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IGBO-AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY OF BEING AND CATEGORIES OF BEING 

 

Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu, PhD 

Department of Philosophy,  

Veritas University Abuja 

ikee_mario@yahoo.com 

 

ABSTRACT  

Metaphysics as a branch of philosophy, concerns itself with the determination of the nature of 

being- the meaning, structure and principles of whatever is insofar as it is. Thus, the 

fundamental question within the parameters of enquiry in metaphysics has been on the nature 

of being right from the Pre-Socratic Period through the Medieval and Modern Epochs to the 

Contemporary Era. This research focuses on the concept of being. However, while there are 

several articles on the meaning of being, it distinguishes itself by its discourse on the nature of 

being in Igbo-African ontology, unveiling how in recent times, African thinkers have tried to 

redefine being, moving away from the elusive and unsubstantive concepts employed by their 

Western counterparts. For this paper, the hermeneutic, analytical and critical methods of 

inquiry were employed. The paper submits that there is a distinct Igbo-African concept of 

being, which is fundamental for the understanding of African metaphysics. 

Keywords: Being, Categories, Igbo, African, Philosophy 

  

INTRODUCTION  

The concept of metaphysics, a word first used by Andronicus of Rhodes, the editor of 

Aristotle’s works around 70 B.C., according to Whitehead (1929), concerns itself with the 

determination of the nature of being- the meaning, structure and principles of whatever is 

insofar as it is. Thus Kanu (2012a) avers that the fundamental question within the parameters 

of enquiry in metaphysics has been on the nature of being. In the contention of Andre (2005), 

it has remained evergreen right from the pre-Socratic period to the Contemporary Era. This 

enquiry, as observed by Bertrand (1975), was set in an articulated motion by Parmenides when 

he argued that whatever is, is being. He further said that being is one, eternal and unchanging, 

meaning that whatever changes is not being. This notwithstanding, Heraclitus of Ephesus was 

chiefly famous in antiquity for his doctrine that everything is in a state of flux, as such, being 

is characterised by flux. Plato, while disagreeing with Heraclitus on his doctrine of flux, agrees 

with Parmenides that reality is eternal and unchanging, however differs from Parmenides in 

arguing that being is multiple rather than one; and these are the forms in the Platonic World of 

Forms. Aristotle who defines Metaphysics as the study of ‘being qua being’ identifies being 

with God. Thus Kanu (2013) avers that it is not surprising that in Aristotle, Metaphysics 

becomes theology. 

The emergence of the Medieval Epoch, in the contention of Izu (2009), did not alter the 

centrepiece of metaphysical enquiry. St Thomas Aquinas followed Aristotle in identifying 

being with God, an argument which Duns Scotus rejects and proposes that creatures are beings 

in the real sense of the word and not in an analogical sense as Aquinas had taught. During the 

Modern Period, the problem of being did not feature prominently as philosophers were more 

concerned with the problem of substance. The problem, however, according to Omoregbe 



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(2002), emerged in Hegel, Jean-Paul Sartre and Gabriel Marcel, in whom being became a 

mystery. 

These notwithstanding, in recent times, African thinkers have tried to redefine being, moving 

away from the elusive and unsubstantive concepts employed by their Western counterparts. In 

this process, they have employed categories common to the experience of the Africans. This 

piece would be concerned with an analysis of the Igbo-African perspective on being and the 

categories of being. 

Purpose of Study 

The main purpose of studying being and categories of being in African philosophy is to gain a 

deeper understanding of the African reality, informing various aspects of human inquiry and 

enriching the appreciation of existence.Therefore, the research aims at: 

1. Understanding the African reality and to grasp the fundamental nature of existence, what 

exists, and how things relate to each other. 

2. Exploring the meaning of being and what constitutes existence, addressing questions like: 

What does it mean to exist from an African perspective? 

3. Categorizing the African reality, which involves classifying entities, properties, and 

relations, providing a framework for understanding the world. 

4. Informing other disciplines and influencing fields like science, theology, and artificial 

intelligence, shaping our understanding of reality and its implications. 

5. Addressing fundamental questions such as: What is the nature of reality?, What is the 

relationship between mind and body?, What is the nature of time and space? 

