Ogbanje: A Poetic Portrayal of Igbo Myth

Abstract

In Igbo religious belief, Ogbanje is a spirit child condemned to a repeated cycle of birth and death.
Literary works on the myth in the English medium have been massively critiqued, but not much
attention has been paid to scholarly works on the paranormal being in the Igbo medium. Despite
advances in technology and medi-care, Ogbanje remains a mystery to traditional healers (dibia) and
orthordox medical practitioners. This study examines the concept of Ogbanje by an Igbo poet with a
view to examining the style used in portraying it and its esoteric nature and metaphysical
manifestations. Akoma’s “Ogbanje” in Akpa Uche, an anthology of Igbo poems was purposively
selected for the study. The result reveals the use of dialogue, symbols, rhetorical questions, proverbs
in the portrayal of the ogbanje child. In the transcendental dialogue between a mother Ọkụ̄ and her
Ogbanje child, Ijē is seen as part evil and part good. Ijē is portrayed as a malevolent spirit
tormenting its mother by consistently and heartlessly coming and going. In contrast, Ijē is presented
as a benevolent spirit for satiating the erstwhile barren mother’s quest for a child. Ijē intends to
punish her mother Ọkụ̄ for giving her a notch and resolving to cremate it, but is also sympathetic of
Ọkụ̄’s pathetic condition. Additionally, the dialogue exposes a dissonance between Ọkụ̄ and Ijē; a
frustrated Ọkụ̄ is convinced that, she had made sufficient sacrifices (oke, saraka) for Ijē to stay, but
Ijē opines that the conditions are not exhausted. Ọkụ̄ contends that five comings are enough but Ijē
insists on completing seven comings before it stays. Although Ijē is in a dilemma as a consequence
of its liminality, it is in control of its destiny. The persistence of the Ogbanje myth in contemporary
Igbo society calls for an integrated approach to demystify the phenomenon.

Key words: Igbo, Ogbanje, Poem, Akoma, Myth

Introduction

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Belief system is a common feature of societies around the world; there is no individual or society
that does not believe in certain things. The target of belief could be things material or things
spiritual. Material targets are concrete realities such as man, the earth, celestial things like sun,
moon, stars, terrestrial objects such as mountains, rivers, trees etc. Although belief in these material
objects may have spiritual connotations, the basis of such belief is on physical realities. In contrast,
spiritual targets are unseen realities such as the divinities headed by God, angels, deities, ancestors,
witches and wizards, etc. It is noteworthy that belief in spiritual things far outweigh belief in
material things, in view of the fact that spiritual things are beyond the comprehension of mortals.

A primary importance of belief system is that it helps humans to make sense of the complex
universe and helps humans to cope with events in their lives. For example, among the Igbo, it is
believed that masquerades come into the world through ant holes. It may sound illogical and
nonsensical until it is understood that masquerades are not humans but the spirit of ancestors with
the ability to navigate the world through any means. It is also believed among the Igbo that, death is
the beginning of real life, as the dead person joins the ancestors in the land of the dead, and after
some time will come back to the world in another body (reincarnation). Among Christians, it is
believed that when a good person dies, he/she goes to heaven which is a better place than the world
full of evil. Such beliefs help the believer to cope with loss and other painful experiences in the
world.

Belief systems help humans to explain natural phenomenon they do not understand. For instance,
the traditional Igbo does not understand why men have beards and women do not. To explain the
difference, the Igbo created a mythological woman who stole the king’s gold ring and hid it in her
bushy beards, and upon discovery, the king ordered her to be shaven and that henceforth, women
would not be allowed to grow beards. To explain the distance of the moon, the Igbo believed that in
the beginning the moon was very close to the earth, until a woman pounding cassava with a very
long pestle hit the moon with head of the pestle and the moon departed from the earth to the sky. It
is evident that most beliefs are not based on facts but are founded simply to provide explanations,
whether convincing or not.

Essentially, belief systems are strengthened by culture and religion. In most cultures, man is
believed to be a dual entity comprising of the physical and the spiritual. When someone dies, it is
the body that dies but the spirit lives on in another realm of existence. The body is seen as

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corruptible, finite and temporal but the spirit is seen as invisible, incorruptible, and infinite. The
same dualistic concept is extended to the realms of existence given the belief in the world of the
living and the world of spirits. Thus, in traditional African societies, it is believed that everything
physical has a spiritual equivalence, and more importantly that the spiritual world exerts an
overwhelming influence on the physical world.

However, it is important to aver that, as powerful as belief systems are in Africa and elsewhere,
they are not endorsed by everyone in the same degree; some people hold their beliefs passionately
while others lightly. Precisely, there are three broad categories of believers; the strong believer who
is passionate and prepared to defend the belief even at the cost of his life. The weak believer may
defend the belief but may not be enthusiastic about it. The neutral believer is the one who doubts
and questions aspects of a belief and is neither here nor there. Incidentally, as a result of varieties of
belief, one may hold one belief strongly and hold another one lightly, suggesting that an individual
has different degrees of acquiescence to various beliefs in a culture. Based on the construct above,
this study sets out to examine a particular belief among the Igbo of Nigeria. Out of the mélange of
cultural and religious beliefs among the Igbo, the ogbanje phenomenon is one shrouded in mystery
and controversy. From the perspective of a poet, the study aims at evaluating the literary styles used
to depict ogbanje, the nature and metaphysical manifestations of the spirit child, as attested by the
Igbo

