American Journal of Multidisciplinary Research & Development (AJMRD)

Volume 2, Issue 2 (February- 2020), PP 34-45

ISSN: 2360-821X
www.ajmrd.com

Research Paper Open Access

The Metaphysical Understanding Of Road Junction As

A Symbolic Sacred Space In Traditional Religion
1
Madukasi Francis Chuks, PhD
1
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Department of Religion & Society. Igbariam Campus, Anambra
State, Nigeria. PMB 6059 General Post Office Awka. Anambra State, Nigeria.
Phone Number: +2348035157541;

ABSTRACT:- In Igbo tradition, road junction is the convergent point of both the visible and the invisible
beings in a particular locality. It is believed that in African Traditional Religion that it is where both negative
and positive forces also meet. Thus it is symbolize negativity. It act as a spiritual conduit that binds or
compensates the communities that make up African society through the mediation for the loss of their contact
with their ancestral home and with the built/support in religious rituals and cultural security of their extended
brotherhood. As a point of emphasis, road junction is an assumed sacred place strategically and naturally located
at the middle of the roads and even in the confluence of rivers respectively and adherents of African Traditional
Religion believed that such places are the abode of the spirits. This paper explores the reasons and the mysteries
why the adherents of Igbo religion are prohibited to desecrate this particular spot. This paper also focuses on
how the rituals that are associated with road junctions are carried out and why the renewal of covenant
relationships between communities and individuals are done in this sacred space in order to reunite their
intimate brotherhood and to show how the Igbo communities uses these sacred space to show their consummate
loyalty to gods and great ancestors. It is the locality where its dramatic breakthrough into the world is
commemorated. Sacred space, as the structured locality where man established the dominion of his gods, is the
known space, the locality where the power manifests and repeats its revelation; it is the place where the gods has
stopped in movement and has created. Wosien (1992:23).

Keywords:- Ancestor, Deities, Gods, Sacred, Space, Rituals.

I. INTRODUCTION
In African Traditional belief system, sacred places are ritual landscapes where ritual elders and the
traditional monarch uses as an avenue or occasion to commune with the God[s], ancestors and significantly to
commemorate their kingship, and also an occasion for the subjects to reaffirm their solidarity and loyalty to his
Kingship, through paying of homage’s and tributes (Idigo, 2002:24). Also, during this period, the indigenous
people gather around the sacred places for rituals in honour of their God[s] and ancestors making such sacred
places to become a “gentrified space of entertainment and recreation’’ (Ventakesh, 2006:110). It is the “center
point of cultural activity and important source of innovation in music and other forms of performance’’
(Wolcott, 1974:83), that “create the most festive atmosphere possible and therefore the most enticing
environment to attract the spirits to come’’ (Sager, 2012:38). Sharp (2001:51) argues that “this is the point
where sacred sound and architectural space intersect contributes significantly to experience meaning in sacred
performance’’. He asserts that it is in this situation that “sacred performance within sacred architectural space
creates a new, unique dimension in the sound in order to make it symbolic’’ (Sharp, 2001:51). Nuckolls
(1999:228) argues that “the term sound symbolism is used when a sound unit such as a phoneme, syllable,
feature or tone is said to go beyond its linguistic function as a contrastive, non-meaning-bearing unit to directly
express some kind of the meaning”. Reichard (1950:257) asserts that it is in this kind of occasion/arena where
sacred sound has the power to attract and exorcise evil, through mediation of “the performance of its good
works that produce immunity against all evil influences” (Arkin, 1989:7). Nonetheless, according to Wosien:
Sacred space offers a centre for communication with the power. It is the locality where its dramatic
breakthrough into the world is commemorated. Sacred space, as the structured locality where man established
the dominion of his gods, is the known space, the locality where the power manifests and repeats its revelation;
it is the place where the gods has stopped in movement and has created. This site, by virtue of man’s acts of
worship, becomes a centre for communion. Outside this enclosed area, beyond the known world, is the realm of
chaos, the terrifying unknown space where forms disintegrate (1992:23).

