Is Predestination a Myth or Reality?

By Yamilenu Bamgboye 

The concept of predestination is a brew of belief and disbelief in many quarters. That notwithstanding, every religious system one way or another acknowledges its reality, importance and the domineering power it possesses over every single activity of man. 

In Igbo cosmology, it is conceived from the angle of palm-lines (Akara Aka), that which Divinity, during creation, has kept for or preordained one to be in life and this is identifiable with one’s Chi---the divine particle in man by which he shares in the Supreme Being and the basis which rests with man’s immortality and communion with the spirit realm (Ilogu, 1974:146). The Yoruba belief system considers it as what a person has had long before birth. According to Olatunji Oyesile, a person has had his biography or life history written before he comes into the world. It is this biography that the person comes to the world to fulfil with the help of his Ori---man’s consciousness and direct connection to Olodumare, the Supreme Force. It is this consciousness that guides the destiny of an individual as he journeys and controls the events characterizing the core of his existence t h r o u g h d i s c o v e r i e s , i d e a s , opportunities, wrong or right decisions, hardships, disappointments and joys, failures and successes, etc. (as explained by Apena Fagbemijo Amosun Fakayode, the Otun Amufawuni of Ibadan Land). 

Al-Qadr is what it is called in Islam. Muslims generally believe that humans cannot choose to do something if Allah has not already chosen that path for them even when it is evil (Qur’an 9:51). Also in Christendom, predestination is established from many instances but we’ll look at just two. First, Abraham had been told many years before the Israelis got enslaved in Egypt for over 400 years, how they would leave with great possessions and how his fourth generation would be led back to the land of Canaan he had settled in at the time (Gen 15:13,16). Next, we see how the path of Jeremiah had been chosen (to become a prophet) even before he was formed in the womb (Jer 1:5). So the critical question now is at what point does man’s free will intersperse with predestination, or at what point does it end? 

To start with, we can say that man’s free will intersperses with destiny when there is an alignment of choices. Free will is f r e e d o m , man’s freedom of choices. It is explained by realists as the freedom man finds in his destiny. So, this alignment could be so intuitively natural to the point that a person will claim responsibility for all his actions by thinking his career, marital and other right choices and decisions are basically because he is smart enough to know what he wants, how he wants it and when to want it. For this singular reason, many ridicule church goers and even choose not to believe in the existence of Divinity. Or isn’t it pointless when they always sweat less to have the good life many die praying for? I remember the story of two teenage students who were in the same class and also shared the same dormitory. After a major test on a fateful day, one of the students went to their teacher crying. He said, ‘Sir, I read all through the week for this test, day and night but K never r e a d anyth i n g .H e didn’t o p e n a s i n g l e p a g e , he was a l w a y s sleeping yet he got more marks than I did. Poor kid! He’s oblivious of the fact that some brains are so magnetic. Truth is you can only have what you’re given; it’s that simple. 

Man’s free will therefore ends at the juncture where logical explanations for certain occurrences fail. It’s at this juncture some consider predestination as an explanatory model since they believe they have the free will to choose their own life plans and work towards their realization. I know the story of one too many people who fancied chastity a lot before marriage and up until now are yet to have a single baby of theirs. Yet, I know another who was an escort and maybe already had series of abortions in our university days. In fact, in our third year, she met a rich guy who insisted on marrying her. Today, they have about three adorable kids. 