The Concept of Ogbanje

The myth of Ogbanje is one of the beliefs of the Igbo that has survived modern times. It is also
found in the Yoruba culture, where it is referred to as abiku. Etimologically, the word Ogbanje is a
combination of three morphemes as follows: O (he/she) gba (to run) nje (related to going) which,
put together means “he/she who is on a journey”. To put it simply, this indicates that, the Ogbanje is
a sojourner or a peripatetic being, which does not reveal the nature of the journey or the features.
Several scholars have, however defined Ogbanje from diverse perspectives that shed sufficient light
on the phenomenon. Quayson (1979) sees the Ogbanje as referring to a child in an unending cycle
of births, deaths and re-births. The obvious implication of this assertion is that, Ogbanje is a spirit
child or a paranormal being who is condemned to die, be re-born and die again, and so on. This fact
is clearly stressed by Aniebo (2006) who sees ogbanje as born-to-die children or repeaters who
enter the womb of a pregnant woman to be born but die shortly after. They may decide to come to

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the woman as many times as possible. The word repeaters is used to suggest that the spirit child
repeats the birth and death cycle consciously contrary to the common belief that death is the
termination of physical existence. This view is reechoed by Ilechukwu (2007:1) who sees ogbanje
as repeaters and “describes a magical child who repeatedly dies, re-enters the mother’s womb only
to be born again”. A remarkable aspect of this definition is the fact that an Ogbanje child can
decide to repeat the cycle as often as he/she wishes; whether dead or alive, they are in full control of
their destiny. This opinion is corroborated by Awolalu (2012) who is of the view that, “people
believed to have been born again of the same or of another mother, but also children who die young
are believed to have ‘decided’ beforehand…when they would die, especially if they do not like the
family. These children are called ‘ogbanje’ (repeaters)”.

In another dimension Orji (1999) refers to ogbanje as sylphs or a re-incarnation of children and
young persons. The young person dies before their adulthood and such death is greeted with grief,
misgiving and disturbing. This definition is complicated by the association of Ogbanje with
reincarnation. It should be stated that, the Ogbanje is not a reincarnated spirit in the real sense of the
word. Reincarnation is based on the belief that, when the spirit leaves the body at death, it enters
another body for another span of life on earth. Three facts differentiate Ogbanje from reincarnation:
the reincarnated spirit enters a different body other than the one through which it came the first time
and in another body or form. Second and more important, the reincarnated spirit comes back to live
and not to die. A third difference is the fact that, the reincarnated spirit is not in control of its
destiny, but is just as frail a mortal as any other person and oblivious of the future. Furthermore,
Onyekwere & Uche (2016) describes ogbanje as

'Ogbanje', 'Abiku', 'Eka-Abasi', 'Fon' and 'Danwabi' among the Igbo, Yoruba,
Efik and Hausa respectively refer to those children who are born and die
shortly after or later in their youthful age. It belongs to the variety of
undomesticated spirits who do not have shrines or temples. This explains why
the belief and practice are said to be hidden, secret, beside the normal, or
without a clear assertion and seems to defy standard scientific expressions.
Ogbanje could therefore, be classified an occult and paranormal and needs to
be explored within its social and medical dynamics.

Onwujekwu (1981) views ogbanje as the spirit of children who die soon after their birth or while
they are still children. According to him, the age at which they die depends on the age agreed upon

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in their guild prior to birth. Some of them may die after some important milestones in their life such
as graduation from secondary school or university. A crucial component of Onwujekwu’s view is
the idea of the pre-birth existence where the Ogbanje enters into an agreement or oath to return to
the spirit word soon after birth, thus transcending two opposite spheres of existence. This is
technically termed liminality; that is the idea of intersecting two worlds, or belonging to two entities
or being in-between two realities. Harler (2013) clarifies that ogbanje-abiku, is a “liminal”
character, who straddles the worlds of the living and the dead, and who is neither wholly good nor
wholly evil. Straddling the world of the spirit and mortal portrays the Ogbanje as a powerful being,
one that controls two bipolar spheres and which is beyond the control of the living. Another way of
saying that Ogbanje is not wholly good and not wholly evil is that, it is partly evil and partly good.
This line of thought concerning the nature of Ogbanje is disputable. It is questionable to ascribe any
amount of goodness to a being whose aim of existence is to cause sorrow and agony to its parents
and community. In the literature on Ogbanje, it is rare to find any link between Ogbanje and the
idea of good; that would be a paradox. On the aspect of liminality, Achebe (1986) (not Chinua)
states that

[The ogbanje are] part human and part spirit beings whose lives are confounded by the
added loyalty which they owe to the spirit deities. A “normal” individual is born owing his
loyalty to his “chi.” But an “ogbanje’s” life is complicated by being mixed up with the
demands of the paranormal deities. The most notable of these demands is that the “ogbanje”
will not be allowed to enjoy a full life circle.

Notably, Achebe’s (1986) stance is that ogbanje operates under the influence of superior spirits who
direct the course of its life, especially life span. This is to say that, the superior deities can overrule
the will of Ogbanje’s personal god (chi). In other words, the chi may be willing for the child to stay
but the deities may negate the chi’s will. This is really in consonance with the belief of the Igbo in
the amenable nature of chi and its role in an individual’s life. The Igbo believe that onye kwe chi ya
ekwe “if one accents, its chi will also accent”. Also, onye ka mmadu ka chi ya “he who is stronger
than a person is stronger than the person’s chi”. As powerful as the chi is in directing the life of an
individual, its powers can be moderated by the person or the deities.

Symptoms attributed to the ogbanje include the following: multiple miscarriage, frequent illness,
madness or dumbness, long trances, recurring nightmares, hearing voices, talking back to voices,
indolence, lack of focus due to constant invitation by spirit friends to come outside to play, opting

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to be alone, excess intelligence or stupidity, extreme success or failure in business, general
irritability, uncontrolled laughter or weeping, persistent introversion, and pervasive misanthropy.
Since the Igbo world view is not receptive to excesses of any kind, any “excessive” physical or
personality trait could be construed as an ogbanje symptom (Harler, 2013). Hence, a girl seen to be
very beautiful or a boy seen to be very handsome is construed as symptomatic of ogbanje.
Similarly, Achebe (1986:28) identifies other symptoms as being exaggerated, and weird, quick
temper, stubbornness, disrespect, violence.

