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 Reincarnation
Reincarnation is one of the Igbo beliefs that have persisted in spite of the influence of westernization or christianity. The issue of reincarnation is a problematic one in Igbo thought and life, Damian Opata’s Essays on Igbo World View (1998) argues that it is to be understood around two principal Igbo concepts: ilua uwa and Ogbanje. Both involve some kind of re-embodied existence after having lived and died in the world. This is better understood in the Igbo conceptualization of two types of existence uwa mgbede and uwa Ututu. The ogbanje phenomenon is the repetitive coming and going of people especially of children into one’s family. It is an undesirable thing in a family. The principle of reincarnation is seen as a positive one because it is believed that only people who have lived well and died well are the only person entitled to reincarnate or re-embody themselves in a beneficent manner. Thus it is common experience through divination to identify who reincarnated a new born baby. This is the work of a diviner. In Igbo a diviner is dibiaafa (ogbaaja), and could be a medicine man or a priest. Some of them undergo special training in the use of herbs, in clairvoyance, divination and reincarnation.
The concept of reincarnation makes meaningful the Igbo belief of life after death. Since the biblical concept of resurrection is not clearly understood by many, in traditional Igbo setting, the concept of reincarnation assures an Igbo that his attempt to lead a good life here on earth, obey the deities and the ancestors are not in vain. Death is not the end of life. There is another life after death and the most practical way to make it meaningful is the belief in reincarnation which includes physical resemblance, character traits, oracular pronouncements all of which point to the fact that the dead are somewhere waiting for their return to the world of time and space. The notion of judgment which people fear is so clearly spelt out by reincarnation belief. This implication of judgment also brings in the moral and ethnical implications of the belief. Thus it becomes obvious that death and reincarnation explain quite a lot about the Igbo realization of a meaningful existence. Within the concept are woven some principles of existence, some deep and lasting motivation for decent living among the Igbo, motivation based on everlasting and transcendent reward. It is the idea of living well among the Igbo that constitutes for them an authentic existence such that it could be said that to have died well is to have lived well.
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