Cultural Dualism and Commitment, Rituals and Rites Among Igbo Societies, 1900 – 2000 (Published)
The extremities of modernity and Christianity, and the concomitant innovations emanating from them, caused the syncretism observable in Africa. The microcosm was definitely upset. Equally discernible were consequent dualisms in life styles, festivities, rites and allegiances. Among the cultures affected were rituals, initiations into manhood, exclusive and secret societies and rites of passage/burial. The economic implication of the dualized but single burial/passage rite was the paying of levies/dues to the traditionalists on the one hand, and to the Church, on the other, per a single burial outing. This was to the extent that the cultural commitment of the African was tested; and what were left became re-evaluated. Factually, the beauty of rituals/rites became predicated on dualisms. The order of a burial rite usually read: interment follows immediately after church service and traditional obsequies continue. It, therefore, made economic sense to subscribe to a single species (either traditional or Christian) of rite to reduce both costs and lipservice to the Christian and trado-spiritual cosmogonies. The paper concluded that the extent of commitment to cultures determined the best approaches to the observation of rituals, rites and initiations. For instance: The burial rite of the Ntalakwu in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State was indeed a best approach. It plugged undue economic wastes and lipserving two systems (not masters). This was exemplified at the burial of Pa Azubuike who was neither a former Churchgoer nor a Christian but a full initiate of the Ekpe, Aku Akang and Eketensi cults. The practiced rhythm and staccato of the Eketensi renditions was awesomely electrifying in a 21st century Igbo community. The burial was hundred percent traditional. It was unheard of, and by all indices, was courting the Christian hell on earth. This paper was written through oral interviews, and the use of primary and secondary sources.
Citation: Okoko C.O., C. Godcan-Eze I.E., and Oparah O. (2022) Cultural Dualism and Commitment, Rituals and Rites AmongIgbo Societies, 1900 – 2000, International Journal of History and Philosophical Research, Vol.10, No.3, pp.33-52,
Keywords: Christianity, Commitment, Cultural, Modernity, Traditions, rites
Gods and Cultural Practices of Ekwunekwune Ikwo, 1940 -2007 (Published)
This study focuses on the religion and cultural practices of Ekwunekwune people in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria, from 1940 to 2007. Christianity was introduced into the community in the 1940s when missionaries of the Church of Scotland Mission sailed from Calabar to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the area. Then the Church was vehemently resisted as an anti- cultural practice from the Western world. Despite that early resistance, Christianity has survived along side the culture of the people, resulting to a new social order where the foreign religion and the people’s culture co-exist without much differentiation and noticeable impact on the old ways of the people. In 2007, the democratic experiment in Nigeria under OlusegunObasanjo which saw an influx of changes in many parts of the country, ended without much effect on Ekwunekwune. The study stems from an interest in the many gods of the people and their several cultural practices and festivals. It is dependent on the primary sources of data,mostly derived through directoral accounts, due to the dearth of written documents on past events in the community. It is a qualitative study which uses the analytic and narrative approaches of history to present its findings. The study uses the Cause – Effect theory to question the relevance of some of the cultural practices in Ekwunekwune. The theory examines the causes of changes in a society and how the changes affect the social order of the people. The paper argues that a people’s culture, when it is change resistant, could result to stagnation of social developments, and eventually lead to their backwardness and underdevelopment.
Keywords: Cultural Practices, Economic interest., Ekwunekwune, Modernity, gods
Administration Education Modernity and its impact in relieving the written burdens about teachers (Published)
The present study aimed to identify the impact of the only modern educational management in alleviating the burdens written for teachers, and to achieve the objectives of the study researcher followed the descriptive analytical approach, and then the researcher tool, a major search one which is a questionnaire consisting of (20) items have been applied to the study sample Which was randomly selected from the study society to reach (400) teachers and administrators. The study found that there is a statistically significant effect of the modern educational administration in reducing the written burden on teachers, The lack of Gedo and the impact of a statistically significant management of modern education in alleviating the burden of clerical teachers according to sex, the study recommended the need to work on activating the standards and principles of modern educational management
Keywords: Administration, Education, Modernity, written
The Effects of Social Change and Religious Conflicts in Nigeria: Impacts on Civil Democracy and National Integration (Published)
This research evaluated the effects of social change and religious conflicts; and the impacts on Nigeria’s civil democracy and national integration. The research is a cross-sectional descriptive survey. Berger and Luckmann’s social construction of reality; and Burton’s human needs theories of conflict management were adopted. Three (3) out of the six (6) geo-political zones in Nigeria were randomly sampled for the study. A multi-staged sampling technique was used in the study. In the first stage, 40 people were randomly sampled for focused Group Discussion (FGD) from each of the three geo-political zones used in study making a total of 120. In the second stage, oral and telephone interviews which were conducted on 25 religious and 25 political leaders using simple random sampling making a total of 50. In the third stage, 120 respondents were further randomly sampled among Christians and Muslims in each of the 3 geo-political zones making a total of 360. The researcher assimilated and applied the qualitative data obtained through Focus Group Discussions (FGD), and interviews in the work. Descriptive statistics was performed and results were summarized in frequency and percentage, and presented in tables. Hypotheses were tested with ANOVA and Spearman’s rho. Hypothesis testing with ANOVA reveals a significant difference in the means, as well as p-values less than the significance level of 0.05: on adaptation of traditional culture to foreign influence (p=0.000), politicization of religion (p=0.003), transformation of many indigenous practices from mode of dress to design of houses (p= 0.000) ethnicity (p= 0.002). The hypothesis was therefore rejected which shows that the effects of social change have impacts on civil democracy and national integration. The result of spearman rho correlation that the impacts of the effect of religious conflicts at (p>0.01) including: destruction of lives and properties, drain of the economy, drain in manpower development, breach in political processes; emergence of widows and fatherless children, and insecurity of lives and properties on civil democracy and national integration did not differ significantly among religious affiliations, which depicts that both religious affiliations (Christians and Muslims) agree that the effects of religious conflicts have impacts on civil democracy and national integration. The null hypothesis was therefore accepted. The paper recommends that adoption of authentic federalism is inevitable for sustainable democracy and national integration.
Keywords: Modernity, National Restruction, National integration, Religious Conflicts, Sustainable Democracy, social change
