12/05/2014

Basic Guide To The Igbo Culture

By Claudine Hodges


The main occupation of Igbo - manual shifting cultivation (yam, cassava, maize, vegetables, etc., In areas of Onitsha and Owerri and rice). Basic tools - hoe and several kinds of knives. In southern main crop is oil palm (mainly export oil exported from the region of Owerri). Advanced logging, the most valuable of its rocks are exported. Igbos are also involved in fishing, trade, collecting wild fruits breadfruit and other trees, berries, herbs and plants (Igbo culture).

Most Igbos groups lived, like their neighbors in egalitarian, largely democratic social structures: in autonomous settlements without a central authority, each extended family for himself as an independent unit under the leadership of one or a family elders. The affairs of village community were decided by a council of elders, composed of both men and women.

Among the representatives of Igbos - many well-known politicians in Nigeria, as well as British writer, sailor and fighter for the abolition of slave Olaudah Ekiano. In 1970s, on the basis of linguistic and cultural data was felt that neighborhood Owerri, Auca, Udi, Eagle is the "Heart Igbos ."

The art Igbos (z. B. Large clay figures of shrines and altars as well as figurative and abstract masks) is usually in a religious context. 1938 and 1964 were discovered (in Igbos -Ukwu) numerous bronze tools and the grave chamber of very important person in north of Igbos area. The ornate, carved excellent bronzes are cast using the lost wax. If the date is the 9th / 10th Century's right, it is the oldest example of processing of copper and its alloys in West Africa.

Walls of building or poles which are then coated with clay or a clay alone. In some parts of exterior walls of homes decorated ornament in form of mosaic of fragments of plates, shells and so on. D. Distributed new type of dwelling - rectangular in plan house with windows and doors. Traditional type - one-undifferentiated building - gives way to multi-chamber. On the site there are outbuildings for storage products.

Based on a reading of "interesting stories about life Olauda Equiano, or Gustavus Vasa, African, " historian Alexander H. Byrd claims that Igbos ethnic identity has its roots in slavery, Igbos sold in so-called "waiting areas" and from the coastal cities of West Africa . Like most ethnic groups, the British and other Europeans considered Igbos tribe. However, a Nigerian writer, poet and literary critic, Igbos ethnic, Chinua Achebe, along with other researchers spoke out against such a definition because of its negative connotations and possible misunderstanding. He proposed to consider Igbos nation, like the American or Japanese Cherokee, although Igbos do not have a recognized state.

Speak the language of Igbos -volt Niger family. The most common dialects Onitsha and Owerri. On the basis of Onitsha developing literary language - the "standard Igbos ", there is also a "united Igbos ", created in 1915 by missionaries based dialects Onitsha, Owerri, Bonnie, and ingvana arochuku. Many other dialects have their own written tradition. Writing based on Latin graphics.

The most important tuber crops in Africa places of residence of Igbos is yam; celebration in honor of harvest yams are held annually. Other essential crops are cassava and taro. Prior to British colonization Igbos were politically fragmented groups. There were changes in culture, for example, in artistic styles, clothes and religious practice. Subgroups of Igbos formed by belonging to clans leave, to any village or linguistic criteria, such as dialect.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment