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

Author(s): I. Chukwukere
Source: Anthropos, Bd. 78, H. 3./4. (1983), pp. 519-534
Published by: Anthropos Institute
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I. Chukwukere

Chi in Igbo Religionand Thought:

The God in EveryMan
Abstract.- Thispaperattemptsto showthattheconceptof chigivestheIgbothemethatintegrates
the variousfields
speakingpeople of Nigeriaa central,unifying
linkedwitheke,a complemenof theirthoughtTheauthorarguesthatchiis inextricably
force,and bothare associatedwiththeact of "naturalcreation."Thus,chi
taryspiritual
a "satisfactory"
thefoundationof Igbo intelligence,
constitutes
providing
explanatory
broad
the
and
human
modelfor the diversities
categoryof causation.In
personality
of
idea thatChinekedenotesGod in
the lightof this,theauthorrejectsthe "established"
thata viewof chiand
senseoftherevealedreligions.
themonotheistic
Rather,he suggests
as a whole.In any
dual divinity
ckc as inseparable
fitsin withIgbo wayof "thinking"
role chiplaysin Igboreligious
case theemphasisis on thecrucialinterpretative
thought
WorldView]
andphilosophy.
Religion,
[Igbo,Nigeria,
are . . . pricelessinstruments
The categories
of thoughtwhichthe humangroupshave
thecenturies
and
forgedthrough
laboriously
where theyhave accumulatedthe best of
1915:32).
theirintellectual
capital(Durkheim

1. Introduction
Emile Durkheim's(1915) classicpioneerstudyof religiousanthropolnotonlya generalsociologicaltheoryofreligionbasedon Australian
ogyoffers
introductionto the sociologyof knowl"totemism"but also a significant
studiesof traditional
on anthropological
theme
the
latter
of
The
impact
edge.

at
B.A. (London), B. Litt. (Oxford),read Social Anthropology
I. Chukwukere,
in
at
universities
several
at
level
lecturing
Scotland;
of
years
Edingburgh,
postgraduate
/Anthropology
ofSociology
Ghanaand the USA; nowSeniorLecturerin theDepartment
are on theFante
publications
at University
of Nigeria,Nsukka.-Majoranthropological
AnthroStudies
of
African
1980; Current
Akanof Ghana(Africa1978 and 1982;Journal
Univ.
and
Nsukka,
Address:
of
Nigeria,
Dept. of Sociology Anthropology,
pology1981).
Nigeria.

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L Chukwukere

520

78.1983
Anthropos

Africanreligionsis evidentin the contributionsmade by Evans-Pritchard

(1937, 1956), Nadel (1954), Forde (1954), and later eminentAfricanists
(e.g.,Turner1967 ; Horton1962 and 1967; lienhardt1961). In theiranalyses
of diverseAfricanreligions,pains are takento definethenatureof the complex connectionbetweenthe main categoriesof the religiousbeliefand the
way of "thinking"peculiar to the people in question. Evans-Pritchard's
of "the logic" behindAzande witchcraft,
(1937) celebrateddemonstration
beliefs,and ritualsremainsa locus classicusof thisgenreof Africanreligious
and cognitiveanthropology.
In this paper I shall examine one abstractreligiousand cosmological
people of Niconcept,commonlyknown as chi, among the Igbo-speaking
geria.I wish to show that chi is a dominantfundamentalnotion of Igbo
thoughtand social structureas a whole, a notion thatlies at the rootsof
the Igbo intellectualsystem.I shall argue that (a) the individualistic
principle of the chi systemof belief and ritualunderliesmany areas of Igbo
behaviour;(b) the representationsof chi are predominantly"religious"
in character,and significantly
suggesta "collective" Igbo "mentality";
as
as
far
and
ideas
actions
associatedwithchi sureconcerned,two
(c)
Igbo
of
standout, viz. theoriesof causation
major categories the understanding
(especially cosmic and certainpuzzlinghuman events)and of the human
in itsmanifoldvariety.
personality
The categoryof causalityis of special interestin this essay mainly
because invisibleanthropomorphized
beings tend to play a preponderant
role in traditionalor non-scientific
"explanation" of the universe,natural
and social (cf. Guthrie1980). Partof thereasonlies in theinherentnatureof
spiritualpowers,whichis commonto all knownreligions,but in the traditional Africancontext furthercomplicatedby the extrememultiplicity
of
thoseproductsof man'sinventive
imagination.
I stressthispointherebecause thetermchihas been differently
"translated" as "god," "guardianspirit,""God," and allied theisticconcepts.1In
the sense of God, as in Christianity,
some of the exponentsclaim that chi
is synonymouswithChukwuand Chineke,thesetwo presentedas identical
accurateIgbo denotationsforthe "SupremeBeing."But I shallarguebelow
that such a renderingof chi, a centralmetaphysicalconceptionof Igbo

Precise correspondentIgbo words for the English synonymousnotional terms

"god"/"God" and "spirit" hardly exist. Chi is probably the nearestgenericequivalent
for "god" while muo (agbara in some dialects), roughlytranslated"spirit," is a much
more inclusive term than "spirit." For example, the "gods" of village-groupsand constituentvillages,ancestors,and extremelypowerfuloracles where the divineris believed
to be the "spirit" itselfratherthan regardedas a medium (e.g., Chukwu of the Aro and
Igwekala of Umunneoha,near Owerri)all come underthe categoryof muo. Chi cannotbe
said to be muo in the same way that one would say in English: " 'God' (i.e., Supreme) is a
spirit."

