By Fr. Anthony Aneke
Few years ago, the Catholic apologist K. V. Turley raises the alarm:
“Across the lands of the frozen north, the Norse “gods” are returning. Nordic paganism is now Iceland’s fastest-growing religion. From 570 members in 2002, the “association of the faith of the Æsir”( Ásatrúarfélagið) now numbers 4,126 Icelanders. This makes it the largest non-Christian religion in the country. In contrast, as of 2017, there are only 12,901 Catholics in Iceland, a country with a population totaling 348,580. It is not just in the former Viking lands that a return to pagan ways is underway. In the U.K.’s 2011 census, more than 75,000 people identified as pagan, a follower of witchcraft or an adherent to some other New Age sect.’
In a similar vein, political scientist Ronald Inglehart and sociologist Wayne E. Baker, both of the University of Michigan few years ago in a survey raised a similar red flag which exposed a huge number of Americans drifting away from organized religions to embrace a more amorphous spirituality in New Age, environmentalist, or other guise. For them, that’s the trend in most advanced industrial societies today. They observed that while Church attendance in recent decades has declined in 18 advanced nations, in some cases quite dramatically, it was not without a huge diversion towards the neo-paganism.
At the emergence of Christianity in our continent, The African Church was described as a dynamic and zealous Church with prospects. Despite her very struggles with varieties of African traditional religion, it was described by Pope St. John Paul II as the future of the Church in the modern world. However, as promising as this sounded, it scares us when the above similar surveys becomes more positive about the African Church. Neo paganism has not only creep into the Nigeria Church but seems to have taken its very foundation.
Recently, we (The Choice Flame Team) conducted a field survey on youth participation in masquerades and pagan rituals in Enugu state. The focus of the research areas includes some part of Nkanuland, as well as Ezeagu and Nsukka communities. We conducted interviews with young people from these villages about the resurgence of pagan rituals and practices, and the rehabilitations of some cultural traditions and institutions.
The results of our little survey could not but send cold shivers down to our spine. From our interviews, over 60% of our ‘Christian youth’ expressed their enthusiasm and passion for these rituals and practices. Since then, we became interested in conducting a study to understand why many young people in rural and suburbs are engaging in pagan practices, despite their conflicting Christian affiliations.
It is very good to point out that a similar survey was carried by Kingsley Uwaegbute, a lecturer at University of Nigeria Nsukka who writes for the CONVERSATION newsletter.
Kingsley Uwaegbute observed that for generations, the tradition of Omabe masquerades has been part of the cultural landscape of the Nsukka area of Enugu State in Nigeria. Masquerades are cultural or religious events that often feature masked dancers embodying various spirits. Omabe masquerades are believed to be representatives of the ancestors of Nsukka. The region honours these ancestors with annual traditional festivals. Some of these festivals include Onwa Asa (seventh moon), Onwa Eto (third moon) and Onunu. Celebrations occur all through the year, with some timing variations among Nsukka communities. During these festivals, the venerated ancestors are believed to join in the celebrations, by re-emerging from ant holes as different forms of Omabe masquerades. For varying durations, these masquerades, particularly Oriokpa (the traditional police of Omabe), tarry among the living in Nsukka. They are believed to keep watch over the affairs of the people.
But the Nsukka cultural zone is also the home of Igbo Christians. Christianity is a dominant religion in the area, and has always condemned masquerade practices as fetish and pagan in nature. And so, this has certain implications for Christians and the community. Church members publicly indulging in masquerade rituals cast Christianity in a negative light. Also, some aspects of masquerade celebrations are still rooted in barbarism.
Kingsley stated that his research found out that regardless of their faith, these young people fully identified with the masquerade celebration. They believed the festivals to be cultural revival exercises, whether Christianity approved or not. Kingsley research areas include Nsukka main town, Umundu and Obollo communities, all in the Nsukka zone. He observed many masquerade celebrations in these towns, noting strong youth participation. These young people say they are purely driven by cultural revival, as masquerades represent an important element of their local culture.
Kingsley made the point that the reason for the resurgence of this neopaganic practices in Nsukka is that Christian Western missionaries arriving in Nigeria held very little regard for aspects of Igbo culture. Especially the parts involving spiritualism and ancestor worship. The missionaries were averse to it, condemning the people’s cultural practices and replacing some of them with imported dogma. Therefore, this resurgence is a recent conscious direct affront of the youths to assert themselves against the tyranny of Christian western missionaries. For Kingsley, this is a typical case for Nsukka youths.
