Modernity and Burial Rituals in Igbo Land: A Paranormal Communication Approach

The Igbo people believe that a well done burial ritual would determine the well-being of the deceased in the land of the “living-dead”. It is therefore expected that their loved ones perform proper burial rituals to ensure the peaceful rest of the deceased and to avert the wrath of the dead. This study examined modernity and burial rituals in Igbo land from a paranormal communication perspective. The Functionalism approach as propounded by Smith, Burner and White in 1956 was used as the theoretical underpinning for this study. This study adopted textual analysis of historical and oral literature. The findings of this study revealed that modernity has affected the Igbo culture, and also showed that there are socio-religious consequences of not meeting up with the burial ritual demands. As a result, the researchers recommend amongst others that stakeholders in the community and the society at large come together to revive the Igbo culture. They also recommend that families do the needful to ensure that their 'dead' is properly buried to avoid certain misfortunes.

Entrepreneurship and dignity of man in Igbo Worldview

One of the greatest values in Igbo cosmology just like most people of the world is the dignity of the human person; and the parlance that there is dignity in labour is not strange to the Igbo people of Nigeria. In fact, it would be said that ndi Igbo are the people that understood the parlance better than every other people of the world. Consequently, an Igbo person does anything humanly possible to acquire the dignity bestowed by labour on humanity through genuine means he or she knows how.One will now wonder little why ndi Igbo engage in all sorts of enterprise excluding none. This is because they believe that it is in enterprise that man’s dignity is haboured. Physically, among the factors that enhance man’s dignity, wealth is the simplest and most visible that one can easily access; ndi Igbo believe that it is through ones enterprise that wealth can be created. Therefore, the paperseeks to consider analytically those enterprenual activities that ndi Igbo explore such as Igbaboi, Imuahia, olu aka and other entrepreneurial and apprenticeship system through which they ensure that wealth keep on circulating in their midst in other to ensure that man’ dignity remains sacrosanct in Igbo cosmology.

The Rhythm of Communal Identity

The relationship between language, music and cultural identity has always been of special interest in the social sciences, especially in the areas of anthropology, social psychology and ethnomusicology. The main argument revolves on how language reflected through music positively impacts on the identity of a social group, and what happens where this is lacking. Cultures die and languages go into extinction when there are no creative ways of keeping them alive. The aim of this essay is to investigate how the culture and language of a particular society could be safeguarded through music. Beyond the theoretical framework, I shall substantiate this investigation with the example of the Igbo people of Southeastern Nigeria, whose cultural identity is seriously threatened by the lack of interest in the local language among the people. Part of this disinterestedness is caused by the unique tendency of Igbo people to travel outside their original communities and to culturally adapt in their diaspora communities. This essay therefore aims at a) addressing this problem of identity through a sociological analysis of communal identity, and b) seeking how identity could be rediscovered through music that is delivered in a local language, illustrated with the example of Igbo cultural group. It is hoped that such analysis would aid in presenting another means of safeguarding endangered local languages, which invariably has a lot of implications for the cultural identity of the group involved. Of course, the analysis that is advanced here is not limited to the Igbo since the argument is based on a general epistemological function of music and language with respect to cultural identity.

Archaeology of Igboland, Southeastern Nigeria

Archaeological research began relatively late in southeastern Nigeria compared with other African countries. The site of Igboukwu, despite the remarkable discoveries made there accidentally in 1938, was not investigated thoroughly until 1959. The first systematic archaeological excavations in the region took place between December 1959 and January 1960. The Igboukwu excavations yielded hundreds of glass beads, intricately produced bronze objects, elaborately decorated potsherds, and various iron tools that revealed the artistic ingenuity of the Igbo people. These archaeological findings laid a good foundation for archaeological research in southeastern Nigeria. Subsequently, from 1964 to 1978, human-made tools including hand axes, flakes, cores, polished stone axes, ground stone axes, and microliths were discovered at various locations in the region. At the Lejja, Opi, and Aku iron smelting sites, evidence of slag blocks, tuyere fragments, furnace remains, iron ores, and potsherds are seen on the surface, suggesting large-scale intensive iron-working production in the past. These archaeological remains from stratified archaeological deposits showcase a people with a distinctive past.

