at

University

f Nigeria,

sukka.-

Major

anthropological

ublications

re

on

theFante

Akan

of

Ghana

Africa

978

and

1982;

Journal

f African

tudies

980;

Current

nthro-

pology

981).

Address:

ept.

of

Sociology

nd

Anthropology,

niv.

f

Nigeria,

sukka,

Nigeria.


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8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

3/17

520

L

Chukwukere

Anthropos

8.1983

African

religions

s evident n

the

contributions

made

by

Evans-Pritchard

(1937,

1956),

Nadel

(1954),

Forde

(1954),

and

later eminentAfricanists

(e.g.,Turner 967 Horton 962 and1967; lienhardt1961). In their nalyses

of

diverse

African

eligions, ains

are

taken o define

he

nature

f the

com-

plex

connection etween he

main

categories

f the

religious

elief nd

the

way

of

"thinking"peculiar

to the

people

in

question.

Evans-Pritchard's

(1937)

celebrateddemonstration

f

"the

logic"

behindAzande

witchcraft,

beliefs,

nd

rituals

emains

locus

classicus

f

this

genre

f

African

eligious

and

cognitive

nthropology.

In this

paper

I shall examine

one

abstract

eligious

nd

cosmological

concept, commonly

known as

chi,

among

the

Igbo-speaking

eople

of Ni-

geria. wish

to

show thatchi is a dominant

fundamental otion

of

Igbo

thought

nd social structure s a

whole,

a

notion that

ies

at

the roots of

the

Igbo

intellectual

ystem.

shall

argue

that

a)

the ndividualistic

rin-

ciple

of

the chi

system

f belief and ritualunderlies

many

areas of

Igbo

behaviour;

b)

the

representations

f

chi

are

predominantly

religious"

in

character,

nd

significantly

uggest

"collective"

Igbo

"mentality";

(c)

as

far

as

Igbo

ideas

and

actions

associated

with

chi

sure

oncerned,

wo

major categories

f

the

understanding

tand

out,

viz.

theories

f

causation

(especially

cosmic

and

certain

puzzling

human

events)

and

of

the human

personality

n its

manifold

ariety.

The category f causality s of special interest n thisessaymainly

because

invisible

nthropomorphized

eings

tend

to

play

a

preponderant

role

in

traditional r

non-scientific

explanation"

of the

universe,

atural

and

social

cf.

Guthrie

980).

Part

of

the

reason

ies n the

nherent

ature f

spiritual

owers,

which

s common

o

all

known

religions,

ut in the

tradi-

tional

African

ontext further

omplicated

by

the

extreme

multiplicity

f

those

products

f

man's

nventive

magination.

I

stress

his

point

here

because the

term

hihas been

differently

trans-

lated"

as

"god,"

"guardian

pirit,"

God,"

and

allied

theistic

oncepts.1

n

the

sense

of

God,

as in

Christianity,

ome

of

the

exponents

laim

that chi

is synonymous ithChukwu nd Chineke, hesetwopresented s identical

accurate

gbo

denotations

or

he

"Supreme

Being."

But

shall

rgue

below

that

such

a

rendering

f

chi,

a

central

metaphysical

onception

of

Igbo

1

Precise

correspondent gbo

words

for the

English

synonymous

notional terms

"god"/"God"

and

"spirit" hardly

exist. Chi

is

probably

the nearest

generic quivalent

for

"god"

while muo

(agbara

in some

dialects), roughly

translated

spirit,"

is

a

much

more

inclusive term

than

"spirit."

For

example,

the

"gods"

of

village-groups

nd con-

stituent

illages,

ncestors,

nd

extremely owerful

oracles wherethe diviner s believed

to be

the

"spirit"

itself

rather

han

regarded

s a medium

e.g.,

Chukwu

of

the

Aro

and

Igwekala

of

Umunneoha,

near

Owerri)

ll

come

under

the

category

f

muo. Chi cannot be

said

to

be muo

in

the same

way

that

one

would

say

in

English:

"

'God'

(i.e.,

Supreme)

s a

spirit."



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

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Chi in

Igbo Religion

nd

Thought

521

cosmology

nd

general

philosophy

f

life,

cannot

pass

the

simple

test

of

systematic

nthropological

easoning,

hich

hould

pring

rom

well-founded

empiricvidence n chi ratherhan preconceiveddea of gbomonotheism,

by

which

chi is

reduced to

the

status

of the

particle

f Chukwu

"God")

which

He

donates

o

every

man.

2.

The

Igbo

Language

roblem

n

chi

Ethnography

The

issues

outlined

above

are

central

to

any

sound

anthropological

analysis

of

chi

in

Igbo

religion

nd

cosmology.

But

before

we

tackle

them,

the following riefdigressions necessarymainlybecause my analytical

approach

n

this

paper

is

broadly

inguistic.

n

this

connection

he

main

deficiencies

have

observed

n

previous

thnographic

ccounts

of

the chi

phenomenon

re

of

a

"linguistic"

nature.

First,

he

ethnographers*

nad-

equate

understanding

f

Igbo

language

atterns

f

thought

nd

expression,

which

even

to

the

"educated"

native

peaker

f

Igbo

can

be

quite

slippery

and,

at

times,

frustrating.

econdly,

the

authors'

general

ack

of

a

certain

degree

of

sophistication

nd

sensitivity

oncerning

he

semantics

f cate-

gories

n cross-cultural

omparison-

n

this

context

the

translation

f

Igbo

religious

ategories

nto

English

nd

vice-versa.

I may add at this uncturethatsocial anthropologistshemselvescf.

