THE HELLENIZATION OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL DEITIES: THE CASE OF EKWENSU AND ESU

Abstract

The understanding of the African world through the lens or framework of the west has been a topical issue among African scholars and beyond. This anthropological approach has been described variously by thinkers of various backgrounds. However, this approach was considered Hellenization by scholars like Okot p'Bitek. This work, therefore, studied the Hellenization of particular African deities from the Igbo and Yoruba religious backgrounds: Ekwensu and Esu respectively. The concept of Hellenization is employed within the context of western and African missionaries trying to understand African traditional world and religion without taking into consideration the peculiarity or particularity of the African religious context. This piece observes that the emergence of these names as the Igbo and Yoruba equivalents of Satan in the Bible, reveals poor commitment on the part of the translators to going deeper and spend time in their research. It also observes that the introduction of these Igbo and Yoruba deities into Christianity, has led to the misunderstanding of their functions in Igbo and Yoruba belief systems. More important is that this misinterpretation will continue to enhance the challenge of inter-faith dialogue which should encourage cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions. The present research would employ the anthropological approach in its investigation into the question of the Hellenization of African traditional deities. The phenomenological approach of inquiry would further be employed in the study of Ekwensu and Esu.