Methodology  

Philosophy, just like other fields of human endeavor has its ordered ways through which it 

carries out its systematic enquiry and study. Two methods will be employed for the purpose of 

this study. The first is the analytic method. It is a style of philosophy that became dominant in 

the Western world at the beginning of the 20th Century. It is characterized by an emphasis on 

argumentative clarity, conceptual analysis and precision. The analytic method focuses on 

words and meanings. The second approach is the hermeneutic approach. Etymologically, 

hermeneutics is from the Greek word, hermeneuo, meaning “translate” or “interpret”. It was 

launched into philosophy first in the classical work of the ancient philosopher, Aristotle. The 

term hermeneutics relates etymologically to Hermes, the mythological Greek deity whose role 

is that of a messenger of the gods. The hermeneutic principle entails that thought must be 

derived from language according to the same law which regulates the expression of thought in 

language, the process alone being inverted. While the analytical approach is important given 

that concepts used in conveying meanings require analysis, clarity, and precision. The 

hermeneutic method is fundamental in the face of concepts that require interpretation 

 

 



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THE IGBO-AFRICAN PEOPLE OF NIGERIA 

The Igbo are found in the Southeastern geographical zone of Nigeria, which is made up of five 

states. However, Igbo people are overflowing from the major Igbo states and living in 

neighbouring states like Delta, Rivers, Benue and Kogi States.  They are bounded by the North 

Central Region to the north and by the South-South Region to the west and south. The zone 

has a population of over 40 million people, spread across 30,991.1 km2 (Nnakamm, 2008). The 

area lies in the tropical rainforest zone characterized by high rainfall density, which is more 

pronounced in the southern part (Nwaiwu, et al., 2013; Afigbo, 1981).  

 

Figure 1: Map of Igbo land 

 

Ogochukwu (2010) 

 

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE AFRICAN CONCEPT OF BEING 

In his work, La Philosophie Bantou Published in 1945, Placide Tempels set out to help 

European missionaries understand the thought pattern or worldview of the Bantu people. This 

he thought, according to Imbo (1998), would make the work of evangelization easier for the 

European missionaries, and also help them to avoid misunderstanding the people and their 

culture. In the process of his research, Tempels arrives at a fundamental and underlining factor 

in Bantu philosophy, which he calls force. While for the Westerner it could be considered as 

an attribute of being, for the Bantu, it is identical with being in Bantu ontology.  

Tempels (1945) wrote: 



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I believe that we should most faithfully render the Bantu thought in the 

European language by saying that the Bantu speak, act, and live as if, for them, 

beings were forces. Force is not for them an adventitious, accidental reality. 

Force is even more than a necessary attribute of being; force is the nature of 

being, force is being, and being is force. (p. 431) 

Having described being as force, Tempels goes ahead to differentiate the degree of force in the 

hierarchy of being. God, Spirits of ancestors, Human Beings, Animals, Plants and inanimate 

objects. God thus has a greater force, followed by the Spirit of the Ancestors, than human 

beings. However, the created universe of the Bantu people is centred on the human force, for 

everything in the universe is understood only in relation to man. From this perspective, we 

gather that in Bantu ontology, as in other African worldviews, the cosmos is anthropocentric.  

Alexis Kagame, in his work Philosophie Bantou-Rwandaise de L’Etre, shows that he was one 

among the African philosophers who tried to develop further Tempel’s philosophy of force. He 

worked among the people of Rwanda who were called Kinyarwanda and tried to develop their 

thought through a linguistic ethno-philosophy. According to Njoku (2010), he discovered that 

Ntu is the category of being or the generic meaning of something. This he classified into four: 

Umuntu (human beings); Ikintu (non-human beings); Ahantu (place and time); Ukuntu 

(Aristotelian category of quantity). Ntu is the unifying notion among all these, even though 

God does not belong to it. There is an interaction between all these: Umuntu being a being with 

intelligence has the consciousness that allows it to use other objects that do not have the same 

capacity. Thus, Ikuntu is at the disposal of Umuntu for self-actualization. The absence of a 

place for God in Kagame’s project of being reveals the limitation of the philosophy. 