According to Achebe (1986), treatment for the ogbanje as prescribed by the Afa (diviner) or dibia
reflects the kind of ogbanje (land or water) and they include the following:

saraka or food sacrifice; ritual bathing or anointing; incisions made into the flesh
with or without sacred concoctions of herbs rubbed into the cuts; shock treatment
with loud noises or explosions; the wearing of ritually prepared clothing, amulets,
bracelets, or symbolic padlocks; or, specifically in the case of land ogbanje, the
digging up of the iyi-uwa, a small pebble or other object that serves as the physical
representation of the spiritual pact made during the crossing. All treatments are
meant to signify a breaking of this pact, but no treatment is ever considered a
permanent cure.

Added to the above are the visible marks or scars borne by the ogbanje as prescribed by the dibia
that serve as punitive measures meted to the ogbanje to deter it from returning to the spirit world as
the spirits would find the child unpleasant; incidentally, the next time it comes, the same scar is
seen in its body (Onyekwere and Chioma 2011). From the foregoing, a common thread that runs
through the views of scholars is that ogbanje is a liminal spirit that comes with no other objective
but to initiate a chain of sorrow in the human family. A testimony to the pervasive nature of the
concept is the fact that, beyond conceptualization across disciplines, it has caught the attention of
creative writers and has featured in both prose and poetry genres of literature.

Literary Works on Ogbanje

The belief in Ogbanje has not escaped the vista of writers, especially African writers; several
renowned African writers from divers ethnic groups have included Ogbanje in their writings. Such
writers include Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, John Pepper Clarke, Wole Soyinka, and Chimamanda
Adichie, and their works on Ogbanje are in the genres of prose and poem. In Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart, (1958) the female character Ezimma is presented as Ogbanje. As the spirit child, Ezinma

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epitomizes the the intricate Igbo world where the spirit and the mortal are unified in one body. She
satisfies the luminal feature of the ogbanje by bestriding the temporal and the spiritual
simultaneously. According to Achebe, the connection between Ezimma and the spirit world is
represented by the mysterious iyi uwa, portrayed as “smooth pebble wrapped in a dirty rag”.
Despite Ezimma’s continued denial of knowing the whereabout of the iyi uwa, the native doctor
(Okagbue) is convinced that she buried it somewhere so that she can die and return again to torment
her mother. Eventually, Ezinma is coerced to reveal the place she buried her iyi-uwa, that binds her
to the spirit world. In other words, she is here and there. As a matter of fact, she is more there than
here.

In the Famished Road by Ben Okri (1991), Azaro is presented as the spirit child vacillating between
the land of the living and the land of the spirits. Azaro is constantly haunted by his spirit brothers
and sisters, who solemnly vow that if he fails to come back to them, as agreed upon, they will make
his life miserable. Azaro knows that he is abiku, yet he feels compassion as he beholds the tortured
face of the woman who would become his mother, and he finally takes a decision to stay with the
hope that the chosen life will last. During a period of grave illness Azaro suffered, his father
sacrificed two white chickens for the purpose of recalling his son from the spirit world and repelling
the advances of Azaro’s spirit siblings. In the end, Azaro takes solace in dreams or the dream world,
which he sees as the highest point in life; in the dream world, he finds peace as he accesses the
spirit world and interacts with spirit beings. In this realm, he escapes from the harsh realities of the
physical world where he can never fully exist.

In Adichie’s (2006) Half of a Yellow Sun, we find two imbricated ogbanje- Amala and Baby her
daughter used to portray the complex ogbanje reality. Amala is described as a shy, quiet village girl
who follows Odenigbo’s Mama on her various visits to Nsukka. She is portrayed as a recluse as she
hardly interacts with other people except when she had to. Adichie captured her strange nature by
citing a particular afternoon when Ugwu found Amala in a garden all alone chewing pepper and
concludes that she was a spirit person and her mission in the vegetable garden was to perform
rituals with her fellow ogbanje. According to Harler (2013) Amala gives the impression that she
would rather be somewhere else, or that she is neither here nor there, much like other spirit-
children. Due to her lonely and withdrawn disposition, it seems that she is not at home in the world

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and would rather be elsewhere. Like Amala, Baby was like a mystery to her adopted mother. She
was often sick with a persistent cough, and even when the cough relapses, she would not want to
eat, thus becoming a burden to her adopted mother. Harler (2013) states that even Baby’s real name
is never formalized, thus registering her own liminal existence. Although, Kainene becomes
frustrated with her namelessness and begins to refer to Baby as Chiamaka, the new name did not
quite settle, and in the end, Baby’s real name was missing in the novel.

In J.P. Clarke’s (1965) poem Abiku, the writer presents a character appealing to the spirit child to
come in and stay. Clarke’s first line “coming and going these several seasons” depicts the fact that
the ogbanje child is neither here nor there or both here and there. It is the same basic idea of
liminality depicted by other writers to capture the fact that the ogbanje child belongs to two worlds-
the physical and the spiritual. It comes from the spirit world, stays in the physical world
temporarily, and eventually dies and returns to the spirit world from where it came. The character
refers to the knife scars at the child’s back and front as well as the notched ears, all marks given in
earlier comings to deter the child from coming back, but all in vain. The character then beckons on
the spirit child to have pity on the poor mother whose body is now tired as a result of seasonal
births, and to “step in, step in and stay” for good. The pleading is evidence of the helpless state of
mortals when confronted by a spiritual force they know very little about and cannot control.