Evans-Pritchard

956:

v;

Fortes

1970:

164;

Bohannan

quoted

by

Winter

1966:

156)

unequivocally

dmit

that

religious

nstitutions

ave

proved

"more

complex

and

baffling"

han

the

other

socio-cultural

nstitutions

which

they

have

been

analysing

with

great

success

ince

the

emergence

f

modern

fieldwork

n

the

first

decades

of

this

century.

Evans-Pritchard

(1965:

7)

more

or

less

expresses

he

consensus

f

anthropological

pinion,

that

the

difficulty

ies

as

much

n

the

nherent

ature

of

religious

eliefs-

"what

neither

uropean

nor

native

can

directly

bserve,

.

.

conceptions,

images,

words"-as

in

the

basic

fact

hat

a

thorough

nowledge

f a

people's

language"

s a sine

qua

non for

"understanding"

hesebeliefs.And in this

sense,

he

adds,

"fluency"

n

the

language,

which

many

good

field

nthro-

pologists

laim

they

ttain,

hould

not

be mistaken

or

"understanding

t."

Let

us

therefore

ook

at

a

few

broadly

sociological

writings

n

Igbo

thought

n

general

nd

the

concept

of chi

in

particular

n

order

o illustrate

the

danger

or

comparative

ociological

nalysis

f

the

ethnographer's

nder-

standing

f

his

or

her

informants'

anguage

s

imperfect

n

any

sense.

Our

first

xample

s

taken

from

prolific

American

writer

n

Igbo

religion

nd

philosophy,

rofessor

ustin

Shelton2

who

n

his

critical

rticle

itled

The

2

Professor

A.J.

Shelton

was

a lecturer

n

English

t

Nsukka

northern

gboland),

in

which

area

he

claims

to

have

done

his

"fieldwork."

t

is

not

easy

for

me

to

infer

rom

his

writings

he

extent

of

his

formal

raining,

f

any,

n

the

sociological

disciplines.



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

5/17

522

I.

Chukwukere

Anthropos

8.1983

OffendedChi in

Achebe's

Novels"

affirms hat

his

interpretation

f the

tragedy

f

Achebe's

heroes s

"based

upon [his] personal

studies

of

Igbo

Weltanschauungen/*

nd thatchimeans "God

Within,

ot

personal

god'

as

Achebe

blasphemously

efers

o

chi'9

(Shelton

1964:

36).

Later,

in

an

essay

on

Igbo

proverbs,

most of

which

could be

usefully

nalysed

as

vig-

nettesof

Igbo

cosmology

nd

thought

n

general,

helton

1971:

47)

ex-

hibits sad

superficial

rasp

f the

gbo

language:

enwe

si

na

o

foduru

nwa

ritinti,

ma

iku

amo

ya

mma.

"Monkey

says

that he

would

have

remained a

little

child

but

[his]

eyebrows

produced

his

beauty

[adult

appearance]."

The

correct

iteral

English

ranslation

f the

proverb,

owever,

s:

"The

monkey

ays

that

his

eyebrows

nearly

uined

his

beauty,"

.e.,

that

his

eye-

brows

re

the

only

jart

of

his

body

that

come

close

to

being

mperfect.

Shelton's

error

tems

from

treating

single

but

compound

gbo

word

nwantinti

("near-miss")

s

two

separate

words

nwa

("child,"

or,

to

be

more

exact,

the

offspring

r

descendant

f

any

animal,

ncluding

man

of

course)

and

ntinti

dubiously

ranslated

s

"little"

by

Shelton,

but

its

meaning

n

isolation,

xcept

perhaps

s

shortened

colloquial

form

for

nwantinti,

do

not reallyknow).What s worse,on thebasisof thissterilemorphological

breakdown

of

nwantinti,

helton

proceeds

to

equate

his

two

forms

with

their

apparently

orresponding

literal"

English

meanings

withoutdue

cog-

nizance

of

the

contextual

imitations

f

the

sentence.

Hence

the

udicrous

idea

that

"monkey

.

.

would

have

remained

little

hild,"

and

the

arrant

contradiction

hat

the

monkey's

negative

yebrows

contributed

o

"his

beauty

adult

appearance]"

sic].

If

Shelton's

grave

mistake

s

a

result

of

poor

knowledge

f

Igbo

lan-

guage-the

indispensable

ehicle

of

the

Weltanschauungen

e

claims

xpert

knowledge

f-Revs.

Iwuagwu n.d.)

and

Ilogu (1965), well-educatedativespeakers f

gbo,

commit he"cardinal in"of

uncritical

ssimilation f

gbo

religious

ategories

nto

their

probably

more

familiar

uro-Christian

elief

and

practice

Beattie

1964:

203).

Iwuagwu

claims

that

"Igbo

religion

egins

with

the

belief

n,

and

wor-

ship

of,

Chi-ukwu

he

Great

Chi'

or

the

Great

God'

. . .

Chi

s

Chukwu's

essence

n

man

conceived

ither

s

man's

double

or

his

guardian

pirit."

n

short,

Chukwu,

dmittedly

morphologically

peaking

welding

f

chi

and

ukwu

"big"),

is

the

universal

gbo

term

for

(Supreme)

God.

That

s

to

say,

Iwuagwu

derives

he

meaning

of

the

compound

word

chukwu

from

he

separatemeanings assumedin the case of chi) of its two components,

chi

and

ukwu,

and

goes

further

o

generalize

hat

since

every

gbo

man

theoretically

peaking

as a

chi

the

"great"

chi

or

Chukwu

must

e

a

single

universal

gbo

deity.

This

s,

of

course,

peculation

uided

by

preconceptions

of

gbo

religion

modelled

n

Christian

theology.