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Chi in Igbo Religionand Thought

521

cosmologyand generalphilosophyof life, cannot pass the simple test of

reasoning,whichshouldspringfromwell-founded
anthropological
systematic
empiricevidenceon chiratherthana preconceivedidea of Igbo monotheism,
by which chi is reducedto the status of the particleof Chukwu("God")
whichHe donatesto everyman.
2. The Igbo LanguageProblemin chi Ethnography
The issues outlined above are centralto any sound anthropological
we tackle them,
analysisof chi in Igbo religionand cosmology.But before
the followingbrief digressionis necessarymainlybecause my analytical
connectionthe main
approach in this paper is broadlylinguistic.In this
in
deficienciesI have observed previousethnographicaccounts of the chi
inadphenomenonare of a "linguistic"nature. First,the ethnographers*
of Igbo languagepatternsof thoughtand expression,
equate understanding
nativespeakerof Igbo can be quite slippery
"educated"
the
which even to
Secondly,the authors'generallack of a certain
and, at times,frustrating.
concerningthe semanticsof catedegree of sophisticationand sensitivity
comparison-in this contextthe translationof Igbo
goriesin cross-cultural
religiouscategoriesinto Englishand vice-versa.
themselves(cf.
I may add at thisjuncturethat social anthropologists
1956: v; Fortes 1970: 164; Bohannan quoted by Winter
Evans-Pritchard
1966: 156) unequivocallyadmit that religiousinstitutionshave proved
"more complex and baffling"than the other socio-culturalinstitutions
which they have been analysingwith greatsuccesssince the emergenceof
modern fieldworkin the firstdecades of this century.Evans-Pritchard
opinion,
(1965: 7) more or less expressesthe consensusof anthropological
lies as much in the inherentnatureof religiousbeliefsthat the difficulty
"what neitherEuropean nor nativecan directlyobserve,. . . conceptions,
of a people's
images,words"-as in thebasic factthat"a thoroughknowledge
And in this
beliefs.
these
for
non
"understanding"
language"is a sine qua
anthrofield
which
manygood
sense,he adds, "fluency"in the language,
it."
for
pologistsclaimtheyattain,should not be mistaken "understanding
Let us thereforelook at a few broadly sociologicalwritingson Igbo
in orderto illustrate
thoughtin generaland the conceptof chi in particular
underthe
if
ethnographer's
the dangerforcomparativesociologicalanalysis
Our
sense.
in
standingof his or her informants'languageis imperfect any
firstexampleis taken froma prolificAmericanwriteron Igbo religionand
his criticalarticletitled"The
philosophy,ProfessorAustinShelton2, who in
2

ProfessorA.J. Shelton was a lecturerin Englishat Nsukka (northernIgboland),

forme to inferfrom
in which area he claims to have done his "fieldwork."It is not easy
the
sociological disciplines.
his writingsthe extentof his formaltraining,if any, in

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522

I. Chukwukere

78.1983
Anthropos

OffendedChi in Achebe's Novels" affirmsthat his interpretation

of the
of
Achebe's
heroes is "based upon [his] personalstudiesof Igbo
tragedy
and that chi means "God Within,not 'personalgod' as
Weltanschauungen/*
Achebe blasphemouslyrefersto chi'9 (Shelton 1964: 36). Later, in an
essay on Igbo proverbs,most of which could be usefullyanalysedas vignettesof Igbo cosmologyand thoughtin general,Shelton (1971: 47) exhibitsa sad superficial
graspof the Igbo language:
enwe si na o foduru nwa ritinti,ma iku amo ya mma. "Monkey says that he
would have remained a littlechild but [his] eyebrowsproduced his beauty [adult
appearance]."