In Soyinka’s (1967) poem Abiku, the ogbanje child is portrayed as a mischievous spirit who brags
about its supernatural powers. The abiku mocks at the parents’ efforts to sever it from the spirit
brothers and sisters and make it stay; for instance it laughs at the divinatory charms made by the
native doctor, the cowries used during invocations and the goats used for sacrifices, notches made
on the chest to deter it from coming again, etc. Yet, the abiku boasts “I am Abiku, calling for the
first and the repeated time”. The ogbanje’s stance is that, it will continue to come and go as it
chooses, inspite of all attempts by humans to stop the frustrating cycle of birth and death. The
stance is also indicative of the power wielded by spiritual forces over helpless mortals, as
exemplified by Clarke.
These literary works were created by African writers but in the English medium. The present study
is based on a literary analysis of ogbanje as conceived by an Igbo poet in the Igbo language
medium.

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The Method
One poem was used in this study. The poem was purposively selected from Akpa Uche, a collection
of Igbo modern poems edited by... Out of a total of ......... based on Igbo belief system, one was
selected due to the fact that it provides a full account of the subject of cultural belief. A second
reason for the choice of this poem is that its subject matter is still relevant in modern times. The
reason for using only one poem in this study is that the nature of analysis (content) may not leave
room for the treatment of another poem, due to constraints of space.

Analysis

The style adopted by the poet is a combination of dialogue between two participants, use of
symbols, soliloquy, rhetorical questions, proverbs. The participants in the dialogue are Ọkụ̄,
presumably the mother of the dead child and Ijē, the spirit of the dead child. The names given the
two participants in this exchange are symbolic; Ọkụ̄ “fire” is a description of the emotional state of
the woman at this point. Fire stands for destruction and judgment and that adequately captures the
intention of the woman. She is on a mission to judge and destroy the dead spirit child to ensure that,
it does not return. By symbolizing fire, the mother is paradoxically seen as a destructive agent in
contrast to the natural motherly disposition to nurture and groom. The name of the spirit child Ijè
“journey” aptly describes the peripatetic nature of the child; coming and going and coming again is
symptomatic of one who has no interest in abiding anywhere except to wander about and leave
sorrow and pain at its trail. The dialogue begins with the mother’s soliloquy over her plight before
she proceeds to address the dead child. Thereafter, the child replies the mother directly without any
soliloquy.

The poem is not broken into stanzas, but runs on to the conclusion by each party in the dialogue.
This unbroken structure of the poem reflects the continuous and unbroken chain of suffering
experienced by the mother and also the continuous and repeated death and rebirth of the child.
Ọkụ̄’s account is a catalogue and chronicle of her experience as well as an action she decided to
take to end the cycle of coming and going. The first six lines is Ọkụ̄’s lamentation about her fate.

Nsogbu akariala
Nhusianya akarila
Kwa afọ ụka Nwankpa

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 A gbaa nke mbụ, ọ tụọ n’ogwe
A gbaa nke abụọ, ọ tụọ n’ogwe
Ekare ogwe pịa akụ?

Problem is too much

Suffering is too much
Every year Nwankpa’s issue
The first shot ends on a tree
The second shot ends in a tree
Was the arrow crafted for the tree?

The first two lines in this soliloquy is a repetition by Ọkụ̄ to emphasize and underline her pathetic
state. To say that nsogbu/nhusianya ‘problem/suffering is too much is to stress that the pain has
reached an unbearable and intolerable stage. This is vividly enunciated in the third line that
provides a history of the painful experience. Each year kwa afọ, she is in pain on account of the
loss of the same child that keeps coming back without staying. The proverb in the third to sixth
lines is used to bemoan the repeated birth and death on a yearly basis just like an arrow that is fired
at a bird but continues to hit a tree (a wrong target) as if the arrow is meant for the tree. The
proverb highlights the frustration of the mother (Ọkụ) at having to go through the pain and labour
associated with childbirth without having anything to show for it. The proverb is also in a rhetorical
question form which is used to challenge the unseen powers for wasting fertility and the effort of
humans to preserve the world. This soliloquy is also symbolic of the depth of despair experienced
by the mother in the course of managing the repeated cycle.

In the next seven lines (7 – 13), Ọkụ̄ takes a retrospective look at the efforts (positive and negative)
she had made to keep the child from dying, but all in vain. In this 7 – 10, the mother Ọkụ̄ pities the
child Nwa aló ahụsiele anya ‘the child has really suffered’, on account of the physical harm done to
the child the previous time it came to prevent if from coming back to torture the mother.

Nke a ọ bụghị mkpirisi aka ochie

Anyi dabiri ya ka ọ ghara ibịa ọzọ?

Is this not the old thumb finger

We notched to prevent it from coming again?

The belief of the Igbo is that if the ogbanje child is subjected to pain it would prevent the child from
returning. This is premised on the understanding that the child will feel the pain, even though it is
dead. The severance of one of the fingers is done to discourage the child from coming back to the

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same woman. Here, the mother shows the particular finger that was notched in an earlier death, yet
the child defied it and returned without the severed finger, and still died again. Again, the rhetorical
question is an expression of helplessness by Ọkụ̄ for seeing her efforts mocked by the child. The
positive efforts made include offering gifts to children as a way of appeasing the child, the ogbanje
guild, and the spirits to persuade the child to stay with his/her fellow children. The form of the gifts
shows the extent of sacrifice made by Ọkụ̄.

