Lectura Pública del Acta Compromiso desarrollada y firmada con las autoridades competentes a los internos del CRAI-L para la

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CHAPTER THREE

THE IGBO CONCEPT OF THE HUMAN PERSON 3.0 INTRODUCTION

A philosophy on the human person will certainly be a critical evaluation on the tenets that make up and give us a rational explanation on the mystery of the human person. The human person is a mystery, given the case that beside other creatures and existents in the world, the human person is the most rational and the most unpredictable. This point is buttressed by the fact that many human social sciences are yet to get to the level at which they will predict human attitude with the greatest certainty.

Man is a human person. It is when we wish to give a comprehensive name and meaning to man‘s being, a name expressing his entire reality in a precise and unequivocal way, we say that he is a person.¹ This term is used not for plants or animals but only for man. The concept ―person‖ has been understood and explained by different people, both as individuals and as group. For the purpose of this work, we shall pay attention to the Igbo concept of person.

In an attempt to understand the Igbo concept of the human person, we must bear in mind that while this group of people may share similar explanations on the nature of the human person with other ethnic groups, especially in Africa, theirs is specifically unique and has been held since ages. But before we move into the discussion proper, we must try to understand this group of people.

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Imo States of Nigeria and spreads to ports of Ogoja in Cross River state of Nigeria, Ikueme, Ahoada and Port Harcourt divisions of Rivers

State of Nigeria. The Igbo are surrounded on all sides by other ethnic groups, (the Bini, Warri, Ijaw, Ogoni, Igala, Tiv, Efik and Ibibio).⁵ These people called the Igbo have their own worldview one of which is their view/idea of the human person.

3.2 “MMADU”: THE IGBO NAME FOR THE HUMAN PERSON

The Igbo name for the human person is ―Mmadu‖. This word is a combination of two Igbo words, namely, ―mma‖ and ―du‖.³ ―Mma‖ means ―beauty‖ or ―goodness‖

while ―Idi‖ simply means ―to exist‖ and ―ndu‖ means ―life‖. If we are to take ―mma‖

and ―idi‖, we shall arrive at this meaning: there is beauty of goodness. When we take both ―mma‖ and ―ndu‖, they mean: the beauty/goodness of life. Thus, we shall have a seeming two meanings of the name of the human person in Igbo namely: there is beauty/goodness and the beauty and goodness of life. These two definitions do not mean that there is an equivocal meaning of the Igbo name for the human person. Thus, the Igbo name for the human person actually means the beauty and goodness of life.

This is so because the human person, and not God, or the Angels, is the perfect manifestation of the existence of beauty and goodness of life.

In the world of creation, only the human person has the greatest attributes that connote the concrete manifestation of the goodness of life. For, although creatures are wonderful in their own. ways, the human person enjoys the highest degree of this goodness. Chielona Eze shares this sentiment when he says that ―mma du and mma di means the same thing: there is beauty or goodness. It is an assertion implying the absolute certainty of the existence of beauty and goodness in the world.‖⁴ Perhaps another reason the Igbo has this name for the human person is the role and place of the human person in the world; the place of the caretaker of the universe, possessing in greater degree more reason, ability and intelligence than even the cleverest of other creatures. In buttressing this fact, Nwala avers that, ―man is not only regarded as the most important being in creation, he is also regarded as being superior in natural intelligence to other beings including spirits…‖⁵ One cannot doubt easily, given the fact that what the world will be like, when there are no human persons, is better unimagined.

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One philosophical puzzle that may emerge here is the question of the genesis of the name the Igbo uses for the human person. Though a corresponding answer to this question will assist us a long way, we must admit that just like most ancient human terminologies for things in other cultures and places, the name the Igbo uses for the human person has been in existence from the very beginning. This could be a near valid point given the case that from the time the language came into existence, which may not be unconnected with the origin of the Igbo people, the Igbo name for the human person has been in vogue.

However, while many hold on to this solution, others believe that at the time of creation of the human person (in Igbo worldview of creation), God has given the name to the human person. In line with this, Emefe Ikenga Metuh has this to say:

The Igbo word for man is ―mmadu‖. Arazu claims that he learnt from an Igbo sage that the etymological meaning of the word is

―mma‖ (goodness), ―du‖ (exists). This word, says, the sage, was first pronounced by God when he looked at the world he had made and said ―mmadu‖, ―Let goodness exists‖.

This may well be.⁶

A significant fact that needs to be learnt about this Igbo name of the human person is that this name ―mmadu‖, meaning ―the goodness of life‖, has an ethical dimension. This is because such a name already gives the human person the natural and ontological responsibility to radiate beauty and goodness in life. This is the issue of morality. ―Mmadu‖ is called from creation to continue to expand the goodness of life.

Even when other creatures manifest goodness, they are not charged with the task of increasing it. Such increase is for man who has been placed over them as a moral agent too. And it is for this very reason that man is solely responsible for his/her place in the interactions with the world. Chielona Eze agreed to this point when he asserts that:

Goodness and beauty do not exist on their own. A thing has to pass an aesthetic test to be beautiful as much as an act would be subjected to more assessment to determine whether it is good or bad. To say that mma du (di) would

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imply that the Igbos have a sense of taste and moral probity…to prove their seriousness about the being of goodness and beauty, the Igbos have no less a being to present than the species of man.⁷

Moreover, the name mmadu refers to the human person, irrespective of age/stage, from conception to death. It also distinguishes human beings from other creatures in the world.