Reflections Witnout Mirror: Niyi Aborisade
The Mystery of Re-incarnation and Akudaaya (one that died and was seen in another place)
For years, people have been confused about the difference between reincarnation and Akudaaya and use the same English word for them.
To begin with, Re incarnation simply means the rebirth of a soul in another body whereas Akudaaya is a spiritual transportation of the same body and same spirit of the same person that died to another place to begin another life. One peculiar thing about Akudaya ( if truly they exist) is that they can not die again. They will disappear to another realm in their fullness of time.
In yoruba land, we have names that lend credence to their beliefs in reincarnation. Names like ‘ Yetunde’ (Mother has returned) Iyabo, Babajide, (father has returned early) Akintunde,(,The brave one has returned) Baba Wale, etc. This belief is popular in Africa and some parts of Asia
However, is there anything like ‘reincarnation or Akudaaya?
I checked the bible in accordance with the advocates of reincarnation, which relies on Matthew 11.3-15 ” Are thou he that cometh or look we for another? Verily i say unto you, among them that are born of women there are not a greater than John the Baptist. Yet he that is, but little in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it , this is Elijah, which is to come. In Matthew 17,- 10-13 ….. “and his disciples asked him, saying, why then say the scribes that Elijah indeed cometh and shall restore all things, but I say unto you that Elijah is come already, and they knew him not but did unto him whatsoever they listed. Even so shall the son of man also suffer of them. Then, understood the disciples that he spoke to them of John the Baptist. ” This is the only example of something related with reincarnation in the bible but it is at variance with with Hebrew 9 vs 27 ‘it is appointed for a man to die once, henceforth come judgment’ and so majority of christians rejected the doctrine of reincarnation for a simple reason; Apparently, Elijah did not die, for he was taken to heaven by chariot of fire. However, John died for speaking the truth, he was beheaded at the behest of Herod’s daughter. Whether Elijah and John the Baptist are the same and one is debatable as to whether he came with Elijah spirit as a prophet or the same person.
My questions for those who believes in reincarnation is to ask whether the purported reincarnated person was aware of his past life and can recount them at all because if there is no consciousness of past lives, it would be difficult to establish connection between the person that died and the one that is newly born.
I would have dismissed the belief in reincarnation with a wave of hands, but for these two reasons, I can not.
1. There was a guy that I grew up with and I was a primary school classmate of his senior brother. This guy was born in 1968 during the Nigeria civil war, 2 bullets were extracted from his body when he was born. For many of us who knew his background, we called him ‘ Aloku Soja ( a former soldier) a name he did not like and rejected. He is still alive, and I saw him as recent as August this year, 2023. There is something about him that i can not discuss here.
2. There was another guy that we grew up together, he was circumcised already when he was born and did not need to be circumcised again. As young as we were then, there was nowhere he did not know in Ibadan and he would always take us to anywhere without our parents’ knowledge. It got to a stage that we had to tell our grandmother, it was then she told us that the boy was not a child of yesterday. His knowledge of many things and places was confirmation that he had lived before and can still remember those places that he had been in his previous life. There is something unique about him that I can not discuss here.
The belief in reincarnation has been drastically reduced in Africa, which may not be unconnected with the modern religions. It is needless to say here that some of our politicians and leaders in Nigeria are reincarnation of evil.
Akudaaya ( one that died and seen in another place living again in the same body, and some even married and procreated children. Like the Yoruba and African belief, the Isrealites also believed in Akudaaya or ghosts. Mark 6 v 49 And when (the disciples) they saw Him ( Jesus) walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; so there was this believe in a ghost even by the disciples of Jesus christ. In another area of the bible, after Peter was inmprisoned and the angel of God released him and took him out, when he got to where the disciples were praying, the person that opened the door for him quickly shut the door because he thought that it was his ghost that he saw. Though, Akudaaya was not just a ghost or appartition of the dead but the existence of a person that died and became a living ghost in another place that he was not known and can not be recognised
This is a great phenomenon because of the different testimonies of those who have seen them . There was…… to be continued
Niyi Aborisade is a lawyer, a human rights activist and a historian