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

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Chi

n

gbo

Religion

nd

Thought

523

Hogu 1965)

similarly

raws

close

analogy

etween

he

Euro-Christian

idea of

God

and

Igbo concepts

hi, Chineke,

nd

Chukwu.

These,

he

says,mean

respectively:

spirit,"

"belief in a

supreme

bénéficient ource of

creation,"

nd

"belief n a

Supreme

pirit

r World

Over-Soul." uch facile

postulation

of semantic

parallels

between

key religious

nd

philosophical

concepts

f

two

basically

ifferentultures

would

obfuscate

he

very

erms-

here

chi,

Chineke,

nd

Chukwu-

hat

need

clarification,

hich s

what

I

aim at

providing

n

the rest

f

this

ssay.

3.

Chi

and Allied

Concepts:

Description

nd

Explanation

a) Early

tudies

In

the

immense

but

widely

scattered

iterature

n

chi9

confusion

still

lingers

ver

the

exact

"meaning"

and

full

religious

nd

sociological

ignif-

icance

of the

word.

The

main reason

behind

this

unhappy

ituation

an be

traced

ack

to

the

apparently

trong

egacy

eft

by

early

Christian

missionary

scholars

and

amateur

pioneer

ethnographers

e.g.,

Basden

1921;

Talbot

1926;

Thomas

1913),

fromwhich

"modern"

students

f

Igbo

religion

nd

epistemology

ught

o break

away.

Characteristic

f

these

arlier

writings

s

theconcentrationn Chukwu taken o be interchangeableithChineke) s

the

Supreme

God

while

chi

is seen

as

basically

sort

of

spark

of

Him

dis-

pensed

to

every

gbo person,

qua

individual.

And

although

his

as

a

pre-

liminary

efinition

f chi

is

neither

otally

false

nor

altogether

nvalid,

yet

it

remains

nly

a

tinyportion

f

the

truth

r

"reality"

underlying

he social

fact

designated

hi.

b)

Scope

of the

Analysis

In

the

light

of the

above

criticisms,

uch

of

this

paper

n

a

way

con-

stitutesheoutlines f a sociological nalysis

f

chi,

based

on

the

primary

e-

cognition

f

its cardinal

xplanatory

ole

in

Igbo

belief

ystem

nd

world

view.

Chi

thus

represents

he

central,

nifying

heme

hat

ncorporates

he

different

acets

of

Igbo

social

thought

nd

usages,

specially

hose

aspects

concerning

an's

relationship

ith

he

nscrutable

ealm

f the

supernatural.

As

a

general

uide

to

the discussion

et

us

employ

set

of three

major

propositions.

irst,

fundamental

ommon

gbo

ideas

and

beliefs

bout

chi

what

s

chi;

how

s

chi

conceptualized

y

Igbo

people;

what

re

ts

ndividual

and social

manifestations

n the

language,

eligion,

olitics,

itual

ctivities,

art,

system

f

personal

names,

tc.

of the

Igbo-speaking

eople?

Secondly,

in traditionalgbo classificationf the universe3whatpositiondoes chi

3

It

would

e fruitful

o

adopt

three-fold

ypology

f

the

gbo

"social"

universe:

China eke

dualdivinity),

uo

as

defined

bove),

nd

mmadu

human

eings

live).



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

7/17

524

L

Chukwukcrc

Anthropos

8.1983

occupy,

and

who

are

its

closest

relatives n

this

cosmological

cheme?

The

answer

o

this

question

entails

close

examination

f

the

relation

f

chi to

eke, ikenga, fo, and ogu (see below). Thirdly, hiis bestexplained n the

broad context

of

Igbo

social

structure

nd

collective

emperament;

hus ts

value

as

thehub

of

the

gbo cognitive

ystem

s

clearly rought

ut.

With

egard

o

the

ast

assertion,

my

nterest

s

focused

n the

following

more

prominent

haracteristics

f

Igbo

social

behaviour:

a)

element

of

"fragmentation"

f social

systemcoupled

with

ndividualistic

onception

of human

personality;b)

bias

towards

he

principle

f dualism

n

thought

and

expression,

n

extension

of

which

is

the

tendency

o

conceptualize

human

relations

with

preternatural

eings

and

powers

in relative

erms;

(c) strong

but

vaguely

formulated elief

in

reincarnation;d) essentially

fatalistic

ttitude

oward

he material success"

or "failure"

nd misfortune

of

ndividuals

nd

elementary

ocial

groups e.g.,

family,ineage);^)

practice

of

divination s

the

key

to

knowledge

bout social

and

cosmic

phenomena

beyond

gbo

"technical"

xplanation.

c)

Chi

Definition

The

belief n

chi

is as

universal

o the over

ten million

gbo-speaking

people

of

Nigeria

s

thebelief nd

practice

f

of (Igbo

symbol

f

authority

and

retributive

ustice), yet

it is

not

easy

to

get

from arious

nformants

straightforward,nambiguousdefinition" f the former.What s absolutely

dear,

however,

s

that chi and

of

are

nvariably

aired

with wo

other

gbo

metaphysical

deas,

eke

and

ogu

respectively.

his

implies

complementary

dualistic

relationship,

which makes the

sociologicalexplication

f

any

of

these

oncepts

n

solation ather ifficult.

Basden

1938:

46)

identifies

wo

dimensions

o

chi.

He

defines t

first

as

"a

sort

of

guardian eity,

deputising

or

Chi-Ukwu" and

secondly

s

"al-

most

a

generic

word

for

God,"

i.e.,

Supreme

Being Chukwu

or

Chineke,

in his and

many

ther

uthors'

sage).

