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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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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
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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).
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8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2
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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
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8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2
8/17
Chi n
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).
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8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2
9/17
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.
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8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2
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Chi
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.
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8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2
11/17
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.
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Chi n
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
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8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2
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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").
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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.
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8/17/2019 Igbo Chi 2
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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
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on
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London: Heine-
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A.E.
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.L
1971
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F.L
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n
the
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