Emmanuel Edeh, in his work Towards an Igbo Metaphysics, was one of the earliest Nigerian 

thinkers from the Igbo-speaking area who tried to articulate Igbo metaphysics, in which he 

tried to define being, using Igbo categories. Edeh posits a notion of being that is derived from 

a dual locus: from the Igbo language and the Igbo concept of the human person Edeh says that 

it is born from the fact that human beings are the principal focus of the Igbo physical world, 

basically comprising the human and non-human. He first employed the concept of onye in the 

Igbo language to test-denote the concept of being. But he discovers that the onye hypothesis 

applies to human beings only. Having understood the limitations of onye, Edeh (1985) in his 

indefatigable spirit moves on to make further investigations on a more appropriate concept for 

being. In his investigation, he arrives at ife. According to Edeh, “the Igbo word ife primarily 

means thing, anything material or immaterial. It is used to refer to a happening, an event, an 

occurrence. Ife can also be affixed to any adjective to mean specific things” (Edeh 1985, p. 

95).  For instance, ife obuna (anything), ife ebube (thing of wonder), ife ojoo (bad thing), ife 

oma (good thing). After a wide and profound investigation, he realizes that there is no word in 

the Igbo language outside ife that approximates the Igbo concept of being. Having arrived at 

the ife hypothesis, Edeh (1985) realised that ife as a concept does not bring out all that being 

means. To find a solution to this problem, Edeh (1985) combines ife and idi to get ife-idi. Idi 

is the Igbo verb to be. It can be used as an adjective and can also be suffixed to anything to 

show that it exists. For example, okwute di (the stone that exists), Nkita di (the dog that exists), 

Kanu di (Kanu who exists).  

 



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Iroegbu (1995), a Nigerian Igbo Philosopher, in his Metaphysics: The Kpim of Philosophy, 

avers that to be is to belong, thus for him, borrowing from Igbo ontology, Being is 

Belongingness. He defines belongingness as ‘the synthesis of the reality and experience of 

belongingness’ (p. 374). Iroegbu believes that the Igbo world into which a child is born crying 

abatala m ya (I have come into it) is made up of seven characteristics: common origin, common 

world-view, common language, shared culture, shared race, colour and habits, common 

historical experience and a common destiny. Without any choice of its own, with neither 

interrogations nor dialogue, the child is made to be an Igbo in its prolixities. Even as the baby 

sleeps in its cradle, it already has its being, performance and akaraka (destiny) partly enshrined 

and construed in the Igbo world. The communal individuality of the Igbo is expressed in 

proverbs such as Ngwere ghara ukwu osisi, aka akpara ya (If a lizard stays off from the foot 

of a tree, it would be caught by man). This expresses the indisputable and inevitable presence 

of, not just the family, but the community to which the individual belongs. The community 

rejoices and welcomes his arrival, finds out whose reincarnation he is, gives the person a name 

and interprets that arrival within the circumstance of the birth. As the child grows, he becomes 

aware of his dependence on his kin group and community. He also realizes the necessity of 

making his contribution to the group. From this Igbo worldview that is community-oriented, 

Iroegbu arrives at the concept of being as belongingness.   

Okere (1983), Abanuka (2003) and Njoku (2010) have proposed chi as an alternative concept 

for being. The idea of chi has created more problems than it set out to address. Njoku argues 

that chi is preferable because everything in Igbo, whether animate or inanimate has a chi. Njoku 

forgets here that what we are looking for in Igbo metaphysics is not a name for a thing that is 

contained in everything in the Igbo world. Chi would better serve as an underlying principle in 

Igbo metaphysics than as a name for being in Igbo. The idea of chi takes us back to the 

arguments of the Ionian Philosophers who speak of water, air and fire as the underlying 

principle in every reality. There is not enough ground to conclude from here that reality is water 

or air or fire. It is difficult to conclude that because a thing, say ‘A’, possesses another thing 

inside of itself, say ‘B’, that ‘B’ is now ‘A’. For instance, as human beings possess blood in 

their veins, it is not a sufficient reason to conclude that because every human being has blood 

therefore every human being can be called blood. Chi cannot stand as a concept for being. That 

‘all things possess Chi’ does not easily translate into ‘all things can be called chi’.  

