19/08/2025
ILỌ ỤWA IN IGBO TRADITION: NNENNA RETURNS!
In the quiet village of Amankanu, Elders often whispered about spirits who return, the ones who cross the great river of death only to be born again among their own. They called it ịlọ ụwa: Reincarnation.
When little Adaeze was born, her grandmother, Mama Ugo, insisted on holding her first. She unwrapped the cloth around the baby’s tiny legs, searching for a familiar mark. There it was! A faint birthmark on her left thigh, shaped like a crescent moon.
Mama Ugo began to weep.
“This is Nnenna” she said, her voice trembling. “My first daughter, she left us 12 years ago, and now she has returned.”
The family fell silent. Nnenna had died in her teens after a sudden illness. Adaeze was born with the same wide eyes, the same dimple on the right cheek, and even the same stubborn pout when hungry. But it wasn’t just appearance, other visible signs started unfolding.
At three years old, Adaeze wandered into the backyard and found the old clay pot buried in the earth behind the family hut. No one had told her it was there, yet she pointed and said, “This is where I hid my cowries.” Nnenna had once hidden her prized shells there as a child.
The elders shook their heads knowingly. In Igbo cosmology, a spirit can choose to return to the same family, bringing unfinished work, blessings, or sometimes unresolved struggles. It is said that the soul travels to Chukwu (God) after death, but some spirits are tied to their lineage like roots to soil.
For Mama Ugo, it wasn’t strange, she had seen it before. Her own father once returned as her grandson, after his death many decades ago.
Still, Adaeze’s parents watched closely. In Igbo belief, a returning soul could bring old karma, and rituals might be performed, not to chase them away, but to guide them into this new life in peace.
One evening, as the harmattan winds dusted the village, Adaeze sat by the fire and asked her mother, “Why did you bury my red beads? I told you I would need them again.”
Her mother froze. Goosebumps all over her body, She had indeed buried Nnenna’s beads years ago after her death, thinking it was gone with her.
The truth was undeniable. Nnenna had come back! but this time, as an old soul.