E nyewo ụmụ ebiri òké

E meela ụmụaka sarakā

The age mate have been given gifts

The children have been given gifts

Two categories of children and two forms of gifts are involved here. The children consist of the
ụmụ ebiri ‘age mates’, that is, children of the same age group at the spiritual level. The second
group ụmụaka ‘children’ are other children in the community. The first gift is òkè ‘share’ given to
the age mates, and the second gift is saraka ‘gifts’ given to other children irrespective of their age.
The gifts offered to the age mates (oke) is special; it is actually their own share of the sacrifice made
to the gods. The intention of the mother is to woo the age mates to prevail on their mate (ogbanje
child) to stay with them and not to return to the spirit world. The gift offered the other children
(saraka) is actually a ceremonial feast, that consists of akara ‘bean cake’ and groundnuts to attract
the sympathy and favour of the ancestors and gods. It is instructive to note the difference between
òkè and saraka; oke is Igbo word for special gifts offered age mates while saraka is a Yoruba word
for feasts made to children, in this instance, to appease the gods. The inclusion of Igbo and foreign
culture to appease the gods demonstrates the extreme sacrifice made by the mother (Ọkụ̄) to break
the cycle of birth and death. The mother (Ọkụ̄) is convinced that these are the things desired by the
child (ihe ndịa bụ ka o si chọọ) and then wonders if there is anything that she has not done. The
rhetorical question in line 13, ọ bụ gịnị fodụrụ ‘what is left to do?’ indicates that Ọkụ̄ is exhausted
but yet still willing to satisfy all conditions necessary for the child to stay.

In the last eight lines (14 – 21) of the mother’s speech, Ọkụ̄ expresses her resolve to revenge on the
ogbanje child by subjecting him/her to a worse torture so that he will not dare come back this time.

Ma ebe ijikere ịkpụ anyị ọnụ̄ n’ala

Imesi anyi ike n’eleghị anya
Enweghị ebere maka nhusianya

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 Husie anya ugboro ise.

Since you are ready to scratch our mouth

on the ground
To punish us without looking at us
without mercy for the suffering
Suffering of five times.

The poet reminds the child that for five times it has subjected them to punishment without mercy.
The idiomatic expression ịkpụ anyị ọnụ n’ala ‘to scratch our mouth on the ground” is used to show
the child as a sadist, a malevolent tormentor that takes pleasure in the suffering of its captives. The
idiom aptly captures the suffering endured by the woman and her people in the hands of the ogbanje
child. Based on the cold-blooded and savage disposition of the child, the mother (Ọkụ̄ ) decides on a
line of action as barbaric and vicious as the agony inflicted by the child.

N’akụkụ mmiri nta

Ka ibu nku na karajin
Ga-agwa gi okun, okun ị ga-anụ
Ka nke a bụrụ ije ikpeazụ gị

Beside the stream

bunch of firewood and kerosene
will tell you word, word you will hear
that this will be your last journey.

The mother’s threat and decision is to burn the dead child with a bunch of firewood and kerosene
beside the village stream, in other words cremation. Ọkụ̄ believes that this extreme torture of the
child will finally dissuade it from coming back. This is realized in the personification of ibu nku na
karajim ‘bunch of firewood and kerosene’, as the only agents that can give order to the ogbanje
child and it will obey. Thus the ogbanje is portrayed as an obstinate fiend that is not amenable to
human injunction but to the toxic and noxious assault of elements such as fire. This is in
consonance with the Igbo maxim that ekweghi ekwe na-ekwe n’ute ekwere “The stubborn one will
eventually yield on the mat made of twigs”. Ọkụ̄ believes that once it is able to ravage the dead
child with fire, that will be its last journey. A combination of ibu nku ‘bunch of firewood’
(traditional) and karajim ‘kerosene’ (modern), as instruments of destruction indexes the intention of
Ọkụ̄ for a total extermination of Ije. The inclusion of the modern instrument is indicative of the fact
that, the traditional instrument is not adequate to engage the spirits.

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Notably, the threat to cremate the child is not in tandem with the Igbo culture. Among the Igbo, one
of the last rites accorded the dead is burial in the ground. Burial is actually a mark of respect to the
dead as it is believed that, through the bowels of the earth, the dead will continue its journey to the
world of the spirits. However, burial is not inclusive of all the dead; all the dead are not committed
to the earth. People who committed abominable acts (arụ) or who died of strange diseases or who
committed suicide (ikwu ụdọ) are not buried but thrown into the evil forest to demonstrate that they
have been rejected by the earth. The act of burial in the land signifies that the earth god accepted
the dead, but the act of throwing the dead into the evil forest implies that the dead is rejected by the
earth god. In other words, it is not worthy to be buried in the earth. In the case of this ogbanje
child, it is neither buried nor thrown into the evil forest; rather it is burnt beside the stream. There
are two implications of cremation. First, due to Ije’s attitude of afflicting the mother with pain, it is
considered unworthy to be buried in mother earth. Second, due to the fact that, Ije is seen as a
strange being, it is also treated as a stronger; that is, one who is not part of the community. After
the cremation, its ashes are swept away by the river and carried to yonder lands, far away from the
mother. The river serves a dual purpose here; cleansing the land and disengaging the spirit of the
child from the mother and the community in which it was born.

In the second part of the poem, Ije, the ogbanje child responds to the threat of the mother. The poet
delves into the supernatural sphere to exhume the thoughts of the dead child. It is actually the dead
child speaking through the poet. Ije’s response is replete with rhetoric questions addressed to the
mother. Precisely, there are seven rhetoric questions that Ije used to mock the mother’s attempts to
eliminate it or truncate its cycle of birth and death. In the first two questions (lines 22 – 23) Ije
shows wonder and astonishment that the mother is actually taking it to the riverside. Surprise in the
sense that the river side is not where it was sourced. This sentiment is echoed in the third rhetoric
question ‘ọ bụ ebe ahụ k’ị natara m? ‘Is it from there that you obtained me? Definitely, the child
came from elsewhere and not the river side. The next four and five rhetoric questions (lines 25 –
30) reveals the why and the how of Ije’s intrusion into the womb of the mother.

