IGBO CONCEPT OF REINCARNATION: A HERMENEUTICAL APPROACH

Abstract

Does reincarnation mean a recycling of human personhood and to what end? It is an overshadowing of the person with a spirit or spirits of ancestors(s) in order to attain fulfilment of and to preserve life. There is always difference of personhood between the newly born and the ancestor. There is also some space for free conscious determination for the new individual. Finally, the passage of time militates strongly against the belief that it is the same person coming back to life. Spiritual patronage is simply the underlying reason for any project of reincarnation.