Igbo Rites Os Passage and Art Igbo Rites of Passage and Art

Igbo

PRONUNCIATION: EE-bo

ALTERNATE NAMES: Ibo

LOCATION: Southern Nigeria (Igboland)

POPULATION: 5.5 1000000

Linguistic communication: Igbo (Kwa subfamily of the Niger-Congo linguistic communication family)

Organized religion: Tribal religion

one • INTRODUCTION

The Igbo are the second largest group of people living in southern Nigeria. They are socially and culturally diverse, consisting of many subgroups. Although they live in scattered groups of villages, they all speak one language.

The Igbo accept no common traditional story of their origins. Historians have proposed 2 major theories of Igbo origins. One claims the being of a core area, or "nuclear Igboland." The other claims that the Igbo are descended from waves of immigrants from the northward and the west who arrived in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Three of these are the Nri, Nzam, and Anam.

European contact with the Igbo began with the arrival of the Portuguese in the mid-fifteenth century. At first the Europeans confined themselves to slave trade on the Niger Coast. At this signal, the main item of commerce provided past the Igbo was slaves, many of whom were sent to the New World. After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, British companies pushed beyond the coastal areas and aggressively pursued control of the interior. The Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, created in 1900, included Igboland. Until 1960, Nigeria remained a British colony, and the Igbo were British subjects. On Oct 1, 1960, Nigeria became an independent nation structured as a federation of states.

2 • LOCATION

Igboland is located in southeastern Nigeria, with a total land area of about fifteen,800 square miles (about 41,000 square kilometers). The Igbo land has four singled-out areas. The depression-lying deltas and riberbank areas are heavily inundated during the rainy flavour, and are very fertile. The central belt is a rather high plain. The Udi highlands are the but coal-mining area in West Africa.

It is hard to obtain accurate census figures for either the Igbo or for Nigeria as a whole. The Igbo population is estimated to be between 5 and six meg.

3 • Linguistic communication

The Igbo language belongs to the Niger-Congo linguistic communication family. It is part of the Kwa subfamily. A complicated arrangement of high and low tones indicates differences in meaning and grammatical relationships. At that place are a wide range of dialects.

Here are a few Igbo expressions:

English	Igbo
Hello, how are yous?	Keku ka imelo?
What is your name?	Kedu ahagi?
Thank you	Ndewo

4 • FOLKLORE

The Igbo take a arrangement of folk beliefs that explains how everything in the globe came into existence. It explains what functions the heavenly and earthly bodies have and offers guidance on how to conduct toward gods, spirits, and one's ancestors.

The Igbo believe the world is peopled by invisible and visible forces: by the living, the dead, and those yet to be born. Reincarnation is seen as a span between the living and the dead.

5 • Faith

The major beliefs of the Igbo faith are shared by all Igbo-speaking people. However, many of its practices are locally organized, with the most effective unit of measurement of religious worship beingness the extended family. Periodic rituals and ceremonies may activate the lineage (larger kinship unit) or the hamlet, which is the widest political customs.

The Igbo believe in a supreme god who keeps watch over his creatures from a distance. He seldom interferes in the affairs of homo beings. No sacrifices are made directly to him. Withal, he is seen every bit the ultimate receiver of sacrifices made to the minor gods. To distinguish him from the small-scale gods he is called Chukwu—the great or the high god. As the creator of everything, he is chosen Chukwu Abiama.

There are besides minor gods, who are mostly subject field to human passions and weaknesses. They may be kind, hospitable, and industrious; at other times they are treacherous, bestial, and envious. These minor gods include Ala, the earth goddess. She is associated with fertility, both of human beings and of the land. Anyanwu is the sun god who makes crops and trees grow. Igwe is the sky god, the source of rain.

In addition to their gods, the Igbo believe in a diverseness of spirits whose good will depends on treating them well. Forests and rivers at the edge of cultivated state are said to be occupied by these spirits. Mbataku and Agwo are spirits of wealth. Others include Aha njoku (the yam spirit) and Ikoro (the drum spirit).

The Igbo attitude toward their deities and spirits is not one of fearfulness simply i of friendship.

half-dozen • MAJOR HOLIDAYS

The Igbo celebrate the major national holidays of Nigeria, including New Twelvemonth's Mean solar day (January 1), Easter (March or April), Nigerian Independence Day (October 1), and Christmas (December 24 to 26).