The correctliteralEnglishtranslation
of theproverb,however,is: "The
that
his
ruined
his beauty,"i.e., thathiseyemonkeysays
eyebrowsnearly
browsare theonlyjjartof hisbody thatcome close to beingimperfect.
Shelton's errorstems fromtreatinga singlebut compoundIgbo word
nwantinti("near-miss")as two separatewordsnwa ("child," or,to be more
or descendantof any animal,includingman of course)
exact, the offspring
and ntinti(dubiouslytranslatedas "little" by Shelton,but its
meaningin
isolation,except perhapsas shortenedcolloquial formfor nwantinti,
I do
not reallyknow). Whatis worse,on the basis of thissterile
morphological
breakdownof nwantinti,Shelton proceeds to equate his two formswith
theirapparentlycorresponding
"literal"Englishmeaningswithoutdue cognizance of the contextuallimitationsof the sentence.Hence the ludicrous
idea that "monkey. . . would have remaineda littlechild," and the arrant
contradictionthat the monkey's negativeeyebrowscontributedto "his
beauty[adultappearance]"[sic].
If Shelton's gravemistakeis a resultof poor
knowledgeof Igbo language-the indispensablevehicleof the Weltanschauungen
he claimsexpert
knowledgeof-Revs. Iwuagwu(n.d.) and Ilogu (1965), well-educated
native
speakersof Igbo, committhe "cardinalsin" of uncriticalassimilation
of Igbo
religiouscategoriesinto theirprobablymore familiarEuro-Christian
belief
and practice(Beattie1964: 203).
Iwuagwuclaimsthat "Igbo religionbeginswiththe beliefin, and worship of, Chi-ukwuthe 'GreatChi' or the 'GreatGod' . . . Chi is Chukwu's
essence in man conceivedeitheras man's double or his
guardianspirit."In
short,Chukwu,admittedlymorphologically
a
speaking weldingof chi and
ukwu ("big"), is the universalIgbo termfor
(Supreme)God. Thatis to say,
Iwuagwu derivesthe meaningof the compound word chukwufromthe
separate meanings(assumed in the case of chi) of its two components,
chi and ukwu, and goes furtherto generalizethat since
everyIgbo man
theoretically
speakinghas a chi the "great" chi or Chukwumustbe a single
universalIgbo deity.Thisis, of course,speculationguided
by preconceptions
of Igbo religionmodelledon Christian
theology.

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Chiin IgboReligionandThought

523

drawsa close analogybetweenthe Euro-Christian

Hogu (1965) similarly
idea of God and Igbo conceptschi, Chineke,and Chukwu.These,he says,
mean respectively:"spirit," "belief in a supremebnficientsource of
creation,"and "beliefin a SupremeSpiritor WorldOver-Soul."Such facile
postulationof semanticparallelsbetweenkey religiousand philosophical
cultureswould obfuscatetheverytermsconceptsof two basicallydifferent
which is what I
here chi, Chineke,and Chukwu-that need clarification,
of
in
aimat providing therest thisessay.
3. Chi and AlliedConcepts:Descriptionand Explanation
a) EarlyStudies

In the immensebut widely scatteredliteratureon chi9 confusionstill

lingersover the exact "meaning"and full religiousand sociologicalsignificance of the word. The mainreasonbehindthisunhappysituationcan be
tracedback to the apparentlystronglegacyleftby earlyChristianmissionary
scholars and amateur pioneer ethnographers(e.g., Basden 1921; Talbot
1926; Thomas 1913), fromwhich"modern"studentsof Igbo religionand
is
of theseearlierwritings
epistemologyoughtto breakaway. Characteristic
as
with
to
be
on Chukwu(taken
the concentration
interchangeable Chineke)
the SupremeGod while chi is seen as basicallya sortof sparkof Him dispensed to everyIgbo person,qua individual.And althoughthis as a preliminarydefinitionof chi is neithertotallyfalsenor altogetherinvalid,yet
the social
it remainsonly a tinyportionof the truthor "reality"underlying
factdesignatedchi.
b) ScopeoftheAnalysis

muchof thispaper in a way conIn the lightof the above criticisms,

stitutesthe outlinesof a sociologicalanalysisof chi,based on theprimaryrecognitionof its cardinalexplanatoryrole in Igbo beliefsystemand world
the central,unifyingthemethatincorporatesthe
view. Chi thus represents
facetsof Igbo social thoughtand usages,especiallythose aspects
different
withtheinscrutablerealmof the supernatural.
man'srelationship
concerning
As a generalguideto the discussionlet us employa set of threemajor
commonIgbo ideas and beliefsabout chi:
propositions.First,fundamental
what is chi;how is chi conceptualizedby Igbo people; whatare itsindividual
in the language,religion,politics,ritualactivities,
and social manifestations
of
people? Secondly,
art, system personalnames,etc. of the Igbo-speaking
, what position does chi
in traditionalIgbo classificationof the universe3
3 It wouldbe fruitful
oftheIgbo"social"universe:
to adopta three-fold
typology
China eke (dualdivinity),
muo(as definedabove),andmmadu(humanbeingsalive).