Grapplingwith the semantic lusiveness f the termchi,one of the

firstmodern

field

anthropologists

n

Igboland,

Green

(1947: 52),

seems

to

despair:

As

for

Ci,

the

spirit

who

creates

people

and

whose

name,

as

in

Cineke,

has

been

taken

by

the

Christians

o

denote the

Creator,

t is

difficult

o

know what

the

real Ibo

significance

f

the

word

is.

Ci

and Eke

together

reate

an

individual,

ut

each

person

is

thought

of

as

having

his

own Ci

and

whether ver and

above

this

there s

any

conception

of

a

universalCi

seems doubtful.

Green,however,

sefully

nderscores

irst

he

fundamental

omplemen-

tary

dualism of

chi

and

eke

and

secondly

the

most

distinctive

niversal

attribute

f

chi n

gbo

thought-ndividuality

Lastly,

Green

oses significant

question

on

the

commonly

xpressed

iew

that

the

concept

of

Chukwu s a



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

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gbo

Religion

nd

Thought

525

simple

union,

logical

in the context of

an

assumed

universal

gbo

social

development,

f

chi

and ukwu

"big"

or

"great"),

which

mplies

hat

Chuk-

wudenotesGod. I shallreturn o this ssue ater.

Meanwhile,

ur

preliminary

efinition

f the term

hi

derives rom

ts

intrinsic

ndividuality:

spiritual

eing

or

force,which,

heoretically

peak-

ing,

every

gbo

person

adult

or

child)

"possesses."

Thus,

chi's

essence

ies

first

nd foremost

n

its

commonest

gbo

modes

of

practical

xpression

n

everyday

ife,

which are

mainly

ingual

and,

to

some

extent,

isual

forms.

Considered

hus,

hi

is

highlighted

n

a) possessive

ingular

djectival

sage:

chim

my

chi),

chigi your

chi),

chiya his

or her

chi;

(b)

a

thousand-and-

one

proper

names

which

exist

(some

with

marked

dialectal

variations)

ll

over Igboland,e.g., Chima, Kelechi, Chidi,Onyewuchi,Anamelechi, tc.;

(c)

a common

Igbo

interjection

or

wonder

and

surprise:

Chi

n'eke

hi

("chi

and

eke" ); (d)

a

common

urseused often

y

children nd

adolescents:

Chi n'eke

kpo

gi

oku

("May

chi

and eke

burn

you

out" ).

d)

Chi

Symbols

The concrete

epresentations

f

chi

cannotbe

summed

p

in

a

sentence

or

two.

One reason

for he

complexity

s,

although

n

theory

very gbo

n-

dividual

has

his

or

her

chi,

n

practice

nly

dults,

specially

maleswho have

married

nd

females

hohave

borne

hildren,

stablish

heir wn

chi

symbol.

Secondly,

here rediversities

mong

he various

gbo sub-groups

boutthe

exact

form he

symbol

akes.

In

some

it is a

special

tree

(e.g.,

ogbu,

ogilisi,

ha)

planted

n

one's

own

compound;

ome

use

"stones

et

n

a

depression

t

theback of

the

com-

pound"

(Horton

1956:

20);

some

others

rect kind

of mini-altar: small

clay

pot

filled

with

and,

with

three ticks

ut

from

special

plant ububa

among

the Owerre

gbo)

stuck

n three

qual

heads

into the

sand,

odo and

water

used

to

plaster

he

whole

edifice.

At this

"shrine,"

which

s

placed

n

a

specific

position

head

of the

bed,

right-hand

orner

f the

iving

oom,

etc.) in the owner'shouse,periodic acrificesndprayersre offered. n im-

portant

ociological

point

to

note is

thatonce

the chi shrine

s

established

t

serves

s

the

"protector"

nd

altar

for

all

minors

nd

protégés

under the

particular

dult

owner.

n

this sense

the chi

of a

newly

wed

bride remains

her

husband's

ntil

he

gets

herfirst

hild.

Needless

to

repeat,

differences

xist

among

he

many

gbo sub-groups

regarding

he

details

of

the

above-mentioned

eliefs and rituals.

But a

fundamental

imilarity nderlying

ll

the diversities

f

thought

nd

action

s

that

chi

is individual

o

every gbo

person.

At his or

her

death

the shrine

is

destroyed.

Thus,

many

writers

n

the

subject

have

given

the

primary

meaning f chi as "personal god" or "guardian pirit."Thusalso one may

talk

of

chi

as

the

"divinity

hat

shapes"

every

man. For

seen

n

perspective,

the

individualistic

train

n

Igbo

notion

of chi

best

illuminates

ts

tripartite

relationwith

eke

(another

creative"

force,

omplementary

o

chi),

ikenga

(the

cult

of

strength

nd

success),

nd

Igbo

belief

n

iyo

uwa

(reincarnation).



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

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526

L

Chukwukere

Anthropos

8.1983

e)

Chi and

Igbo Theory

of

Personality

The fundamentalndividual ature f chi is evidentn Igbo belief hat

dead

men and

women

reincarnate

mong

their

iving

kin.

The re-birth

oes

not

follow

the

strict

ule of unilineal

descent

of

Igbo

social

organization.

