Egyptian mystery school and sacred/religious lexicon: Their ancient Igbo foundations and implications for Egyptology
Dir. Prof. Catherine Acholonu-Olumba
Nigeria
Summary: The lexicon of Egyptian religious and sacred language is replete with words of same sound and meaning with Igbo equivalents (cognates). Likewise the foundations of some of the deepest concepts of Egyptian mystery school can be traced to Igbo land through signals borne by two major dialects of Igbo land still fopund in Egyptian lexicon. This suggests that the earliest Egyptian priests (those who introduced religious practices and worship of gods to Egypt), were Igbo-speaking. The plethora of names of Egyptian gods that are Igbo in sound and meaning suggest that these were imported from Igbo land to ancient Nigeria, where the autochthonous Igbo have lives from the cave-man days of Homo Erectus and had built subsequently a civilization only now being rediscovered.
Egyptian religious words with Igbo sounds and meaning are legion. Egyptian religion was initiatory is every respect. It was a religion that was more of a way of life, a culture and tradition all rolled into one. Egyptians did not live outside their religion, for their religion defined and shaped their lives and determined their afterlife. The past, the present and the afterlife were intricately woven together and every individual bore the three dimensions of existence inside his consciousness at all times. Through the process of initiation, each person was able to experience and recall not only his individual past, present and future, but that of the collective - the entire Egyptian society - becoming a living instrument for the ancestors to come alive in the present.