Man’s free will also ends at the juncture where there is a divine conception about a thing or an idea. This could happen through unintended discoveries (complete fluke), mistakes and deliberate attempts to overcome a challenge. Quinine, the potent antimalaria compound, for instance, was found in the bark of the cinchona tree by accident. It had been that while an Andean man was lost in the jungle, he suffered from malaria and drank from a pool of water at the base of a cinchona tree. Bitter to taste yes, but his condition improved and he survived. What about the x-ray machine? Wilhelm Roentgen, the German physicist, was working on a cathode ray tube when he noticed something strange. Despite the tube being covered, he saw a nearby fluorescent screen glow when the tube was on and the room was darkened. He tried to block the invisible rays but most things didn’t have any effect. Then he tried to use his hand. In the process, he noticed he could see his bones in an image projected on the screen. And then the chewing gum nko? Thomas Adams was experimenting with chicle, the sap from a South American tree as a substitute for rubber in 1870. after mounting failures, the dejected inventor popped a piece into his mouth and he liked it. His brand became the first mass-produced chewing gum in the world. Others in these category of discoveries include saccharin, LSD from lysergic acid, penicillin, anesthesia from nitrous oxide, insulin, vulcanized tube, shatterproof glass and many more.

Additionally, man’s free will ends when he is divinely chosen according to Jer 1:5 to occupy a position or champion a cause for which many would later be beneficiaries. The story of Hamilton Naki of South Africa that comes to mind is one of a kind. This man was an unschooled surgeon who acquired so much skills in liver and heart transplants just by observation at the  University of Cape Town’s medical school where he worked at a menial job at the time after elementary school at age 14. He became so good to the point that the university ignored the apartheid laws that forbade a black man from such and let him teach surgical techniques to generations of medical students. Though he was never recognized as a surgeon and was never paid the wages of a surgeon even after retirement but in 2002, he w a s a w a r d e d t h e O r d e r o f Mapungubwe, one of South Africa’s highest honours and in 2003, the university awarded him an honourary master of science degree in medicine. 

Now if predestination is real as we’ve perceived, does it cripple man’s ability and conscious efforts to overcome his challenges? Hell no! But it can if allowed through laziness and mediocrity. Though we choose not to lose sight of the fact that everything a man does positively or negatively is always towards the fulfillment of his destiny however, man is saddled with the responsibility of doing his own part of the bargain and that is having something to do and being diligent at it. In Prov 6:9-11 and 10:4, we are told that this menace (of having a slack hand) is capable of impoverishing a man of supposed great destiny. Another thing predestination can do to people of shallow understanding is limitation. Limitation is that point or level beyond which something may not pass. If an individual for instance is told he’s been predestined to be a road side seller, his eyes of understanding may not open to the highest level of road side trades he could do and just choose to stick to the tray-carrying, tire-mounting displays of his scanty wares. Other than that, it could also be mental. Knowledge, they say, is continually acquired but in his heart of hearts, he could undermine the acquisition of computer skills when he can’t reconcile its essence to his road side business. 

And the chief of all is unhealthy rivalry. This is Africa and we’ve got ‘ika’ like someone will say. Lol. Does that make any sense to you? Okay, let me break it down. Here in this part of the world, the way people crave for other people’s possessions and their years of labour is pathetically terrifying! So, to have just as much and make up for those years of labour, they get involved in all sorts of things like stealing and money rituals. Some even steal other people’s destinies after consulting diviners to access the realm of the spirits on their behalf. Some of those who choose not to go down that path become unnecessarily jealous and envious of successful people so much that they even try to do their kind of businesses and end up with tons of regrets. Yusuf Gemini’s poem Ori says:

Ise ti Kehinde a se ni le aye ti Taye ba 

danwo o le ru gi oyin

Eni ti o lola lowuro o ni ni losan, eni ti o 

ni losan o ni ni la le

Tibi tire la da ye…

...ori loni se. 

Our success, our failure lies in Ori inu

the Ori inu--the Ori bearer of our ipin, 

Ori apere , asiniwa ye the guardian 

ko s'orisa ti n da ni gbe lehin Ori…

Therefore, let us bear in mind that:

A good destiny is ignited with iwapele

Morality is the errand boy to Ori

no one has chosen the ugly side of life

but when we get to earth, we get 

influenced

by things that don't exist

then we get stranded, we loose our 

way

the search begins and that is life

some get missing on the road to find 

ayanmo

some embrace the soil on the road to 

find ayanmo

some give it all up but whose fault is it 

Ori or eyan?...

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