Indigenizing counselling valuing the afterlife with the Igbo of south eastern Nigeria: a case for ino-uwa based intervention

Abstract

This study examines prospects for the utilization of the concept of ino-uwa practised by the Igbo cultural-linguistic community of South Eastern Nigeria to understand and address counselling needs of a child and his family. Ino-uwa is the cultural familial scaffold that bridges the lifeworlds of ancestors and the living. In this case, a child with debilitating and unspecific general illness was cured with evocation of ino-uwa. The implications of this anecdote are important for authentic counselling practice in an African cultural heritage context.

Keywords:

• ancestral heritage
• counselling practice in Africa
• Dibia
• ino-uwa
• reincarnation
• relational connectedness

Notes

1. Inouwa-Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/inouwa the concept of ino-uwa is described as the Igbo belief system which translates to English as ‘come back to the world’.