Clarification of Answer by
digsalot-ga
on
12 May 2003 11:16 PDT
Hello again
First of all, Nigeria is unique in that almost 1 in every 4 Africans
lives there. It has one of the highest population densities in the
world. There are times when it has been third on that list.
However, in spite of that large population figure, we can't look at
Nigeria as any kind of microcosm of Africa in general. It isn't.
Nigeria has its own ethnic and cultural identity.
Does it sound as though I'm going to begin using the nomenclature of
tribal and national division that I mentioned above as causing a
problem? - - - Well - - - um ? - - - yes.
This is one of the areas where such division is justifiable in order
to keep the players straight, if for no other reason.
The major divisions of these groups are the Yoruba which live mostly
in the southwest, the Ibo in the southeast and the Hausa-Fulani in the
north. The town Ogidi is in the Ibo region.
Since the pre-clarification request answer dealt mostly with the post
colonial period, so shall this.
I'll start with a little history so that we can tie in the overall
African situation in the first part of the answer to the specific
situation in Nigeria. In some cases, Nigeria is a textbook example.
After it had shed its colonial bonds, the influence of its former
British overlords was still there. The political vacum caused by the
leaving of the white man was rapidly replaced by a government of
militant, totalitarian leaders equally as oppressive as the white
colonists. Just as their former masters, the elite, rich black leaders
look down upon the poor people they rule.
"You see, they are not in the least like ourselves. They don't need
and can't use the luxuries that you and I must have. They have the
animal capacity to endure the pain of, shall we say, domestication.
The very words the white master had said in his times about the black
race as a whole. Now we say them about the poor." - Quote from "The
Continuing Colonialism" -
http://www.postcolonialweb.org/achebe/contcol.html You will find that
the paragraph above this is a paraphrase from one of his, "Jason M.
Smith." The website is a brief but accurate view of the times.
Nigeria had taken step 1 on the path much of Africa had taken. This
is important to know in that what happens in the town of Ogidi is not
isolated from the continental whole. To look at it as such would be a
grave mistake.
In the 19th century people in the Ibo region were making wooden
statues of Queen Victoria. What does that say about the effect of a
colonial power on the culture of the colonized? And the effect on the
colonizer itself?
The Ibo image of Queen Victoria could be saying many things. Was it a
method of revising a colonial ruler in terms that the indigenous
population can accept, much on the order that Asian, Black, and Latino
images of Jesus are created to relate the faith to that part of the
world or that ethnic group? Or maybe it is a 'colonization of the
colonizer' since they present the queen as a traditional cultural
religious object? A modern American version of that would be Native
Americans presenting an "Honorary Chiefdom" to some politician. A
symbolic gesture acknowledging the 'right to rule' but that
acknowledgement made within the cultural traditions of a subject
people.
I made that little side trip about the Queen Victoria statue in order
to demonstrate how early the influence from the industrialized states,
Britain in this case, made its way into "traditional" culture and in
the process, actually "becoming" traditional culture. I say this
because longevity is only one value by which "tradition" may be
measured. Importance and symbolism can create new ethnic tradition,
within an already established parameter, in an instant.
Let's deal with some of those traditional cultures.
The name "Yoruba" describes a number of semi-independent peoples.
These groups are loosely linked by geography, language, history, and
religion. The Yoruba living in southwest Nigeria and neighboring Benin
and Togo number over 15 million people. There is archaeological
evidence the Yoruba may have lived in the same general area of Africa
since prehistoric times. the slave trade to the Americas saw slaves
of Yoruba descent being resettled mostly in Cuba and Brazil.
There was a traditional Yoruba system of city-states which were
sub-divided into over 25 complex and centralized kingdoms. Of these,
Ile-Ife is the one recognized as the most senior and most religiously
important Yoruba city. The founding of Ife is believed to date to
about 850 AD. The rival Oyo kingdom just to the northwest of Ife, was
founded about 1350 AD. So as you can see, we are dealing with ancient
societies here.
And in spite of many westerners who believed (and still believe) that
Africans were no more than simple jungle dwellers, for centuries, the
pre-colonial Yoruba lived in large, densely populated cities where
they are able to practice the specialized trades that provide goods
and services for the society as a whole. Most would commute to the
countryside for part of the year to raise staples such as yams and
cassava on family farms. Each city-state maintained its own
interpretation of history, religious traditions, and unique art style,
yet all acknowledge the ritual sovereignty of Ife, honor the pantheon
of Yoruba gods.
We will go into more detail for the Ibo since they are dominant in the
town of Ogidi.