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Wosien (1992:21) again argues that such sacred space like the sacred temples or shrines “symbolizes the union
of time and space within evolution, the incarnation of timeless energy, which manifests in the dual aspects of
nature”. Drewal (1975:18) asserts that such sacred place has “become a symbol of place at which the living and
the spiritual can meet and unite’’. It is in this kind of sacred shrines that Igbo communities shows their solidarity
with the monarch, who makes himself available and accessible to be seen during his public appearances and
cheered by his subjects. According to Katrina Hazzard-Donald (2011:196) in the perception of the Igbo people
sacred shrine is “a sacred circle which represent a separate and sacred realm that connect one to the ancestors
and reconfirm continuity through both time and space’’. Wosien (1992:21) affirms that such sacred space
becomes “zones where the sacred is experienced and worshipped. She stresses that “the beginning of both time
and creation pertains to the centre. From this focal point manifestations radiate out in concentric rings. This
universal experience has found expression in the many circumambulation rites and round dances of the sacred
traditions of the world’’ (1992:21-22). Hazzard-Donald (2011:196) argues that within such sacred circle, the
interaction between the spiritual fathers, the initiates and the Igbo communities are mediated through “sacred
spiritual forces evidenced in spirit possession’’ (2011:196) and while in that state they see themselves as “hero’s
whose knowledge, mystic power, wealth and prestige equals that of any man’’ (Guentther, 1975:165).
Conversely, it has been shown that the sacred shrines invokes the spirit possession on the initiates when
visited and encountered by individuals and the community, this is why Koster (2011:177) asserts that “the
community in this ritual is the victim, while other observers in the ritual serve as the symbolic representation of
the community that needs healing, while simultaneously serving as witness to the ceremony’’. In fact, to
thinking of an African man, a sacred place is a “powerful medium for connecting to and accessing the effective
power of spirits’’ (De Witte, 2008:692). Nonetheless, Ohadike (2007:10) argues that “it is hard for Africans to
go into spiritual possession without the help of instrumental or vocal music” used and activated during such
ritual consultation. Capturing the ritual consultation of the Yoruba ritual settings, llesanmi (1996:5) writing the
on context of Yoruba women in the worship of Orinlase in Ilawe-Ekiti asserts that “before the ritual dance, they
first pay homage to the deities individually and collectively. They kneel down, touch the ground with their heads
almost in the…style without the other body gesticulations of...Then follows the praise song in honour of the
deities’’, thereby “creating an indelible impression in the minds of the individuals and communities, who also
serve as a participating audience” (llesanmi, 1996:9). Echeruo (1975:60) argues that it is during this kind of
ritual consultation in the typical traditional Igbo sacred that ritual “drama is the externalization of archetypal
relationships and issues; that behind the action of every drama, whether of gods or men, there is an essentially
philosophic and even cosmic argument or statement dependent on or derived from the analogy of an antecedent
or generic mythos”. The chanting and songs used in sacred shrines during ritual ceremonies invoke the spirits
and ancestors in other to “directs the king or the chiefs on dancing steps/skills to display during public outing to
avoid mistakes and to enable them win public acclamations during their initiations in foot-work dances’’
(Ogwezzy, 1999 cited in Noun, 2009:79). Arguably, llesanmi (1996:5) asserts that it is during such ritual dance
that “the deity himself possesses some of them, making them perform fits beyond the normal capacity of the
generality of the people’’. Nti (1990:115) argues that “as a dance of brave people, all parts of the body are used
in the dance. The movements show sharp turns of the body, quick rising and falling linear and circular
formations’’. Noun (2009:112) affirms that “the music tells of heroism, valiancy and intrepidity. Only those
who could brave the night could foot-touch the drum or ascend it. No coward, however rich, can dare it. The
dance is only for the brave’’. No wonder Guenther (1975:164) asserts that such “great dancers are widely
idolized – especially by boys and youths adults – their song, their idiosyncracies of dancing and their exploits
are talked about widely”, and in that form they are “searching for spiritual ideal” (Warren, 2006:106), and
“personal identity” (Alford, 1988:51). Guenther (1975:164) argues that “to a large extent the wealth, prestige
and glamour of the dancers stem directly from the dance and its inherent affective, integrative and moral
power’’. Nkosinathi (2010:128) writing in the context of Shembe’s new generation followers, argues that
women accused men of using their new sacred dance style that was not taught by Shembe to attrack women
which is believed that if such sacred dance is performed incorrectly, the sacred dance would send or cause a
person to go to hell. Kealiinohomok (1997:69) asserts that such dance “encodes and decodes myth and rituals
and at the same time, danced rituals are always being invented, retrofitted, or re-invented either through revival
or syncreticism”. Nonetheless, Nketia (1989:121) argues that the interaction that takes place on the ritual dance
of the king during festivals like the Ovala festival is not “confined to musical behaviour that seeks to establish a
relationship with the unseen or affirm the bonds of a common faith and shared values that bind members to
ensure not only effective communication but also the required atmosphere for action and interaction’’.
According to Andreas Heuser, dancing of sacred music like the Uvie sacred sound “requires constant
concentration, exact co-ordination and strict timing. It happens in on going repetitions of rhythmic and musical
units that come close to a practice of meditation. The repetitive cycle, so to speak, harmonises all movements in
the same control of action. The music has spiritual connotation and it is a way of interaction with the divine
sphere” (2008:40). Sager (1993:106) argues that “the repetitions do not change anything, they only make it
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better’’. Until recently during the Ovala festival, Uvie ritual sacred dance like every other sacred dance
according to Benjamin Ray is the main religious festival/ceremony of the Aguleri community “which they
perform’’ (2000:28). Sundermeier (1991:50) argues that sound emanating from such sacred drum like the Uvie
“encode…memory with ritual aesthetics, and crystallize historical knowledge in religious performance’’. Davis
(2012:166) affirms that the sacred drum dance performed there is traditionally a “dance of respect’’. The king’s
appearance on three different occasions respectively, in the kings square [Amaeze], “to dance savagely in the
courtyard of the impertinent’’ (Gleason, 1980:165) and entertain his subjects during the Ovala festival marches
Kuper’s unforgettable, wonderful and well illustrated description:

In this powerful costume, the king appears reluctant to the nation. He executes a crazy, elusive dance
with knees flexed and swaying body. The movements are an intuitive response to the rhythm and situation, a
dance that no ordinary man knows and that the king was never taught. The old teachers who trained him in all
his duties explained: ‘We do not know it, we are not kings, it will come to you at the time’. Suddenly he
crouches low and disappears into his hole, and the tinsila follow close behind picking up any bits that drop off
the sacred costume, lest they be used by enemies to ruin the nation. The princes spring forward crying: ‘Come
out, king of kings’. They draw back, pause, and sway forward. At last he responds. At his approach they return,
enticing him to follow, but after a few steps he turns back and they close behind him again. Everyone is urged to
dance. The tindvuna {royal assistants draw from the commoner clans} bring down their batons and shout: ‘Beat
your shields’. The people dance with vigour, here more than at any other stage they keep their king alive and
healthy by their own movements. The mime goes on with increasing tension, each appearance of the king
making a sudden startling and unforgettable impact. His eyes shine through the feather as he tosses his head; his
face is dark with black medicine, dripping down his legs and arms are black streaks-he is terrifying, and as the
knife-edged grass cuts into his skin, he tosses his body furiously in pain and rage (Kuper,1947a:217-218).

Road Junctions: Abode of Spiritual Forces as Sacred Territories

In the true sense of it, these are creative and man-made art where “both the quick and the dead in each
community traverse the most prominent road junction within their territory. Hence the undomesticaticated
spirits and those that are considered to be intractable are invoked and sacrifice to at such places. The sacrifices
of the intractable, unbiquitos and mysterious spirits, such as those of borne-to-die children and witchcraft, being
taken to such places is informed by the idea that no matter however restless, wicked and intractable a spirit may
be there is no way and day it will not visit the major road junction in its locality” (Nabofa, 1994:67). Nabofa
(1994:12) again argues that such artistic symbols performs dual functions which includes religiously
communicative and artistic and a typical example of this is Mbari cult that is being neglected in Igbo tradition
and hegemony which is an embodiment of communication and artistic symbols respectively. No wonder Nabofa
(1994:12) again opines also that “artistic symbols are those which are used in art form for aesthetic purposes’’.
Buttressing this further, Nabofa again comments that:
Every Mbari cult is usually erected in a conspicuous place and near the shrine of the particular divinity
in whose honour and gratification it is being established. It attracts a lot of audience from neighbouring towns
and villages when the job is completed. It acts as the people’s information centre. When it is newly completed it
acts as the community’s newsroom for several days and months. After a while it would remain as the people’s
archives where they go to consult and obtain inspirations, ideas and information about many aspects of their
religious thinking and practices. As Christians and Muslims obtain inspiration from their Holy Books: the Bible
and the Quran respectively, likewise the traditional Igbo person receives inspiration and knowledge from the
myriads of symbols that are replete in the Mbari cult (Nabofa, 1994:49-50).

Arguably, (Nabofa, 1994:12) regrets that shrines of African traditional religion are replete with artistic
symbols but it is a pity that most of these are being neglected, pilfered out and smuggled into Europe and
America. The observation of Chinua Achebe in this respect may be worthy of note:
The purposeful neglect of the painstakingly and devoutly accomplished Mbari house with all the art
objects in them as soon as the primary mandate of their creation has been served, provides a significant insight
into the Igbo aesthetic value as process rather than product. Process is motion while product is rest. When the
product is preserved or venerated, the impulse to repeat the process is compromised. Therefore the Igbo choose
to eliminate the product and retain the process so that every occasion and every generation will receive its own
impulse and experience of creation. Interestingly this aesthetic disposition receives powerful endorsement from
the tropical climate which provides an abundance of materials for making art, such as wood, as well as
formidable agencies of dissolution, such as humidity and the termite. Visitors to Igboland are shocked to see that
artifacts are rarely accorded any particular value on the basis of age alone (1984:ix).

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Buttressing this kind of non-challant attitude towards such significant and symbolic artifact [Mbari cult],
Geoffery Parrinder attestes to the observation and affirms that:

The panorama of life is well illustrated in the Mbari ‘decorated’, houses which Igbo people of Nigeria
have traditionally erected at special times. These were temporary temples, built at the specific command of a
god, but never repaired after construction and soon falling into disrepair. The central figure of such temples is
Ala, the great Mother Goddess, the spirit of fertility, and guardian of the dead which as they are buried in the
earth are said to be in her pocket. Some of the statues of Ala with a child in her arms have been compared to
Italian Madonnas or the Egyptian Isis with her son Horus (1987:128).