Lineal

and collateral

relatives n

both

sides

of

Ego's parents

participate

freely

n

this

process

of

reincarnation. he most

mportant

spect

of the

phenomenon

or our

purpose

here

s thatthe

Igbo

believe

that at the

time

that

one's "creation"

is initiated

could

be even

beforethe death

of

the

person

about to be

reborn)

he "creator"

establishes

dialogue,

omewhat

like

that

of

political

negotiation,

with

the unborn

child's chi

(equivalent

here

o

eke)

about the

child's

destiny

n

earth.

tress

s laid

on

abstract

deas

like "luck," "success," "fortune," wealth," "illness,""fertility,"tc.; as

such

no

basic connection

s claimed

between

the

separate

chis

of,

say,

siblings,

et

alone remote

blood

relations.

I

have n

fact

ome

to think

hat

the

dialogue

s

best

conceived

of

as

held

between

hi and

eke,

nseparable

deities,

ather han

between

single

verriding

reator-actornd the

child's

chi.

This

amplify elow.)

Anyway,

ne

who

gets

a

good

chi is

thought

f

as

usually

lucky"

and

"successful";

he or

she

is not

prone

to serious

rreversibly

amaging

mis-

takes, accidents,

nd

misfortunes.

he

opposite

goes

for

bad

chi.

And

in

this

sense

it is

believed

that

one's

chi

and

ikenga

work

together

o

make

success n earth reality.

But

in

character

with

general

gbo

thought

n

relationship

etween

man

and

supernatural

eings, ood

or

bad

chi

is

not

an

absolute

gift.

A

bad

one

can

be

prayed

o

and

propitiated

n

order

o

reverse he ll

hands

of

fate;

in

the

same

way

a

good

chi

has

to

be

regularly

acrified

o and

placated

n

order

o

keep

up

its

benevolence.

Considered

hus,

gbo

ambivalence

bout

the

nature of

chi- a

theme

that

has

received

loquent

iterary

reatment

of

sociological

interest n

Achebe's

portrayal

f the

ups

and

downs

of

Okonkwo,

the

tragic

hero

of

his

classical

novel

(1958)-

4s

made

more

intelligible. konkwo'seventfulttainment fhigh ocial status nd subse-

quent

adversity

re

"explained"

n

terms

f

his

standing

ithhis

chi

Chuk-

wukere

971:

113-114).

f)

Chi

and

Its

Close

Relatives

We

turn

now

to

the

intricate

nd

perplexingly

ntriguing

elationship

between

chi

and

eke

on

one

hand,

chi

and

Chukwu and

Chineke

n

the

other.

n

this,

the

historical

estiny

f

the

Igbo

people

(which

hey

hare

with

other

African

eoples)

mustbe

taken

nto full

ccount

before

ne

can

expect

to

resolve

the

problem.

By

"historical

destiny"

mean

here

the

advent of evangelical hristianityn the secondhalfof the 19thcentury,

long

before

the

spread

of

literacy

nd

documentary

istory

onsciousness

among

the

Igbo

people.

The

implications

f the

event

for

gbo

religious

belief

nd

practice

n

particular

nd

Igbo

culture

n

general

eserve

etailed

and

systematic

iscussion

lsewhere.



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

10/17

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in

Igbo

Religion

nd

Thought

527

Nevertheless,

t must be noted that the first

eligious

question

to

generate

onflictwas

finding quivalent

gbo

denotations

then

n

spoken

Igbo

form

nly)

for

key

Christian

eligious

oncepts,4

specially

Supreme)

God,

with

its

overtones

f

monotheism.

Against

such

background

arly

missionary

cholars

assertedthat

Chukwu

or

Chineke

the

latter

being,

postulate,

heir

mistaken

notationfor

chi-na-eke)

means

God;

further

hey

opined

that

chi- a term

they

heard their

gbo

informants se more

often

but

unfortunately

ith ess

"precision'*

han

Chukwu

or

Chineke-was the

root,

both

morphologically

nd

semantically,

or the

latter

two

terms.

Plausible

argument

his is but not

circumspect

t

least

with

respect

to

Chtneke

most

probably

hree

eparate,

f

interwoven,

ords: Chi

na

eke,

intheoriginallygbousage, s I willcontend elow).

Chi

and

Chukwu

It is

reasonable

o

postulate

hat

Chukwu

derives ts basic

meaning

s

well

as

primarygbo conceptualization

f it

from

simple

malgamation

f

chi and

ukwu(

"big," "great").

However,

he

sociological

mplications

f

accepting

his

ine of

reasoning

re:

First,

Chukwu

s

a

grand

ggregate

f

all

the

chis

of

the

individuals

f

any

social

group,

from

nuclear

family hrough ineages

to

villages,

illage-

groups,

nd,

by

extension,

ll

Igbo

and

perhaps

humanity

s

a

whole. The

ethnographic

vidence

goes against

uch

a viewof

Chukwu,

or

he

dea

of

a

group

chi in

any

fundamentalense

e.g.,

family

r

lineage)

s not

typically

Igbo.

The

few

documented

xceptions5

of

Igbo subgroups

o

this

general

rule

open

the

question

s

to

whether

group

hi

was

not a later

ccretion o

their

ulture.

Secondly, why

is

Chukwu

not

generally

epresented

n

observable

images

or

symbols?

That

is,

if the

Igbo

conceived

of a

single

ollective

hi

one,

logical

dynamics

of the

thought

would

be a

material

epresentation

of

it on the

same

lines

as,

if

on a much

bigger

cale

than,

the

chi

of

the

individual.

Thirdly, s already ndicated, he evidencefrom heearliest ecorded

accounts

of

Igbo

religious

belief and

practice

seems to

confirm hat

chi

was

the

dominant

nd commonest

gbo

corresponding

ermforthe

general

4

Rev.

Fr.

Ezckwugo

documents

early

(1857-1912)

missionary

fforts

o

trans-

late

English

religious

concepts

into

ltfbo.