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L Chukwukcrc

524

78.1983
Anthropos

occupy, and who are its closestrelativesin thiscosmologicalscheme?The

answerto thisquestionentailsa close examinationof the relationof chi to
eke, ikenga,fo, and ogu (see below). Thirdly,chi is best explainedin the
thusits
broad contextof Igbo social structureand collectivetemperament;
valueas thehub of the Igbo cognitivesystemis clearlybroughtout.
Withregardto thelast assertion,myinterestis focusedon the following
of Igbo social behaviour: (a) elementof
more prominentcharacteristics
conception
"fragmentation"of social systemcoupled with individualistic
of humanpersonality;(b) bias towardsthe principleof dualismin thought
and expression,an extensionof which is the tendencyto conceptualize
human relationswith preternatural
beings and powers in relativeterms;
(c) strongbut vaguely formulatedbelief in reincarnation;(d) essentially
fatalisticattitudetowardthe material"success" or "failure"and misfortune
of individualsand elementarysocial groups(e.g., family,
lineage);^) practice
of divinationas the key to knowledgeabout social and cosmicphenomena
beyondIgbo "technical"explanation.
c) Chi Definition

The belief in chi is as universalto the overten millionIgbo-speaking

people of Nigeriaas thebeliefand practiceof ofo (Igbo symbolof authority
a
and retributive
justice), yet it is not easy to get fromvariousinformants
of
the
former.
What
is
"definition"
unambiguous
absolutely
straightforward,
dear, however,is that chi and ofo are invariably
pairedwithtwo otherIgbo
This impliesa complementary
metaphysicalideas, eke and ogu respectively.
dualisticrelationship,which makes the sociologicalexplicationof any of
theseconceptsin isolationratherdifficult.
Basden (1938: 46) identifiestwo dimensionsto chi. He definesit first
as "a sort of guardiandeity,deputisingforChi-Ukwu"and secondlyas "almost a genericword for God," i.e., SupremeBeing (Chukwu or Chineke,
in his and manyotherauthors'usage).
Grapplingwith the semanticelusivenessof the termchi, one of the
firstmodern field anthropologists
in Igboland, Green (1947: 52), seems
to despair:
As for Ci, the spiritwho creates people and whose name, as in Cineke, has been
taken by the Christiansto denote the Creator,it is difficultto know what the
real Ibo significanceof the word is. Ci and Eke togethercreate an individual,but
each person is thoughtof as having his own Ci and whetherover and above this
thereis any conception of a universalCi seems doubtful.

Green,however,usefullyunderscoresfirstthe fundamental
complementary dualism of chi and eke and secondly the most distinctiveuniversal
attributeofchi inIgbothought-individuality
. Lastly,Greenposesa significant
on
the
the conceptof Chukwuis a
that
view
question
commonlyexpressed

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Chiin IgboReligionandThought

525

simple union, logical in the context of an assumeduniversalIgbo social

development,of chi and ukwu ("big" or "great"),whichimpliesthatChukwu denotesGod. I shallreturnto thisissuelater.
definitionof the termchi derivesfromits
Meanwhile,our preliminary
intrinsicindividuality:
a spiritualbeingor force,which,theoretically
speaking, everyIgbo person (adult or child) "possesses." Thus, chi's essencelies
firstand foremostin its commonestIgbo modes of practicalexpressionin
everydaylife,which are mainlylingualand, to some extent,visualforms.
Consideredthus,chi is highlighted
in (a) possessivesingularadjectivalusage:
chim (my chi), chigi(your chi), chiya (his or her chi; (b) a thousand-andone propernames which exist (some with markeddialectal variations)all
over Igboland, e.g., Chima, Kelechi, Chidi, Onyewuchi,Anamelechi,etc.;
(c) a common Igbo interjectionfor wonder and surprise:Chi n'eke hi
("chi and eke"!); (d) a commoncurseused oftenby childrenand adolescents:
Chi n'eke kpo gi oku ("May chi and eke burnyou out"!).
d) ChiSymbols

of chi cannotbe summedup in a sentence

The concreterepresentations
or two. One reasonforthe complexityis, althoughin theoryeveryIgbo individualhas his or herchi,in practiceonlyadults,especiallymaleswho have
marriedand femaleswhohavebornechildren,establishtheirown chi symbol.
about the
amongthe variousIgbo sub-groups
Secondly,thereare diversities
exact formthe symboltakes.
In some it is a special tree (e.g., ogbu, ogilisi,oha) planted in one's
own compound;some use "stonesset in a depressionat theback of the compound" (Horton 1956: 20); some otherserecta kind of mini-altar:a small
clay pot filledwithsand,withthreestickscut froma special plant(ububa
among the OwerreIgbo) stuckin threeequal heads into the sand, odo and
waterused to plasterthe whole edifice.At this "shrine,"whichis placed in
cornerof the livingroom,
a specificposition (head of the bed, right-hand
and
sacrifices
in
the
owner's
house,periodic
prayersare offered.An imetc.)
the
chi shrineis establishedit
that
once
note
is
to
portantsociologicalpoint
servesas the "protector"and altar for all minorsand protgsunder the
particularadult owner. In this sense the chi of a newlywed brideremains
herhusband'suntilshe getsherfirstchild.
exist amongthe manyIgbo sub-groups
Needless to repeat,differences
regardingthe details of the above-mentionedbeliefs and rituals.But a
of thoughtand actionis
all the diversities
fundamental
similarity
underlying
that chi is individualto everyIgbo person. At his or her death the shrine
is destroyed.Thus, many writerson the subject have giventhe primary
meaningof chi as "personal god" or "guardianspirit."Thus also one may
talk of chi as the "divinitythatshapes" everyman. For seen in perspective,
strainin Igbo notionof chi best illuminatesits tripartite
the individualistic
to chi), ikenga
relationwith eke (another"creative"force,complementary
in
uwa
and success),and Igbo belief iyo
(reincarnation).
(thecultof strength