The picture of total negligence and complete ruin Achebe and Parrinder are painting here calls for
urgent reorganization, rejuvenating and revitalization of all the artistic symbols in Igbo land in particular and
guard them for cultural integration and transmition of indigenous knowledge for posterity irrespective of
modern civilization because such “exotic objects have been given value as art and culture’’ (Clifford, 1988:12).
On this, Idigo (2001:180) warns “let me remind the Igbo nation that like the Christian religion, the Igbo
traditional religion believes that life is a continuum. Our dead ancestors are not dead and gone. Their souls are
living. Our pioneer fore fathers are still living. We must overcome our shortcomings in order to attract their
blessings. If we do not, the likelihood is that we shall continue to be haunted and disunited’’. Affirming this
assertion, Hakan Rydving (2004:101) exhorted the Igbo nation by advicing them “to stand firm in their beliefs
and not desert the customs of their ancestors’’. Buttressing this further, Idigo (2001:178-179) argues that “the
neglect of the historical knowledge is to a nation what the loss of memory is to human beings. The Igbos should
therefore be prodded to take a renewed interest in their history in order to understand why they are in this
current state’’. This is because according to Achebe (1958:143) “our dead fathers are weeping because of the
shameful sacrilege they are suffering and the abomination we have all seen with our eyes’’. On a general note,
in traditional religion of the Igbo people artistic symbols are invaluable resources encoded with learned pattern
of behaviour, ideas, and beliefs shared among a people and socially transmitted from one generation to another
(Sofola, 1973:ix). Put in another way:
Most African sculptures appear to have been associated with religion, which pervades most aspects of
African life. The religious genres included, votive figures, which adorned shrines, reliquary figures, charms,
figures, stools, used in initiation to the cults, the apparatus for divination, dance staff, musical instruments and a
variety of other ritual paraphernalia (Bascom,1973:11).

