THE LOGIC OF SYMBOLISM IN IGBO AFRICAN MEDICINE: A HERMENEUTICAL APPROACH

Abstract

Existence in Igbo African universe is best described as a communion of forces; and the human person is understood as a confluence of two inseparable realities: the physical and the spiritual. In essence, what bothers the physical is often conceived as a kind of imbalance of the spiritual and vice versa. Life in this manner is conceived as a matrix. Within this parlance of existence also, lies an enigma which has perennially prodded great minds. However, what actually is the logical principle under firing this interaction between the physical and the spiritual universes is still in contention. The emergence of symbols and the act of symbolization, perhaps, has given a whole lot of insight to deciphering the meaning of this incorporated existence (human existence) and the mode of interaction underlying it. Igbo African medical practice is among those areas where the interaction of forces is highly noticeable. As a system of its own, Igbo African medicine incorporates the animate and inanimate; the physical and the spiritual, all in arresting various health situations. What then is the logic underlying the use of symbols in this practice? What is the goal or end of symbolization in Igbo African medical practice? This paper shall adopt a hermeneutical approach in examining the basic claims of Igbo African medicine. In the end, this paper would have given appraisal to a vitalist system of logic that is both Communo-Ontological and Igbo African in nature and praxis.