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In traditional Igbo cosmology, the first and fundamental prerequisite for admission to the Ndiichie (ancestral) group is an exemplary life.
According to this belief, no one who has ever committed mŭrder, even as an accomplice, who as an adult has lied, borne false witness, stolen, or committed adultery; who was a layabout or idler, etc could be accepted into the group after děath.
This means that not every adult who had children, diěd at an advanced age, and received a proper burial belongs to the Ndiichie group, according to this belief.
In pre-colonial Igbo, it was therefore everyone’s dream to be welcomed into the Ndiichie group upon děath.
This belief consequently contributed significantly to the creation of an orderly society where people could enter forests and farms without fear of being harmed by anyone, a society where doors had no locks, and no one feared losing hor or her property. I mean a society where girls walked around almost unclothed without fear of rāpe.
The destruction of this belief with the advent of Chrstianity is one of the reasons why a once orderly society is now in disarray.
If we had built our Christianity on the achievements of our ancestors, our society would not be what it is today.
“Never change a winning team” is a popular saying. But we did. And we are paying the price. Instead of moving forward, we are moving backward. Instead of having more knowledge than our ancestors, they were more intelligent than us.
One may ask: but how could one have based Christianity on Igbo traditional religion? If the Christian Jews did so by blending the religion of their fathers with Chrstianity. we could also have done so and even better.
