In Igbo, the word “mmadu” means “human being,” but it is a contraction of the words “mma” and “ndu,” which together literally mean the “beauty of life.” In this cosmology, the beauty of life is in becoming a fully realized, spiritually enlightened individual, an “enlightened one” who is deeply connected to and draws on the primordial blackness of the Igbo creator gods Chukwu and Eke-Nnechukwu.