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526

L Chukwukere

78.1983
Anthropos

e) Chi and Igbo Theoryof Personality

The fundamental
individualnatureof chi is evidentin Igbo beliefthat
dead men and womenreincarnateamongtheirlivingkin. The re-birth
does
not follow the strictrule of unilinealdescentof Igbo social organization.
Lineal and collateralrelativeson both sides of Ego's parentsparticipate
freelyin this processof reincarnation.The most importantaspect of the
phenomenonfor our purposehereis thatthe Igbo believethatat the time
that one's "creation" is initiated(could be even beforethe death of the
person about to be reborn)the "creator"establishesa dialogue,somewhat
like that of political negotiation,with the unbornchild's chi (equivalent
hereto eke) about the child'sdestinyon earth.Stressis laid on abstractideas
like "luck," "success," "fortune,""wealth," "illness," "fertility,"etc.; as
such no basic connectionis claimed between the separate chis of, say,
siblings,let alone remoteblood relations.(I have in factcome to thinkthat
the dialogue is best conceivedof as held betweenchi and eke, inseparable
creator-actor
and thechild's
deities,ratherthanbetweena singleoverriding
chi. ThisI amplifybelow.)
Anyway,one who getsa good chi is thoughtof as usually"lucky"and
"successful";he or she is not prone to seriousirreversibly
damagingmisThe oppositegoes fora bad chi. And in
takes, accidents,and misfortunes.
this sense it is believedthat one's chi and ikengawork togetherto make
successon eartha reality.
But in characterwith generalIgbo thoughton relationshipbetween
man and supernatural
beings,good or bad chi is not an absolutegift.A bad
one can be prayedto and propitiatedin orderto reversetheill handsof fate;
in the same way a good chi has to be regularlysacrifiedto and placatedin
orderto keep up its benevolence.Consideredthus,Igbo ambivalenceabout
the nature of chi- a theme that has receivedeloquent literarytreatment
of sociological interestin Achebe's portrayalof the ups and downs of
Okonkwo, the tragic hero of his classical novel (1958)- 4s made more
intelligible.Okonkwo's eventfulattainmentof highsocial statusand subsequent adversityare "explained" in termsof hisstandingwithhis chi (Chukwukere1971: 113-114).
f) Chi and Its Close Relatives

We turnnow to the intricateand perplexingly

intriguing
relationship
betweenchi and eke on one hand, chi and Chukwu and Chinekeon the
other. In this,the historicaldestinyof the Igbo people (whichtheyshare
withotherAfricanpeoples) mustbe takeninto fullaccountbeforeone can
expect to resolve the problem. By "historicaldestiny" I mean here the
advent of evangelicalChristianity
in the second half of the 19th century,
before
the
long
spread of literacyand documentaryhistoryconsciousness
among the Igbo people. The implicationsof the event for Igbo religious
beliefand practicein particularand Igbo culturein generaldeservedetailed
and systematic
discussionelsewhere.

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Chi in Igbo Religionand Thought

527

Nevertheless,it must be noted that the firstreligiousquestion to

generateconflictwas findingequivalentIgbo denotations(then in spoken
Igbo formonly) forkey Christianreligiousconcepts,4especially(Supreme)
God, with its overtonesof monotheism.Againstsuch backgroundearly
missionaryscholars assertedthat Chukwuor Chineke (the latterbeing,I
postulate,theirmistakennotationforchi-na-eke)meansGod; furtherthey
use more often
opined that chi- a termthey heard theirIgbo informants
with less "precision'*than Chukwuor Chineke-was the
but unfortunately
root, both morphologicallyand semantically,for the latter two terms.
Plausible argumentthis is but not circumspectat least with respect to
Chtneke(most probablythreeseparate,if interwoven,words: Chi na eke,
in theoriginally
Igbo usage,as I willcontendbelow).
Chi and Chukwu
It is reasonableto postulatethat Chukwuderivesits basic meaningas
well as primaryIgbo conceptualizationof it froma simpleamalgamationof
chi and ukwu( "big," "great"). However,the sociologicalimplicationsof
acceptingthislineof reasoningare:
First,Chukwuis a grandaggregateof all the chis of the individualsof
social
any
group,fromnuclear familythroughlineagesto villages,villagegroups,and, by extension,all Igbo and perhapshumanityas a whole. The
evidencegoes againstsuch a viewof Chukwu,fortheidea of a
ethnographic
in
fundamental
sense (e.g., familyor lineage)is not typically
chi
any
group
The
documented
few
exceptions5of Igbo subgroupsto thisgeneral
Igbo.
rule open the questionas to whethera groupchiwas not a lateraccretionto
theirculture.
Secondly, why is Chukwu not generallyrepresentedin observable
imagesor symbols?That is, if the Igbo conceivedof a singlecollectivechi
one, logical dynamicsof the thoughtwould be a materialrepresentation
of it on the same lines as, if on a much biggerscale than, the chi of the
individual.
Thirdly,as alreadyindicated,the evidencefromthe earliestrecorded
accounts of Igbo religiousbelief and practice seems to confirmthat chi
termforthe general
was the dominantand commonestIgbo corresponding
4

