ỊCHỤAJA in Igbo Traditional Religion

The first version of this work which came under the title: ỊCHỤAJA: THE HEART OF PRACTICAL IGBO TRADITIONAL RELIGION was submitted to the Department of Religion, University of Nigeria, Nsukka for the award of a Master of Arts Degree (MA) in Religion (African Traditional Religion). Under the present title and form, we tried to improve on it and to incorporate other relevant topics to this discourse. Rendering the word ‘Sacrifice’ in Igbo on the one hand; and transliterating the word ‘Ịchụaja’ in English on the other hand is a matter of great concern to the present writer. This concern seems to have been taken for granted by scholars who have done extensive studies in the topic of Sacrifice in Igbo Traditional Religion (ITR). It does seem a general consensus, and we agree too, that ‘Aja’ is the generic name for sacrifice in ITR. But “Ịchụaja” is a verb form (Infinitive) which has not enjoyed this generic application at the hands of scholars. Nevertheless, the present writer found out that ‘Ịchụaja’ is a ritual action performed at one point in all varieties of ritual acts in ITR. If ‘Ịchụ’ means ‘to drive away’ as Basden (1966), Arinze (1970), Metuh (1985) and Umeh (1997) averred, then “what is ‘Aja’?” These scholars must end up saying “Aja is evil” if they will be consistent with their interpretation. Curious! The Igbo Catechism of the Catholic Church underscores ‘Aja’ as an offering due to God alone for the living and the dead. The Owerri Catholic Province version of the document precisely said “Aja bụ iji ‘victim’ ….” (Aja is offering a victim….) Meanwhile, we are of the opinion in this work that Ịchụaja is the heart of ITR. Therefore once the concept is missed, it will be difficult to come to terms with any idea in the religion. We choose then to investigate what ‘Aja’ is and what is the transliteration of the word ‘Ịchụ’ in ITR. The purpose is to set a comprehensible footing for ITR since Ịchụaja is at the heart of its religious expression. Ịchụaja is evidently a practice at the heart if Igbo Traditional Religion (ITR). It is pertinent therefore to study the phenomenon and found a theory upon which to ground the concept believing that a proper understanding of the concept will throw more light on the ideas hidden in ITR. Ịchụaja has always been seen and correctly too as an element alongside others in ITR. It is the conviction of the present writer that it is not just an element, but an element that lends meaning to all other elements. The problem this work had spotted is that Ịchụaja has been suffered to a serious misconstrue by a number of scholars. If this is true as we think it is then worth the labour to study this phenomenon further. Alongside this misconstrue, Ịchụaja or Aja has been understood either as sacrifice or as an element in the sacrificial system of ITR. Meanwhile, one of the major worries of this work is that the theories of sacrifice which has been advanced by a number of Western scholars were motivated by their Christian background; and Christianity itself has infected the world with its idea of sacrifice for centuries. It has laboured the word – sacrifice – so much with the singular idea of Christ’s death which for Christianity is everything sacrifice can be all about. Yet the concept of sacrifice from its origins ‘sacer facere’ is very close to Ịchụaja, and unless a theory on which Ịchụaja could be adequately grounded is found either within or outside existing theories, we still leave an open area for the misconstrue of the whole of ITR. ITR should not appear bizarre and barbaric; it is a religion with a philosophy which could be at the same time comprehensible and systematic. This work hopes to verify which of the ideas mentioned above could suffice for a proper understanding of Ịchụaja – sacrifice proper or an element in the sacrificial system; and at eliminating certain arbitrary interpretations that has so far been imposed on ITR to whatever extent it can. We adopted the participant-observer method; coming empty-handed to the area of ITR, allowing its elements to inform us and interpreting its data from within. Ịchụaja has been observed by this work to be one consistent element in all practical activities of ITR. It is pretty difficult to isolate it as an element having a kind of independence from all other elements. Ịchụaja is precisely the ritual slaying of a victim; an act which consecrates and sanctifies the victim and the sacrificer. Ịchụaja is a fundamentum, what it connotes are varied – gift to the deity, homage to the deity, expiation, communion with the deity, life transmitted to the deity and subsequently conferred upon the sacrificer and so forth. Nevertheless, the present writer thinks that these connotations as named above are founded upon the contemporary understanding of the word informed by Christian idea of sacrifice. Africans are reputed to be notoriously religious. Indeed religious ideas that have permeated the world were generated in Africa. Yet for whatever reason the Traditional Religion of Africa is struggling from extinction. The overpowering Western criterion has ideologically impoverished everything African including their religious pride. The danger escalates when Africans themselves join in offering more weapons for further destruction, no matter how negligible. The extinction of a race begins with insensitivity to its possibility by those who should know. The element of Ịchụaja in ITR can be presented in a positive light when we employ patience and sympathy to observe its dynamics. Continued effort to present African lot in a bad light must be marched with the same force with which it corrodes the African pride. If we have lost the trend, we should acknowledge our faults; not make up things with which Africa will continually be regarded as savage and dark. Our religion should be logical and philosophical in as much as it is rife with the mystical and practical. We sincerely attempt to pull off the garb of our religious and philosophical bias and thread the grounds of ITR with the element - Ịchụaja.