According

to

him,

the terms

Ci

(Chi),

Cuku

(Chukwu),

and

Cineke

(Chineke)

were

at first

sed,

almost

interchangeably;

ater,

the

first,

Chi,

was

dropped,

and

still

later,

Chukwu

became

the

established

form

for

the

notion

"God."

The

ambiguity

hat surrounds

he

concept

chi

was

made

more

complex

by its close association

with

individuals,

which

went

against

the ideal

of

Igbo

mono-

theism

he

missionaries

were

keen

to advance.

5

A

notable

one

by

Afigbo

1972: 18)

refers

o the

Umuchieze

group

n

Okigwe

Division.

In

an

oral

discussion

with the

author,

however,

learnt

that Colonial Intel-

ligence

Reports,

which

stressed

the

"bonds

of

unity"

in

Umuchieze

"clan,"

were

his

source.



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

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528

L Chukwukere

Anthropos

8.1983

European

notion of

"deity."

Igbo

informants

t

times

gave (and

still

give

today)

Chukwu

as

a

synonym,

ut

many

a

time

explicitly

ualified

as

Chukwu Oke Abiame,the

all-powerful

racle and

"god"

of the Aro- the

most

widespread

nd influential

gbo sub-group

n

living

memory.

My

line of

thought

eads me

to

hypothesize

hat Chukwuwas

not

originally,xcept

n a

morphologic

ense,

simple

fusion

f

chi

and

ukwu.

That is to

say,

it

is not

semanticallypeaking

he

gbo

name

for

Supreme

God,

of

whom none

seems

to exist n the Christianense

of "one and

only"

Supreme.6

hukwu rather

ppears

to

be the Aro

people's

name

for

their

"town"

deity,

which

the Aro

may

well

have

conceived

as

a kind of their

collective r

"national"

chi,

at first

eculiar

o

themselves

nd

ater

adopted"

by other gbo people,which s understandablen thecontextof collective

Aro

achievement

n

Igbo history.7

his

idea is best

examined

gainst

he

background

f

general

gbo

social

organization.

Every

village-group-

he

largest

utonomous

political entity

of

Igbo

society-

has

its

own

deity,

which

s

generally

hought

f

as

a "child" of

ala,

the

supreme

eity

of

earthlymorality.

he

village-groupod

is further

thought

f

as the

progenitor

f the

deitiesof

the

constituent

illages,

ach

deity

with

ts

own

distinctive ame.

The

spheres

f

activity

nd

influence

of

each

god

are so

vaguely

demarcated hat some

overlapping

ccurs.Ala

and

amadioha

the god

of thunder

nd

"supreme

eity"

f

negative

anctions

fora class of heinousoffences) retheuniversal onstants t each level of

the

social

organization,

ery

much ike

the

dovetailed

elationship

etween

Nuer

ocial

order nd

religious

hought

Evans-Pritchard

956).

But

having

thus

speculated

that

Chukwu has

intimateconnection

with the

Aro,

one

wonders

about the

pervasiveness

f

its

metaphysical

dimension n

general gbo

thought

and

usages.

Could it be

adequately

explained

n

sheer

diffusionist

erms

f

manifest ro

diaspora all

over

gbo-

land)

and

"cleverness"?

What

seems to

be

indisputably

rue,

however,

s

that

the

prevalence

of

Chukwu

proper

names

among

the

Igbo

has

close

links

withthe

divinatory

ower

and influence

hich

he

famousAro

oracle,

ChukwuOke Abiame, exercisedeven

beyond

Igboland

from roundthe

18th

century

o

the

beginning

f

the

20th

century.8

raditionally,

he

gbo

Henotheism or

a

vertical

conception

of

"Supreme"

divinity

would

be

more

appropriate

for

traditional

gbo

theology.

That

is,

there is

more

than one

"supreme

god,"

each

god

supreme

n

its

own

sphere

of

authority,

.g.,

amadioha

(god

of

thunder)

and

ala

(earth

goddess).

Authoritative

ocio-historical

ssessment

f

well-known

Aro

"contributions" n

Igbo

history

s

still

fragmentary

nd

not

accessible to

a

large

audience

(see

Ekejiuba

and

Dike 1976; Ekejiuba 1972). Ottenberg 1958: 299) was right o say,"The history fthe

rise of

the

Aro

to

a

position

of

nfluence s

uncertain."

Ekejiuba (1972:

13)

claims

that "the Aro

society

was

constituted"

about

mid-

17th

century.

have

not as

yet

come

across

any

date

regarding

he

setting

up

of

the

Chukwu

oracle,

but

its

shrine

was

definitely

estroyed

by

the

British

olonial

"con-

querors"

n

1902.



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

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gbo

Religion

nd

Thought

529

refer

o

diviners hen woman

s

pregnant.

f

the child

rrives

n

accordance

with

the

diviner's erdict

name

reflecting

he

particular

od

or

circum-

stances nvoked t thetime, r nrecognitionf thegenerallycknowledged

supreme

racle,

Chukwu,

ould

be

given

to the child.

Hence

Chukwueke,

Chukwukere,

hukwunyere,

wachukwu,

nd

a host

of

other

heophorous

proper

gbo

names.

A

case-history

f an

old

informant

not

ess than

80

years)

Nwachukwu

X,

which

recorded

n the

field,

nderlines

he

point.

His

father's

irst

ife's

five

pregnancies,

e

said,

resulted

n fivefemale hildren.

At the first

reg-

nancy

of the

second

wife,

his

own

mother,

son

was

divined

y

Chukwu

t-

self.

