Located primarily in the southeastern portion of Nigeria, the Igbo or Ibo people are an interesting group consisting of roughly 18 million people (“Igbo” Junior). Igboland is a place that is rich in cultural history and has many interesting aspects. The Ibo culture follows many traditional customs that can be seen in the short story “Marriage is a Private Affair.” The Ibo are a rich culture with many interesting aspects such as religion. The Ibo also have a unique way of how they go about marriages and having relationships. Within the Ibo people there are two main religions. One of those is the Igboland traditional religion. Traditional Ibo religion has beliefs in a creator god called Chukwu (“Igbo”). They believe Chukwu created the everything …show more content…
and is associated with everything on Earth (Widjaja). Although the Ibo have their own traditional religion today most Ibo practice Christianity with indigenous beliefs intermingled (“Igbo). There is almost an equal split in the number of Catholics and Protestants within the Ibo people (Widjaja). Marriage and relationships are another unique aspect of the Ibo people. An interesting part of the Ibo peoples marriage customs include arranged marriages. Years ago traditional arranged marriages where more common. The marriage was carefully arranged by the parents of the future bride and groom. Both families would closely investigate each family to ensure the marriage would be good (Efagene). One thing that they would investigate is the other person's social status and wealth (“Igbo” Junior). These days, however, men and women can choose freely who they wish to marry without the approval of their parents (Efagene). The Ibo tribe is very interesting and have many unique aspects of their religion and marriage customs. In the short story “Marriage is a Private Affair” one can identify that it includes different practices that can be seen within the Ibo tribe.
Religion is one thing that can be seen in the story. “What one looks for in a wife are good character and a Christian background” (Achebe, 190). This quote shows the reader that Christianity is of importance to the Ibo tribe. This quote also shows that being a good Christian is a good characteristic to have, and something that the Ibo people use to judge one another. Christianity also has ties into the marriage customs that can be viewed in the story. “She is a good Christian,” his son went on, “and a teacher in a girls’ school in Lagos” (Achebe, 190). This quote tells the reader that being a Christian is a good thing. Religion also has ties into the arranged marriage tradition within the Ibo tribe. In the Ibo tribe the parents make judgements on the groom and bride and look for qualities that they desire and feel is appropriate. “I have found a girl who will suit you admirably---Ugoye Nweke, the eldest daughter of our neighbor, Jacob Nweke” (Achebe, 190). This quote informs the reader that the father has found a good wife for his son. “Her father (a man fo sound judgement) sent her to live in the house of a pastor where she received all the trainings a wife could need” (Achebe, 190). This quote demonstrates how the father had made his decision based off of good qualities that he thought would suit his son. The father also made
judgments based off of the women's social status. “Teacher did you say? If you consider that a qualification for a good wife, I should like to point out to you, Emeka, that no Christian woman should teach” (Achebe, 190). This quote shows that the father has made judgements based on the woman’s occupation as a teacher. He feels that this is not a good quality for his son. Within the short “Marriage is a Private Affair,” one can see that there are many interesting traditions that are within the Ibo tribe. In the Ibo tribe there are many rich cultural traditions. These include the Ibo people’s religion and their marriage customs. The Ibo practice Christianity and they have practiced arranged marriages. Both of these practices can be illustrated throughout the short story “Marriage is a Private Affair.”
I, Obeirika, am writing to you, the District Commissioner, in order to combat your respond to the portrayal of the Ibo. I plan to help you understand the Ibo internal logic so that you can comprehend and value it. We Ibo believe that killing twins is necessary because the earth had decreed that they were an offense on the land and must be destroyed. If we did not exact punishment for an offense against the earth goddess. Her wrath was unleashed on all of the land. If welcoming twins makes the earth goddess angry, then the Christian practice of saving twins is going against our earth goddess. That could and will throw us into chaos. The view maybe barbaric but it’s also our way of living.
