Cosmic harmony: Understanding the eco-spiritual connectivity of the Ngie clan in Shadrach Ambanasom's Son of the Native Soil (2009)

Abstract

The imposition of Western Religious systems of worship in the African societies as a by-product of colonization has destabilized the bio-spirituality of the Africans. The African man is a natural man whose survival is based on his intimate connection with his environment and the forces that lord over it. This article questions the introduction of the colonial spirituality that has challenged the strong relationship between man and his environment and distracted the African spirituality. According to Buzzel et al, the Africans belief on the earth and her creatures as being potent expressions of the sacred, (qtd. in Cheryl Fisher 2005) on whom their well-being and survival is challenged. This study focuses on the Ngie Society in Ambanasom’s Son of the Native Soil and seeks to establish the spiritual connectivity that binds the people of that society to their environment. How the Ngie people thrive in their daily existence to sustain this sacred bond so as not to provoke the wrath of the controlling supernatural forces is on focus here. By exploring the postmodernist recognition of mini-cultures and religions, the study through African Hermeneutics and Ecocriticism investigates the outcome of a disruption in cosmic harmony where the living are considered the underdogs.