1. Kwame Gyekye: The relation of Okra (soul)
and Honam (body): An Akan Conception.
Akan people consider a human being to be constituted of 3 elements
1. Okra (soul) (immaterial): that which constitutes the inner most self, the essence, of the
individual person. Presence of divine essence in a human being. It can be considered the
equivalent of the concept of the soul in other metaphysical systems
The conception of the okra as constituting the individual’s life, the life force, is linked closely
with another concept: Honhom (breath). It is the noun form of home, to breath. They can
express the same thought: the death of the person. But are not identical. Honhom is the
evidence of the presence of Okra. (In some dialects of the Akan language, honhom has come
to be used interchangeably with sunsum (spirit)).
2. Sunsum (spirit) (immaterial?): has been used both generically to refer to all unperceivable,
mystical beings and forces in Akan ontology, and specifically to refer to the activating
principle in the person. It is not identical with the soul. The mind – when it is not identified
with the soul – it may be rendered also by sunsum.
Gyekye refutes misconceptions from anthropological writings:
a. That the sunsum derives from the father.
b. That it is not divine
c. That it perishes with the disintegration of the honam (body):
Material: If the sunsum perishes along with the body, a physical object, then
it follows that the sunsum also is something physical or material. Danquah's
philosophical analysis concludes that “sunsum is, in fact, the matter or the physical
basis of the ultimate ideal of which okra (soul) is the form and the spiritual or mental
basis."
The question if its material or immaterial has been a source of confusion for many.
Immaterial: The explanation given by most Akans of the phenomenon of
dreaming also indicates, it seems to Gyekye, that sunsum must be immaterial. In
sleep the sunsum (actor of the dream) is said to be released from the fetters of the
body. The idea of the physical part of a person leaving the body in sleep appears to
be widespread in Africa.
The idea that some part of the soul leaves the body in sleep is not completely
absent from the history of Western thought. Plato’s passage indicates a link
between dreams and desires.
In Akan psychology the sunsum appears not only as unconscious but also as that
which pursues and experiences desires. But the really interesting part of Plato's
thesis for our purposes relates to the idea of some part of the human soul leaving
the body in dreams. "The wild beast in us" in Plato's passage is not necessarily
equivalent to the Akan sunsum, one may say that just as Plato's "wild beast" (which,
like the sunsum, experiences dreams) iş a part of the soul and thus NOT a physical
object, so is sunsum.
It might be supposed that if the sunsum can engage in activity; such as traveling
through space or occupying physical location - like standing on the top of a
mountain- THEN IT CAN HARDLY BE SAID NOT TO BE A PHYSICAL OBJECT. complex.
But how can a physical object leave the person? The fact that dreaming occurs only
in sleep makes it a unique sort of mental activity and its subject, namely sunsum, a
different sort of subject. A physical object can’t be in 2 places at the same time.
Whatever is on top of a mountain in a dream must be something NONPHYSICAL,
nonbodily, and yet somehow be connected to a physical thing, the body.
and Honam (body): An Akan Conception.
Akan people consider a human being to be constituted of 3 elements
1. Okra (soul) (immaterial): that which constitutes the inner most self, the essence, of the
individual person. Presence of divine essence in a human being. It can be considered the
equivalent of the concept of the soul in other metaphysical systems
The conception of the okra as constituting the individual’s life, the life force, is linked closely
with another concept: Honhom (breath). It is the noun form of home, to breath. They can
express the same thought: the death of the person. But are not identical. Honhom is the
evidence of the presence of Okra. (In some dialects of the Akan language, honhom has come
to be used interchangeably with sunsum (spirit)).
2. Sunsum (spirit) (immaterial?): has been used both generically to refer to all unperceivable,
mystical beings and forces in Akan ontology, and specifically to refer to the activating
principle in the person. It is not identical with the soul. The mind – when it is not identified
with the soul – it may be rendered also by sunsum.
Gyekye refutes misconceptions from anthropological writings:
a. That the sunsum derives from the father.
b. That it is not divine
c. That it perishes with the disintegration of the honam (body):
Material: If the sunsum perishes along with the body, a physical object, then
it follows that the sunsum also is something physical or material. Danquah's
philosophical analysis concludes that “sunsum is, in fact, the matter or the physical
basis of the ultimate ideal of which okra (soul) is the form and the spiritual or mental
basis."
The question if its material or immaterial has been a source of confusion for many.
Immaterial: The explanation given by most Akans of the phenomenon of
dreaming also indicates, it seems to Gyekye, that sunsum must be immaterial. In
sleep the sunsum (actor of the dream) is said to be released from the fetters of the
body. The idea of the physical part of a person leaving the body in sleep appears to
be widespread in Africa.
The idea that some part of the soul leaves the body in sleep is not completely
absent from the history of Western thought. Plato’s passage indicates a link
between dreams and desires.
In Akan psychology the sunsum appears not only as unconscious but also as that
which pursues and experiences desires. But the really interesting part of Plato's
thesis for our purposes relates to the idea of some part of the human soul leaving
the body in dreams. "The wild beast in us" in Plato's passage is not necessarily
equivalent to the Akan sunsum, one may say that just as Plato's "wild beast" (which,
like the sunsum, experiences dreams) iş a part of the soul and thus NOT a physical
object, so is sunsum.
It might be supposed that if the sunsum can engage in activity; such as traveling
through space or occupying physical location - like standing on the top of a
mountain- THEN IT CAN HARDLY BE SAID NOT TO BE A PHYSICAL OBJECT. complex.
But how can a physical object leave the person? The fact that dreaming occurs only
in sleep makes it a unique sort of mental activity and its subject, namely sunsum, a
different sort of subject. A physical object can’t be in 2 places at the same time.
Whatever is on top of a mountain in a dream must be something NONPHYSICAL,
nonbodily, and yet somehow be connected to a physical thing, the body.
