You have just published a book with the title: Igbo Philosophy. What is this all about?
I was one of the first people to go to a Nigerian university to study philosophy. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, was the first to open a Department of Philosophy in 1964. I was one of the pioneer students. In the course of my study, I was very much fascinated by the relationship between some of the ideas and concepts being discussed and my own personal experiences with people I regarded as intelligent and wise in my community. Some of them were elders, priests and young men and I related very closely with them. I was always impressed by the profundity of their thoughts. I kept comparing their thinking with what I was being taught in the university in Philosophy and I could see some correlations. Each time there was a discussion, I made reference to some of the thoughts of those men.
Could you give us an example of those thoughts?
I know, for example, there was one man in my town, in Mbaise. He was a very wise man. Each time he got up to speak in public, everybody would be quiet and would go home with some ideas from him. Everybody was quoting him at home, just like we quote Western authorities in Philosophy. On one such event, a simple story he created on the spot decided a very difficult issue in the town. That issue was who would represent the town in the council? It was between a warrant chief and a young elite, a headmaster. His story was simple logic; the story of how a man, an illiterate, married a literate lady, and before him literate people were chasing his wife, and he was smiling. The correlation was that, if the community sent an illiterate man to the council where literate people dominated, the councilor, being illiterate, would not be able to understand what was being discussed. That issue decided the case. That was a brilliant contribution, like that of a sage. My teachers suggested that I should do my research on the thought-patterns of the Igbos, which was my first degree project. It was this simple beginning that has continued to metamorphose into what you have as Igbo Philosophy.
What are the elements of the thought-patterns of the Igbo man, from your discovery?
The elements of our thoughts are not found in books. The folklores, which the young people are taught in the moonlight days contain so much wisdom, so much moral philosophy. The proverbs are not only pieces of logic, but also pieces of high literary creation. They are also means of driving deeper into the meaning of different issues; looking at them from different sides. Proverbs don’t contradict each other; they tell us other sides to an issue. These are pieces of wisdom which you can expatiate in books, which we call moral philosophy. These are encapsulated in our myths, folklores and proverbs.
How is the intervention of the Catholic Church affecting this Igbo philosophy or the Igbo man’s thought pattern?
First and foremost, colonialism set out to discourage traditional thought patterns, belief systems, culture, values, morality and all the vehicles of traditional knowledge. In their place, our people were encouraged to think like the white man; to act like the white man. Take religion, for example. Put Christianity side-by-side traditional religion: they are almost exactly the same. The difference may be, you have Jesus Christ here, you don’t have him there. You may have an ancestor there and have a saint on the other side. You may have a deity there and you have the great angel on the other side. But if you look at our shrines, for example, and you look at the typical temple, it is the same thing. Priests here, priests there. Holy water here, holy water there; incense here and there; prayers here, prayers there. You may not read the Bible in the traditional religion, but our Offor is the traditional bible. It contains all the great wisdom, some of which could be found in the Bible. The only thing is you don’t have exegesis written down. You can articulate Offor as containing all the great wisdom; all the fundamental views about the origin of the world, the structure of the world, about the nature of beings, spirits and matters. All these are there. We are made to think that our traditional mode of thinking was false.
The issue is this, Western philosophy is empirical; it is based on evidence. Folklore and proverbs are not empirical. They are just figurative expressions. Do you equate this African thinking pattern with the Western philosophy of, say, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, etc?