 

RETHINKING THE CONCEPTIONS OF BEING IN AFRICAN ONTOLOGY 

Great efforts have been made by African philosophers to understand the African concept of 

being. Temples attempted is a pioneering effort that requires great credit. However, his idea of 

force speaks more of the underlying principle of being and not of being itself. This is a 

confusion that would run through the ideas of being as expressed in the views of subsequent 

African philosophers. A more advanced effort we see in Kagame’s Ntu, however, there is a 

vacuum, in the sense that Ntu encompasses all that exists except for God; a wonderful analysis 

of being, but incomplete in its extension capacity. 

Over the years, many African thinkers have made attempts to criticize Edeh’s work on 

metaphysics and his concept of being in particular. Critics like Iroegbu argue that the 

designation of Edeh’s philosophical reflection as Igbo Metaphysics is wrong, and that it should 

rather be called Edeh’s Metaphysics. He sees Edeh as a man who was not courageous enough 



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to own his metaphysics and, as such, feels more comfortable designating it to a people. 

Contrary to this opinion, the researcher sees Edeh’s step as a courageous one, because it is 

easier to own a thing to oneself than to attribute it to a whole people. As an individual, it is 

easier to sort out oneself than to achieve that as a group. The reverse is the case here: Edeh is 

more a philosopher with courage than Iroegbu who had developed his metaphysics of being. 

Surprising is that Iroegbu who speaks of being as belongingness should have a problem with 

someone who developed a philosophy that speaks of where he belongs. Edeh saw himself as a 

being who belongs to a totality of people, and as a person who belongs, he developed the 

philosophy of the people to whom he belongs. Moreover, the fact that it was Edeh who wrote 

the metaphysics does not mean it has to be called Edeh’s metaphysics. Edeh is not saying that 

he is not aware that he wrote it by himself. All he is saying is that it represents the philosophy 

of the Igbo people. We read different works by different philosophers from the West and we 

call them Western philosophy. What problem do we have calling Edeh’s articulation Igbo 

Metaphysics? 

A cursory glance at the philosophical positions proposed as a replacement for Edeh’s concept 

of being as ife, reveals that they have not solved the problem of seeking a concept for being; 

so far, they have created new ones. What African philosophers should be looking for is a 

concept that would designate every reality, and not concepts that speak of what every reality 

possesses like the chi of T. Okere, B. Abanaku and F. O. C. Njoku or Iroegbu’s belongingness 

which is just an attribute of being, or better put the modality of being and not the name of being. 

Being exists first before it can have a chi or before it can belong. So far, the concept of being 

by Edeh as ife-di, with all its defects is still the most appropriate and defendable concept of 

being in African metaphysics. While Edeh’s perspective is appreciable, it is also incomplete, 

and thus the need for a further research on the African concept of being. 

 

BEING AS IDI IN IGBO-AFRICAN ONTOLOGY 

The operative word in Idi (to be) is di (be) and it comes from the word odi (it is) which is the 

third person of the singular idi which means ‘to exist’ or ‘to be’. It is an adjective and can be 

suffixed to anything to show that it exists. For instance, Okwute di (stone exists), Nkita di (dog 

exists), Kanu di (Kanu exists), Uwa di (the world exists). As a concept, it goes beyond the 

limitations of the notions of being already analysed, and in fact, it is the missing link of the 

different conceptions of being already analysed.  

More so, everything that is, is because it has ike-ndu, that is ‘force’ and the quality and quantity 

of this force determines the nature of a being. The force of a being cannot be separated from 

the being itself, and as such, the force is the being. It is in this regard that Tempels (1959) wrote 

about the Bantu: “Force is the nature of being, force is being, being is force” (p. 24). Everything 

that the Igbo-African does is towards the preservation of this force: when he prays to Chukwu 

or the ancestors, when he offers sacrifices to gods, spirits, ancestors etc. when he pours libation, 

rites and rituals are all for the preservation of this force, which is life. Ogugua (2003) wrote, 

Little wonder, the Igbo people work towards acquiring life, strengthening this 

life even if it entails doing too difficult things ‘iga aguu asaa, igwu mmiri asaa’- 

passing through seven thick forests invested with danger and swimming seven 

deep and deadly oceans. (p. 60) 



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Force therefore is necessarily and essentially an attribute of being in Igbo-African ontology. 

The appreciation of this reality of being, according to Ogugua (2006), is the springboard of the 

Igbo-African belief in the intimate relatedness, connectedness and interwovenness of reality. 

