Chi-gboo asserts the eternity of Chukwu. This is emphatically stressed by another expression, Chukwu·difu, which has the con-notation of: Chukwu was, is still and will continue to be. It is part of a longer expression: Odili adi, odili ogana adilili (he has been, is still, and will continue to be.)
Eke-ji-mma (Creator who holds goodness): This depicts Chukwu as the Being who has the perfection of goodness. It really means that Chukwu is goodness. Other ways of expressing this idea in Igbo are:
Chukwu bu- so mma (Chukwu is but goodness); chukwu-amaka (Chukwu is superlatively good).
It is interesting to note that .these different ways of viewing Chukwu are based on two basic presuppositions: first, that Chukwu actually exists; second, that Chukwu is the ultimate in any list of positive or beneficent categories. The onye-okike, for instance, is the ultimate in the list (series) of the categories of efficient causes. This is attributed to none other than Chukwu who alone can exercise the function of ike·ife (creating). Ike-jfe literally means "bringing into being, originating or causing without preexistent material."
From this exposition one conclusion can be drawn: that the Igbo ways of. viewing Chukwu find expression in the different names reserved exclusively to him. No other being can be privileged with such names. Among the Igbos, we noted, names are not considered as mere tags to distinguish one thing or person horn another but are expressions of the nature and reality they signify. Hence as names these ways of viewing Chukwu are expressions of the significance of God as the ultimate cause of all beings. This introduces us to an important question, namely, what, in the mind of the Igbos, does God mean? In other words, is God, as the ultimate cause of all beings, simply an abstract notion, or has he real import for the Igbos? This is basically the question of the Igbo knowledge of God which will be handled in the following section.
The Igbo knowledge of God
The question of the Igbo knowledge of God arises out of the practical nature of Igbo philosophical thought. The Igbos, as we in-dicated earlier, are more practical than speculative in their manner of viewing reality. In our discussion of the purpose of matter in
124 BEING AND GOD
chapter three, we saw that the Igbos ask what practical purpose a thing serves. Similarly, the Igbos uormal1y want to know what God as the ultimate source of all being means in a practical sense. The answer to this is what we shall explicate as the Igbo knowledge of God.
Of all the names by which God is known to the Igbos, Cbukwu, Osebuluwa and Chineke are the most basic and the most commonly used.
They are the most basic in the sense that all other Igbo names for God seem to derive from them. An analysis of the composition and the significance of these will help us arrive at an understanding of what the Igbos know of God and what He means to them in a practical sense.
Our guiding question is: What do the Igbos mean when they pronounce the names Chineke, Osebuluwa and Cbukwu? What ideas do these names connote?
EtymologicaI1y Chinekes (Chi-na-eke) is a combination of three words, Chi, na and eke, which mean literally, "Chi who is Creating."
The expression na-eke (who is creating) in the Igbo language is reserved solely for that activity by which a thing is ~ out of nothing. Such an activity is well known to be the prerogative of the Supreme Being. Na-eke is never used in relation to man because man is not onye okike (the One who creating). In the use of this name, therefore, the Igbos expression their know1edge of God as the creating God. The work of forming the entire universe, and all in it: the good and the evil, the visible and the invisible is continuously being effected or permitted by God. In this capacity, be is known as Chineke. Prom this derive all other names expressive of the creative activity of the Supreme Being, for instance, Onye-Okike," Eze-chitoke,. Cbukwu-Abiam. Anyanwu-Eze-Chitoke9. The operative word in all these names except Chukwu-Abiam is the verb
"ike" which we have said previously means "to create." It also means
"to share" "to divide," "to portion out.” As C. Obiego observed:
The underlying thought in these names is the idea of creation and in them God is considered as be who "portions out" something to creatures ... NDU, the thins God "portions out" or puts into crea- tures is life .10
Some pans of Igboland use the name Cbine1ce more often than Cbukwu. Ezecbitoks is the name used by the elders mainly in pans of the Nsukka Division. However, it is rapidly falling out of use.11 It depicts God as lithe chief of creation." Cbukwu-Abiam and
The Igbo knowledge of God 125
Anyanwu-Eze-Chitoke are mainly liturgical usages, especially in sacrificial rites. The former portrays God as "the creator of everything, the creator who comes to clearer light as he portions out life.12 Anyanwu-Eze-Chitoke indicates that God as the creating king is identified with the sun that rises and sheds light on all bein8s.
