Between Europeans and Africans: The Metaphysics of the Mind
by Kenneth Usongo
There has been the tendency, particularly among Westerners, to associate certain practices with other races while overlooking the fact that some of these practices cut across peoples, regions, or races. Perhaps one cultural element that demonstrates significant human commonalities is the belief in the interrelatedness between the physical and spiritual realms of life. Although the West, mainly through conduits like Christianity, tends to distance itself from witchcraft and divination, Westerners often ignore that these aspects permeate Western society. Through a study of two cultural icons, namely William Shakespeare and Chinua Achebe, representing Europe and Africa, respectively, I intend to show how the human mind is receptive to supernatural practices irrespective of creed, color, epoch, or particularity. In other words, reading Shakespeare alongside Achebe opens their works to cultural dialogism.
Theorizing the Supernatural
Agreeing on an incontestable definition of the supernatural can be challenging, considering its constituents and perspectives. What can be perceived as supernatural by one person, group, or race can be cultural or rationalized by others. However, we can commonly define the supernatural as something beyond nature or not subject to explanation according to scientific and natural laws, neither physical nor material. It can be mysterious, imaginary, or capable of generating unreasoning. Shakespeare and Achebe's protagonists seem to be pointedly influenced by cultural or societal beliefs, which are suppositions or convictions assumed to be truthful by an individual or a group. Beliefs play on human psychology. Although Achebe's protagonists appear to be considerably affected by socio-cultural factors, Shakespeare, through his main characters, interrogates some of the beliefs held by the Elizabethans and Jacobeans. He uses the variety of Elizabethan and Jacobean beliefs on witchery, astrology, and demonology to probe his characters' minds, also indicating how the European mind is susceptible to the supernatural. Both Shakespeare and Achebe demonstrate cross-cultural symbolic habits regarding human nature.
Every religious system appears to incorporate aspects of the supernatural in its doctrine, including even Christianity, which insists on the immaculate conception of Mary and the resultant birth of Christ, or the symbolic ritual of baptism associated with the cleansing of sin by Christians. In Ezekiel 13:18-21, the story is told of how women used handkerchiefs to trap the souls of men and then kill them. Deuteronomy 15:10 and 2 Kings 17:17 condemn the practice of augury and divination by the Israelites. Therefore, whether it is a Christian or traditional African setting, anything conceived beyond the natural order of things can be qualified as supernatural. These practices can be prayers, purifications, dances, songs, or sacrifices.
Granted that the belief in the supernatural is persistently downplayed by Western rationalism, it is still quite popular and appears to be embedded in Christian and traditional religions, and atheism. Think about cartomancy, QAnon, Halloween, and other rituals. Scholars such as David Hume in Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and Herbert Spencer in Elements of Sociology have argued that, because of the lack of sophistication, primitive beings could hardly conceive of a monotheistic religion or an almighty God. Their sense of wonder or surprise at the happenings around their environment was expressed in the form of mythology. To this end, Hume cites examples of divine creatures like Bacchus or Hercules to refer to what he considers the overpowering sense of irrationality that ruled the primitive mind. For example, the Greek myths did not represent one Almighty God but instead made the different gods and goddesses more human, where they defied even Zeus. In Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary, Hume postulates that superstition is a product of human creation, something that is subject to "certain unaccountable terrors and apprehensions, proceeding either from the unhappy situation of private or public affairs, from ill health, from a gloomy and melancholy disposition, or from the concurrence of all these circumstances."
Among the ancient Greeks, for example, the supernatural occupied a prominent position. Their gods and goddesses represented several aspects of life. For instance, Dionysus was associated with fertility. Consequently, the Cretan-Mycenean deities were seen as significant because they symbolized propagation, which was also seen as a female attribute. The Greeks believed that the universe originated from darkness and chaos. The pre-world was imagined as a place of negatives from which came Nox (Night) and Erebus, the place of death. These two later gave birth to Eros (Love), which had as children Aether (Light) and Hemera (Day), followed by Gaea (Mother Earth), and Duranos (Father Heaven). These gods and goddesses were believed to reside on Mount Olympus, a place where it neither snowed nor rained.