Ọ bụghị gị na-ebe akwa

Na-achọ m ụbochi niile
Ka ụsọ ekwu gi jụọ?
Ọ bụghị gị na-agba àjà
Na-achọ ihe I ga-eme
Ka m bata n’ụlọ gi?

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 Are you not the one crying
looking for me every day
So that your kitchen will be cool?
Are you not the one making sacrifice
looking for what to do
That I will come into your house?

In the fourth rhetoric question above, Ije uncovers the fact that it actually responded to the tears of
the mother. It was her tears shed on a daily basis that attracted the child to the woman. Likewise,
in the fifth rhetoric question, Ije discloses that, it responded to the constant divination and sacrifice
made by the mother. In other words, Ije’s entrance into the house of the mother was an answer to
her prayers and sacrifices. In these two rhetoric questions,Ije challenges the myth that it is a wicked
and malevolent child. Against the previous belief of Ọkụ̄ that Ije is a wicked spirit that only inflicts
her with pain and agony, Ije shows herself as a benign and benevolent spirit who comes to wipe
away the tears of a desperate woman; a good child who satisfies her longings and gives her a sense
of belonging to the clan, as well as , a sense of wholeness and completeness as a woman.

Added to the protest of Ije as a fiendish spirit, is the revelation by Ije that until it came into the
house of Ọkụ̄, she (the woman) was barren and desperately looking for a child. That Ọkụ̄, sheds
tears and consults native doctors (dibia) for divination is a testimony that she was childless. Ije’s
position, therefore, is that, if it did not enter her womb, the woman will continue to be barren. The
implication of this is that, Ije came to the mother’s home to fill a void; no other spirit answered the
call or prayer of this woman but him/her, hence it did not go uninvited. Furthermore, Ije did not go
to the home of fruitful women but the fruitless one. There is some validity and substance in Ije’s
perspective; among the Igbo and other people, barren women, especially those who have waited for
the fruit of the womb for a long time become so desperate in the quest that, they wish to experience
even a miscarriage, and some of them are willing to accept a child even from suspicious sources.
This desperation is the outcome of the Igbo belief that matrimony is sequel to motherhood. In other
words, a married woman must have children otherwise she is not a woman. This perspective
legitimizes Ije’s entrance into the womb of the barren women. Since no spirit had sufficient
concern for Ọkụ̄’s unsavory situation, and since no spirit was prepared to fulfill her paramount
desire, and more importantly, since Ọkụ̄ herself had no choice, Ije volunteered to fill the vacuum.
To that extent, Ije’s incursion into the womb and home of Ọkụ̄ is justified. The real question

14
however is, is Ije really what Ọkụ̄ wanted, even in her desperation? If Ọkụ̄ had a glimpse into the
future to ascertain the nature of the child, would she have ventured into those frenzied quest to have
a child? The latter question is subtly referenced by Ije in the sixth rhetoric question.

In the sixth question (line 31) Ije boldly asks the mother if she had fulfilled all its conditions for it to
stay. The rhetoric question suggests that the mother had not satisfied all Ije’s conditions for her to
stay. The implication of Ije’s inquiry is that he/she is the one who knows when all the conditions are
met, and not the mother. Although, in Ọkụ̄’s part, she had done all that needed to be done including
giving gifts (oke) to Ije’s age mates (ebiri) and making a feast (saraka) to the children (ụmụaka) and
wonders if anything was left (as seen in lines 10 – 13), Ije is of the opinion that she is yet to fulfil all
the conditions. This uncompromising and rigid stance of Ije gives her off as an imperious,
dictatorial and masterful felon whose wishes must be obeyed by his mortal vassals. Even though it
is attested that ogbanjes occupy a lesser echelon in the hierarchy of spirits, its tone in this context
does not reflect that law status. Rather, it assumes the façade of a spirit with no superior that can
overrule its decision and choices. However, the hubris and superciliousness evidenced in its
response to Ọkụ̄ suggests that in the discharge of their duties in their different spheres, there is
hardly interference among the spirits.

In the seventh rhetoric question (lines 32 – 33), Ije mocks the plan of Ọkụ̄ to burn it with firewood
and kerosene.

Ibu nkụ na karajim

Ọ bughị anụ ahụ ka ọ na-emebi

Firewood and kerosene

Is it not the body they destroy?

Ije declares that, kerosene and firewood are limited in the havoc they can wreak; they can only
destroy the flesh but not the spirit. Ije is confident that, as a spirit being, it is immune from the
ravages of fire; it is indestructible. To demonstrate its invisible and invincible nature, Ije remarks
that it is standing aside watching Ọkụ̄ and its dead body meant for burning.

Anọ m iche na-ele gị anya

Hụ ka echiche unu si aga

I stand aside looking at you

15
 Seeing how your minds work

A fallout of Ije’s view of the scene is the belief of the Igbo on the dual composition of man. The
Igbo believes that man is both material and spiritual. At death, physical life ends and spiritual life
begins. As Ije watches the scene with interest, it wonders at the workings of the human mind. Ije
disparages Ọkụ̄ and the entire human race for the ignorance displayed towards spiritual matters. Ije
is shocked that Ọkụ̄ is trying to use physical instruments to fight a spiritual battle. The remark
echiche unu si aga ‘how your minds work’ is a condescending appraisal of the human mind. By
this, Ije pits itself above man and claims to possess more knowledge than human beings. This
disposition of Ije sustains the earlier haughty stance it adopted in its examination of Ọkụ̄’s
intentions. In lines 36 – 38, Ije announces that burning its body to ashes with firewood and kerosene
will have adverse consequences.