Road Junction as Shrines of Ritualistic Symbols/Centres

These symbols like the Uvie sacred drum are the ones that have to do with the items or materials used
to perform certain rituals or ceremonies like Ovala especially for religious instruction and initiations (Nabofa,
1994:18). In that sense, Nabofa (1994:14) again argues that such symbols do not only aid to communicate, they
are equally means of preserving knowledge, religious and historical occurrences; more so, it is in this vein that
ritualistic symbols are the most valuable means for passing on the tradition and culture of a people from
generation to generation. Here, it is very imperative to remind ourselves of Carl Jung’s (1979:93) observation
that “cultural symbols are those that have been used to express eternal truths”, and that are still used in many
religion today. According to Nabofa (1994:12) “ritualistic symbols are sometimes used to instruct the devotee in
certain principles… [sic]. Ritualistic symbol are those that are used either in a ritual itself or to evoke a ritual in
the mind of the initiate”. Such symbols basically have gone through series of metamorphosis or transformations
and even a long process of more or less conscious development, and have thus become collective images
accepted by Western societies (Clifford, 1988:12). However, ritualistic symbols no matter how old and
transform or modified they may been, still retain much of their time honoured or original symbolic sacredness
and numinosity or spell which can altimately still evoke a deep emotional response in some of those who had
acknowledged them (Nabofa, 1994:14). We often say that African traditional religion is primarily written
everywhere (Metuh, 1987:12) and this is true because every traditional African community like Aguleri is
“replete with the symbols of their religion and those who have eyes to see and ears to hear can symbolically
experience and notice them in their cultural context’’ (Nabofa, 1994:14) during such festival like the Ovala
where the Uvie sacred sound features prominently. According to Nabofa (1994:14) again man’s creative
activities, actions, emotions and self-expressions are basically symbolic in themselves, but somehow they are
based on symbols which are used to preserve trado-religious knowledge and the mythical history behind them.
Nabofa (1994:14) further maintains that the physical images however found in indigenous shrines, verbal
expressions also used to convey a religion’s theology and other cultic elements basically portray or stand for
something, which has resulted from the creative activity of a particular geographical and cultural setting like
Aguleri community. More so, they not only communicate, but are equally significant tools or meduim for man
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to satisfy his quest and need to express himself and actually preserve and transmit the experience of the past to
posterity (Nabofa, 1994:14).
Consequently, Nabofa (1994:14) further argues that religious symbols especially those connected with
religious and cultural festivals like the Ovala festival are re-enacted and it is used to teach and aid in memory
remembrance of historical and significant events and doctrine of the faith. He affirms that in this context such
ritualistic and symbolic object like the Uvie drum is very significant in aiding, instructing and shaping the minds
of the younger generations about the sect they belong (Nabofa, 1994:14). Buttressing this further, Nabofa
(1994:14) again asserts that most cultic activities that feature prominently during indigenous festivals in
community like Aguleri are sacred ritual activities during which some significant historical events that relate to
the people’s belief are re-enacted, reconstructed and revitalised. Analytically, to elucidiate more on this, a
young, palm fronds used during solidarity march for the King during the Ovala festival in a traditional
community like Aguleri carries so many religious and symbolic under tones, primarily, it symbolises sacredness
in its entirety (Nabofa, 1994:54). We should take note of the fact that, in Africa and Nigeria in particular, one
major aspect of Nollywood’s contribution in all these is in the representation of religio-cultural rituals as a basic
aspect of communalism (Uwah, 2010:87). This depicts the capability of film directors and producers to connect
familiar symbolic language of these cultures into their film productions, especially to avail the experience of
communal liminality (Animalu, 1990:46), cultural integration and nostalgic egalitarianism among proximate
audience-who are mainly Nigerians and Africans (Uwah, 2010:86).
Road Junctions as Sprirtual Epicenter and Abode for Ritualism in Igbo Religion: The Igbo Perspective
This paper examines and equally predicates these ritual items used for ritual enhancement of road
junctions from the Igbo cosmological paradigm in order to bring out their symbologies and ritual implications
through an ethnographic method to demonstrate that ritual is part and parcel of decoration of some shrines in
Igbo land for them to effectively work ritualistically as it is believed to have been imbued with ancestral
mystical and spiritual powers in traditional religion of the Igbo people.
These types of shrine serve also among the power points of expressing the believer’s sense of the sacred and the
orderness of the divine realities (Nabofa, 1994:45). Idowu (1969:128-130) describes such shrine as “primarily
the face of the divinity. There the divinity is represented by the emblems which are regarded as sufficient
reminders of his attributes”. Mary (2002:121) pragmatically and symbolically, describes such sacred shrine as
the “place where the heaven comes down to earth’’. Nabofa (1988:78) posits that such places are as “they are, as
they were spots where the spiritual come down to the earthly and the earthly is elevated to the spiritual’’. Mbiti
(1975:144) argues that such places are not for common or careless use, because they are considered to be sacred
or holy. Chidester (1992:10) explains that such sacred place is inhabited by the dead, a domestic space in which
the ancestors resides or visits. He argues that in ancestral ritual, death is not a barrier between the living and the
living dead who continued to interact and communicate with the descendants (Chidester, 1992:11). Olsen
(2004:13) observes that something magical happens at such a sacred place that triggers an unconscious memory
and to learn about the world of sacred place is to learn about ourselves. He affirms that such sacred places and
intersections are the locations where humans first erected temples, pyramids, shrines, churches and cities (Olsen,
2004:13).
As Lovell (2002:23) has pointed out, “such territory or space is characterized both as a metaphysical
domain, and as a terrestrial entity. Deities are believed to dwell in another plane, but also need to have their
presence manifested and anchored on earth in order for humans to propitiate them properly’’. Such sacred space
to use Reg Saner’s phrase is “capturing’’ (1987:723). Weightman (1996:59) argues that “as sacred places are
created, an inner light outweighs outer darkness and a spiritual journey commences’’. Falola & Essien
(2007:xiii) argues that divine powers that radiates and exudes from this kind of sacred place “creates a broad-
based spiritual cesspool that provides other forms of spiritual protection’’. Peters (2002:23) asserts that such
sacred centers are believed to be where “many deities were understood to meet a variety of human needs and
when some needs are met, the status quo is maintained; when other needs are met, there is transformation of
individuals and societies to new states of being’’
Brown (2004:164) posits that such places are where traditional religious ties tend to compensate the
communities like those ones that make up the Eri kingdom “through the mediation for the loss of their contact
with their ancestral home and with the built/support in religious rituals and cultural security of their extended
brotherhood’’. This means that there is synergy between the seen and unseen worlds making Aguleri to be the
cosmic epicenter of spiritual and cultural home of the Igbo people through the sacred ordination of Eri the
progenitor of the Igbo’s in diaspora. It is on this position that Macdonald (2004:317) argues that 90 per cent of
the indigenes like that the Igbo “identify themselves as Christians, but at the same time they continue to assert
the tradition and hegemony of their ancestors”. It is believed in African Traditional Religion that road junctions
cannot be avoided because such a sacred place leads the spirits to wherever they wants to go, “henc most
sacrifices meant to appease wicked and mysterious powers are performed there” according to Nabofa (1994:67).
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In this position, Kaplan (2000:122) observes that such rituals are still observed and maintained today by the
traditionalists in the community and “even among most members who have converted to dominations of
Christianity”. Such occasion “serve as a catalyst in cementing people’s solidarity’’ (Dube, 1996:110), and in
order wards the community “are dancing on the shoulders of their ancestors’’ (Glocke & Jackson, 2011:6),
through the mediation of “ordered hierarchy from deity to man” (Rowe, 2008:32). llesanmi (1996:2) argues that
it cannot be denied that the entire community, including the 82% who are said to be Catholics, under the
symbolic shadow of ancestorship hold great ancestor like Eri in high esteem probably not as a deity, but purely
as an ancestor of the community, a great grandfather of high dignity whose influence is still currently felt in the
town politically, socially and religiously. Most importantly is the fact that the cosmogonic myth about Eri and
the commemoration of his coming “provided an ideological inclusive arena for communal ritual, blending and
uniting the various communities at a crucial juncture” (Levine, 1997:196).
Buttressing this point, Ejizu (2002:126) comments that “the annual liturgical calendar continues to be
strictly lived out from cycle to cycle, with a good number that had joined Christianity participating in certain
instances”. From this assertion, one can say tersely that as an uncontaminated indigenous community in Nigeria,
the Igbo who had embraced Christianity centuries ago has never alienated herself from traditional religion. In
that wise, through the mediating rituals that are involved in the use of road junction, the Igbo communities
through the sacred ordination it is evident to validate romantically the return of the god(s) through the ritualistic
activities that involves road junctions in traditional African societies. This is why Ejizu (2002:116 & 126)
affirms that in Igbo land, special religious activities that are associated with road junctions are “accorded the
more renowned deities in various areas” while “regular sacrifices and festivals continue to be offered and held in
honour of these deities, besides other private acts of worship”.

