Healing as Wholeness: The Igbo Experience

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Periodical article

Title:	Healing as Wholeness: The Igbo Experience
Author:	Ejizu, Christopher I.
Year:	1987
Periodical:	Africana Marburgensia
Volume:	20
Issue:	1
Pages:	3-18
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	African religions prayer Igbo traditional medicine Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Health and Nutrition
Abstract:	Among the Igbo of Nigeria, there was, and still is today, a strong connection between healing and religion. This paper discusses the Igbo perception of illness, the different stages in the traditional healing process, and the persistence of traditional healing despite the collapse of many Igbo cultural institutions since the introduction of Christianity and Western civilization. The activities involved in the healing process, from the diagnosis by a diviner, through ritual performances, to the delivery of medicinal potions by a herbalist/medicine man, fit into a coherent sequence destined to restore organic wholeness at all levels of awareness. The quest for wholeness, harmony and integration at the personal, social and religious levels underlines and, at the same time, motivates the activities connected with Igbo healing. Notes, ref.