A. AINA
entific man, that if the brakes fail while the vehicle is
moving at high speed there could be a serious accident.
He is aware too that if the accident is serious enough,
some of the passengers could die. But the general laws
cannot answer for him the question where and when the
brakes will fail, whether they would fail when the lorry is
travelling at high or low speed and, should that happen,
who of the passenger will be fatally wounded. The scien-
tific man will push the application of general laws as far
as it can go; after that chance takes over. But not so in
Yoruba traditional thought. Even if a general law says that
only one person out of a hundred passengers in a lorry
involved in an accident would be saved the Yoruba be-
lieve that the gods, not chance, decide who that lucky one
shall be and it is certainly worth trying to make oneself
the lucky one through a charm or through the necessary
sacrifice to some god or gods.
From this viewpoint, the African attributes to Supreme Being
through the gods those things for which they “cannot find natu-
ralistic explanation” (Oladipo, 1992: p. 49). This belief is also
found in Akan culture in Ghana. Kwasi Wiredu (1980: p. 19)
gives an interesting illustration to show how people explain
away some metaphysical issues, with the story of an imaginary
traveller who dies in a bus crash, thus:
When he originally tried to get on the bus, the bus was al-
ready filled to capacity with passengers but just as he de-
cided to postpone his journey and as he is turning to go, a
seat is vacated. One passenger, for one reason or the other,
has to get off in a hurry. So he gets on. His destination is
the very first stop on the bus, and he is in fact, the pas-
senger travelling the shortest distance. But just one mile
from his destination the calamity occurs: a puncture and
the bus crashed. Unbelievably, everyone on board escapes
with minor bruises except one. Alone, of fifty passengers
our traveller dies.
However, three points, among others, may be raised from
Sodipo and Wiredu’s narrations. First, the Yoruba will attribute
the ill fatedness of our traveller, out of helplessness, to the wish
of the spiritual realm, perhaps Olódùmarè’s sanctions. This is
reflected in sayings like bo se yan tì e nìyen (That is how he has
chosen his portion from spiritual world) or ibi ti àyànmo e gbé
é dé ni yèn (That is the extent of his chosen portion). Also, this
may be the consequence of an inherited family curse. Sanctions
of this nature might have been out of ill-treatment of fellow
human beings in the time past. That is why the Yoruba say á o
be èsè baba wó lára omo (we shall revisit the father’s punish-
ment on the children). Besides the above instances, further
justification of ontological practice may generate out of the
practice of cursing through the aid of some gods. For example,
a farmer may curse anyone who steals from his farm and by the
invocation of the god’s power inflict punishment on the thief.
At other times, the victim of some robbery would go to a shrine
and ask a god to sanction the culprit in a particular fashion and
would promise rewards to the god. The culprit possessed by the
god, perhaps by the Ayelala shrine, would make his way to the
shrine and confess. Most often series of strange death may oc-
cur in the culprit’s family (Adegbola, 1998: pp. 171-172).
Hence, the belief in the deities only serves as a means of avert-
ing earthly havoc as well as a kind of comfort in the time of
adversity. So prayers often said through a deity to Supreme
Being are, to borrow the words from the Akan tradition, meant
mostly:
For material well-being and earthly blessings, such as
riches, health, social peace and harmony, fertility, birth of
many children, and continuity of life and vitality, and
protection from evil, danger or death, petition for healing
and longevity (Gyekye, 1996: p. 16).
It implies that the African is not particularly attracted to the
union of human soul with Supreme Being in the spiritual realm
but rather aspire for the promotion of human welfare and hap-
piness through some mystical way of fulfilling these needs. So
in the event where a god failed to “deliver on a request sought
in prayer, that deity will be censured, treated with contempt,
and ultimately abandoned by the people” (Gyekye, 1996: p. 16).
In short, the spiritual realm serves as a referent point to the
sustenance of the social solidarity, harmony and cooperation
values. In addition to this social role, the spiritual realm sanc-
tions moral obligations and responsibilities of the members of
the community. These sanctions used to be very effective in-
struments for the enforcement of morality in society. We should
note that it is not so much the physical hardship of going
through the punishments that confine people to observe the
moral codes but rather the threat of disgrace to one’s family,
and above all to one’s offspring (Adegbola, 1998: p. 173). It is
believed by the people that whenever misfortunes and disaste rs,
as experienced by our traveller, occurs they most often interpret
them as punishment sent by the Supreme Being for bad conduct
or inability to act on some moral obligation to the community.
Similarly, misfortunes suffered could then be the product of
“unethical behaviour” which serves as lesson for thorough ex-
amination of moral behaviour in the community (Gyekye, 1996:
p. 18). There is then the need to show that it is the responsibil-
ity of man, as a sensible being, to maintain the delicate balance
between the two realms of existence. This manifests in Dukor’s
discussion of the humanistic orientation in African, perhaps
Igbo, ontological practice.
Dukor on African Ontological Practice
Thus far, we are informed that the African appeal to the ex-
tra-human powers, in the spiritual realm, is merely with the
motive of furthering the maintenance of social harmony in the
natural realm of existence. Dukor (2010: p. 34) affirms this in
the Igbo parlance that sometimes people were reported to have
been pushed to the point of warning a particular god of injustice
to the extent that some gods, goddesses, and spirits may not
after all be the true manifestation of the Supreme Being. Bewaji
(2004: p. 399) compliments that it is “mainly intended to lend
legitimacy through an already available reinforcement mecha-
nism to what is often taken for granted as morally obligatory”.
Indeed, it is what assures the happiness and prosperity of indi-
viduals and community. But this harmonious cooperation in
this belief system depends on humanistic basis of the people’s
moral value.
Hence, we may tarry a while to discuss the meaning of moral
value in order to boost the understanding of the humanistic
orientation. According to Kwame Gyekye (1996: p. 55), moral
value involves:
A set of social rules and norms intended to guide the con-
duct of people in a society. The rules and norms emerge
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. 169