Rev. Fr. Ezckwugo documents early (1857-1912) missionaryeffortsto translate English religiousconcepts into ltfbo.According to him, the terms Ci (Chi), Cuku
(Chukwu), and Cineke (Chineke) were at firstused, almost interchangeably;later,the
first,Chi, was dropped, and still later, Chukwu became the established form for the
notion "God." The ambiguitythat surroundsthe concept chi was made more complex
by its close association with individuals,which went against the ideal of Igbo monotheismthe missionarieswere keen to advance.
5 A notable one
by Afigbo (1972: 18) refersto the Umuchieze group in Okigwe
with the author, however, I learnt that Colonial Inteldiscussion
Division. In an oral
the "bonds of unity" in Umuchieze "clan," were his
stressed
which
ligence Reports,
source.

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528

L Chukwukere

78.1983
Anthropos

at timesgave (and stillgive

European notion of "deity." Igbo informants
a
today) Chukwu as a synonym,but many time explicitlyqualified as
Chukwu Oke Abiame, the all-powerfuloracle and "god" of the Aro- the
mostwidespreadand influential
Igbo sub-groupin livingmemory.
line
of
leads
me to hypothesizethat Chukwuwas not
My
thought
originally,
except in a morphologicsense,a simplefusionof chi and ukwu.
That is to say, it is not semanticallyspeakingthe Igbo name forSupreme
God, of whom none seemsto existin the Christiansenseof "one and only"
Supreme.6Chukwu ratherappears to be the Aro people's name for their
"town" deity,which the Aro may well have conceivedas a kind of their
collectiveor "national"chi,at firstpeculiarto themselves
andlater"adopted"
other
in
the
of collective
which
is
understandable
context
by
Igbo people,
Aro achievementin Igbo history.7This idea is best examinedagainstthe
backgroundof generalIgbo social organization.
the largestautonomous political entityof Igbo
Every village-groupsociety-has its own deity,which is generallythoughtof as a "child" of
ala, the supremedeityof earthlymorality.The village-group
god is further
of
as
the
of
the
the
deities
of
constituent
thought
progenitor
villages,each
deitywith its own distinctivename. The spheresof activityand influence
of each god are so vaguelydemarcatedthat some overlappingoccurs.Ala
and amadioha (the god of thunderand "supremedeity"ofnegativesanctions
for a class of heinousoffences)are the universalconstantsat each level of
the social organization,
between
verymuchlike the dovetailedrelationship
Nuersocial orderand religiousthought(Evans-Pritchard
1956).
But having thus speculated that Chukwu has intimateconnection
with the Aro, one wonders about the pervasivenessof its metaphysical
dimensionin general Igbo thoughtand usages. Could it be adequately
termsof manifestAro diaspora(all overIgboexplainedin sheerdiffusionist
and
"cleverness"?
What
seems to be indisputablytrue,however,is
land)
that the prevalenceof Chukwu proper names among the Igbo has close
linkswiththe divinatorypower and influencewhichthe famousAro oracle,
Chukwu Oke Abiame, exercisedeven beyond Igboland fromaround the
18th centuryto the beginningof the 20th century.8Traditionally,
the Igbo
Henotheism or a vertical conception of "Supreme" divinitywould be more
appropriate for traditional Igbo theology. That is, there is more than one "supreme
god," each god supremein its own sphere of authority,e.g., amadioha (god of thunder)
and ala (earthgoddess).
Authoritativesocio-historicalassessmentof well-knownAro "contributions"in
and not accessible to a large audience (see Ekejiuba and
Igbo historyis still fragmentary
Dike 1976; Ekejiuba 1972). Ottenberg(1958: 299) was rightto say, "The historyof the
rise of the Aro to a position of influenceis uncertain."
Ekejiuba (1972: 13) claims that "the Aro society was constituted"about mid17th century. I have not as yet come across any date regardingthe settingup of the
Chukwu oracle, but its shrine was definitelydestroyedby the Britishcolonial "conquerors" in 1902.