Isu m ọkụ ga-eme ka

M jie n̄ji ukwuu
Ọ bụ onye ojii ka ị ga-amụ ọzọ

Burning me will cause

Me to be very block
It is a black person you will born next time

Here, Ije declares that the effect of cremating it is that it will come back as a very black person.
That means, instead of dissuading it from coming back, the burning is actually a motivation for Ije
to return, but this time, in a worse form, thus compounding the mother’s sorrows and pain. This is a
mockery of the efforts made by Ọkụ̄ to break the cycle of birth and death; it is a punishment on Ọkụ̄
for daring to control what she is powerless to control, and for delving into matters she knew nothing
about. These lines demonstrate that Ije is actually the one in control of the events. It is Ije that
determines in what form it comes each time; it is Ije that determines the conditions to be met before
it finally stays. In the next lines (39 – 41) Ije makes a surprising volte-face.

Enwere m ebere n’ebe unu nọ

Ahụwon nhụsianya unu

I have mercy on you all

I have seen the suffering of you all

These last lines are a dramatic turn from the tough position of ije. It expresses sympathy for the
pathetic state of Ọkụ̄ and her people. It is worth noting that Ije used the plural form unu ‘you all’ in

16
this closing remarks. It shows an understanding that it is not only the woman that is suffering. This
is actually a reaction to the plural form anyị ‘we’ earlier used by Ọkụ̄ in her address to the dead
child in lines 14 and 15.

Ma ebe I jìkèrè ịkpụ anyị ọnụ̄ n’ala

Imesi ānyi ike n’eleghị anya
The use of the plural by Ọkụ̄ and Ije to denote those affected by the cycle of death and birth
represents a shared understanding of the communal nature of Igbo world. The Igbo child does not
belong to its parents alone but to the entire community. Each person is an integral member of the
community and the plight of one person translates to the plight of all or the kindred. Together, the
kindred celebrates the birth of a child, and together mourns the death of any member. It is from this
pluralistic angle that the power of the ogbanje can be fully explored. This is one child against the
entire community. A belief strongly held by the Igbo is that one individual cannot win a battle
against the clan (otu onye anaghị emeri ọha). Ọ̀ hà ‘community’ is the strength of the clan.
However, the strength of the clam is limited to physical feuds. In transcendental battles such as the
ogbanje case, the community is as helpless as the individual. In addition, an Igbo adage states that,
otu onye siere ọha, ọha erichaa, ma ọha siere otu onye o ga-erichakwa? ‘If one person cooks for
the clan, the clan will finish, but if the clan cooks for one person, will the person finish’? Related to
this present scenario, Ije has prepared a meal for the community, but the community are not able to
finish, thus demonstrating the power of one spirit over the community. In sum, both Ọkụ̄ and her
people are at the mercy of Ije. Ije is in total control of its fate as well as the fate of its mother, and
by extention, the fate of the community. In the last four lines, (42 – 44) Ije appeals for patience and
announces the number of cycles to undergo before it settles down in Ọkụ̄’s home.

Ma nwenu ndidi n’ezie

Ọ fọdụrụ ugboro ije abụọ
N’ihi na aka m anọzaghị oge m
Ka m wee nogide bụrụ nke gi.

But you all should be patient

It remains two journeys
Because I have not completed my time
For me to stay and become your own.

Despite Ije’s sympathetic gesture in the previous lines, and despite the shared understanding that it
was afflicting the community, it is still insistent on completing the cycle. The Igbo believe that the

17
ogbanje cycle ends at the seventh coming. Having done five successful cycles as revealed by Ọkụ̄
in line 17 Husie anya ugboro ise “suffered for five times”, Ije announces that it still has two cycles
to do before it finally settles and becomes Ọkụ̄’s. The understanding is that the cycle must be
completed irrespective of Ije’s feelings for the woman and despite the bodily torture meted out to
the dead child by the mother to prevent it from returning. As Ije emphasized in the last two lines,
until it completes the sinister cycle, it will not stay.

Discussion

Akoma’s ogbanje comforms to the features of the spirit child as portrayed by other writers such as
Achebe, Soyinka, Clarke, Adichie, and Okri in many respects. First Ije is a liminal spirit that wants
to be in two opposing worlds, suggesting that it does not find satisfaction in either world and so
tastes life from each world in the quest for wholeness. It could also be that it is a neutral spirit that
finds satisfaction in both worlds and so comes and goes at will, irrespective of the will of its spirit
siblings or earthly family. However, due to the fact that it is often sick which makes the parents to
constantly consult native doctors, it could be endorsed that it is more in the spirit world than in the
human world. The frequent affliction is a sign that it is not comfortable on earth. The cycle of birth
and death and rebirth goes on despite all efforts made by the parents to stop it. Among all the
aforementioned writers, ogbanje is presented as a malevolent spirit whose sole aim is to frustrate the
purpose of fertility and consequently bring sorrow to the human family. Just like the purpose of
creation is terrestrial habitation, the purpose of fertility is preservation and sustenance of the
lineage. To sustain the family, the new born lives until it reaches the age at which it also produces
offspring ad infinitum. The ogbanje’s coming negates this natural quest for immortality as most of
them die before the time of marriage; there are exceptions like Adichie’s Amala that gives birth to
Baby, although her life was a mysterious challenge to others.

A salient fact in Akoma’s poem, in the fashion of Soyinka and Clarke’s Abiku is that there is no
clue to what led to the death of the child at each coming. In Akoma’s ogbanje, a hint at the possible
cause of death is Oku’s initial lamentation of their seasonal sufferings which connotes that Ije must
have suffered different bouts of sickness. Notably, some ogbanje die through accidents of different
sorts, but most of them are plagued by mysterious diseases that defy cure and eventually take their
life, or through which they go back to the spirit world. A description of the sickness would have

18
helped to determine the cause, especially to delineate the curability or otherwise. In traditional Igbo
world diagnosis is handled by dibia afa (diviner) while treatment is undertaken by dibia
mgborogwu (herbalist); quite often, treatment involves making sacrifices to appease the ancestors
and ogbanje’s spirit guild, and making notches on the body of the child to dissuade it from coming
back another time. The fact that the child defies these treatments and returns casts doubt on the
veracity and adequacy of the diagnosis and treatment by the native doctors. This has provoked the
need to look for more scientific means of diagnosis to unravel the real cause of the frequent death
and even to confirm the claim that it is the same child that returns, each time.