I guess that, so far, we have been discussing the unwritten traditional African belief system. We have not got to the fundamental question of the origin of Western philosophy itself, which is African. We’ve not touched at the heart andhome of philosophy, which is Egypt. All the great people who are said to be fathers of Western philosophy were educated in Egypt. From Thales who is said to be the father of Greek philosophy, to Plato, to Aristotle, Pythagoras – they were students in Egypt. The difference is that the Egyptian philosophy was clothed in myths; in mystical terms; it was supposed to be sacred knowledge. Philosophers were supposed to be those who divine. The kind of knowledge which scientists would stand up and expound was available to the ancient sage. To him, it was a highly classified knowledge, not available to the common head. Only the initiated would be admitted, as students who were considered as diviners were admitted and trained in the art of divining. The Egyptian philosophy was more expressed in mythical terms, but in the case of the Greek, it became a popular thing. Everybody was aspiring to have the knowledge. The questions which only the sages asked were being asked by ordinary people. The issue of how the world started; questions that could only be answered by the ancient sages were questions which the ordinary people were asking and expected answers to in common terms. That is the difference between Greek philosophy and the Egyptian philosophy. What is philosophy? It is intellectual and social attitude which seeks to understand the world around you consciously; which asks fundamental questions like, why are we here? What is the nature of this world? How did it come about? What is life? These fundamental questions were those only the ancient sages answered; answers which they clothed in mystical terms, in folklores, in stories, for popular education. In Egypt such knowledge served as the basis for organizing religious, political, economic lives. Egypt was the home of philosophy. The first known philosopher in history was an Egyptian – Tar-Hotep. He lived almost only 2500 before Greek philosophy was born. In more recently times, the first woman philosopher was an Egyptian – Hypatia. The first woman mathematician and astronomer was an Egyptian. All great Greek philosophers studied in Egypt. Plato’s famous book, The Republic, is patterned after the Egyptian mystery system which was an educational philosophy. Egyptians were the first to establish universities and their educational system had a three-tier structure, which we have in our educational systems, like the first, second and doctorate degrees. Even Western philosophy is patterned after the Egyptian philosophy.
When we talk about Egypt in such glorious terms, some would say Egypt is more of an Arab nation than Black African?
Egypt has religious and cultural relationship with the rest of the Arabs, but Egypt is an African country. The founders of Egypt came from Nubia, Uganda and Kenya. These were the founders of Egyptian dynasties; the black people. Their influence and relationship spread down to West Africa and the Middle East. They were strong in the Middle East when Mesopotamia was very strong. Egyptians as a people are Africans. They still call themselves Africans.
We have fathers of Egyptian and Greek philosophy, but who are the fathers of Black African philosophy?
I have mentioned some of them, like Tar-Hotep, who was a black man… But you also know that in the Middle Ages, those that led the foundation for Christian Theology were Africans. St. Augustine was an African; Oregun was an African. There is a book written by an Afro-American called Stolen Legacy. He is saying that Africa was the father of Western civilization. A lot of the ideas, philosophical systems and personages were Africans. These were stolen and incorporated as part of Western intellectual system and nobody is giving credit to their proper origins. Let’s take Hypatia, for instance, who was the first woman philosopher and Mathematician. There is an American dictionary which was supposed to be processed by over 400 experts. That dictionary describes Hypatia as a Greek woman known for her beauty. But this is false. In America, there is a journal of American feminist philosophers. They call that journal Hypatia, named after this woman. They called her African fore-sister who is the first in philosophy. Can you see, this is a modern dictionary saying this African woman was Greek? There was an era called the Pharoanic Egyptian philosophy, the original home of philosophy before 600 BC when the Greeks went to learn there. Remember, Egypt was the intellectual home of the world. Where was Christ taken to when he was threatened? Where did Moses grow up? Where was Joseph sold to? Who was Moses’ teacher from whom he learnt all the ideas he wrote in the Bible? It was an Egyptian! It was an Egyptian sage.
Now, Prof, why is it that the white man who stole philosophy and science is making progress while the black man who is supposed to be at the foundation of it is receding continually?
