Trends in the religious beliefs of the Igbomina since the twentieth century (original) (raw)
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Whenever Christianity is professed, there is a constant dialectic arising from its relationship with the cultural presupposition and practices of the cultures where it is located. A philosophical look at the Christianization of Igboland shows that the response of the Igbo to Christianity has been as interesting as it is ambivalent. On one score, there is the success story of the phenomenological movement of the vast majority of Igbo population to Christianity. Church buildings and related institutions have displaced former sites of powerful local deities and reserved sacred places, forest and groves. However, turning to the other side of the coin, one finds a bewildering array of ambivalent practices, a mix-up of Christian elements and traditional religious beliefs and practices among professing Igbo Christians. Guidance through dreams and visions, miraculous healing, prayer that expects immediate and concrete answers, and so on now constitute the main features of Igbo Christian pra...
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This paper examines the concept of God in traditional Igbo-African religious thought, prior to the advent of Western religion, with a view to showing that the idea of a God/Deity who is supreme in every area of life and sphere of influence and who “creates out of nothing,” like the God of the Christian or Western missionaries, is unrecognized in the Igbo-African traditional religious thought. Even though the Igbo conceive of strong and powerful deities that can only reign supreme within their respective sphere of influence where they are in charge, none of these deities is identical to the supreme God promoted by the Christian missionaries. The Igbo traditional religious worldview maintains a polytheistic religious view, unlike the monotheistic outlook of the Christian religion. To achieve its goal, the paper adopts the method of historical hermeneutics and textual analysis.
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INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM AND THE IGBO TRADITIONAL RELIGION IN TIME PERSPECTIVES
Indigenous knowledge system refers to the upheld belief system of the people as stipulated by their culture. Thus, every cultural practice in the world has their own indigenous knowledge system which is peculiar in theory and has featured prominently in their various facet of their life. Among the Igbo people of south eastern Nigeria, the indigenous knowledge system is enshrined in their traditional religion prior to the fundamental influence of colonialism and Christianity. It is of interest to note that importance of traditional religion in any organized society could not be over emphasized, making its practice to be accepted as a way of life of any man. The indigenous religion was all encompassing as practiced by the Africans before the advent of the foreign religion. Therefore, it appears that the single most dominant variable in shaping the people’s heritage and world view, just like in other most parts of Africa is religion. Religion has no bounds in terms of race, place, time, sex, race or colour. All peoples across ages embrace and practice one form of religion or the other. This pride of place accorded traditional religion in Igbo land notwithstanding a great deal of controversy which revolves around very normative concepts of superiority, inferiority, efficacy, and desirability of traditional religious practices. This study, informed by the analyses of both primary and secondary sources, attempts to reconstruct the indigenous knowledge system in relation to the Igbo traditional religion and see if any other religion has an edge on indigenous religion.
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Nigeria is the most diversified and populous nation in Africa with more than two hundred million people, and over five hundred ethnic nationalities that practice one religion or the other. Though Nigeria pride itself as secular nation, but many of the unrest and violence in the country are caused by religious intolerance. In fact, there is both a church and mosque in the official residence of the president. In fact, electoral position in the country is conducted on religious line. The most popular religion in the country is Christianity and Islam with prejudice against the indigenous belief system. Therefore, this paper employs ethnography theory to discuss the position of Isese and raise study on the hostility that Christianity and Islam religions visited on the practitioners of the indigenous religions. The paper adopts qualitative research methodology to draw attention to the plight of the adherents of Isese. Among the several Isese festivals celebrated majorly by the Yorubas are Eyo, Igogo. Some of the popular Isese among the Yoruba includes Olojo, Oro, Ogun, Malokun, Egungun, and Sango festivals. The Yoruba with approximately forty million remains the leading ethnic nationalities in the world
RELIGION AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE IGBO OF NIGERIA AND THE DOGON OF MALI
Ikoro: Journal of Institute of African Studies. , 2014
This study aims at showcasing and exploring the similarities and dissimilarities between the pre-contact religion of the Igbo and the pre-contact religion of the Dogon. There is the introduction to the concept of religion, especially as seen in cultural anthropology as a social institution. Then there is a familiarization section about the Igbo people and the Dogon people. The first section ends with the definition of terms as key to establishing the senses in which some words are used in this study. The next section presents an in-depth comparative analysis of the religions of the Dogon and the Igbo, viewing them from their similarities and their dissimilarities. It is distilled that there are possibilities that newer lights on the religions of the ancient Igbo and Dogon would be shed. And wherever these new parcels of knowledge are obtained, they would be revolutionary to some perspectives and yet, open to critical analysis in other perspectives.