During Easter, when the theme of resurrection is reignited, a question often emerges: what, exactly, is restored to life?

A study by Dr. Edward Agboada and and KNUST’s Rev. Fr. Dr. Peter Addai-Mensah turns to African philosophy for an answer, arguing that life cannot be understood through the body alone. Instead, it is shaped by deeper spiritual forces that define identity, purpose and existence.

Published in the E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in 2024, the research examines the concepts of ‘sunsum’ and ‘honhom’, describing them as central to how African societies understand what it means to be human.

In this worldview, a person is not simply a physical being. The human person, onipa, is composed of multiple dimensions, including the body, the soul and a spiritual system that governs character, vitality and consciousness. While the body is visible and perishable, the deeper essence of a person lies in what animates it.

The study explains that ‘honhom’, is understood as a life force, the energy that enables existence, while ‘sunsum’ reflects the individual’s spiritual identity, shaping personality, behaviour and moral disposition. Together, they operate as an internal balance, mediating between the physical impulses of the body and the purity associated with the soul.

This balance is not automatic. It is formed and refined through social life, family structures, cultural practices and moral expectations that shape how individuals think, act and relate to others. In this sense, spirituality is not separate from daily living; it is embedded within it.

The researchers argue that these concepts go beyond simple translations of “spirit” or “soul” in Western theology. Instead, they represent a distinct African epistemology, one that views the physical and spiritual as inseparable and mutually reinforcing.

Life, in this framework, is an activating force that gives meaning and function to existence itself.

This understanding becomes particularly significant in how death is interpreted. Rather than marking an end, death is seen as a transition. The body returns to the earth, but the spiritual components of the person continue through a process that maintains a connection between the living and the ancestral world.

The soul is believed to return to God, while sunsum and honhom undergo transformation, retaining elements of identity and relational ties.

Within this framework, the idea of resurrection takes on a broader meaning. It is not limited to the restoration of physical life but extends to the continuity of identity, purpose and spiritual presence. The question of what rises, therefore becomes theological, as well as, philosophical.