God Question and Symbolic Communications: The Impact of Okonko Setting in Igboland

Abstract

The most cherished human skills, art of dialogue and interactions with humans and the divine are acquired in Igboland through the framework of ancestral society called Okonko. The framework is highly articulate and stable in introducing the younger generation to the exercise of socio-linguistic analysis and oratorical coefficient in the Igbo culture. In the present paper, effort has been made to highlight the Igbo approach to God in relation to human experience expressed in coded formula. The focus is basically on the interplay between the divine, traditional setting in Okonko and the ability of the human intellect to grasp and express the same as signs and symbols. The paper concludes that within the Okonko framework there is always a guarantee for the humans to penetrate the communications system and gain access to meanings regardless of social status. However, this has been grossly impacted by social changes and culture contacts.