THE IGBO PANTHEON: A HERMENEUTIC OF SELECTED IGBOAFRICAN DEITIES
Abstract
considered polytheistic, usually to capture their gods and goddesses. Focusing on
the Igbo world, this work makes a collection of selected deities in Igbo worldview.
While arraying these deities, it maintains that the idea of Supreme Being is very
strong in Igbo traditional religion. Thus, while there is a multiplicity of lesser
gods, there has always been only one Supreme Being who is the source of all that
there is, including the deities themselves. If we look at this issue from the
perspective that these deities are only deans or messengers of the Supreme Being
then there would be no conflict of supremacy. And in fact the supremacy of the
Supreme Being points to the fact that Igbo traditional religion is a religion of
structure, inextricably bound up with the total structure of Igbo traditional life.
It is within this structure that the Igbo person’s existence, welfare and destiny are
totally caught up. The hermeneutic approach is employed for the purpose of this
study.
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