Amadioha

Amadioha (Igbo literal meaning "free will of the people") is the Alusi (god) of thunder and lightning of the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria. He is amongst the most popular of Igbo deities and in some parts of Igboland, he is referred to as Amadiora, Kamalu (which is short for Kalu Akanu), Kamanu, or Ofufe. Astrologically, his governing planet is the Sun. His color is red, and his symbol is a white ram. Metaphysically, Amadioha represents the collective will of the people. He is often associated with Anyanwu, who is the Igbo god of the Sun. While Anyanwu is more prominent in northern Igboland, Amadioha is more prominent in the southern part. His day is Afo, which is the second market day of the Igbo four day week.

Origins
Shrines to Amadioha still exist in different parts of Igboland, but the main shrine is located at Ogboro Ama Ukwu or Ihiokpu as it is called in Ozuzu in Etche Local Government Area of present day Rivers State, Nigeria. Although it is located there, it is not the patron deity of the people of Ozuzu. In fact, it is said that Ozuzu is the town in which Amadioha "lives" and it serves as it earthly headquarters. It is from there that it spread to other parts of Igboland.

Functions of Amadioha
God of justice
Amadioha is first and foremost known as a god of justice. He speaks through thunder, and he strikes with lightning. He creates thunder and lightning by casting "thunderstones" down to earth. Persons judged guilty by Amadioha are either killed by lightning (which leaves a black mark on the forehead) or attacked by a swarm of bees. The property of the victim is usually taken by the priests of Amadioha, and the body is left unburied and the victim unmourned, as the punishment is considered to be a righteous one from God. In some parts of Igboland, Amadioha is used as a curse word. Oaths are often sworn to him, which can carry deadly penalties when broken. The ritual cleansing for Amadioha is very costly and tasking. The deity can only be appeased by transferring the curse to a live goat that is let loose outside of the walls of the community. The ram is a common offering for him. The priestly clan of Amadioha are known as Umuamadi, which translates to children of Amadioha.

God of love, peace and unity

Besides justice, Amadioha is also a god of love, peace and unity, and is prayed for increase of crops, children in the home, and benevolence. Aside the above manifestations of Amadioha, he represents, as different from most African religious world views, a messianic hope for those in critical situations.

Creator God
Amadioha is also considered to be a creator God. In some traditions, human beings were made by him when he sent a bolt of lightning down to strike a silk cotton tree, which split and revealed a man and a woman.

Consort to Ani
Amadioha is often shown as a husband to Ani, who is the Earth mother. In some Igbo traditions, the pair are said to be the first Alusi to have been created by Chukwu. The two are often honored with Mbari houses, which were made with mudbrick. Amadioha is typically depicted as a fairskinned, titled gentleman of cool temper who is the patron of "light skinned Igbos" and "men of exalted rank." While Ani is considered to be the lawmaker of Igbo society (which is known as Odinani), Amadioha is the enforcer and protector of the law.

God of Carvers
In the play, the Other Side of the Mask, the character Jamike refers to Amadioha as "the god of carvers" and identifies him further as "the god that sends lightning to kill the evil spirits who inhabit the trees from which carvers hew their wood.

Personal spirit
Amadioha as a personal shrine is a spirit of enterprise that brings wealth. It is also a representative of the head of the household.

Oracle
In precolonial times, the village of Ozuzu turned Amadioha/Kamalu into an oracle called Kamalu Ozuzu. People would travel all over Igboland to visit the oracle in order to settle disputes and for help with crucial decisions. Parties found guilty by the oracle could be sold into slavery.

Proverbs and prayers associated with Amadioha

"Amadioha magbukwa gi" (Amadioha will punish you) "Chi m le kwee - O wuru si o wuni mere ihea, amadioha magbukwe m" (My god please see- If it is true that I did this thing, let Amadioha Kill me). The ram is sacred to alot of the African thunder and lightning gods, both as a sacrifice and as a symbol. In fact, Amadioha is said to at times appear to people in the form of a large white ram. Even though the vast majority of Igbo people in recent times profess to be Bible believing Christians, belief in Amadioha still remains strong.

