Chinelo Anyadiegwu - Introduction to Igbo Mythology for Kids: A Fun Collection of Heroes, Creatures, Gods, and Goddesses in West African Tradition

Introduction to Igbo Mythology for Kids

A Fun Collection of Heroes, Creatures, Gods, and Goddesses in West African Tradition

Chinelo Anyadiegwu

For my mother, Nkoli, The Child of Story.

Ndi Igbo Enwe z

Igbo People Do Not Have Kings

IgbolandAla Igbois the ancestral land of Igbo people. It is in what is now southeastern Nigeria in West Africa. Its settlement precedes written history. Traditionally, Igbo society is structured around self-ruling communities connected by trade routes and separated by forests, lakes, and other natural barriers. In Igbo oral history, the first ancestor was Eri. Eri settled by the Omambala river around the ninth century, in what is now known as Aguleri. Over time, his children traveled out to settle in different locations, and some descendants traveled to nearby tribes, often returning with new traditions. r is the descendant of Eri, and the spiritual head of one of the oldest kingdoms in Igboland, rz r, the Kingdom of Nr. The descendants of Eri contributed a lot to what is now considered standard Igbo culture, but there are many differing and sometimes contradictory traditions among Igbos.

The kingdom of Nr has a spiritual head, called the z r, and his leadership came from his connection with Chineke, the creator spirit. A popular saying in Ala Igbo is Igbo enwe z, or Igbos do not have kings. Instead, what rules an Igbo person is the spirit, chi, that represents their destiny and the contract they made with the creator when that person was born. Igbo people answer to the piece of this spirit that rests in them, and to each other.

Igboland has numerous lineages, which can also be called clans. Igbo communities, and villages are largely made up of kin. Each has its own cache of stories, and the variety of origin myths reflects this abundance. One of the most popular storiesand my personal favoritecomes from UmuNr (the children of r). They came from the first ancestors, Eri and his wife, Namaku. Before the UmuNr were made, the world was covered with water; then Chukwu, the great spirit, pulled up anthills from the ground and made dry land. He summoned Eri and Namaku from the sky and showed them the land. He taught them how to farm and told Eri to spread this knowledge throughout Igboland. Eri became the z r, the head priest, of what would be the Nr kingdom.

That is just one story from one lineage. There are many other origin stories, because there are numerous Igbo clans, so much so that they cant be counted in full. Each community that settled an area has a different story that explains their community. For example, some tribes claim to be descended from the children of Eri and Namaku, while other tribes are believed to have migrated into Igboland from surrounding areas. Other origin stories describe the first people being made from the soil or from other deities. Despite all these different tales, Igbo communities have a lot in common.

Section I addresses some of those similarities and Igbo culture as I experience it. It also explains the general structure of the Igbo community and spirituality. Section II has stories. These sections are followed by a glossary.

The stories in this book are just one small part of Igbo culturemine. I learned a lot of the information from my mother, grandfather, uncles, aunties, or cousins. I was told some stories while I was half asleep but pretending I was not. Others I begged to hear as I grew older. The ancestors of my people laughed and fought and loved. They made demands of gods and spirits. They lived and told stories about it all. We continue in their stead.

My name is Chinelolumu. I am a child of red soil and river pythons. Let me tell you about my people.

1. .

CHAPTER 1 IGBO CULTURE

Igbo people understand the world (w) as having three realms: the sky (Igwe), the earth (An), and the spirit world (Mmo). In the sky and on the earth is life, where humans and all visible things (plants and other animals too) live. Another world, the spirit world, is separated from but intimately connected to the visible world. The material, or physical, world affects the spirit world, and vice versa. Igbo reality doesnt fit into neat boxes of right and wrong, up and down. Instead, think of the world as two mirrors facing each other; the sky is one mirror, and the ocean is the other. The earth is between these reflections, like a doorway with infinity on both ends. A doorway is an entrance, but not an origin. It connects realities. The earths position as a doorway allows it to serve as a connection between the sky and the ocean, but also the material and spiritual worlds.

This connection between the visible and spirit worlds also links life and death. Igbo people believe in reincarnation. When an Igbo person dies, that person returns to the spirit world and then comes back to the physical world in a new body. But this cycle of life, death, and life again does not last forever. A person who lives a virtuous life can become an honored ancestor, meaning that the person can stay in the spirit world, where a specific place is reserved for ancestors. There, these honored ancestors can live as they would in the physical world, except they do not die.

The sky is home to some of the core deities of Igboland. Chukwu, the great spirit, is said to hold meetings in his obi-ukwu (court). No human has seen Chukwus court. Stories have it that Chukwu has an obi, a large meeting room, just like in a human compound. It is made from clouds instead of earth; plants that live on air grow in spiral designs around the obis walls and across the bottom of the obi. What the spirits talk about is not for humans to know, and Igbo people do not directly concern themselves with the affairs of spirits. Instead, dibs and zs are the intermediaries between the realms. More than anyone else, they understand the ways of the spirit realm. Alusdeitiessuch as Amadiha, Igwe, Anyanw, and nwa, stay in the sky with Chukwu, although they have different realms (see Chapter 2). The earth, or ground, is home to An, the alus that represents the earth. Her body holds land, water, humans, and other spirits. In her stomach lie all the dead and the living.

Chi is one of the most important concepts in Igboland. Chi translates as spirit, but a persons chi represents more than that. Everything comes from Chukwu, including chi, so Chukwu has a say in everything. A persons chi is what was created first in that person. It holds their destiny, which they decided on with Chukwu when they were being created. The destiny agreed on between a persons chi and Chukwu is known only to the two of them. Igbo people traditionally believe that fulfillment is about discovering and fulfilling that destiny. An Igbo persons chi is reincarnated after death, while the physical body remains in the earth and returns to the elements. Each life in the cycle of reincarnation is meant to give a person a chance to attain the destiny predetermined by their chi and Chukwu. Therefore an Igbo person needs to connect with and understand their chi to achieve their goals. A common saying is that if a person says yes, so does their chior, in Igbo, onye kwe, chi ya ekwe.