Confluence of Agbanabo Ezu-na-Omambala rivers a Case Study of Natural Road Junction in Aguleri –
Igbo Cosmology
The ritual festival called Olili-Obibia Eri was designed as a unifying force for the Igbo’s both at home
and elsewhere. It features religious ceremonies, agricultural trade fairs, dancing and musical entertainments. All
these served to strengthen and demonstrate the bond of union that kept both Aguleri and his dispersed brothers
together. Thus Eri festival was initiated by Eri himself in a form of a miniature, yearly ritual celebration to
remember his arrival at Agbanabo Ezu-na-Omambala rivers) and to thank the gods for his successful arrival and
somewhat agricultural activities. It is a three day ritual activity that is held every 10th – 12th November. . No
wonder then that Nabofa comments that such places “are as well considered as prominent covens of witches and
wizards. Propitiatory and appeasement sacrifices are the one mostly carried to road junctions while those of
votive, thanksgiving and foundation are performed in the regular shrines dedicated to God, divinities and
ancestors. Thus road junctions symbolizes negativity” (1994:67).
It is very significant to note that when people travel to their places of origin for the festivals, especially
the traditional ones, some of them return to their places of work with some sacred materials obtained from the
priest’s in-charge of the community shrine (Obu-Gad). The water from the Ezu-na-Omambala Rivers celestially
blessed is one of such sacred thing given them to carry to their places of sojourn. It is has been observed that
such sacred water serves as a “psychological devices for communicating and personalizing religious ideas’’
(Nabofa, 1994:46) and the idea is that the carrier of such water believed that “he has been insulated against all
possible unwholesome external influences’’ (Nabofa, 1994:51). On this ritual celebration, of Olili-Obibia Eri
Margaret Mead (1972:231) comments that it is on this month of November that “every theatrical performance
which is also an offering to the gods that those who wish to make a thanks offering…sheer heaven for the
anthropologist’’. It is during this period according to Nzewi (1979:170) that “the incumbent principal religious
officiant and his assistants set about procuring objects for the sacred rituals or ceremonies of the festival. It may
be necessary to repair, renovate or rebuild the shrine house or temple or to prepare the shrine or temple
grounds’’. The rituals performed in this symbolic sacred space gives total abstract visual representation to
significant moments in Aguleri community during such ritualistic endeavours and cultural history, while
basically articulating esteemed values, nourishing and maintaining the Aguleri identity (Nnamah, 2002:8).
In fact, the scenario of this event is better experienced than to be explained. It is on this position that llesanmi
(1996:9) affirms that “it is a symbolic approach which ecumenism has not succeeded in achieving’’, and “they
cannot be refuted by anything that has come down to us, in lyric, liturgy, or mode of worship from these
primordial forces that the concerted might of Islam and Christianity have failed to crush” (Soyinka, 1999:x).
Salamone & Mbabuike (1994:211) argues that it is through this method that “the African traditionalist is
committed morally, physically, and spiritually to native rituals and ceremonies that never entirely die no matter
which foreign missionary religion is adapted, Christianity or Islam’’. This invariably becomes a significant
success in the maze of cultural ecology in Igbo Traditional where Christendom possesses a great treat for its
survival.

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 The Metaphysical Understanding Of Road Junction As A Symbolic Sacred Space In Traditional…

Obu-Gad: A Natrual Sacred Space, Projecting Olili-Obibia Eri Festival in Aguleri Paradigm
In this wise, it is very clear here to say that Olili-Obibia Eri as an indigenous ritual festival that is breaking
boundaries of Christendom where it is believed that the gospel has achieved an amazing success in Igbo land
while, the walls of pagandom is claimed to have collapsed Jericho-wise. Nonetheless, Ali Mazrui regrettably
laments that:
No African country has officially allocated a national holiday in honor of the gods of indigenous
religions. All African countries, on the other hand, have a national holiday that either favors Christian festivals
[especially Christmas], Muslim festivals [such as Idd el Fitr], or both categories of imported festivals. The
Semiotic religions [Christianity and Islam] are nationally honored in much of Africa; the indigenous religions
are at best ethnic rather than national occasions (1991:69-70).

