THE INTERACTION OF TRADITIONAL AND CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IN OKUKU ONYE UWA : A REINCARNATION RITUAL IN AWKA TOWN

Abstract

Reincarnation is a basic feature in traditional religious system in Awka Town. However, the interaction of traditional and Christian religious beliefs in reincarnation is a phenomenon that raises a lot of questions, controversies and conflicts in the life of the Igbo especially among the Awka people of Anambra State. The study understood that the reality, dynamism, understanding and proof of reincarnation are engulfed with a lot of difficulties. It is also discovered that most of the little knowledge known today about reincarnation in Igboland is either written by Western scholars or even Igbo scholars with Western background or orientation and who unfortunately used the western paradigm to access, analyze, explain and evaluate what is abundantly an Igbo phenomenon. The researchers, however, tends to attribute the concept of reincarnation, not as vague or superstitutious belief but what the average Awka man believes it as the divinatory rituals over any unborn child in the traditional Awka community. This study is also poised at proving the reality of the existence of reincarnation in Igbo cosmology especially the way it is applied to the Awka people who hold tenaciously, the practice of Okuku Onye Uwa ritual rites during their traditional marriage rites celebrations. As a qualitative research, the researchers adopted the primary and secondary sources of data collection and culture area approach for data analysis. The researchers, however, recommends an integration of traditional and Christian religious beliefs in Awka town through mutual dialogue of synthesis and hybridization of the good elements of each of the culture rather than using extreme acts of mutual extinction.