Sacred Justice and Communal Law: Amadioha’s Archetypes as an Instrument of Indigenous Jurisprudence in Esiaba Irobi’s The Other Side of the Mask and Nwokedi

Abstract:

Despite the marginalisation of indigenous belief systems by Western legal and cultural frameworks in postcolonial Africa, African dramatic texts continue to invoke sacred deities as viable agents of justice. Amadioha, the Igbo deity of thunder and lightning, is constructed as an archetype of justice and communal law in Esiaba Irobi’s The Other Side of the Mask and Nwokedi. Anchored in Carl Jung’s theory of archetypes and the collective unconscious, the paper interrogates Amadioha’s symbolic functions in the plays. It argues that Irobi represents Amadioha as an impartial enforcer of justice whose authority transcends social status, modernity, and personal affiliation, as exemplified by the punishment of his own priest for judicial corruption. The recourse of westernised characters to indigenous justice systems reflects the persistence of the collective unconscious within postcolonial consciousness. Ultimately, the paper contends that Amadioha is a potent indigenous model for conflict resolution within postcolonial African society.

Keywords: Alternative Dispute Resolution, Amadioha, Igbo Worldview, Traditional Justice

DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2026.v05i01.016

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