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Chiin IgboReligionandThought

529

referto divinerswhena womanis pregnant.If the childarrivesin accordance

with the diviner'sverdicta name reflectingthe particulargod or circumof thegenerallyacknowledged
stancesinvokedat the time,or in recognition
supremeoracle, Chukwu,could be givento the child. Hence Chukwueke,
Nwachukwu,and a host of othertheophorous
Chukwukere,Chukwunyere,
names.
properIgbo
of an old informant
A case-history
(not less than80 years)Nwachukwu
thepoint.His father'sfirstwife's
underlines
in
the
I
recorded
which
field,
X,
fivepregnancies,he said, resultedin fivefemalechildren.At the firstpregnancyof the second wife,his own mother,a son was divinedby Chukwuita local or minordivinersuffices,
but a
self.(Generallyin cases of child-birth
to
father
as
Nwachukwu's
was, mightprefer go straightto
wealthyperson,
namehe bears.
Chukwuoracleitself.)Consequentlythe Chukwu-"gift"
Furtherenquiryinto thisaspect of the matterwould requirea detailed
whichis not withinthe scope of
studyof the Igbo systemof nomenclature,
historical
real
thispaper. Furthermore,
depthmustbe givento the enquiry;
otherwisethe analysiswould lose much of its sociologicalvalidity.In other
and
words,it needs to be shownthatthenamespost-datethe establishment
fame of the celebratedsupremeIgbo oracle located at Arochukwu.9The
Chukwuand Chi firstnamesIgbo childrenbear todaymayhaveonlya little
bearingon the traditionalpractice.In fact,the Chi and Chukwuof manyof
thesenamesare interchangeable,
althoughone mustnote theimportantfact
in number.
name-forms
thatexclusiveChi
preponderate
Chi and Chi-na-eke:Dualismin divinity
betweenchi and Chinekeis by farmorecomplexand
The relationship
enigmatic.Availableearliesthistoricalrecords(referredto above) showthat
chi and chukwuwere the commonIgbo usagesforthe Europeanconceptof
a laterChristian
for"God" suggests
"godhead"; Chinekeas a singleword-form
the
that
definite
it
is
Igbo people
missionaryintroduction.Nevertheless,
in everdaylife-in factmoreoftenthanone would
themselvesuse frequently
say of "chukwu"-three interwovenwords, chi-na-eke,which is spoken
native speakers of any
language, particularlyrapid speech usual with
"
It
would
"chineke.
appear that at the
language,sound like a singleterm
to chi na (and) eke, whichconnotes
cognitivelevel the Igbo referprimarily
deitiesratherthanthe singleoverriding
two inseparableand complementary

Unfortunatelythe informationI have been able to secure (admittedlyby only

cursoryand unsystematicsearch) throws no light on this. In a recentpersonal conversation with me, Dr. Ekejiuba ratherholds the contraryview that chukwumusthave been
an indigenousIgbo word the Aro (a mixtureof Igbo and Ibibio groups) "adopted" and
later "transformed"to an oracle. This is, of course, rational speculationthat fitsin with
Aro reputationfor astute "adaptation" to situations.The matter,however,restsneither
herenor there.
78.1983
Anthropos

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34

I. Chukwukere

530

78.1983
Anthropos

God of Christianbelief.The otherpossiblemeaningof Chineke(as a single

word), chi that creates, bears the same metaphysicalallusion to divine
essence but in the sense of exclusiveCreator-Godas in "revealed"religions
(Christianityand Islam specifically),which is apparentlyforeignto Igbo
way of thought.The indigenousIgbo frameof reference,chi and eke, im10
pliesa dualisticdivineprinciplein the act of "natural"creation.
on thisaspect of the subjectare hopelesslybut underMy informants
Part
of theproblemarisesfromthe discrepancybetween
confused.
standably
the writtenand the spoken usagesof a languageon one hand and theform
(morphology)and meaning(semantics)of the conceptsof the languageon
the other hand. The Igbo informantsdo not and need not perceivethe
existentialand socio-linguistic
questionraisedhere.For the greatermajority
of them,especiallybeforethe second half of the 20th century,the wavelengthof thoughtand speech lay in the "spoken" word.The visualsymbols
of speech and thought-"written"language-haveonlyrecentlybecomepart
theuniof the generalIgbo people's stockof knowledgeforconceptualizing
verse.
seemsnot to recogThus, one of my "old" and "reliable" informants
in thesetwo assertionsof his: (a) "ndichie(the elders)
nize thecontradiction
used to referto chinekekereuwa (chinekethatmade theworld)but had no
definiteidea of him"; (b) "chi is what we know as 'god', chinekewas inthe
troducedby the whiteman."WhenI questionedhim further
concerning
and
chi
comto
fall.
Eke
eke
the
alone
cobwebs
concept
apparentlybegan
bined,if I may paraphrasehis speech,exerciseauthorityover "creation"in
or humaninventive
all its ramifications
as a naturalratherthan imaginative
of
and
no
sacrificesor prayers
there
no
concrete
eke
is
process;
representation
the
all
one that demandsand gets such ritualattention
to it either;chi is
because eke is what chi givesto everyperson-thatis, one's "destiny"or
"fate." He added that the personalname "Ekezie" refersto the idea of
"onye yo ziri uwa", i.e., one held to have reincarnatedverywell. My informantconcluded: "eke na chi wo o tu mana eke sirina chi bia." (Eke and
chi are one and the same but eke originatesfromchi.) Paradoxesdo in fact
underlie many aspects of various peoples' religiousthoughton spiritual
beings!
In the lightof the above, I derivemy speculativegeneralization
that
chi and eke representin Igbo religiousthoughtand philosophyof lifea dual
to view the relationbetweenthemin termsof a
divinity.I findit refreshing
famousconceit from17th-century
Englishmetaphysicalpoetry(A valediction: forbiddingmourning,by John Donne), which likens two platonic

