Defense Date

3-15-2024

Graduation Date

Spring 5-10-2024

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

dissertation

Degree Name

PhD

Department

Theology

School

Gumberg Library

Committee Chair

Gerald M. Boodoo

Committee Member

Bede Uche Ukwuije

Committee Member

Elochukwu Eugene Uzukwu

Keywords

Mgbe, Ekpe, Moninkim, Ejagham, Cameroon, Nigeria, Decolonial, Inculturation, Pneumatology, Banyang

Abstract

The knowledge of the divine broadens and deepens as each location contributes the history, elements, and practices related to its divine revelation. This dissertation contributes from the Ejagham locations of Cameroon and Nigeria. The Ejagham precolonial institutions of Moninkim and Mgbe (Ekpe) were tuition-paid training schools for personal development and prophetic leadership. Their structured curriculum to train one’s personal and social ejong (personality), towards the Ejagham organizing principles of beauty and excellence, is replete with Ejagham mysticism and indigenous epistemology. Unfortunately, Moninkim has been misrepresented in years of scholarly research as a girl’s seclusion and coming-of-age-for-marriage rite and Mgbe (Ekpe) as an only-male judiciary and entertainment organ, eclipsing the theological epistemology that their practices manifest and teach. Ejagham Funerals of Moninkim and Ekpe members, which may last up to two years after burial, offer a researcher in the Ejagham location, the opportunity to experience and talk about Ejagham mysticism and divine talk such that Ejagham’s own divine revelation and religious understandings may be added to the Catholic church’s repository of divine truths. This dissertation uses the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) method to examine the subjective movements and responses of ten authors on the Ejagham location from 1912 to 2018 in the face of Moninkim and Mgbe (Ekpe) practices. Nsibidi and funeral masquerades are found to be loci of divine revelation. The dissertation concludes that only the access to indigenous interpretive methodologies can reveal the theological epistemology in the Ejagham location that is needed to promote pluriversal divine talk in the Catholic Church. Thus, research methodology should adopt indigenous interpretations of what is witnessed or read. Researchers should get initiated into the institution under study to familiarize themselves with indigenous interpretations. From the perspective of the decolonial and indigenous turn in Catholic and African theology, this dissertation contends that Ejagham indigenous epistemology offers sufficient common ground with key doctrines of the Catholic faith for inculturation and interreligious dialogue. Olayinka Savage provided unique material on the divine’s expression as Ndem. Oyewumi Oyeronke’s discourse on organizing principles and how they shape beliefs, values, education, and practices directed the identifying of Ejagham organizing principles as beauty and excellence. Tuhiwai Smith’s indigenizing methodologies offered tools to locate projects that can reveal theological epistemology. Bogdan Bucur’s discourse on angelology served to discuss a dynamic equivalence between angels in Catholic theology and Ejagham funeral masquerades. Sebastian Madathummuriyil’s discourse on the difference between idols and icons grounded explanations on the rationale, legality, and impact of symbols in the Ejagham location for elaborating theological epistemology. Elochukwu Uzukwu’s methodology for inculturation served to find enunciations of theological epistemology. Gerald Boodoo’s contextual theology guided theological proposals that are adequately related to the people it serves. This dissertation proposed the creation of a special funeral rite for Catholic faithful who are members of Mgbe (Ekpe) by incorporating the Bekundi procession to bring the corpse to the church and the Mboko masquerade performance at the grave site, with an accompanying catechism. This would spark the questions and garner the trust that creates space for dialogue to happen towards the inclusion of Ejagham epistemology on the divine.

Language

English

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