Essay About Igbo Culture

Culture refers to beliefs and customs of a particular society. In most cultures the dream of marriage by both young men and women are similar. Whether a marriage is arranged or experiences the different stages of dating to proposal, the end result is companionship.

In the Igbo of Nigeria and Nuer of Sudan there are similarities and differences in marriage practices because values, customs and beliefs that are learned as a society determines various marital practices.

The Igbo people who are sometimes referred to as Ibo are the second largest group of people who live in Southern Nigeria. Igbo people speak Igbo and have a wide range of different dialects. Igbo are yam farmers and it is there staple crop. Each year they have a celebration called the New Yam Festival which celebrated the crops and secures a good harvest for the year. Igbo people are artistic and musically inclined. They are known for art work such as bronze casting and musical instruments as the opi, an instrument similar to a flute. Traditional religion is known as Odinani but today most Igbo’s practice Christianity.

The Igbo society governed themselves without the input of a chief or king. They lived independently and each person had a say on all matters discussed. There were no special privileges because of ancestry. The Igbo have been described in historical and anthropological literature as a ‘‘stateless’’ or ‘‘segmentary’’ society consisting of autonomous village groups (Korieh, 2006 p 14).Victor Uchendu described this lack of a formulized leadership as ‘‘an exercise in direct democracy’’ and ‘‘representative assembly” (Korieh, 2006 p14). After the colonization,interaction with other Nigerians brought about a more distinct Igbo ethnic identity.

The Igbo peop...

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...ropriate for their simple way of living (Evans-Pritchard 1940: 90).

In the practice of marriage amongst the Nuer payment of a bridewealth and certain ceremonial rites are performed to initiate the marriage. The ceremonial rites will not take place until payment for the bride is made, exchange of cattle cannot by themselves bring about the marriage (Evans-Prichard, 1951). These two processes are important and close the establishment of the full union of marriage. In Nuer culture a marriage has many steps which are betrothal, wedding and the consummation. In Nuer culture no marriage is complete without with birth of a child. Although divorce is rare in Nuer society after the birth of the first child, divorce does occur. According to E E Evans-Prichard if divorce does occur and no children have been bore the cattle of the bride must be returned (Evans-Prichard, 1951).