No wonder Frazar (1922:131a) affirms that from “certain festivals of the ancients, we may be able to
detect the equivalents of our May Day, Whitsuntide, and Midsummer celebrations, with this difference, that in
those days the ceremonies had not yet dwindled into mere shows and pageants, but were still religious or
magical rites, in which the actors consciously supported the high parts of gods and goddesses’’. This kind of
negative attitude towards Africans and their culture from public space/existence throughout Africa, with the
recent singular exception of The Republic of Benin, speaks volumes about identity construction and
reconstruction in Africa (Chicago Tribune, 1996:8). Mutua (1999:171) argues that the status of indigenous
religions within African states cannot be understood without resort to the nature of the colonial state. Ayisi
(1972:70) affirms that ethnic festival like the Obibia Eri festival “besides being a national festival, it is also a
calendrical festival because it occurs annually like the Christmas season’’.
Adelowo (1990:166) in his article “Rituals, Symbolism and Symbols in Yoruba Religious Thought”
argues that the main difference between worship on the sacred day and worship during the annual festival is
that, there are more pronounced and elaborate programmes connected with annual celebrations. Buttressing this
point further, Adelowo again affirms that:
This is usually an occasion for jocundity and thanksgiving; people appear in their best and give of their
best. The offerings are mostly thank-offerings, and the meals constitute an opportunity of communion between
the divinity and his ‘children’ on the one hand, and then among the ‘children themselves on the other’. It is a
period for special renewal of covenant relationships. On such occasion, the head of the community, the priest-
king, the Pontifex Maximus, is usually involved. It is he who is ultimately responsible for all that happens during
the festivals. He also has a special ritual, which, personally or by proxy, he must perform during each festival
(1990:166).

It is very significant to say here that the kind of food eaten and offered in this type of festival by the
members of Aguleri community during the yearly thanksgiving celebration for commemoration of ancestor Eri
is basically pounded yam this is because traditionally, cultivation of yam is associated with Anambra – Aguleri
people (Onwuejeogwu, 1981:22 & Isichei, 1983:24). Aguleri as a community is classified as a “yam zone”
(Coursey & Coursey, 1971:447) and in Igbo land as a whole, it is believed that yam is the king of all the food
crops (Achebe, 1958:26-32). This is why Basden (1966:389-390) describes it as “Igbo staff of life”.
However, Falola (2003:147) posits that through this kind of commemoration of ancestor like Eri “the
ruling dynasties in the various states forged relationships with one another by promoting brotherhood relations
and the cordial relations among them were sometimes explained in affinal relationships”. This is to counter the
claims that “the gospel in Igbo land achieved an amazing success where the walls of pagandom collapse Jericho-
wise” (Ayandele, 1973:126). Also, in order to counter the belief that the retreat of the African gods is rather
obvious do to the waves of nationalist resurgence at various points in time that made them to accept the verdict,
arguably through the ritual ceremony of the Olili-Obibia Eri -- commemoration of Eri in Aguleri, it has been
observed that this ritual somehow and “romantically sought to re-plant the gods back firmly in African’s
firmament” (Ogbu, 2002:1). Although, Idigo (2001:177) regrettably comments that in those days, other Igbo
communities come to Aguleri to offer sacrifices in the sacred temples to request for one favor or the other and
that helped to maintain the link with their root but since their massive conversion into Christianity, these
activities became extinct, only Nri keeps to this norm. Idigo (2001:179) further argues that “the Eri and Aguleri
connection is avoided in order to give them the opportunity of projecting Nri as the head of the Igbos. But the
truth is that Eri is the founder of Igbo race”.
Notwithstanding all these controversies and to put the record straight, Aguleri through the sacred
ordination still becomes the ancestral home of the Igbo race (Boston, 1960:55). It is in this sense that one can
say tersely that there is a ritual synergy between the sacred temple of Obu-Gad and ancestor commemoration of
the coming of Eri (Olili-Obibia Eri) which serves as a binding bond between all the Igbo people in diaspora as a
sacred space for brotherhood and mortality. In so far as there is a ritual synergy between Obu-Gad and Eri,
therefore it stand to say that Obu-Gad would be described as the sacred temple of the spirits of the royal
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 The Metaphysical Understanding Of Road Junction As A Symbolic Sacred Space In Traditional…