Permeating all these names is the idea of the continuous activity of God. We shall seek to discover what this continuous activity means for the Igbos. But, before we do that, let us consider the meaning and significance of the name Chukwu.
Chukwu (Chi-Ukwu) is from two words Chi and Ukwu. Ukwu means "biggest" "supreme," "highest." Chukwu, therefore, means highest Chi. Then what does Chi mean? In retrospect we see that Chi is common to all the names we have so far used for God. Hence we can suppose that it is an important concept in Igbo tbeodicy. So we must ask: What does it originally connote for an Igbo?
Foreign writers, as well as indigenous researchers into Igbo reli-gion, have treated this concept in different ways, ranging from those who take chi to be a "spirit" or "monad” to those who say that it is a
"kind of group-self or multiplex-ego able to manifest itself in several individualities at the same moment.”13 Some have even taken this to be the individual's guardian angel. Thus Onuora Nzekwu declared:
Chi, according to our traditional religious doctrines, was a genius, a spiritual double connected with every individual's personality.
Every individual has a Chi, a guardian angel.14
Simon Okeke stated that "the duty of the personal chi can be compared with the duty of angel guardians for Christians."., Chi has also been likened to the Egyptian '1Jia": the double or genius of a man, an ancestral emanation which guided and protected him during his lifetime and to which he returned after death,I6
These attempts are laudable as pioneering efforts but I would hesitate to accept any of them as the philosophical meaning of Chi because each of them is either deficient in conveying the original meaning of the concept or compounds a philosophical error.
Chi cannot mean the guardian angel because the idea of a guard-ian angel came to the Igbos only with Christguard-ianity. It completely defies the imagination to accept Chi as an ancestral emanation since this would indicate that the concept has nothing to do with God. To believe this is absurd since it is the basic concept in practically all the Igbo names for God. Talbot's idea that chi is a “monad” which
126 BEING AND GOD
exists outside of man or II a multiplex ego71 would inevitably lead to the belief that the Igbos have a polytheistic notion of God, which actually they do not have. Indeed, this claim would be contradictory to the Igbo concept of Chukwu which means lithe highest Chi." There can be only one highest 'chi, otherwise it would not be the highest ("Chukwu ama buzi Chi ukwu").
To pinpoint the exact meaning or connotation of the Igbo con-cept of chi is not easy. This is due to tile particularity and the universality of its dimensions. Chi in its particular connotation is reserved to the Supreme Being. But considered in its universality, it is found in all beings. Here, of course,we are confronted with the question:
If chi, which is reserved to the highest Being, is also found in all beings, does it mean that the Igbos have a pantheistic notion of God?
As a prelude to a treatment of this question, it is important to bring in the Igbo concept of life (ndu). The Igbos have a tremendous respect for life because life is very precious, indeed priceless; something that only God can give. Hence the Igbos say: "Ndu. k' aku,” that is, life is greater than wealth. An analysis of several Igbo names, Chibundu and Chinwendu, will lead us to a deeper understanding of ndu.
Chibundu is an abbreviation of "Chi-ukwu-bu-ndu" (Chi-ukwu is life). This name contains an ontological assertion, for it equates the being of Chi-ukwu with that of ndu. Bu is from the Igbo verb to be, which expresses identity. Chi-ukwu, as we have shown earlier, expresses the idea of the highest Chi. But there cannot be two highest entities in the same category. Only one Chi-ukwu is Chi-na-eke (Chi who creates).
Chinwendu is an abbreviation of Chi-ukwu-nwe-ndu (Cbi-ukwu has life). This means ukwu to whom life (ndu) belongs absolutely. Chi-ukwu is the author or source of ndu. From here the true meaning of Chi in the Igbo mentality comes to light. Chi as the source or author of life is life itself. So Chi-ukwu is Ndu-ukwu, that is, the Big Life (litetal1y), absolute life. This is another way of saying: Chi-ukwu is pure existence, the necessary Being from whom beings
derive their being. .
The issue here is how we can understand the Igbo idea that
"Chi" which is first and foremost reserved to God is also found in creatures." In the light of what we have seen 80 far about "Chi,'1 let us take the names Chi-na-eke and Chi-ukwu respectively and consider them in relation to creatures.