You are asking me what really happened, if Egypt was the original home of philosophy, science, astronomy, mathematics. This happened when Greece conquered Egypt in the time of Alexander the Great. After the conquest of Egypt, he banned the teaching of Egyptian language, called Coptic. He banned Egyptian writing, hieroglyphics. He literarily banned and washed out of the earth, Egyptian civilization and culture. For over 2000 years, nobody heard of hieroglyphics, of all the great things until the 19th Century during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte when his engineers came across some monuments which struck them and uncovering palaces and written knowledge of Egypt…
You have this book on Igbo Philosophy. Of what benefit is this huge book to the ordinary man?
Part of the problem our society is facing can be viewed in two ways. There is the historical, in the area of the development of science and technology. Before the white man came, our people were highly advanced in medical science. In my more recent study, I had to look at traditional medical science. I found that our traditional Igbo society had names for almost every considerable element of disease, like gonorrhea, ulcer, cancer, eye problem, bone problem, and so on and so forth. Each of these had their medical experts to whom those problems were referred. Some of them were great experts known beyond the shores of their immediate communities. There are diseases connected with worms, like agwaraduke (hookworm). It had known medicine and its own expert that treated it. There is agwaratijatija (tapeworm); cholera was also there, called oyio toro, with an expert. There were cough of various types. There were experts in sexually transmitted diseases, waist pain, female diseases, like fibroid. There were experts… But as soon as the western culture came, all these things were discouraged and thrown into the bush. They were considered as primitive knowledge. This level of development was thrown into the dustbin. What would have happened if there were no interruption? Science and knowledge in these areas would have advanced!
Prof, but the Chinese have advanced without giving excuses?
The Chinese did not suffer what we’ve suffered. That’s why their civilization has its roots in their tradition. What you call acupuncture is derived from Chinese traditional acupuncture. Even in the area of drinks, our people had highly sophisticated alcoholic drinks which they brewed. But it was discouraged, legally. If you were found brewing local gin, you were imprisoned. It was called “illicit gin.” Is it in the area of technical construction? In Awka area in Igboland, goldsmiths were highly advanced.
They must have picked the knowledge from the early Portuguese traders?
No. It was not. It was there before the Portuguese came. This is the problem we have in the area of technological development. You see, even Nigerian car riders know next to nothing about the cars they drive, but the little European child, if his car breaks down on the road, may not need to call a mechanic. He’ll be able to fix it. Go to their homes: if it is electrical problem, they’ll be able to fix it. This is because the level of their technological knowledge is derived from the cultural roots. You and I do not understand it. You can see the damage done to our own development.
What is the way out of this dilemma?
Government should encourage the study of traditional science and technology. Governments should create institutions for them; empower scholars in those areas; give them grants to develop and place them side-by-side with western civilization. The area that has survived the holocaust from Western civilization is the area of bone-setting. You know that our bone-setters are still superior to Western bone-setters. Even eye problems were well-treated by the traditional medicine. The other side is the moral system, which has nosedived. Truth, morality and integrity are no longer values in our society. This was not the case in the traditional society. Everything is money now. The young ones were taught values through proverbs, folklores, etc. They punished offenders.
Your book is about Igbo Philosophy. What methods did you apply to arrive at the content of the book?
What we call Omenala in Igbo is virtually what we can refer to as Igbo philosophy: Omenala Igbo. Everything that accords with Igbo system, wisdom and values, social order, is said to be in accordance with Omenala. All the fundamental truths are truths that are fundamental to the concept and practice of Omenala. If you’re a liar, you are contravening Omenala. Democracy is part of this philosophy we call Omenala. As early as the 1950s, Igbo great leaders did say that Igbo philosophy could be called “Omenalism.” I grew up in the traditional society. I was part of it. I mixed up with the priests, diviners, the elders. I participated in various cultural activities. In the course of the research, I interviewed some of these people whom I considered as the custodians of Igbo philosophy. I travelled throughout Igbo land studying the cultural institutions. I studied the major oracles in Igboland, in Inrin, in Arochukwu, etc. I studied the folklore, the idioms, the proverbs. I studied works of the colonial authors, anthropologists, and ethnographers. I also studied various ceremonies in Igboland.