Well, it may not be that typical as Julius puts it. Our recent research and observation reveal that there is more to this that meets the eyes especially in other communities in Enugu.
Therefore, in this open study, we shall be carrying out a thorough critical investigation on the rise of neo-paganism among Nigerian youths. Our focus would be some of the few mentioned communities in Enugu State. The big question remains: Why are young Nigerians returning to Pagan rituals even in our Christian communities? As simple as the question may sound, we do not think it may be requiring a simple answer. The views and opinions of experts will be required. An extensive literary review on the nature of neo-paganism would be very necessary; data analysis on the content on survey would go a long way to answer this question. Therefore, the approach to this question would be evangelical because the aim is to find the root cause of such an unholy diversion which would in turn retrace the steps of our evangelization.
Therefore, join us both in our print and online media as we explore the above theme.
The Nature of Neo-Paganism
The term neo-paganism seems to be shrouded in ambiguity. Neo-paganism as a word comprises of two words: neo- and pagan. “The prefix neo-, meaning “new”, implies that an ancient belief, practice or custom has been discovered and adapted to the modern era. But then, the word pagan is harder to define. One complication with the word pagan is that it is open to many different interpretations. Linguists, scholars who study the history and development of language, even debate the origins of the word. Most believe that it comes from the Latin word paganus, generally thought to mean a person who lives in a rural area, outside the city walls. City dwellers in the Roman Empire (31 bce–476 ce) used the word to refer to unsophisticated rural people. After the Roman Empire converted to Christianity in the fourth century, the term was applied to people in the countryside who continued to follow religious beliefs that were regarded as backward and superstitious. Some scholars, or researchers, believe that the word meant something more like “civilian,” referring to those who were not “soldiers of Christ,” or Christians. Still others argue that the term more generally referred to “outsiders,” those who were not part of the body of Christian believers. Whatever the origins of the word, by the time Christianity had spread throughout Europe, it branded any religious belief that was not Christian as “pagan.” In addition, pagan practices were regarded as the work of Satan. (In Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions Satan is considered the chief spirit of evil.)
Generally, Neo-paganism refers to any ancient, pre-Christian set of religious beliefs, gods, symbols, rituals, and practices. Neo-paganism therefore, is applied to “any of several spiritual movements that attempt to revive the ancient polytheistic religions” (Stefon; 2010). In other words, neo-paganism is a descriptive term and not the name of a specific religion. By descriptive the research implies that it is a term applied to any modern religious movement that tries to reconstruct religious practices adapted from traditional and modern religions. Cambridge English Dictionary also defines neo-paganism as “a modern religion that includes beliefs and activities that are not from any of the main religions of the world” (Cambridge English Dictionary; 2019). Neo-paganism can also be referred to as new paganism, revived paganism, contemporary religion, et cetera.
Paganism/neo-Paganism could be simply described as a nature-based religion. According to M. A. Gault, “neo-Paganism is a broad, and somewhat general term, used to categorize a diverse group of nature based religions”(Gault; 2015). Similar to this, J. Butler opines that “neo-Paganism is a broad term for a range of modern-day ‘earth-based’ spiritual paths”(Butler; 2009). For him therefore, a single neo-Pagan path can vary widely from another in terms of belief and practices. More direct and simplified than all these definitions from the “indigenous religious point of view” is that by the Encyclopedia Britannica. It defines neo-Pagans as typically people with romantic feeling toward nature and deep ecological concerns, and who centre their dramatic and colourful rituals on the changes of the seasons and the personification of nature as full of divine life (Stefon; 2010).
On the other arm, some scholars define neo-paganism as a sort of spiritual reaction to the contemporary world. Among such scholars is D. Sorea who defines neo-Paganism as “a reaction to the challenges raised by postmodernism, secularization, as well as by the rigidity of the official discourse of the Christian churches to religiosity”(Sorea; 2013). Defined from this view-point, neo-Paganism is seen as a product of the reaction against the authoritarian and dogmatic nature of established religions, like Christianity, and a quest for a law-free religion that “privileges the experience of personal ritual over belief”(Grieve; 1995).
Being a general term for a broad range of revivalist religious groups and traditions, neo-Paganism includes Wicca, neo-Druidry, Heathenry, neo-Shamanism, Norse neo-Paganism and various other traditions that attempt to reconstruct ancient Greek, Celtic, or African tribal religions (Hedenborg; 2014). We will limit our study on the African neo-Paganism as we particularly x-ray The Beliefs and Ritual Practices of Neo-Paganism in the Present Igbo.
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