The cosmological culture of the Igboman’s three worlds of make believe

Abstract

The Igbo people that constitute one of the three main ethnic groups of Nigeria are people of high traditional life with their own historical past. In the course of practising their custom and beliefs, they believe that physically, there are two inter-related parts of the universe - the sky and the earth. They believe that while they live on the earth, their God (Chukwu) lives in the sky. But nonphysically they believe that there are three worlds. They are the world of man, the world of
animals and the world of spirits. All of them are not physically separated from one another. They exist upon the earth. They are not compartmentalized. The existence of the land of human beings is marked with the convergence of people on a place. In the same manner where animals have gathered is termed the land of animals. When human beings leave their farms for their homes, the spirits take over the farms and they will become the land of spirits. This is noticed in Igbo folktales. The tales of Igbo people will be used to support this claim. The aim of this paper is to state the existence of the physical world and the world of make believe, show that the former is known whereas the latter is unknown and use folktales to support the existence of the latter.