While reading the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there were big differences within the roles of men and women in the Igbo culture, but now there are even bigger differences between them and how they used to be. Both women and men are important in the Igbo culture, mainly because each gender has a specific value. Women in their culture have always been seen as caregivers and nurturing to children. They are expected to cook and clean, and they are expected to plan parties and feasts because their husband asks them to. Men, however, primarily have to farm, hunt, fight as warriors, and run the household with a strong hand; the Igbo culture even allows men to beat their wives if they
”Two little groups of people stood at a respectable distance beyond the stools. they faced the elder’s” (Achebe,1994,p.87). The court system only consist of the elders of the village but, all of the elders are males. And because they are males so they are biased to the other males so it can become an unfair court trial for the women of the village because the elder’s side with the men. Therefore there is still the debate that it is only their way of life so the Igbo people are still somewhat
Firstly, the church disproves many of the Igbo superstitions ,which encourages the Igbo to break the traditions that they had followed for many years. Therefore, slowly destroying their society. For instance, when the white men who brought Christianity to the people of Umuofia speak to the clan of the village about their new religion. They request a piece of land to build their church on. The clan decides to give them a piece of land of the Evil forest and let them stay. To the clans surprise this happens ”At last the day came by which all the missionaries should have died. But they were still alive, building a new red-earth and thatch house for their teacher, Mr. Kiaga. That week they won a handful more converts.(151)”. The Evil Forest was known as a forest where people go to die, and the clan members thought that by allowing the missionaries to build their church in the evil Forest they could easily get rid of them. Since, the white men didn’t die but lived, this made the Ibo people question their own beliefs. When some of the villagers noticed that they were mislead by their gods they decide to convert to Christianity. Either because Christianity seemed stronger than the ...
Gender roles are based on several different things throughout the Igbo tribe. As inculcated throughout society and formed by the tribe, sex implies the distinction between
Religion and the Igbo People The Igbo are a profoundly religious people who believe in a benevolent creator, usually known as Chukwu, who created the visible universe (uwa). Opposing this force for good is agbara, meaning spirit or supernatural being. In some situations people are referred to as agbara in describing an almost impossible feat performed by them. In a common phrase the igbo people will say Bekee wu agbara.
Do you think men are held at a higher standard than woman? In the book “Things Fall Apart” it deals with the Igbo Tribes history on how they treat women . There are many constant struggles that a women has to face within this book, from getting treated unfairly to being ruled by their husbands. These are gender roles in the African Igbo society when it comes to women. Throughout history , from the beginning of time to today, women are frequently been viewed as slaves to men. Meaning that they are a men’s possessions whose sole purpose is to satisfy the men’s needs. This might be because men are physically stronger than women and have always had the ability to control them that way.
As with most primitive societies, the Igbo was ruled by a few elite, all of which were male. Those able to obtain power in the village are male,
To start with, the advantages of the Igbo social structure included a balanced society, equality, distribution of labor, a surplus of food, separate huts, a collective society, and some form of government. A centralized society was achieved through the Igbo social structure. This structure served the purpose to impose the same religion upon the people to enforce a common belief. By organizing the society, the people could follow the idea of “unity” to prevent any conflicts or disagreements within the community. Along with a unified society, some kind of equal status came as a result of the social structure that has been established within the clan. Although the social hierarchy did not promote equal status between men and women, it did, to some extent, promote equality within the division of labor among the people. It relieved the pressure of stress, which may have been bestowed up...
"Nigeria: Prevalence of Arranged Marriage within the Igbo (Ibo) Community; Description of Traditional Betrothal/marriage Contract and Marriage; Whether Groom's Family Is Financially Responsible for the Bride upon Betrothal; State Protection Available to Women Forced into Marriage." Refworld. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
The Ibo people had a very different religious lifestyle and culture. They believed in many gods; they were a polytheistic tribe. The Ibo supreme god was Chukwu, and the people believe "he made all the world and the other gods" (Achebe 179). They believed that everything has a spirit and that ancestral spirits called the "egwugwu" kept the law. The Ibo...
http://moodle.oakland.k12.mi.us/internationalacademy/pluginfile.php?file=%2F68302%2Fmod _ folder%2Fcontent%2F0%2FAfrica%20Essay%2FAchebe%20Interview%20An%20African%2 20Voice.docx&forcedownload=1>. Arinze, Francis A., and Kalu Ogbu. The "Igbo Religion" www.ic.galegroup.com.
Igbo spirituality weakened in two waves. First Christianity provided answers that the inhabitants of Umuofia and Mbanta were seeking. At the end of Part One Obierika's thoughts are expressed:
As the English began to colonize the Igbo society, there were few natives who opposed it, they others just felt that the English would come and go, but they were wrong. Soon, the English began to introduce "white man's religion." This new religion was completely the opposite from what the natives were accustomed to. Christianity was rather intriguing to many of the natives and many of them turned away from their families and everything they were to become a member of this new religion. Before this, they natives had been very superstious, but as they new religion flooded over the peoples, their superstiousocity began to lessen and their belief in the many gods they had previously believed in.
What is culture? Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving