A HERMENEUTICAL DISCOURSE OF REALITY IN IGBO ONTOLOGY

Abstract

It has been the concern of Philosophy as a universal enterprise to ascertain the meaning of reality. This, however, has evoked questions such as: What is philosophy? What is reality? The quest to give solutions to these questions provoked lots of controversies. Hence, philosophers and societies, in their different languages have given different interpretations to this. The interest of this paper, however, borders on interpretation of reality in Igbo ontology. This similarly evokes questions like: What is Igbo? What is it to be an Igbo? What is the meaning of reality in Igbo language? Therefore, applying hermeneutical mechanism in this research, the writer sums up that reality generally means being, life or world as a matrix. This, by implication, means the cosmological and ontological realities knit together. The term Igbo designates an Igbo person, a nation, society, tribe or ethnic group. Being Igbo includes both the living, the dead and the yet to born persons in Igbo Land. Reality in Igbo language means "Uwa". Uwa is being and being is force which will never be static but ever dynamic. Therefore, the reality (Uwa) is holistic in the sense that the corporeal and incorporeal realities causally interact with each other.