Generally

n cases

of

child-birth

local

or

minor iviner

uffices,

ut

a

wealthyperson, s Nwachukwu's atherwas,might refer o go straighto

Chukwu

racle

tself.)

onsequently

he

Chukwu-"gift"

ame

he

bears.

Further

nquiry

nto

this

aspect

of

the

matter

would

require

detailed

study

of the

Igbo

system

f

nomenclature,

hich

s

not

within

he

scope

of

this

paper.

Furthermore,

eal

historical

epth

must

be

given

o

the

enquiry;

otherwise

he

analysis

would

lose

much of its

sociological

validity.

n other

words,

t

needs

to be

shown

that

the

names

post-date

he

establishmentnd

fame

of

the

celebrated

upreme

gbo

oracle located

at

Arochukwu.9

The

Chukwu

nd Chi

first ames

gbo

children

ear

todaymay

have

only

a

little

bearing

n

the traditional

ractice.

n

fact,

he Chi

and

Chukwu

f

many

f

thesenames are interchangeable,lthough ne mustnotethe mportantact

that

xclusive

hi

name-forms

reponderate

n

number.

Chi

and Chi-na-eke:

ualism

n

divinity

The

relationship

etween

hi

and

Chineke

s

by

far

more

omplex

nd

enigmatic.

vailable

arliest

istorical

ecords

referred

o

above)

showthat

chi

and

chukwu

were

the common

gbo

usages

for he

European

oncept

of

"godhead";

Chineke

s

a

single

word-form

or God"

suggests

later

Christian

missionary

ntroduction.

Nevertheless,

t is

definite

hat

the

Igbo

people

themselvesse frequentlyneverdayife- n factmore

often han

one

would

say

of

"chukwu"-

three

interwoven

words,

chi-na-eke,

hich

is

spoken

language,

particularly

apid

speech

usual

with

native

speakers

of

any

language,

ound

like

a

single

erm

"chineke.

It would

appear

that

at

the

cognitive

evel

the

Igbo

refer

rimarily

o

chi

na

(and)

eke,

which

onnotes

two

inseparable

nd

complementary

eities

rather han

he

single

verriding

9

Unfortunately

he information

have been

able to

secure

(admittedly

y only

cursory

nd

unsystematic earch)

throws

no

light

on

this.

n

a recent

personal

conver-

sation

with

me,

Dr.

Ekejiuba

rather oldsthe

contrary

iewthatchukwumusthave been

an

indigenous

gbo

word

the Aro

(a

mixture

f

Igbo

and

Ibibio

groups)

"adopted"

and

later

"transformed"

o

an

oracle.

This

is,

of

course,

rational

speculation

hat fits n

with

Aro

reputation

for

astute

"adaptation"

to situations.

The

matter,

however,

rests

neither

here

nor

there.

Anthropos

8.1983

34



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

13/17

530

I.

Chukwukere

Anthropos

8.1983

God of Christian

elief.

The other

possible

meaning

f Chineke

as

a

single

word),

chi that

creates,

bears

the

same

metaphysical

llusion

to divine

essencebut in thesenseof exclusiveCreator-Gods in "revealed"

religions

(Christianity

nd Islam

specifically),

which is

apparently

oreign

o

Igbo

way

of

thought.

The

indigenous

gbo

frame f

reference,

hi

and

eke,

im-

plies

a

dualistic ivine

rinciple

n the

act of

"natural"

reation.

0

My

informants

n this

aspect

of

the

subject

are

hopelessly

ut under-

standably

onfused.

art f the

problem

rises

rom

he

discrepancy

etween

the

written

nd the

spoken

usages

of

a

language

n one

hand and

the

form

(morphology)

nd

meaning

semantics)

f the

concepts

of

the

language

n

the

other

hand.

The

Igbo

informants

o not and

need not

perceive

he

existentialnd socio-linguisticuestionraisedhere.Forthegreatermajority

of

them,

especially

before

the

second

half of

the

20th

century,

he wave-

length

f

thought

nd

speech ay

in the

"spoken"

word.

The

visual

ymbols

of

speech

and

thought-

written"

anguage-

ave

only

recently

ecome

part

of the

general gbo

people's

stock

of

knowledge

or

onceptualizing

he

uni-

verse.

Thus,

one of

my

"old" and

"reliable"

nformants

eems

not

to

recog-

nize

the contradiction

n

these

wo

assertions

f

his:

a)

"ndichie

the elders)

used

to refer o chineke

kere

uwa

(chineke

hatmade

the

world)

but had

no

definite

dea of

him"; (b)

"chi

is

what we

know

as

'god',

chinekewas in-

troduced

by

the

whiteman."When

questioned

him further

oncerning

he

concept

eke

alone

the

cobwebs

apparently

egan

to fall.Eke

and chi com-

bined,

f

I

may

paraphrase

is

speech,

xercise

uthority

ver

"creation"

n

all its

ramifications

s a natural

ather

han

maginative

r

human

nventive

process;

here

s

no concrete

epresentation

f

eke

and no

sacrifices

r

prayers

to it

either;

hi

is

the

one that

demands

and

gets

all

such

ritual

ttention

because

eke

is what

chi

gives

to

every erson-

hat

s,

one's

"destiny"

or

"fate."

He

added

that

the

personal

name

"Ekezie"

refers

o

the

idea of

"onye

yo

ziri

uwa",

i.e.,

one held to

have

reincarnated

ery

well.

My

in-

formant oncluded: "eke na chiwo otu mana eke sirina chi bia." (Eke and

chi

are one

and

the same but

eke

originates

rom

hi.)

