The Sanctity of the Kola Nut Ritual as a Symbol of Communion of Saints in Igbo Tradition
Conference: ISA 22nd Annual International Conference (2025)
Presenter(s): Ononiwu A. Oparah, Anthony C. Ebunsi
Tags: 2025 Nsukka University of Nigeria Nigeria Ibadan University of Ibadan Anthony Ebunsi Ononiwu Oparah
Abstract
In the heart of every religion and tradition of the world lies the recourse to using ordinary materials common to the people and conventionally accepted as a viable means to convey deep spiritual realities. This underscores the point that religion is in the nature of man and must naturally develop within the grasp of human relations with the physical and natural world. The sanctity and dignity of the kola nut in the Igbo traditional society merits being regarded as a sacred symbol that intersects all Igbo communities and by which the indigenous people commune with the ancestral world in a mutual relationship among other spiritual significance it represents. Although this unique phenomenon has gained the attention of researchers and scholars from different perspectives, there is a further need to discuss it, considering the doctrine of Communion of Saints in Christianity to add more meaning to its sanctity and dignity. Communion of Saints in Christianity is the belief in the perpetual union of all the faithful, the living and the dead, as one body under Christ the head, through the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist. This is no less so in the Igbo African version, where the Kola nut ritual, like the sacraments, unites the living and ancestral world of the Igbo and African society. A conscious effort to inculcate this rich heritage of the indigenous people is therefore recommended as an assured means of perpetuating the treasure custom and tradition of Igbo-speaking people.
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