A Phenomenological Approach to Belief in Supreme Being and Divinities in Efik Traditional Religion

Abstract

The human capacity for belief is enormous. It is these capacities that have led to the divergent religious beliefs and practices that exist today in the world. Religious beliefs and practices cannot be fully understood outside the conceptual framework of people’s experiences. Experience is a conscious activity that could be subjective or communal, personal, or group. For the Efik people, their experiences around the riverside area and their encounter with some aquatic spiritual powers within the environment over the years had led to their strong belief in the existence of aquatic spiritual powers called ndem. Though the concept of Supreme Being features prominently in their cosmology, it is also believed that God has given powers to some spiritual forces to control the aquatic estates to realize or actualize his purpose. This is what informs their strong belief in ndem divinity; an aquatic spirit, the water gods and goddess, as well as the tutelage divinity of the Efik people. It is believed that this divinity and his agents live in fine houses on the beds of the rivers, seas, and streams, from where they control the affairs of men and occasionally appear to humans gorgeously dressed. The phenomenology approach of this study highlights how the religious experience of the Efik people informs their belief in the Supreme Being (Abasi Ibom) and other ndem (marine divinities)and the effect of Christianity on it.