An outstanding departure from other writers is the fact that in Akoma’s ogbanje, the mother Oku
chose to use both traditional and modern means at her disposal to tame the child. This is represented
by the Ibu nkụ na karajim “firewood and kerosene”. The involvement of a modern instrument
(kerosene) has two implications. One is that, the ogbanje phenomenon is still with us despite the
advances in technology and science among the Igbo. Instead of advances in technology confining
the myth to the trash can of history, technology is incorporated in the spiritual process of engaging
the paranormal phenomenon. Two is that, traditional means alone may not be sufficient to tame the
spirit child, hence karajim “kerosene” meaning that, both traditional and modern approaches should
be adopted to deal with the ogbanje challenge. This integrated approach has spurred researches that
found some correlation in the symptoms manifested by an ogbanje, especially recurring illness, and
those seen in children with Sickle Cell disease. Nwezi’s (2001) study on the malevolent ogbanje
found a correlation between typical sickle cell symptoms and those manifested by ogbanje. Out of
the 100 “ogbanje” children that participated in the study, 70 tested positive to sickle cell disease.
However, the result of the study was not generally accepted for reasons attributable to culture.
According to Nwezi (2001: 25) “…infusion of innovative ideas and changes contradictory to Igbo
cultural beliefs and customs have often been perceived by elders as destructive of cherished
customs and values as well as devaluation of the indigenous cultural system”. Anyanwu et al’s
(2017) study on mothers’ perception of the ogbanje phenomenon revealed that majority of the forty-
two ogbanje children who were examined in the study actually had sickle cell anaemia while some
were found to be normal. The study avers that despite modernity the Ogbanje myth still exists in the
minds of people and this may have adverse effects on children as it affects health seeking behaviour
of mothers who continue to seek help from churches and traditional healers.

19
This position is countered by Achebe (1986) who asserts that the ogbanje phenomenon cannot be
simply attributed to hereditary sickle cell disease. According to Achebe, many ogbanje symptoms
often defy medical diagnosis, which suggests that traditional agencies be engaged in the process.
Holding the same view is Asakitikpi (2008) who initially attempts a simple analysis of the ogbanje-
abiku phenomenon through the vista of orthordox medicine but eventually concludes that “ this belief
and other similar beliefs must not be disregarded as phantom ideas arising from simple minds [who reject
basic hygiene and standardized health care, opting for traditional treatment instead]”. Asakitikpi calls for a
concerted probe by African scholars into the interface between science and religion for the purpose
of reconstructing traditional concepts. Upholding this view, Onyekwere and Chioma (2011) posit
that ogbanje is beyond western medical practice to handle and unravel and so there should be an
integrated method involving orthordox, traditional and other church-based agencies. In their
opinion,

Belief in ogbanje and all the practices associated with it defy standard scientific methods or
procedures. The facts cannot be subjected to empirical test yet the patient is dying. The
blood tests, scanning and other specialized medical examinations do not show the cause and
possible remedy. The doctors may give a possible name nearest to what they feel is the
medical symptom…If it is true that mysterious powers are at work and there are experts such
as 'babalawo' and 'dibia' (powerful medicine men), deliverance pastors, spiritual healing
homes and other interested parties, they could work together in order to achieve better and
improved results, (pg. 8).

A fundamental issue, arising from the foregoing polemics, is that traditional systems, the clergy and
orthodox systems need be integrated in order to form a united front against the dreaded
phenomenon. Such a holistic approach will definitely yield better results and resolve the age-long
conflict between mortals and the spirits. In this method, each practitioner focuses on his or her own
area of specialization without interference in the work of the other. While the orthodox doctor
concentrates on the physical aspect of the affiction, the dibia’s knowledge of the origin and type of
spirit involved may provide the information needed by the clergy to wage offensive warfare against
the spirit world and eventually liberate the child from the hold of sinister forces. In the process,
each party may gain better knowledge of the other approaches and ultimately understand the
relevance of other fields in health care.

Conclusion

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The study finds a unique style of presenting the ogbanje unlike other writers. Akoma adopted a
dialogic style to show an ethereal interaction between a woman and the spirit of her dead child. The
style provides a balanced perspective of the position of mortals and spirits with respect to the
ogbanje phenomenon. Additionally, the poem is full of symbols; the names of the two interactants
are symbolic of their nature and disposition. The woman’s name Oku means fire and represents the
desire and choice of the woman to execute judgment on the dead child. The name of the child Ije
means a sojourner, that is a wandering spirit or a spirit on a journey, going to the spirit world and
coming back to the human world and so on. The means chosen by the woman (firewood and
kerosene) to destroy the dead child and thus put an end to its coming are symbolic of traditional and
modern approaches.
The study confirms that ogbanje is a liminal spirit that astrides two worlds; the world of the living
and the world of spirits. It is expounded in the study that although ogbanje is a neutral spirit, it is
more in the spirit world than in the human world. This is largely on account of the fact that, when it
is born, it is not really at home with its human family. It’s frequent mysterious afflictions is
evidence that it is not comfortable on earth and a sign that it wants to go back to the spirit world,
thus posing a question on the reason why it came in the first place. All its nature considered,
ogbanje is affirmed to be a malevolent spirit that comes to torment a human family. However, the
study recommends that a holistic approach incorporating traditional, orthodox and ecclesiastical
systems be adopted in dealing with the strange reality.

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