Thus Tempels (1959) wrote, “The world of forces is held like a spider’s web of which no single 

thread can be caused to vibrate without shaking the whole network” (p. 60). The existence-in-

relation to the other or being-with-the other creates constancy in interaction and influence. 

 

IGBO-AFRICAN CATEGORIES OF BEING 

Although every reality has a force, not all realities have the same force. The variety of the 

degree of forces is at the base of the categorization of being. In the hierarchy of forces, those 

with a greater force come first, with God at the apex as the source of all force. In Igbo-African 

ontology, reality will be subsumed into the following categories: 

1. Muo (Spirit): Muo as a force has categories of forces. It includes God, the divinities and 

spirits. God is at the apex of the Muo category as the source of all force, Tempels (1959) wrote, 

“Above all force is God... It is he who has force, power, in himself. He gives existence, power 

of survival and increase, to other forces. In relation to other forces, he is he who increases 

force” (p. 29). He wrote further, “He knows all forces, their orderings, their dependence, their 

potential and their mutual interactions” (p. 34). His existential cause is within himself and 

sustains resultant forces the subsistence and annihilation of other forces are within his power 

alone. While other creatures can paralyse, diminish or stop the operation of another being’s 

vital force, they cannot stop it to exist entirely, only God can. 

After the Supreme Being are divinities. They are intermediaries and share aspects of the divine 

status. They emanate from God; as such, it is incorrect to say that they were created by him, 

but more correct to speak of them as offspring of the Supreme Being. They are responsible to 

God for whatever act they perform in their relationship with human beings. They are not an 

end in themselves but a means to an end, and everything they do is dependent upon God’s 

approval They are functionaries in the theocratic governance of God, sometimes referred to as 

his messengers and at other times as his sons. Awolalu and Dopamu (1978) refer to them as 

the executive heads of various divine departments in the Supreme Being’s monarchical 

government. They are a lesser force compared to the Supreme Being, but generally, they are a 

great force. 

There are also myriads of spirits that occupy the African universe. Death is not the end of man. 

After death, the soul nkpulobi goes back to Chukwu. The afterlife for the Africans is a life of 

continuing relationships with the living dead. After death, two groups of spirits emerge the 

benevolent spirit, known as the ancestors. The ancestors have a greater force than human 

beings. They bind men to God and exercise influence on the living, Tempels (1959) wrote that 

“The strengthening of life, the preservation and respect for life, are by the very nature of 

creation the business of the ancestors” (p. 57). He further wrote, “They must not be injured or 

scorned, nor must they be threatened with a breaking off of relationships, for this would mean 

simply death for the living. When a disaster falls upon the clan, there must be no question of 

reproaching the ancestors, but simply of testifying from out of mourning to be re-established 

filial attachment to secure a new alignment with the vital influence of the forebears” (p. 69). 

Apart from the ancestors, there are malevolent spirits, known as bad spirits.  



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2. Mmadu (Human Being): The human person (Muntu) is a vital force endowed with 

intelligence and will. Although God is the source of vital force, man is the sovereign vital force 

in the world, ruling the land and all that abides in it, however, “his fullness of being consists in 

his participation to a greater or lesser extent in the force of God” (p. 47) who possess the 

supreme force. He also shares an ontological relationship with his patrimony, relations and 

land. He has a will to choose between good and evil, which might be life-giving or life-

destroying. Man is the centre of the universe, including the world of the dead. Tempels wrote 

that “man is the supreme force, the most powerful among created beings” (p. 46). He can renew 

his vital force by tapping the strength of other creatures. He wrote, “Each being has been 

endowed by God with a certain force, capable of strengthening the vital energy of the strongest 

being of all creation: man” (p. 22).  

In the category of human beings, there are the elders, who bind the ancestors with their 

descendants. According to Tempels (1959) “Ontologically and juridically, the elders who hold 

the ascendancy are the only ones to know fully, in the last resort. Their wisdom exceeds that 

of other men” (p. 35). They are said to be closer to their ancestors. This explains why they 

serve as priests in their communities and clans, especially when it comes to the offering of 

sacrifices to the ancestors.  

3. Anu (Animal, tame and wild): 

This category of being comprises forces not endowed with reason. They are ruled by instincts. 

