Mbiti holds that personhood requires a second birth through initiation

Evidence

According to Mbiti, the range of man’s life, from birth to death, in effect moves gradually from sasa to zamani. Man experiences two births: the first is physical and biological, and the second takes place soon after initiation, when the person is considered to be mature and able to transmit life. From that point onwards the individual is considered to be complete. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 274

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Two-birth conception parallels the process of personhood in Tempels’s force theory.

Related

• Complete personhood in African thought requires rites, not just biological birth (similarity 0.84)
• Personhood in Bantu thought is completed only through gradual social rites after physical birth (similarity 0.78)