My grandmother's name was Eneayi, and this is how I was named. I grew up to now give myself the baptismal name of Monica, having been baptized in the Catholic Church and permitted to give myself a Christian name.
Ever since then, my series of names began to pile up, including Eneayi, Monica, Mary, and others. African culture can give a single child several names based on eulogies from both parents and relatives of the child. When you hear names like "Enenu" "Enuwa" from Idoma tribe of Benue state be rest assured that the individual is seen as a mother reincarnated.
Mysterious stories of incarnation have been upheld in my culture. And every behavior seen in a newborn is attributed to the story of the dead person coming back to life. My dad was particularly sure about me being his mother incarnate and preferred to call me by the name "mummy" from birth until now. If you come around the neighborhood, the only thing people call it is "mummy.".
We had a lot of herbalists to consult with whenever a child was sick in order to know if it had something connected to the dead or someone willing to reincarnate into another person. Often times, when the death of someone happens almost immediately after a child is born in the family, they see the dead as reincarnated into the new born.
In another instance, death happens before the birth of the child. But in most cases, the pregnant woman sees the dead in her dreams, and it is often a certainty that the dead have come to visit the baby she is carrying in order to possess the baby.
Maybe the story of reincarnation is possibly true, and even now I can relate some of the things I have seen in my grandma's life to my own personal life. Out of all the children my parents birthed, I have been the only one who went farther ahead to take on the phenotypic stature of my grandmother. My height, manner of speech, character, and behavior are all similar to that woman's own.
I had an unusual wisdom and insight as a child that made even the elderly respect the speech from my mouth.
On several occasions, I have received special treatment and sometimes a form of sacrifice to appease the reincarnated person in me. Sacrifices were made over my life to avert some of the evil and sickness experienced by this woman while she was alive, hoping and believing that I would not experience such misfortune in my own life. Till date, I still receive special treatment from my dad, as he will never stop believing that I was his mother reincarnated.
What the salvation of Christ brought to me.
Even though I have held to this belief for a long and upheld tradition, I have begun to cut myself off from such beliefs after receiving the gospel of Christ. I totally agree that reincarnation is true and real, but I won't let a ghost live inside me or dictate how and in what direction my life should go.
Living someone else's life will be the worst limitation anyone can suffer.
God knew me before he formed me in the womb; he has a specific purpose for my life, and living that reality means accepting to live my grandmother's life against the sacrifice of the cross.
I want to live my own life, fulfill my destiny and purpose, pursue my dreams and goals in life, and most likely do something new for the world to see.
May God rest every dead person and cause them not to bother us again. Terrible stories of ghosts and reincarnation can cause depression and anxiety in people's lives.
I know and understand fully well how people can suffer from thesame sicknesses suffered by the deceased when they were alive, it is better to detach and love your own life
Not living your own life the way you want will cause frustrating and remain a thorn in the flesh for life.
This is my submission to the #mayinleo and I'm using this medium to invite other hivers to come and participate in this prompt with a lot of interesting topics via this link
All images are mine
Hope you had a good read and Thank you for stopping by.
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Thanks be to God, we are happy to see your post in the MCGI Cares Hive community, we want to invite you to reach us on WhatsApp +971523490523 to guide you how we are doing on this community. God bless you @monica-ene
Amen. Will head over now. Thank you