Like the Greeks, the Romans were equally superstitious and had Roman names to fit the Greek pantheon. Among other beliefs, Romans argued that animals were spirits of their dead ancestors. As a result, certain animals' actions and physical attributes were regarded as signs of protection and premonition. Flights of eagles and vultures and the sounds produced by ravens, owls, and crows were given supernatural signification. Animals were slaughtered as sacrifices to the deities and determine patterns in human life.
The Renaissance person was also superstitious. The concept of the Chain of Being, which was conceptualized by the quattrocento Neoplatonists of Italy, was quite dominant in the 16th century. According to the Chain of Being, philosophers and scientists thought of the world in the form of a chain that connected humans with God. It was also believed that all created things were closely linked and arranged in a uniform pattern to reflect a particular hierarchy that was thought of in the semblance of a chain, hence the appellation the Great Chain of Being. Any disruption to this order of creation was believed to cause chaos, confusion, or death.
For his part, King James of England theorized witchcraft in Daemonologie (1597). In this book, he classified spirits into four categories: spirits that trouble houses or solitary places; spirits that pursue some people and disturb them at certain hours; spirits that enter human bodies and make them possessed; and fairies. According to him, women were more susceptible to witchcraft than men, and they could invoke spirits to harass individuals, haunt houses, and instill fear in people. Unfortunately, women were often accused of witchcraft because they had fewer rights than men to whom women owed obedience.
The traditional Igbos of Nigeria, as Clement Okafor notes in “Igbo Cosmology and the Parameters of Individual Accomplishment in Things Fall Apart,” believe in three levels of being, that is, the supreme god, Chukwu or ama ama amasi amasi (the one who cannot be understood); lesser gods/goddesses, or Umuagbara, like Amadiora (god of thunder), Ufiojioku (god of harvest), Agbara, the god that oversees human affairs, Chi, a person's individual god, Anyanwu (sun god); and beneath them the spirits of dead people otherwise known as Ndi Ichie. This galaxy of gods and goddesses defines and regulates the worldview of a traditional Igbo person.
As a cohesive society, traditional Igbos rigorously abide by precise tenets. For example, during the week of peace, the village is expected to vibrate with joy and not hate. Any violator of this sanctity is sanctioned regardless of his or her status. Moreover, there are contending forces and spirits that nurture and normalize society. Although some Igbos believe in the phenomenon of chi, a personal god shaping one's destiny, there is also the consolation that human beings can still achieve their ambitions through hard work, hence the Igbo proverb that we should not condemn a day when it is not yet over. The chi shrine, according to Austin J. Shelton in The Igbo-Igala Borderland, is occasionally contiguous with that of a forefather and is often situated in the entrance room where guests or visitors are received. As a result, every event in human life, whether good or bad, Emefie Metuh writes in God and Man in African Religion: A Case Study of the Igbo of Nigeria, is considered onatara chi or a gift of destiny. The individual goal in life is to achieve the destiny imprinted on his or her palm, aided by the guardian spirit.
Like most traditional Africans, traditional Igbos agree that there is a mystical order ruling the universe. This belief is manifest in the practice of traditional medicine, magic, witchcraft, and sorcery. As a result, some Igbos insist that there is a transcendent power, controlled by God or Chukwu, which can be transmitted to spirits and some human beings. Those in possession of this power can see departed people, invisible fires, and light, have visions and premonitions of upcoming events, communicate with invisible powers, and perform superhuman feats. Knowledge of this mystical power can help people, especially in healing, determining the causes of misfortunes, and identify harm. Acquiring such knowledge requires time and devotion, and such information is often guarded jealously. Its transmission can be inherited or unconsciously acquired. Violations of divine or supernaturally acquired knowledge can result in the loss of it. When such knowledge is used harmfully, it is seen as witchcraft or evil magic.
Capturing Human Nature Through the Supernatural Frame
Supernatural devices such as ghosts, apparitions, and dreams are prominent in Shakespearean tragedy; Shakespeare uses these elements to delight his audience and engage in exploring human nature. Put differently, he employs supernatural devices to give form to what is going on inside the characters. For his part, it appears that Achebe's portrayal of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart and Ezeulu in Arrow of God, for example, interrogate the Western categorization of blacks as emotive, savage, and anti-Christian. In his novels, Achebe juxtaposes European and African values, Christianity, and traditional religion, underscoring how his protagonists are usually assailed by opposing life ways. The idea that Achebe contrasts blacks and whites in his novels and the relationship between the indigenous religion and Christianity can indicate that these two civilizations share certain commonalities. For instance, Elizabethan and Jacobean England, like Achebe's traditional Igbo society, subscribe to particular beliefs about humankind's relationship with the cosmos in omens, divination, astrology, and others.
