THE NOTION OF SATAN/EKWENSU: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF WESTERN AND AFRICAN (IGBO) THOUGHTS

  • Ejikemeuwa J. O. NDUBISI, PhD
Keywords: Satan, Ekwensu, Igbo,African thought, Western thought

Abstract

The notion of Satan/Ekwensu is an existential phenomenon which comes often as a drab and dreary topic both in African and Western Systems of thought. But the way and manner the notion of Satan/Ekwensu is perceived in the religious sphere has been a source of concern to the rational mind of the researcher. The pertinent question that bother the mind of the researcher is: Is there any essential difference between African and Western notions of Satan/Ekwensu? Therefore, employing the philosophical method of critical analysis, this study observes that it was through the influence of the Europeans who came with their religion and saw that the African particularly the Igbo people had no place for the devil in their beliefs and so they somehow convinced them that Satan is synonymous to Ekwensu which was the god of war and Bargain. They knew that the Igbo would be hard to colonize if they didn't give them a religion and something to fear. So, after years of resistance from the ancient Igbo, the European missionaries succeeded in inducing a lie that Ekwensu is satan into their belief. The study further observes that there is no substantial converging point in the two systems of thoughts. Hence, this study calls for a modest attempt to redirect the way the post-colonial subject engages a distorted past, the colonizer may have done more epistemological harm to the colonized through "translation" than through other forms of colonial subjugation. The translation of the Christian Satan as the conceptual equivalent of Ekwensu, a h

Published
2023-06-30
Section
Articles