EKPOMA REVIEW

This study is a metaphysical inquiry into the phenomenon of death in Esan culture. It begins by expositing the Esan understanding of death and how it constitutes mystery. It argues that in Esan, the question of ‘the why of death’just like ‘the why of life’ and ‘the why of birth’, philosophically speaking, does not admit any satisfactorily answer. Thereafter, the study discussed the Esan conception of the causes of death. It examined the epistemological and logical status of some of these causal beliefs among the Esan people and with reference to some other cultures. It argues that although some claims to afterlife seem rational and convincing; any claim to knowledge of absolute certainty of the hereafter is epistemologically suspicious since there is no valid epistemic intersection of this world and the assumed world after. Although the Esan do not conceive any contradiction in their beliefs in afterlife and reincarnation, but logically speaking, such belief suffers logical infelicity since it defies the logical laws of thought. However, the study also argues that just like any affirmation, any denial of certain knowledge of afterlife experience conversely rests on logical fallacy of ‘argumentum ad ignorantiam’. It concludes that death and the belief in life after death have practical moral implications on the living. In the course of inquiry, the engagement attempts simultaneously, an

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