This is Bishop Shanahan (1871-1943).

He is an Irishman who, by translating the Igbo god EKWENSU as the version of the Bible Satan, single-handedly demonised the god.

Ekwensu was an extremely fierce and cunning god that the Igbo people worshipped before the Europeans turned IGBO land into their own territory. The Igbo people used Ekwensu to mislead or repel their enemies. The Yoruba term Esu is the equivalent of Ekwensu.

The revered EKUMEKU warriors were helped by Ekwensu, the chief diety, to fight and oppose the British for thirty-one years, according to British belief. Therefore, Bishop Shanahan used psychological manipulation to get ndị ìgbo to reject EKWENSU.

For this reason, he included it in the Igbo translation of their Bible, which led to the Igbo people’s eternal hostility with their esteemed and beneficial diety, Ekwensu.

An ordinary Igbo man nowadays finds it extremely difficult to comprehend that EKWENSU is never Satan because of the evil deeds of Bishop Shanahan.

Nothing resembles Satan in the Igbo worldview. All dietys (gods or angels) carry out their various duties solely for the sake of humanity.

This explains why some Igbo communities still go by the name Umu-Ekwensu today, just as some villages still go by the name Umu-Chukwu.

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