They are all under the force of man and exist for man. According to Tempels, “In fact, even 

inferior beings, such as inanimate beings and minerals, are forces which by reason of their 

nature have been put at the disposal of men, of living human forces, or of men’s vital forces” 

(p. 31). In another text, he wrote, “These lower beings exist, by Divine decree, only for the 

assistance of the higher created being” (p. 46). They are used to feed human beings and also 

for offering sacrifices to God, divinities and ancestors. 

4. Ife (things): Edeh (1985) avers that “the Igbo word ife primarily means thing, anything 

material or immaterial. It is used to refer to a happening, an event, an occurrence. Ife can also 

be affixed to any adjective to mean specific things” (p. 95).  For instance, ife obuna (anything), 

ife ebube (thing of wonder), ife ojoo (bad thing), ife oma (good thing). Ife as a force cannot act 

for itself, and thus can only become active when a greater force like God, divinities, spirits and 

man act on them. They have no will of their own and thus depend on the will of a greater force. 

5. Ebe (Space): Space talks about place. It is the relation of distance between any two bodies 

or points. It responds to the question of where. For instance, where did you see Emeka? Where 

did you pick up Nnamdi? Where was the sacrifice offered? According to Ijiomah (2005), space 

in Igbo ontology consists of three levels: they are the sky, the earth and the underworld: “The 

sky is where God Chukwu or Chineke and angels reside; the earth where man, animals, natural 

resources, some devils and some physical observable realities abide; and the underworld where 

ancestors and some bad spirits live” (p. 84). Ekwealor (1990), corroborated Ijiomah’s 

perspective when he categorized the Igbo-African universe into three spheres: Elu-Igwe or sky, 

Alammadu or the world of the living and Alammuo or the land of the spirits. The idea of space 

is known through sight, touch and supra-sensory insight. 

 



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6. Oge (Time): Time responds to questions such as: when did you see Emeka? When did you 

pick up Nnamdi? When was the sacrifice offered? Mbiti (1970) defines the African concept of 

time as “the composition of events which have occurred, those that are taking place now and 

those which are immediately to occur” (p. 17). Thus the African concept of time is concrete 

and substantive. It is epochal, as it is wrapped around events and activities. Iroegbu (1995) 

avers that it is in time that an African performs or fails to perform and that his future and destiny 

are based on his use of time.  

7. Uzo (Modality, manner or style): Modality of being talks about the manner of being. And 

in Igbo-African ontology, Igwebuike is the manner of being. Everything is in relation to the 

other: existence-in-relation to the other or being-with-the other. Every being is by belonging. 

This is expressed in various Igbo-African proverbs, such as Ngwere ghara ukwu osisi, aka 

akpara ya (If a lizard stays off from the foot of a tree, it would be caught by man). This 

expresses the indisputable and inevitable presence of, not just the family, but the community 

to which the individual belongs. Mbiti has classically proverbialized the community-

determining role of the individual when he wrote, “I am because we are and since we are, 

therefore I am” (p. 108). The community, according to Iroegbu (195), therefore gives the 

individual his existence and education. That existence is not only meaningful but also possible 

only in a community. Tempels (1959) wrote that “The world of forces is held like a spider’s 

web of which no single thread can be caused to vibrate without shaking the whole network” (p. 

60). The existence-in-relation to the other or being-with-the other creates constancy in 

interaction and influence. This interaction of beings is the modality of being in Igbo-African 

ontology. 

 

CONCLUSION  

Navigating from the Western concept of being, which is abstract and unsubstantive, to the 

African understanding of beings which is substantive and concrete, this piece has studied 

different African perspectives of being. After an analysis of these perspectives, it arrives at the 

Igbo-African conception of being as idi as a concept that brings out the meaning and nature of 

being. It further studied the categories of being in Igbo-African ontology. It submits that the 

hierarchy of being reveals the hierarchy of forces. God is the source of force; the ancestors who 

bind men with God, have a greater force than men, followed by the elders who bind men with 

the ancestors, then other men, who have a greater force than animals, plants and minerals. The 

greater a force, the greater its causal power in relation to other forces. Thus the hierarchy of 

forces determines the laws of vital causality. 

 

 

  



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