In addition, each town has its ain local festivals. Those in the spring or summer are held to welcome the new agronomical cycle. In the fall, harvest festivals are held to marking the end of the bicycle.

7 • RITES OF PASSAGE

Circumcision takes place about viii days later the birth of a boy. At this time the umbilical string is cached at the foot of a tree selected past the child's mother.

The name-giving anniversary is a formal occasion historic past feasting and drinking. A wide multifariousness of names may exist chosen. The name may exist based on anything from the child'south birthmarks to the stance of the augur, or seer. The proper name Nwanyimeole —"What can a woman exercise?"—means that a father desires a male child. Onwubiko —"May death forgive"—expresses the fact that parents have lost many of their children and pray that this child may survive.

The process of marrying a young Igbo woman is a long, elaborate one. It is rarely achieved in less than a year and often takes several years. The process falls into four stages: asking the young woman'due south consent, negotiating through a middleman, testing the bride's character, and paying the bride wealth, a kind of dowry.

Expiry in old age is accepted as a blessing. Subsequently death, the trunk is clothed in the person's finest garments. The corpse is placed on a stool in a sitting posture. Old friends and relatives visit and pay their last respects. Young men wrap the corpse in grass mats, behave information technology out to the burial ground, and bury information technology. When the head of a family dies, he is buried beneath the flooring of his firm. Burial generally follows within twenty-four hours of death.

8 • RELATIONSHIPS

Two criteria shape interpersonal relations: age and gender. Respect is given to males, and to older persons. Children are always required to offer the get-go greeting to their elders.

Social condition is based on wealth, regardless of occupation. The Igbo distinguish betwixt obgenye or mbi (the poor), dinkpa (the moderately prosperous), and nnukwu madu or ogaranya (the rich).

9 • LIVING CONDITIONS

Hamlet life has changed considerably since the discovery of oil in Nigeria. Houses, which used to have mud walls and thatched roofs, are now constructed of cement blocks with corrugated iron roofs. Electricity has been introduced; television sets and radios are now commonplace. Villages have running water, although information technology is not continued to every firm.

x • FAMILY LIFE

Nether the practice of polygyny, many Igbo men have more than than i wife. A successful man marries as many wives as he tin can support. This involves providing farm plots to help the women and their dependents brand a living. The polygynous family unit is fabricated upwardly of a human being and his wives and all their children. Across that unit is the extended family, consisting of all the sons in a family unit and their parents, wives, and unmarried daughters. The extended family may have anywhere from v to thirty members. Ideally, all of the members of the extended family alive in 1 big compound.

The Igbo family has changed in contempo years. Christian marriage and civil marriage are of import innovations. Amid Igbo professional person people, the trend is toward the nuclear family with its own residence.

eleven • CLOTHING

The everyday clothing in urban areas is not unlike from that of Westerners. Traditional clothing is still worn on of import occasions in the cities and every day in rural areas. For everyday wear men habiliment a cotton wrap (robe), a shirt, and sandals. For formal occasions they clothing a long shirt, often decorated with tucks and embroidery, over a dressy wrap, shoes, and a hat. Women article of clothing wraps for both informal and formal occasions. The everyday wrapper is fabricated from cheap cotton fiber, dyed locally. For formal wear, the wrapper is either woven or batikdyed, and often imported.

The blouse for formal wear is made of lace or embroidered. Women likewise wear a head tie, a rectangular slice of cloth that can be worn a number of different ways. The Igbo traditional dress is a danshiki , a long, loose-plumbing equipment meridian. Formerly Igbo women added pieces of cloth to testify their marital status and number of children.

12 • FOOD

The yam is the staple food of the Igbo. Traditionally, the yam was the food of choice for formalism occasions. Nowadays it has been replaced by rice. Other starchy foods include cassava, taro root, maize and plantains.

A typical meal includes a starch and a soup or stew, prepared with a vegetable to which pieces of fish, chicken, beef, or goat meat are added. Jollof rice of diverse types is popular throughout Nigeria. Among the Igbo who live near waterways it is ofttimes prepared with shrimp. The following recipe is very pop.

thirteen • Pedagogy

Since gaining independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has prepare a priority on education. Universal principal teaching is the norm in southern Nigeria, where the Igbo live. Secondary teaching has too developed rapidly.