I am also going to try and use a long block of quoted text. The
reason being, the material covered is a straight statement of fact
rather than opinion or original theory. It is just my personal
opinion that re-writes and paraphrasings of 'fact' all too often
result in a message being given that is different than the original in
spite of any effort to remain true to the original meaning.
"Details of traditional Igbo government and social structure varied
from place to place throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, but its characteristic nature remained the same. The basic
unit of Igbo life was the village group, and the most universal
institution was the role of the family head. This was usually the
oldest man of the oldest surviving generation. His role primarily
involved settling family disputes, and because he controlled the
channel of communication with the all-important ancestors, he
commanded great respect and reverence. In some areas the government of
chiefs and elders was composed of a governing age grade, in others the
council of elders was made up of the oldest members of particular
families.
"Titles that the men earned played a major part in the Ibo society.
There was a hierarchy of ascending titles that were to be taken in
order, accompanied by an ascending scale of payments. The system acted
as a simple form of social security, in that those who acquired titles
paid a particular fee, and then were entitled to share in the payments
of those who later acquired titles. Men who were going to acquire a
title had to go through intense rituals. This symbolized respect as
well as success.
"A political institution that was widespread around the Ibo tribe was
that of the age-grade. Every age-grade was responsible for specific
areas of community service. This often promoted rivalry between the
groups of age-grade. This was actually a valuable instrument of social
control, in that in order to preserve the good name of their
age-group, its members became involved in disciplining and restraining
those who tended to cause trouble within the community. Secret
societies around the Ibo villages were also an instrument of social
control. The members of the secret society would appear at night,
masked, in the disguise of supernatural beings. Any offenders in the
community would be denounced. The unknown origin of the members and
their supernatural aura (distinctive atmosphere) meant that this whole
performance was taken with great seriousness.
"Government (in this paragraph and the next one)
"Usually, the kinds of decisions that had to be made in traditional
Igbo societies were either judicial or connected with relations with
other groups. In a judicial case, it was the responsibility of the
lineage head to try to settle the matter before bringing it to the
elders, who would hear the case in public. A decision that affected
the whole town, such as the declaration of war, would generally be put
to all the free adult males of the town. The nature of these
institutions was extremely flexible - for example, a man who had
proven his skills at war in the past might be selected to lead the
people through this time of crisis, yet would be expected to
relinquish this leadership once the time of crisis was past. If the
facts of a case were unclear, then in some instances the Igbo would
turn to an oracle or to divination. Igboland possessed a regional
network of oracles, such as the Agbala of Awku, or the Ibibi Ukpabe at
Arochukwu. These oracles claimed to ascertain the truth of every
matter, and were dependent on visitors from every part of Igboland.
They rested on deliberate deception and were extremely expensive, far
beyond the reach of the poor. However, their good reputation did
depend on the fairness of their judgements, which kept their tendency
for exploitation in check.
"Perhaps it was the small scale of their political institutions that
made Igboland such a good example of what a democracy should be. Some
of the first European visitors to this region were struck by the
extent to which democracy was truly practiced. A combination of
popular participation and real respect for those with ability and
experience, led to the smooth running of political institutions.
"On a smaller scale, Igbo families generally lived in compounds, each
a small segment of the village group. The head of the compound was
usually the oldest male and within each compound were clusters of huts
belonging to different domestic groups. The head of each domestic
group is responsible for its members. In Igbo society, seniority by
age regulated social placement. Married life was the normal condition
for adults, and polygamy for the men was the ideal - in fact it acted
as an important indication of status. Wives were ranked according to
the order in which they married the common husband. Another important
feature of Igbo kinship apart from the precedence given to the male,
is the idea of seniority by birth. The first male and female children
of the domestic group, irrespective of the ranking of their mothers,
were given special status, and occupied very important and responsible
social positions in the family.
"One of the most important distinctions the Igbo make in their status
system is that between Diala and non-Diala. The Diala is a freeborn, a
full citizen, whose status at birth is symbolized by the burial of his
umbilical cord, preferably at the foot of an oil palm tree. A Diala is
free to attempt to gain a title, the only barrier to social climbing
being the membership fees that these institutions demand. In contrast,
the Ohu was a slave who had very few rights. However, these slaves
were more often as not absorbed into the lineage of the master they
served, becoming their companions and often marrying their daughters.
An Osu was a cult-slave; they were a people hated and despised , and
to refer to a Diala or an Ohu as an Osu was the gravest of insults.
The Osu system of slavery originated from the Owerri-Okigwi region.
The Diala belief is that the Osu are descended from a people who, at
the recommendation of a diviner, were dedicated to a deity, in order
that they may become his servitor. A particular village, lineage or
individual that had been experiencing illness or misfortune would
“dedicate” this slave to the deity, in the belief that the slave would
then carry out the sins of the dedicator. The Osu were feared and
hated because they reminded the Diala of their guilt. Unlike slaves,
they could not be absorbed into their master’s lineage; on the other
hand, they were protected by their deity from being sold or killed.
The cult-slave status of the Osu was legally abolished by the Eastern
Nigerian Government in 1956." - The above paragraphs quoted from "Ibo
Tribe" by Khoi Ta - http://members.tripod.com/ih8_tuxedos/index1.html
- You will also find a lot of other information about the Ibo in those
pages.
So, it is within this traditional framework that we now focus on the
town of Ogidi itself, or as close to it as we can.
In order to do this justice, and to give you as complete an answer as
I can, you will find that I'm sending you to some other pages for
reading. Most of these pages have important and sometimes quite
poignent essays about Ibo and Ogidi life which would be impossible to
reproduce here in their entirety and you already know how I feel about
paraphrasing. All deal with the westernization of Nigeria, the Ibo
and Ogidi and all are integral parts of this answer and some of them
are quite long.
The first of these is - "Tomorrow is Pregnant - Today is Early Enough"
by Chinua Achebe and the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri.
http://www.columbia.edu/~fp7/igbo/achebe/index.html - You should find
this to be a wonderous explanation of Christian influence on Ibo
culture and how the Ibo culture influenced the church in return. You
will also find that your initial question about cultural "tensions,"
will be addressed somewhat, but mostly as religious tensions which are
only one aspect of the whole. You will find examples of liturgics,
and a great deal of information about the Ibo language and what early
western contact did to that language. The British had the "gumption"
(I'm being polite here) to tell the Ibo that they weren't pronouncing
their own (Ibo) language properly. - - - - "As I struggled toward
accurately translating his speech into English, my impression was that
he was so stung, and I believe rightly so, by the impertinence of
Western missionaries in telling native speakers how they should
speak--all the while scorning them as childish and inferior beings..."
From the Translator's introduction to the website. -
http://www.columbia.edu/~fp7/igbo/achebe/transintro.html
You will also find that Chinua Achebe is the main source for
information about Ogidi currently available for scholar and student
alike. So as we narrow things down, I will need you to acquaint
yourself with the Achebe novel "Things Fall Apart." - - "Its most
striking feature is to create a complex and sympathetic portrait of a
traditional village culture in Africa. Achebe is trying not only to
inform the outside world about Ibo cultural traditions, but to remind
his own people of their past and to assert that it had contained much
of value. All too many Africans in his time were ready to accept the
European judgment that Africa had no history or culture worth
considering."
"Achebe went on to write two sequels to Things Fall Apart featuring
descendants of Okonkwo. In The Arrow of God (1964) he further explores
the failure of the British to understand traditional beliefs and
values, and in No Longer at Ease (1967) he shows how postcolonial
Nigeria became corrupted by a government which was not the organic
creation of its people, but an alien structure imposed upon them."
The two quotes above are from Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart Study
Guide.
Yes, his work is that important. You will find anthropology courses
based on his books, study guides and ennumerable spin off essays.
Trying to distill such a work into an answer such as this would be
doing both you and the subject involved a great disservice.
Especially since in his books, Achebe has distilled things just about
as much as they already can be. You will find a full study guide and
a chapter by chapter breakdown here:
http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~brians/anglophone/achebe.html
I'm sure this is not the direction you expected the answer to take,
but when you narrowed the focus in the clarification, it took it from
an arena where a great deal of information may be found into an arena
of specialization where the information available is also rather
specialized, and in this case, found primarily in a series of novels.
So the best answer I can provide in all fairness and without us taking
great flights of inventive fancy, is to point you to the books.
More about Achebe
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe.htm - Humanities
211 - Central Oregon Community College
EducETH: Achebe, Chinua -
http://www.educeth.ch/english/readinglist/achebec/ - EDUceth.com
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart -
http://www.addison.lib.il.us/6achebe.asp - A brief bio and review from
Addison Public Library
An additional resource which may provide you with first hand
information from those who have lived it.
Umunne Cultural Association - http://www.umunne.org/ - "Umunne
Cultural Association is an organization of Igbo-speaking people of
Nigeria living in the great state of Minnesota, in the United States
of America. Umunne is Igbo for brothers and sisters..." You can
contact them through their website.
I hope this is of help.
Cheers
digs