On the one hand, Shakespeare's heroes seem to be wrestling more with their wills in the face of supernatural devices, wondering whether there is some association between their desires or feelings and supernatural signs. For example, Lear envisions in the storm a reflection of his distraught mind; Brabantio seeks to ascertain whether his dream about his daughter's elopement with Othello is real, and Macbeth is agitated that the witches' prophecy of Banquo's descendants being crowned kings may constitute an obstacle to his reign as he attempts to eliminate Fleance. On the other hand, Achebe's tragic heroes are preoccupied with negotiating their longings against established traditional Igbo institutions in the forms of gods or goddesses, norms, or belief systems. In this regard, Okonkwo regularly finds himself at odds with the injunctions of the earth goddess; Ezeulu seemingly faces resistance from Ulu and the elders of Umuaro because of his apparent stubbornness to convene the yam festival, and Obi's engagement to Clara conflicts with his society’s rejection of the caste system.
While Shakespeare employs ghosts or witches to accentuate the crises confronting his heroes, Achebe usually associates his protagonists' dilemmas with the instructions of gods/goddesses and oracles. Elizabethan and Jacobean England were usually concerned with identifying spirits as good or bad depending on circumstances. In contrast, Achebe's society envisions spirits as the extension of human beings in the form of ancestors, hence the absence of ghosts in his creative universe.
Like Achebe, Shakespeare engages in the equivocal exploration of the supernatural concerning human behavior, foregrounding the questions of hallucination and reality. For example, in Macbeth, it is arguable whether Macbeth hears a voice reminding him of how he will be deprived of sleep as he proceeds to murder Duncan or if his mind is troubled because of his murderous action. Does Gertrude see the ghost of Old Hamlet reproaching her amorous relationship with Claudius, or is her worried state of mind a reflection of her conscience? Is Brabantio told in a dream about his daughter's elopement with Othello, or is his suspicion of a relationship between her and Othello based on reality? Does fever in Arrow of God provoke Obika's death given that he is reluctant to run as a masquerade because of his illness, or is Ulu, through his death, revenging on its priest, Ezeulu, for intransigence?
Conclusion
Both Shakespeare and Achebe foretell their protagonists' futures through signs, beliefs, dreams, deities, and other devices. While Shakespeare experiments with natural happenings like earth tremors, storms, dreams, or ghosts in his delineation of the supernatural, Achebe uses traditional Igbo societal beliefs and practices, divination, and gods/goddesses to adumbrate the role of the supernatural in his heroes' destinies. Despite their artistic examination of two different cultures and races, Shakespeare and Achebe arrive at the understanding that humankind's belief in supernatural agents can be ignited in a reasonably predictable way. Worries, anxieties, and fears are fundamental to the human mind. Given the supernatural impetus, humans are predisposed to revealing their hidden traits such as vaulting ambition, arrogance, impulsiveness, and wrath.
Therefore, supernatural forces constitute social and cultural phenomena found in different places and at different periods. These elements are the mainsprings of human behavior, engendering success, regret, or hopelessness in humankind. It seems that no one can be indifferent to this profoundly enthralling concept of the supernatural. Whether it is dismissed or accepted by some, Shakespeare and Achebe's acknowledgment of it as a significant element in exposing human behavior is undisputed. Surprisingly, while Western culture, encapsulated by Shakespeare, interrogates the supernatural, sometimes considering it a figment of the imagination, Shakespeare dramatically uses it. The supernatural continues to interest peoples and cultures in various forms across the globe. Both artists demonstrate how it probes drives such as inordinate ambition, pride, power, and fear that cloud the human mind.
Dr. Kenneth Usongo is a professor of English at Texas College, Tyler. His book, Character and the Supernatural in Shakespeare and Achebe, was recently published by Routledge.