ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MMUO MMIRI (WATER SPIRITS) IN IGBO PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

The Western approach to the management of the eco-system, which is materialistic and based on consumerism, has had very serious consequences on the environment leading to the present ecological crisis. The encounter of the African continent with the Western world, during the colonial era most especially, had its own consequences on the thinking of the African people and on their approaches towards the environment, such that the African society now lacks the adequate traditional or indigenous spiritual principles needed for the preservation of the eco- system. Before the advent of modernity, Africans related with cosmic forces associated with particular cosmic elements like water, mountains, forests, sky, etc., which established an attitude of respect for these dimensions of the natural world. Gradually, this attitude has been replaced with that of alienation and disengagement. The consequences are the misuse and exploitation of the physical environment including the water, air, land, forests, etc. The emergence of eco-spirituality is a reaction to the Western materialistic and technological approach to the environment, which lacks the depth for the formulation of a profound relationship with nature, the absence of which has led to the emergence of devastating consequences on the natural world. There is now a growing interest at international level in the way that indigenous people interacted with and managed their environment before the advent of modernism; there is also a growing interest on how best to protect and preserve this knowledge. This piece is a response to the need for indigenous approaches towards the management and sustainability of the environment, which are connected to the broader framework of the people’s cosmology and worldview. While there are a few papers written on Mmuo Mmiri, there is hardly literature that discusses its relationship with the eco-system or its ecological relevance in Igbo traditional societies. This work, therefore, focused on water spirits or mermaids within the context of the Igbo-African cosmology with the purpose of seeing how the relationship with this spirit force enhanced the preservation of the environment. The phenomenological and analytical methods of research were patronized. It submitted that through indigenous approaches, the African people were able to preserve and maintain their environment.

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