There tends to be a total misunderstanding of the belief in Igboland known as “Ilo uwa” which is referred to in English as re- incarnation. In Igboland, this means second life or coming to life again of a particular person in the form of another. This is usually identified through the person’s form and features, sex, biological background and lineage, character and other physical resemblances. A dead person is said to have come to life again to be born to someone he/she loves. This second coming to life is not usually for vengeance as is said of “ogbanje” but to show love and appreciation to the beneficiary. Thus, the saying, “mmadu anaghi a loro onye ugwu ya uwa” (One does not re-incarnate into his/her enemy’s family).
When this happens, the second comer takes up the physical, mental and spiritual resemblance of the first. Even though the person is born in a different environment, there tends to be repeated characteristics of the two from childhood to adulthood. In most cases, they live similar kind of lives, pick similar talents and skills, adopt similar attitudes and die in a similar way. This belief arose from the Igbo understanding that human beings live more than once. This can also be traced to certain religious beliefs that a human being is made up of the body and the soul. While the body is destructible and mortal, the soul is pure and immortal.
The Igbo belief therefore is that at death, the body passes through decomposition and turns to earth (ala) the owner and protector of such while the soul goes back to its creator (chi). According to this belief, souls take up bodies in order to live on earth(incarnation). If a soul is satisfied with the environment, it found itself in the first life, it can pick up body from the same environment. If it does, most of the features may not have been totally discarded thus the resemblances would be noticeable. Some pick up such bodies to repeat or complete what was left behind in the previous life.
The misunderstanding is usually thinking that the two bodies are the same. There are certain influences that affect these such as biological, environmental and social. The basis of this belief is not the physical resemblance but the assumption that souls acquire new bodies after death. There may be many reasons why people religiously believe so. This is not science but a matter of faith and is verifiable in this direction. This is why “ilo uwa” should not be seen as a superstition. In explaining this, I will take it from the concept of body, soul and spirit.
The brain controls the body as well as thinking and reasoning. The death of the brain is the death of the whole body. When the body is weakened in exhaustion and fatigue, they are broken down, it results into rest or sleep. But the brain at this point does not sleep but keeps working. It replicates, radiates and translates what is trapped within it when the body was active either physically, materially or through knowledge (known and unknown) into what is referred to as dreams. The dream is more of the reflection of life. It replicates what is stored in the brain both conscious and unconscious ones. Even those that were not developed physically are still stored in the brain and could be reflected in a dream.
The soul is that aspect of life that produces knowledge and creativity. It does not come from the known. It discovers the unknown, and works towards identifying the true purpose of life and in so doing creates new things. It has no form but its product is activated through the brain and then interpreted and carried out by the other parts of the body. Because it has no form, the nature is not yet discovered just the nature of its creator has not been discovered.
