ONWUDINJO: A PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING IGBO ADAGE
The certainty of death to every living being and the uncertainty of when death will occur to every living being are an enigma and phenomenon that has bothered human existence. This is because it is possible for humans to speculate and predict human activities and circumstances around but it has been a continuous impossibility for one to predict or state when and how his death will come. This failure and inability of humans to ascertain the full nature and time of death, has made the Igbos to consider death as bad. Bad not as an act, but that which has and still proves human weakness towards understanding and knowing when one will die, thus, leaves human in wonder and awe as to what death really is. Hence, the Igbos sometimes say death (onwu) is bad (ndijo). Is this really true? Since to every beginning there must be an end. If death is really part of human reality, why is it referred to as bad by the Igbos. This we shall consider using critical analysis and examination to know the context the igbos ascribe death as bad, and if really it is bad.
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