African reincarnation re‐examined

SYNOPSIS

Many authors report in Northern Rhodesian tribes the belief in reincarnation of the dead ancestors into new born children. They think, however, that it is a partial reincarnation, an afflatus or emanation or a part of a “pool of spirits” of the dead ancestors. These theories are put forward in order to co‐ordinate the belief in reincarnation with the belief in two separate and autonomic agencies of the ancestor‐guardian‐spirit and of the subject‐ward in which that spirit is “reincarnate”.

The writer came to the conclusion that the natives do not believe in reincarnation but in simple naming, conferring the name of an ancestor, dead or alive, on a child. This may be termed “nominal reincarnation.” This namesake spirit does not affect its subject essentially in any different way from other family spirits.

To this effect the writer quotes the pronouncements of natives of eleven tribes as contained in oracles, prayers and dedications. The misleading factor is a figurative parlance over the second birth which conveys the idea of complete identification of the spirit and its ward. To this point of view an occasional native succumbs.

The claim that what has been construed as reincarnation is but simple naming is also borne out by the testimonies of natives themselves. Among the Bisa, Ambo and Bemba, certain individuals are never “reincarnated”, or only after a few years, and in the Marawi group children are named after living members without any reservation. Thus the children are the living monuments of the dead for these matrilineal Central Bantu.