10

In an originalsocio-literaryessay Achebe (1975: 100) makes the seminalpoint

that "the early missionaries"made the initialmistakeof treatingchi and eke as one God,
Chineke ("Chi thatcreates").

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Chiin IgboReligionandThought

53 1

loversto the two legs of a compass.Chi is the "fixed foot," and eke is the
mobilecomplement.Or, if I may changethe metaphor,chi and eke are like
two stones that must be strucktogetherin orderto produce a spark.Alseparatedforanalyticalpurposes,howthoughchi and eke can be fruitfully
ever,in the structureof Igbo belief and social action relatingto spiritual
beingsand forcesin general,the two tend to coalesceratherthanbifurcate.
In thissensethe notionof duality,whichwe said earliercharacterizes
Igbo philosophyof life,is placed in a broadercontext.For not onlychi and
eke,a seriesof otheranalogous"stifftwincompasses9'exist,e.g.,f na ogu,
ll
ak na uche,ikwuna ibe, gu na mgba,okwu na uka, and ntana imo.
I am not herebystatinga generalhypothesisabout complementary
dual categoriesin Igbo religionand structureof thought.Rather,it is noteworthyand sociologicallysignificantthat the twin concepts chi and eke
takenas a whole.
are not unique in Igbo religiousthoughtor social structure
Their affinitywith anotherpair of key cosmologica!ideas, f and ogu,
is underscoredin this traditionalfolk-songof the 'OwerriIgbo' of eastern
Nigeria:
Oka n'azuka lamn'ihu
Ka marathenga'gwaya n'ihu
Onyeg'egbuonye'aritheotnereya
A chin'ekef n'oguekwereVeya

Backbiter"bite"in mypresence.So that

I mayknowwhatto tellhimin his face.
If you intendto harmsomeonewho has
not offended
you,maychi and eke,ofo,
and ogu notgo alongwithyou (i.e.,may
you).
theythwart

4. Conclusion
My main interestin thispaper is not whetherthe twinnotionschi and
eke or the singlenotionchukwuor chinekeaccuratelydenotesand connotes
conceptualizechi as the
SupremeGod. The pointis thatthe Igbo themselves
foundationof their intellectualeffortsto make sense of the bewildering
of humanpersonality,experience,and cosmicphenomena.Chi in
diversities
this sense offersthe indigenousIgbo philosophera satisfactory
explanation
aroundus thatare incapableof explanaformost of the "thingseverywhere
thatoccurdespiteall humanendeation" (Laye 1954: 58), e.g.,misfortunes
close relativesanyway)to make a
and
victim
the
of
vours (fromthe angel

11It is not
of thesepairs
easyforme to providebriefand directEnglishglossaries
of concepts.Each needs to be dilatedupon (whichis not possiblehere) to bringits
out.
propermeaning

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532

L Ghukwukere

78.1983
Anthropos

success of a venture,phenomenal success, and mysteriousescape from

dangers and from prematuredeath, diametricallyopposed qualities of
and characteramongsiblings.
temperament,
The belief in chi also providesan adequate explanation or perhaps
forthedominantinvidualizing
rationalization
principleof Igbosocialorganizain
tion. Chi thereforeis a theoryof both causationand humanpersonality
the propercontextof Igbo people's cosmologyand speculationupon the
divinitythat determinesthe natureof man generallyand severally.In other
in which
words,chi servesas a centraland integrating
conceptualframework
the Igboman can reasonablypicture to himselfthe universe,naturaland
lives.
social,in whichhe willy-nilly

This is a completelyrewrittenand largelymodifiedversionof a paper firstpresentedat a

"workshop" on "the foundations of Igbo civilization" organized by the Instituteof
AfricanStudies, Universityof Nigeria at Nsukka, in May 1980. The fieldworkon chi
was carried out mainly in the Owerri area of Igboland in 1977/1978 as my Institute
researchproject for 1976/1977 academical year.

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