The Ontology of Evil and Theodicy in African Traditional Thought and Christian Theology: A Comparative Hausa-Fulani and Biblical Analysis

This doctoral study conducts a rigorous comparative philosophical theology of the concepts of evil and theodicy as understood within Hausa-Fulani traditional thought and classical Christian theology. The problem of evil, understood as the challenge of reconciling divine goodness with the existence of suffering and moral failure, takes on distinctive forms in the Hausa-Fulani cosmological framework, with its understandings of Iskoki (spirit forces), divine sovereignty, fate (kaddara), and ancestral accountability. Employing a comparative ontological analysis methodology that draws on philosophy of religion, African traditional philosophy, and biblical theology, the study gathers primary data through thirty interviews with Hausa-Fulani traditional knowledge holders and Islamic scholars, twenty interviews with Christian theologians and church leaders in Katsina, Kano, and Sokoto states, and textual analysis of Hausa oral literature and classical Islamic-influenced Hausa texts. The study identifies points of structural analogy and fundamental divergence between Hausa-Fulani and Christian frameworks for explaining evil and argues that constructive engagement between these traditions can enrich both Christian theodicy discourse and interfaith dialogue in northern Nigeria. An original theodicy framework is proposed that draws on Hausa-Fulani concepts of communal moral accountability and divine mystery alongside biblical themes of lament, cross, and eschatological hope. Keywords: theodicy, evil, Hausa-Fulani cosmology, comparative theology, African philosophy of religion