Amadioha is still used today to curse people or threaten them. In Igbo towns, you may hear the phrase thunder fire you! or Amadioha magbukwa gi! (Amadioha will punish you!) Metaphysically, Amadioha represents the collective will of the people. An analysis of his name says so much. The name is a combination of Amadi and Oha. The first word," Amadi", is a name given to freeborn males. "Oha" is a concept that deals with the power of the community. Traditionally, Igbo communities were not ruled by monarchs, and made their decision by using Ohas (community assemblies). Whatever they agreed on, the community was responsible for enforcing. From my understanding, the Oha title is also supposed to be the last highest level of the Ozo title system. And its one that is virtually impossible to get, because it belongs to the people! So as the rules are made by the Earth Mother Ani (who metaphysically represents the unity of the people), they are enforced by Amadioha (their collective willpower) through lightning and thunder. In other words, the Amadioha shrine, along with similar ones in Africa, were an indigenous form of weather manipulation. Besides being used to bring rain (which exists in just about every society in the form of a rain dance/prayer, even till today!), it also was used to enforce the rules and regulations that were made by the community. Some Africans in the bush were successful in doing naturally what modern scientists have attempted to do with machines. The power of Amadioha really makes one wonder what great things Africans could do if they decided to come together. It also brings a whole new meaning to the phrase: The Power to the People!

Terminology
Br is a Hausa noun, meaning the spiritual force which resides in physical things, and is related to the word for local distilled alcohol (borassa) as well the practice of medicine (boka).[1] The Bori religion is both an institution to control these forces, and the performance of an "adoricism" (as opposed to exorcism) ritual, dance and music by which these spirits are controlled and by which illness is healed.[2]

Pre-Muslim Hausaland
An aspect of the traditional Maguzawa Hausa religious traditions, Bori became a state religion led by ruling class priestesses amongst some of the late pre-colonial Hausa States. Islam, present in Hausaland since the 14th century, was largely restricted to the region's rulers and their courts at the beginning of the 19th century. Rural areas generally retained their animist beliefs and their urban leaders thus drew on both Islamic and African traditions to legitimise their rule: the Bori spirit possession priestesses were one such mechanism. Priestesses communed with spirits through ecstatic dance ritual, hoping to guide and maintain the state's ruling houses. A corps of Bori priestesses and their helpers was led by royal priestess, titled the "Inna", or "Mother of us all".[3] The Inna oversaw this network, which was not only responsible for protecting society from malevolent forces through possession dances, but which provided healing and divination throughout the kingdom.

Post-Islamic and contemporary practice

Muslim scholars of the early nineteenth century disapproved of the hybrid religion practised in royal courts, and a desire for reform was a major motive behind the formation of the Sokoto Caliphate.[4] With the birth of the Caliphate, Bori practices were suppressed, and later outlawed by the British. Bori possession rituals survived in the Hausa refugee states such as Konni and Dogondutchi (in what is today southern Niger) and in some rural areas of Nigerian Hausaland. The powerful advisory roles of women, exemplified in the Bori priestesses, either disappeared or were transferred to Muslim women in scholarly, educational, and community leadership roles. British and French colonialism, though, offered little space for women in the official hierarchies of indirect rule, and the formal roles, like the Bori, for women in governance largely disappeared by the mid 20th century.[5] In modern Muslim Hausaland, Bori ritual survives in some places assimilated into syncretic practices. The pre-Muslim "babbaku" spirits of the Maguzaci have been added to over time with Muslim spirits ("farfaru"), and spirits of (or representing) other ethnic groups, even those of the European colonialists. The healing and "luck" aspects of Bori members performances, almost entirely women, give new social roles for their rituals and practitioners.[6] Bori ritual societies, separated from governing structures, provide a powerful corporate identity for the women who belong to them through the practice of traditional healing, as well as through the performance of Bori festival like the girka initiation ritual.[7]