Paradoxes

do

in

fact

underlie

many aspects

of various

peoples'

religious

hought

on

spiritual

beings

In the

light

of the

above,

I derive

my speculative eneralization

hat

chi and

eke

represent

n

Igbo religious hought

nd

philosophy

f ife

dual

divinity.

find

t

refreshing

o view the

relation etween

hem n

terms

f

a

famous

conceit from1

7th-centurynglish

metaphysical oetry

A

valedic-

tion:

forbidding

mourning,

y

John

Donne),

which

likens two

platonic

10

In

an

original

ocio-literary

ssay

Achebe

(1975:

100)

makes the

seminal

point

that

"the

early

missionaries"

made

the

nitial

mistake

f

treating

hi

and eke as

one

God,

Chineke

"Chi

that

creates").



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

14/17

Chi n

gbo Religion

nd

Thought

53

1

lovers

o

the two

legs

of

a

compass.

Chi

is

the

"fixed

foot,"

and eke is the

mobile

complement.

r,

f

I

may change

he

metaphor,

hi

and eke are ike

two stonesthatmust be struck ogethern order to producea spark.Al-

though

hi

and eke can

be

fruitfullyeparated

or

nalytical

urposes,

ow-

ever,

n the

structure

f

Igbo

belief

and

social

action

relating

o

spiritual

beings

nd

forces

n

general,

he

two

tend

to

coalesce

rather han

bifurcate.

In this

ense

the notion

of

duality,

which

we

said

earlier

haracterizes

Igbo

philosophy

f

life,

s

placed

in a broader

ontext.For not

only

chi and

eke,

a series

f other

nalogous

stiff win

ompasses9'

xist,

.g.,çfç

na

ogu,

akç

na

uche,

kwuna

ibe,

çgu

na

mgba,

kwu

na

uka,

and

nta

na

imo.

l

I

am

not

hereby stating general

hypothesis

bout

complementary

dual categoriesn Igbo religionnd structuref thought.Rather, t is note-

worthy

nd

sociologically

ignificant

hat

the

twin

concepts

chi

and

eke

are

not

unique

n

Igbo

religious hought

r

social

structure

aken s a

whole.

Their

affinity

ith another

pair

of

key

cosmologica

deas,

çfç

and

ogu,

is

underscored

n

this traditional

olk-song

f

the

Owerri

gbo'

of

eastern

Nigeria:

Oka

n'azu ka am

n'ihu

Back

biter bite"

n

my

presence.

o that

Ka

mara

he

nga'gwa

n'ihu

I

may

know

what

o

tell

him n

his

face.

Onye 'egbu nye

ari

he

tnere

a

If

you

intend

o

harm

omeone

who

has

A chin'eke

fç n'ogu

kwere

eya

not offended

ou,

may

chiand

eke,

ofo,

and

ogu

not

go

along

with

you

i.e.,may

they

hwart

ou).

4. Conclusion

My

main

nterest

n this

paper

s

not

whether

he

twinnotions

hi

and

eke or thesingle otion hukwu r chineke ccurately enotes nd connotes

Supreme

God.

The

point

s that

he

gbo

themselves

onceptualize

hi as the

foundation

f their

ntellectual

fforts

o

make sense

of

the

bewildering

diversities

f

human

personality,

xperience,

nd

cosmic

phenomena.

hi

n

this sense

offers

he

ndigenous

gbo philosopher

satisfactoryxplanation

for

most of

the

"things

verywhere

round

us

that

re

ncapable

f

explana-

tion"

(Laye

1954:

58),

e.g.,

misfortunes

hat

occur

despite

ll human

ndea-

vours

from

he

angel

of

the

victim

nd

close

relatives

nyway)

o make a

11

It

is

not

easy

for

me

to

provide

rief nd

direct

nglish

lossaries

f these

airs

of

concepts.

ach

needs

to be

dilated

upon

(which

s

not

possible

here)

to

bring

ts

proper

meaning

ut.



8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2

15/17

532

L

Ghukwukere

Anthropos

8.1983

success

of

a

venture,

phenomenal

success,

and

mysterious

scape

from

dangers

and

from

premature

death,

diametrically

pposed qualities

of

temperament,

ndcharacter

mong

iblings.

The belief in

chi

also

provides

n

adequate

explanation

or

perhaps

rationalization

or

hedominant

nvidualizing

rinciple

f

gbo

social

organiza-

tion. Chi therefore

s

a

theory

f

both

causation

nd

human

personality

n

the

proper

context

of

Igbo

people's

cosmology

nd

speculationupon

the

divinity

hat

determines

he nature f man

generally

nd

severally.

n other

words,

hi

serves s a central nd

integratingonceptual

ramework

n

which

the

Igboman

can

reasonablypicture

to

himself

he

universe,

atural nd

social,

n

which

he

willy-nilly

ives.

This is a

completely

rewritten nd

largely

modified ersionof

a

paper

first

resented

t a

"workshop"

on

"the

foundations

of

Igbo

civilization"

organized

by

the

Instituteof

African

Studies,

University

f

Nigeria

at

Nsukka,

in

May

1980.

The

fieldwork

n

chi

was

carried

out

mainly

n

the

Owerri area

of

Igboland

in

1977/1978

as

my

Institute

research

roject

for

1976/1977

academical

year.

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C.

1958

Things

Fall

Apart.

London: Heinemann.

1975

Chi in

Igbo

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Morning

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on

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Day.

London: Heine-

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Afîgbo,

A.E.

1972 The

Warrant

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[1921

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[1938] Niger

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Beattie,J.

1964

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.L

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The Free

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Ekejiuba,

F.L

1972 The Aro

Trade

System

n

the

19th

Century.

Jkenga

1/1-2.



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Dike

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bo

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