A Comparative Study of Igbo Ancestorship in African Traditional Religious Context and Sainthood in Christian Religion

Abstract

Sainthood among the Christians and ancestor veneration among the adherents of African Traditional religion have been seen as a thing that is very sacrosanct in both religious practices. Ancestor-ship is charged with intercessory for the living, and they are once humans before admittance after death into the comity of ancestors while sainthood is the belief system of the Christians which serves as mediators to them through God, while in the religious worldview among the adherents of the African Traditional Religion, the ancestors act as intermediaries in the extraterrestrial or spiritual landscape. It is one of the beliefs that life is not terminated after death and that the dead exist in another spiritual realm mirroring the activities of the living and determining their fate. Hence, the Igbo ancestors are always remembered in every Igbo religious rituals. This paper brings to bear the attributes/making of Igbo ancestors, their roles and their place in Igbo cosmology. It further looks into the Christian saints, their roles and their place in Christian/African worship. This paper also focuses on the features or characteristics that showcase their convergences and divergences, which support the two world religions using the deification theory of Hecataeus. This paper also explores those qualities that are used as a yardstick for Sainthood and Ancestorship.