Journey of the soul in Lugbara Cosmology
By Charles Nyanya O’biguma
In the ancient Lugbara worldview, edri Adroa
ni fe ni, that is, the life-force of the human person
is granted by God. The human soul is edri
’ba niri. The human person is created by God,
’ba Adroa o’ba ni. God gives
the life-force, and man and woman contribute the flesh, Adroa
ni edri fe odri agupi pi dri oku beri ni odri
’di ojazu arirö. The flesh is a living
body with blood. Blood is regarded the symbol of the presence
of the life-force in the human body. The human body circulates
with blood. The human person is alive [living] because of the
flow of flood in the body. The human person is dead when the blood
has stopped flowing, the heart beating. Ari
so pa ’bo, edri ni fu ’bo.
The human soul is edri which never dies. The breath of the human
person is ava. Ava
leaves the body at death. The human spirit is orindi.
The shadow of the spirit is endrilendri
which can visit the living in a dream. Orindi
is immaterial. The living body is rua and the dead body, avu.
The birth of the human person, osita
is marked with la’bi where there is ru
’daza and a’bi
peza. For a baby boy, the la’bi ritual
is held on the fourth day after birth. For a baby girl, it is
on the third day. The Lugbara believe that a woman has three muscles,
oku ma isu na; and man
has four muscles, agupi
ma isu su. When death occurs, dra ka
dra ni; burial occurs, odri
omviza takes place with the act of burial ritual.
Grave, ’bule
is dug in the long past cave, gule,
is searched for placing or burying the dead body, avu.
The place is called nyadri,
tomb. The dead person was shaved with ajiko,
was, smeared with eraka
and tied with rope, pala,
and sitted in the grave facing east or west depending on the gender.
Later development in the burial has it that the person is laid
down facing east or west depending on gender and the head facing
north-facing to the place of origin. All through burial is carried
by women. The place of burial, nyadri,
is purchased by the deceased and nobody tempers with it. The tomb
is marked by planting the sacred tree, laru.
Laru is the backcloth tree. Lugbara
anthropology defines the human person as the backcloth: ’Ba
ada laru ni. Though the human person is ever hurt
even by death, dra;
the soul of the human person, dra
dra dra. The last
funeral rite, dra ti opiza,
for the deceased is on the third day for a woman and on the fourth
day for a man.
When death has occurred of a person, the breath stops, ava ni
pa so. The soul leaves the body; leaving the body, rua
as avu. Edri ka fu
’bo, when the soul has departed, the shadow
of the spirit of the deceased, endrilendri,
[endri is not the human
psyche- ondu], hovers
over the tomb for three days for women and four days for men and
thereafter goes to join the rest of the spirit world. As the endri
has joined the spirit world, the body of the deceased leaves the
tomb and joins the dwelling place of the dead, a’bu gule-the
valley. When avu leaves the tomb, it
becomes nyaku [odri],
earthdust. The relatives of the deceased consult a diviner to
come and go to the valley to identify the earthdust of their deceased
to be accompanied to find her place in the sacred shrine. In the
ritual, an animal is slaughtered for the diviner to accompany
the sacred shrine of the ancestral shrine, ori
pari. Ojoo ni nyaku
ri e’ya ni koyo si a’buale
eji ’ba ori pari a. Ojoo ni e’ya ni koyo si ’ba
azi yo. The diviner accompanies the sacred soil
with shaking of the classic tambourine made out of gourd and pebbles.
The ancestral shrine is the rest place of the soil of the ancestors.
Lugbara cosmology considers the human soul is not static and stagnant.
The human life-force comes from God. It lives in the body from
the time of conception, and grows journeying towards the elders
and ancestors and God who granted the life. At death it leaves
the body and hovers over the tomb and on the third or fourth day,
joins in the world of the living dead.
Editor's Note:
This is one in a series
of articles on Lugbara culture and religion by Charles Nyanya
O'biguma