14 • CULTURAL HERITAGE

The Igbo take number of wind and stringed musical instruments. The ugene is a whistle made of broiled dirt, round in form, and about the size of a billiard ball. Probably the virtually interesting of the Igbo instruments is the ubaw-akwala, a sort of guitar. It has a triangular torso formed by three pieces of soft wood sewn together. Information technology is played by strolling singers in the evenings. Igbo singers improvise as the song gain and show cracking skill in plumbing equipment words to the song's rhythm and tune.

Recipe

Shrimp Jollof Rice

Ingredients

1 pound of shrimp, cooked, shelled, and deveined
2 or 3 fresh tomatoes, or i eight-ounce can whole tomatoes
1 tin can tomato paste
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon ground blackness pepper
3 Tablespoons peanut oil
1 cup white rice cooked in chicken broth co-ordinate to directions on the parcel

Directions

Oestrus the peanut oil in a large kettle.
Add the tomato, peppers, onion, and melt for about 3 minutes until the onions and peppers are softened.
Add together the tomato plant paste, about 2 cups of water, and the carmine pepper flakes and blackness pepper. Simmer for almost fifteen minutes.
While this is simmering, melt the rice in another pot according to package directions.
Add together the shrimp and simmer about 5 minutes longer.
Combine the shrimp sauce with the rice, and pour mixture into an ovenproof dish and embrace.
Identify in an oven prepare at 250° F . Bake until the liquid is absorbed completely.
Stir to loosen the rice grains and serve.

The flavors improve if this dish is made several hours in advance and allowed to rest in the oven with the door ajar.

Dancing is a great Igbo pastime, adept by everybody. There are special dances for boys, girls, men, women, and mixed groups. Group dancing is associated with religious observances and festivals.

15 • EMPLOYMENT

The traditional Igbo economy depends on root-crop farming. Yams, cassava and taro are the chief root crops. There is a division of labor according to gender. Men clear the bush and constitute the yams with the help of the women and the children. Following the planting of yams, plots are allocated to the women individually. Each woman plants other crops in the spaces between the yams and also on the slopes of hills.

Trading is an one-time occupation among the Igbo. The market has become an important source of livelihood. An increasing number of Igbo are at present engaged in wage labor. Growing cities, expanding road construction, new industries, and oil exploration are creating many job opportunities.

16 • SPORTS

Wrestling is the nigh pop sport among boys and young men, with peachy almanac contests in every part of Igbo country.

The other popular sport is soccer. Traditionally played only by boys, it has been introduced to girls through the schoolhouse system.

17 • RECREATION

Traditional amusement includes storytelling, rituals, dancing, and music making. Modern forms of entertainment include watching television and going to movies and discos. Most households own radios, and at that place are several television sets in each hamlet. The Igbo relish games, including card games and checkers. Amid the younger people American youth culture is popular. Most savor listening to rap and rock music.

18 • CRAFTS AND HOBBIES

The Igbo exercise a number of crafts, some performed by men simply and some by women. Carving is a skilled occupation practiced but past men. They produce doors and panels for houses, likewise equally stools, dancing masks, and boxes. Another valued arts and crafts is that of the blacksmith.

Women's crafts include pottery making, spinning, weaving, basketry, and grass plaiting.

xix • SOCIAL Bug

The Igbo have been seriously afflicted by national problems ranging from civil war to armed services coups.

The law-breaking rate in Nigeria is loftier. The problem is worst in larger urban centers, just rural areas are also afflicted. The crime wave was aggravated by the worsening economical weather of the 1980s. Drug-related crime emerged as a major problem. Igboland has so far escaped the worst of this, although marijuana use among young people has been reported.

20 • BIBLIOGRAPHY

Achebe, Chinua. Things Autumn Apart. New York: Knopf, 1995.

Njoku, John E. Eberegbulam. The Igbos of Nigeria: Ancient Rites, Changes, and Survival. Lewiston, North.Y.: East. Mellen Press, 1990.

Ogbaa, Kalu. Igbo . Heritage Library of African Peoples. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 1995.

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Source: https://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Igbo.html