Freewill, Willpower, and the Journey of the Soul Across Lifetimes: An African Cosmological Perspective
BY: OMOLAJA MAKINEE
Across African cosmological traditions, the soul is not a passive passenger drifting between lifetimes—it is an active, negotiating participant in the architecture of destiny. The soul carries memory, purpose, and unfinished obligations from one incarnation to another through the mechanism of burden bags. To understand the continuity and evolution of the soul across lifetimes, one must distinguish two fundamental states: the freewill of the soul world and the willpower required in the land of the living.
These two states are not identical. They are the twin engines that drive the soul’s journey. They shape how destiny is chosen, how burden bags are carried, and how karmic residues are purified or deferred across the cycles of reincarnation.
1. The Soul World: Realm of Freewill, Choice, and Cosmic Negotiation
In the soul world—before birth, after death, and between incarnations—souls exist in a purely etheric state. They are not bound by the cravings, fears, or limitations of biological embodiment. Their essence is light, fluid, and expansive. In this state, there is freewill, but not willpower, because there is no resistance, no struggle, no biological survival instinct to contend with. Freewill in this context is the soul’s ability to:
- Select which burden bags to carry next.
- Defer certain karmic weights to later lifetimes.
- Choose new cross-lineage tasks for spiritual advancement.
- Seek reincarnation circumstances that will offer growth, replenishment, or release.
- Decide when to return, whom to return through within one’s lineage, and what lessons will frame the next life.
In this realm, souls are not coerced. They negotiate. They deliberate. They assess the karmic residues attached to their ka and align themselves with the lessons that will bring equilibrium. They may choose difficult lifetimes not as punishment but as opportunity—opportunity to cleanse, restore, repair, or strengthen aspects of their cosmic identity.
This is why African traditions often describe death as “going home to rest”. It is not merely rest from life—it is rest from willpower. The soul returns to the condition where it is free again, able to exercise pure choice without resistance.
2. The Human World: Realm of Willpower, Survival, and Biological Resistance
When a soul enters the human embodiment, freewill is no longer fully accessible. It is not lost; it is simply compressed beneath the weight of biological survival and environmental conditioning. The body—its hunger, hormones, fears, desires—creates resistance to the soul’s intentions.
Here, the soul must operate with willpower, not freewill.
- Willpower is the force required to overcome bodily cravings.
- Willpower is needed to resist distractions and fulfill ancestral obligations.
- Willpower is required to push through hardship, pain, and suffering.
- Willpower is the effort needed to align biological instincts with cosmic purpose.
The human condition is inherently a battleground. Souls confront not only the tasks encoded in their burden bags, but also the principalities of physical life: fear, scarcity, fatigue, emotional turbulence, and the self-preservation reflex. The body seeks pleasure and safety; the soul seeks growth and restoration. The conflict between these two impulses shapes the drama of human life.
This is why a soul may have chosen a task in the pre-birth state with confidence—only to struggle through it in the physical realm. The intention was free; the execution requires power. In this world, a person cannot simply choose their destiny—they must fight for it.
3. Why Souls Choose to Return: The Function of Karmic Residues
When life ends, burden bags become empty of content, but they leave behind karmic residues—the imprints of what was completed and what was left undone. Light residues ease future incarnations with more choices to choose from. Heavy residues delay entrance into certain destinies and make others unavoidable.
This is where freewill re-emerges. Souls reassess their karmic residues and negotiate their next steps:
- Some burdens are deferred for future lives.
- Some are tackled immediately to prevent stagnation.
- Some are exchanged for cross-lineage tasks that refine strength and character.
- Some require lifetimes of hardship, not as punishment, but as replenishment.
A life of struggle is not meaningless. It is the soul choosing conditions that shake loose the density accumulated over past lifetimes. Poverty, rejection, chronic frustration, or hardship may serve to lighten karmic residues that would otherwise prevent reincarnation or spiritual progression.
In the cosmic perspective, nothing is wasted.
4. The Paradox of the Soul’s Journey
African cosmology presents a profound paradox:
- Souls have freewill only before birth and after death.
- Souls have only willpower while alive.
This paradox explains why human life feels both purposeful and extremely constrained. It explains why some people feel “called” toward tasks they never asked for—they negotiated these tasks before they were born. It explains why instinct, intuition, and destiny often contradict biological comfort. Souls plan their journeys freely, but live them out with tremendous effort.
5. The True Meaning of “Rest” After Death
Death is not an annihilation—it is a transition back into the realm where willpower dissolves and the soul returns to its natural state of freedom. This is why African cultures speak of ancestors resting, not disappearing. Rest does not mean unconsciousness; it means freedom from struggle. In this state:
- the soul reviews its deeds,
- examines its residues,
- negotiates new burden bags,
- and prepares for return if the window of reincarnation remains open.
The soul is not dead—it is liberated.
Conclusion: The Willing and Willing-Through of the Eternal Soul
When the African cosmological framework of burden bags is understood, the narrative of life becomes richer and more compassionate:
- Souls are not punished—they seek equilibrium.
- Hardships are not curses—they are karmic cleansing.
- Success is not luck—it is the fulfilment of burden bag conditions.
- Destiny is not imposed—it is pre-negotiated.
- Life is not random—it is purposeful memory unfolding.
The soul’s journey is the interplay between freewill beyond the body and willpower within it. To live well is to remember that every struggle is part of soul memory, every choice part of its destiny, and every lifetime part of the great negotiation of the eternal self.
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