Anglicization of Written Igbo Personal and Place Names: A Sociolinguistic Study

The Igbo people are at the verge of losing their language, culture and identity to the English Language [Azuonye 2002, Asonye 2013, Emeka-Nwobia 2020]. This work aims at investigating into the Anglicization of written Igbo personal and place names with a view to highlighting the extent of spellings and pronunciation inconsistencies, discover what impact it has on the learning and development of the language, and discover ways the attitude of the people can be changed towards the language to forestall its death. It argues that the spelling inconsistencies it introduced to the language is a source of challenge to learners, the majority of whom already have negative attitude towards the language. Ogbalu [1974], Oruchalu [1979] and Okodo [2008] made lists of anglicized names with their correct Igbo spellings, and decried the practice. The data for this research were collected from personal experiences, class lists, radio and television programmes, the internet, social and print media, and interviews. It concludes that a change in the attitude of the people towards their language, culture and identity as well as total implementation of the Onwu Orthography with regards to the spelling of personal and place names will complement the efforts being made to sustain the language.

Acculturation and Traditional Mortuary Rites of the Nawfia of Southeastern Nigeria

This ethnography explores the traditional mortuary rites of the Nawfia, an Igbo group of Southeast Nigeria, aiming to understand the mortuary rites of the Nawfia, how and why it has changed and the factors responsible for the changes. The main data collection strategy was participant observation that began in April 2014. It was supplemented with in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The study found Christianity as a major acculturative factor that has altered almost all the facets of the traditional mortuary rites of the Nawfia Igbo. Furthermore, mortuary rites do not only reinforce social solidarity among the Nawfia Igbo people but also according to what the Nawfia people believe, enable the deceased to attain his rightful position in the spirit world.

Cultural Diversity in Igbo Life: A Postcolonial Response to Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God

In his book Chinua Achebe, David Caroll (1980) describes the novel Arrow of God as a fight for dominance both on the theological and political level, as well as in the framework of Igbo philosophy. In Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe (1990), famous Achebe critics C. L. Innes and Berth Lindforts consider Arrow of God as a novel with conflicting ideas and voices inside each community with the tensions and rivalries that make it alive and vital. Another profound scholar on Achebe Chinwe Christiana Okechukwu (2001) in Achebe the Orator: The Art of Persuasion in Chinua Achebe's Novels assesses Arrow of God, which depicts a community under imminent danger of cultural genocide unleashed by agents of Western imperialism who have recently arrived in the indigenous society. However, the author in this study attempts to see Arrow of God as a postcolonial response to cultural diversity that upholds its uniting and cohesive force in Nigerian Igbo life. The goal is to look at how Achebe, in response to misleading western discourses, develops a simplistic image and appreciation that persists in Igbo life and culture even as colonization takes hold. This paper also exhibits how the Igbo people share their hardships, uphold their age-old ideals, celebrate festivals, and even battle on disagreements. This study employs postcolonial theory to reconsider aspects of cultural diversity among the African Igbo people, which are threatened by the intervention of European colonialism in the name of religion, progress, and civilization.

Religious and Ethical Dress Code Dynamics in Africa : Igbo Traditional Society in Focus

Dress can be a reflection of the social world order, which is bound by a tacit set of rules, customs, conventions, and rituals that guide face-to-face interaction as observed in Africa and among people of Igbo descent. Africans are known for their cultural values and norms which their dress codes are significantly recognised in line with their national identity and symbols. The method adopted in this research work is qualitative to dissect these negative attitudinal changes in dressing that have led to increase in promiscuity, less zeal in education, crime and corruption. Findings showed that ‘riot’ in dress code are a reflection of lack of family values and orientations, parental negligence and irresponsibility. From late twentieth century to this twenty first century, there is a twist in the ethics of dressing that have defiled moral values, class, status, religiosity and cultural identity. For instance, before the above mentioned period in any gathering, one can easily differentiate the married from the singles, celebrities from other members of the society, the affluence from the poor, masquerades from human beings, the prostitutes, and gigolos from the decent. Today, there is ‘riot’ in dress code that some people dress like traditional priests and lunatics in the name of fashion or ‘fashion in vogue’. Women, both married and single dress alike which makes it difficult to differentiate the married from the single; this is also applicable to men. The focus of this research work on Igbo of Southeast Nigeria is for effective investigation. Again, Igbo people are adventurers which brings the globe as a village to them be it negative or positive including dressing. People ought to adhere to religious and social differentiations in dress code which recognise regional groups, classes, occupation, majority and minority groups, educational levels, persons of different ages, men and women.