Pope John Paul II Journal of Philosophy

In the southeastern part of Nigeria today, there is this massive trend among the people, especially, the youth: returning to the traditional practices of their forebears. What is popularly known as “returning to the root.” The visible causes of this trend are: one, what I call the unveiling of religious ignorance hitherto beclouding the mind of the people, so to speak; two, unfounded promises of easy wealth by fake native doctors to the youth; three, the persistent reality of call to Dibiahood among the people. This new awakening conflicts greatly with the intention of indigenous people who are Christians and have the lure to go back to the footsteps of their ancestors but wedged with Christian indoctrination that traditional practices are fetish, pagan etc. I want to argue in this study that with the position of one being rooted in one’s indigenous root with critical open-mindedness, this seeming impasse will be resolved.

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