Amadioha:
In ancient Igbo history one of the most feared deities is
Amadioha. Some liken this deity to the Thunder gods of nature like Thor, Sango
etc. Others refer the persona as the
god of fire. But as some historians have noted, this demiurge has other
qualities hitherto undisclosed and unexamined by classical theology.
The word Amadi means
“the gods” a collective term also used to refer to land owners, akin to the
Yoruba omo- onile. Also in Yoruba
land, the word Oni refers to Ife
Kings and Onile is now termed to mean
God Almighty in some traditions. The fact the land is seen as the fore bearing
aspect to determine “Lordship” is not only practiced Igbo land or Yoruba land
but has been seen to apply in the British aisle, in ancient Babylonia, Egypt
and European countries during the middle ages. A king who owns all land is
referred to as a ‘Lord’, and his barons and counts to whom he consigns such
lands, are seen as such.
So Amadi used in reference to land lords is not a practice
different from cultures in other parts of the globe. What is more particular in
the Igbo sense is that this word is also used as a collective for “the gods” of
the land, worshipped in a religious sense; and the totality of these gods were
summed up in one single deity, Amadioha.
Oha in Igbo
means the people or the populace, so Amadioha extends and contracts as long and
wide as the populace extends and contracts, akin to a “Sufflating supplex”.
The word “Grand Supplex” was coined during a meeting of the
college of cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church sometime in 1997, before Pope
John Paul II came up with the new catechism and ‘creation’ in “Statu vae”, to refer to the changing
qualities of the “Grand Omega Dimension” which was once understood as
immutable, but now also seen as flexible.
So it can be readily seen that in certain aspects, ancient Igbo
shared the same views on cosmogony and cosmology as the modern Roman church
before and since its new catechism.
Again, some scholars have in the early 1990’s held that Amadioha
in a deeper philosophical level shares certain attributes of the Hebrew Yaweh
or Yahweh. In Hebrew” YHWH” is the spelling of the almighty deity who was the
God of Abraham and also appeared to Moses in an ‘emanation’ he saw and heard as
“EHIH”, both spelled with four letters.
In some cabalistic texts the word YHWH or YHVH is analyzed in
four parts to represent the elemental kingdoms of fire, earth, water, and air.
Amadioha in Igbo theology also has four sons and their names
mark the four market days that made up the ancient Igbo week. Some writers are
currently doing work on this subject, to
show that the numbering of weeks in four and days in seven to make 28 days of a
month was also used in Igbo land in the reverse i.e. days were numbered in four
and weeks in seven by the Igbo Dibia,
who also held the number 12 sacred.
The ‘collective’ analysis is not farfetched from the view held
by the” Elohist”, i.e. pluralist of Hebrew writings who believe in God as
“Hosts”; Elohim, ALHM or ALHYM (spelt with a Yod between the letters ‘He’ and
‘Mem’).
Their modern adherents are quick to point out that in the book
of Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 it is written that God said “Let US make
man in OUR image, in OUR likeness”
This attribution for Amadioha can also be interpreted in a
pantheistic view; of a God, who in this cosmism has no other “gods” before it,
as in terms they have all been swallowed up by its Cosmo-genesis; as such
Amadioha can be defined as a deity who sufflates to encompass, and bends to
accommodate.
Chukwuegu the artist created his first Gold gong winning
sculpture “Edo”, the Goddess of Nnewi in 1970.
This piece was his first major calling by ‘the
gods’ and was presented by General Gowon the then Nigerian head of state as
a Gift to Emperor Haile Selassie (Born 1890, Emperor of Ethiopia 1930-36).
The Gods edged him on from 1972 to 1974 when finally Amadioha manifested
after sculpting on it during that period; and it also won a Gold gong in the
same year.
His Amadioha stands 7ft tall, weighing 95kg and looms majestic, like Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Hill of Montmartre’,
or the “dark flames” in his ‘Road with Cypresses’. It ponders like ‘Dr.Gachet’
or his ‘self portrait’, in an atavistic chimerical stature, yet shines like the
sun in his ‘Sower’, but with a Dali-esque
posture. It is surrealistic and functions within posing rhythmic lines.
As Rudolf Arnheim puts it, “such application of a well organized
pattern to a phenomenon of reality…must be viewed as a creative invention of
the human mind that has little in common with mechanical imitation or
description.”
Chukwuegu in his depiction transports us in perspective through
a Surrealistic and kaleidoscopic version of the “Mbari”. He allows us to view
this deity as children lost in imagination… introverting as Herbert Read
describes, “…a procedure of highly intricate combinations building the whole on
a hierarchy of detail….which reveals a careful observation (and contemplation)
of the subject. Differentiated in a manner, and conceived at the highest levels
like the masters of the ‘Linear style’ who move with unswerving precision along
a contour that captures all subtleties….”
This piece follows nature, and through nature leads us to a
place where all men must reach in order to contemplate what Delacroix meant
when he noted…… “that the straight line, the regular serpentine, and the
parallels, straight or curved, ‘never occur…; they exist only in the brain of
man. Where men do employ them, the elements gnaw them away”
My first visual perception of this deity was also my first
contact with Chukwuegu’s sculpture sometime in 1972 or 73, and also the first
time I heard the name “Amadioha”. To my childish eyes this Gold gong award
winning piece looked horrific; I took
flight as my heart sank not knowing where to take refuge; next, I tripped by the
foot of the artist himself, who caught me as I fell, and placated me as I began
to sob “you made it work” he told me quietly. Little did I know then, its
predictive implications. This meeting by chance had changed my perspective, in
relation to Amadioha and life; and the way I will interact with this deity for
the rest of my adult years.
As Hebert Read elucidated Plato’s thesis: that art should be the
bases of education and he summarizes “It is assumed then that the general
purpose of education is to foster the growth of what is individual in each
human….at the same time harmonizing the individuality thus educed with the
organic unity of the social group to which the individual belongs…” So has this
piece done the same for me and many others, in teaching the relationship
between man, deity and the cosmos.
And I will not be so surprised if this sculpture which after
winning the Gold Gong in 1974 was proudly exhibited by the Nigerian art
councils & museums, inspired Susan Wenger’s later additions to the Osun
deities in the grove.
Dr. Carl C. C. Ohiaeri,
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