ancestors situated in the homestead of Aguleri. It is imperative also to note here that such temple is an
embodiment of ritual communication where symbolic ritual festival that surrounds the coming of Eri has been
neglected for some time now by the Igbo’s which suppose to be a source of inspiration and knowledge where
people can receive myriads of blessings from their great ancestor. Arguably, (Nabofa, 1994:12) regrets that such
shrines of African traditional religion are replete with artistic symbols but it is a pity that most of these are being
neglected, pilfered out and smuggled into Europe and America. Writing in the context of Mbari house a replica
Obu-Gad and the ritual relation with the Olili-Obibia Eri, the observation of Chinua Achebe in this respect may
be worthy of note “visitors to Igbo land are shocked to see that artifacts are rarely accorded any particular value
on the basis of age alone (1984:ix).
On a general note, in traditional religion of the Igbo people festivals like the Olili-Obibia Eri and
sacred temple of Obu-Gad are invaluable resources encoded with learned pattern of behaviour, ideas, and beliefs
shared among a people and socially transmitted from one generation to another (Sofola, 1973:ix).
However, Peters (2002:25) argues that “many traditional sacred centers are the centers for particular
peoples in their particular geographical and historical circumstances…a sacred center today has to be the center
of the entire expanding universe as well as the center of our own lives. That is a big stretch for some traditional
ideas’’. Kaplan (2000:122) asserts that “such shrines are maintained today even in also “similar ancestral alters
are still maintained in the palace (Blackmun, 1997:150). Nabofa (1994:45) argues that such road junctions are
assumed to be shrines in traditional Africa societies that “are connected with the homesteads. These are places
where family religious activities are carried out. It is in such places that the traditional beliefs and culture are
first transmitted to the notice of the young ones in the family’’. Rowlands (1985:208) affirms that “the
medicines used at the shrines are produced in the palace (sic); thus in original ritual boundaries which…served
to coordinate rites of pollution removal at the palace for the chiefdom as a whole’’. According to Mary
(2002:111) “this means giving territorial expression to the battle between the forces of good and the forces of
evil, and as it were establishing Heaven on Earth”. She argues that as it is in traditional religion like the whole
Igbo religion, the efficacy of prayers requires the mediation “this means giving territorial expression to the battle
between the forces of good and the forces and the annexation of a sacred space or shrine (Mary, 2002:111),
which Akintola (1992:38) describes as the “shrine of mortality’’.
Akintola (1992:38) again argues that in the esoteric sense, it is simply the depository containing all the
basic cult objects of religious veneration; and it is, in fact, the place where worship is offered, and devotions
paid to the Deity, the Supreme Being of Creation. Continuing with the argument, (Akintola, 1992:40) again
stresses that “the shrine of mortality accordingly, in this process of spiritualization, that is, of moving man away
from his sensuous nature into his bliss and eternity of spirit, is fitted into place as a continual reminder to the
initiate that the spiritual nature he desires to acquire or rouse in himself, can be roused fully and effectively only
after the philosophical death of his sensuous or carnal personality’’.
Ray (1993:268) asserts that prayers, offerings, and sacrifices therefore require the construction of
sacred space, where the forces of the invisible ‘other’ world can be brought into this world and effectively
controlled. Wosien (1992:23) affirms that such “sacred structure space facilitates orientation, provides the
framework for worship, and transforms chaos into cosmos, thus making human life possible’’. Nabofa (1994:45)
argues that “such sacred places of worship provide geographical points of reference to religious beliefs and
practices. They indicate the physical points of contact between the beings in the supra-sensible realm and those
in the physical plane. Most of the shrines and sacred places in Africa are etiological. They teach theological,
historical and moral lesson. In most cases, the myth, legends and stories that are told around them have little or
no historical foundations. Nevertheless, they are valuable resources for transmitting and concretizing religious
concepts and lessons, in both time and space’’.
Insofar as this invisible energy web also correlates with known areas of anomalities in gravity and
space-time, it has been postulated that different dimensions exist simultaneously and that an electromagnetic
web of energy interlocks all things on this planet (Olsen, 2004:13). Jett (1995:41) affirms that “because of this
power, which is dangerous or beneficent according to those property of one’s approach, non initiates avoid
sacred places, while those with the proper ritual knowledge—especially medicine men—may make pilgrimages
to pray, to renew their ritual equipment and the efficacy of their prayers, to obtain medicinal plants, and to
collect sanctified soil and water”.
However, the ritual functions of these shrines overlap irrespective of their nature, every shrine is
preceded by ritualistic ceremonies and some shrines that are seemingly social have ritual underpinnings/sections
in them and similarly, ritual shrines that are seemingly solemn and serious have social dimension too (Nti,
1990:3). But unlike the other traditional shrines that are personal in Igbo land which are strictly used for rituals
and other ritual shrines owned collectively by a community, the shrines ensemble are either for “social and
religious occasions’’ (Adegbite, 1988:17).

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 The Metaphysical Understanding Of Road Junction As A Symbolic Sacred Space In Traditional…

II. CONCLUSION
A lot of mysteries are revealed through rituals in road junctions in African Traditional Religion which
encourages the devotees and adherents to hold on to the divinities. When sacrifices are performed, it brings
spiritual inspiration and relief to man. The origin and belief in the efficacy of road junction is a mystery, but
their importance cannot be over emphasized in African Traditional religious circle. People pay homage to such
places and make all sorts of sacrifices with the belief that prayers and supplication would answered. There
rituals cannot be replaced by anything in the world. A world without road junctions will face trouble. This is
because of the important position they occupied in worship. Man was made to worship the Supreme Being and
the worship is not complete without road junction in the thinking of an African man. It is undeniable that
African Traditional Religion reached its pinnacle in this aspect through the mediation of its ritual
participationfromeither the adherents and even some Christians which ecumenism has not collapsed its
formidable wall ‘Jericho wise’. This invariably becomes a significant success in the maze of cultural ecology in
Igbo Traditional where Christendom possesses a great treat for its survival.

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