INTRODUCTION

The Igbo people (English: /ˈiːboʊ/ EE-boh, also US: /ˈɪɡboʊ/; also spelled Ibo and formerly also Iboe, Ebo,
Eboe, Eboans Heebo; natively Ṇ́ dị ́ Ìgbò) are an ethnic group in Nigeria. They are majorly found in Abia,
Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States. A sizable Igbo population is also found in Delta and Rivers
States. Large ethnic Igbo populations are found in Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, as well as
outside Africa. There has been much speculation about the origins of the Igbo people as it is unknown
how exactly the group came to form. Geographically, the Igbo homeland is divided into two unequal
sections by the Niger River – an eastern (which is the larger of the two) and a western section. The Igbo
people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa.

HISTORY
It is believed that the Igbo originated in an area about 100 miles north of their current location at the
confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers. They share linguistic ties with their neighbors the Bini, Igala,
Yoruba, and Idoma, with the split between them probably occurring between five and six thousand
years ago. The first Igbo in the region may have moved onto the Awka-Orlu plateau between four and
five thousand years ago, before the emergence of sedentary agricultural practices. As this early group
expanded, so too did the Igbo kingdom. The earliest surviving Igbo art forms are from the 10th century
(Igbo Ukwu), and the fine quality of those copper alloy castings suggest that Igbo society had already
achieved a level of technology rivaling contemporary Europeans.

LANGUAGE AND PREHISTORY

The Igbo language is a part of the Niger-Congo language family. It is divided into numerous regional
dialects, and somewhat mutually intelligible with the larger “Igboid” cluster. The Igbo homeland
straddles the lower Niger River, east and south of the Edoid and Idomoid groups, and west of the
Ibibioid (Cross River) cluster.

Before the period of British colonial rule in the 20 th century, the Igbo were a politically fragmented
group, with a number of centralized chiefdoms such as Nri, Aro Confederacy, Agbor and Onitsha.
Frederick Lugard introduced the Eze system of “warrant chiefs”. Unaffected by the Fulani War and the
resulting spread of Islam in Nigeria in the 19th century, they became overwhelmingly Christian under
colonization. In the wake of decolonisation, the Igbo developed a strong sense of ethnic identity. During
the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–1970, the Igbo territories seceded as the short-lived Republic of Biafra.
The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra and the Indigenous People of
Biafra, two sectarian organizations formed after 1999, continue a non-violent struggle for an
independent Igbo state.

The Igboid languages form a cluster within the Volta–Niger phylum, most likely grouped with Yoruboid
and Edoid The greatest differentiation within the Igboid group is between the Ekpeye,

And the rest. Williamson (2002) argues that based on this pattern, proto-Igboid migration would have
moved down the Niger from a more northern area in the savannah and first settled close to the delta,
with a secondary center of Igbo proper more to the north, in the Awka area Genetic studies have shown
the Igbo to cluster most closely with other Niger-Congo-speaking peoples. The predominant Y-
chromosmoal haplogroup is E1b1a1-M2.

Pottery dated from around 3,000-2,500 BC showing similarities with later Igbo work was found at
Nsukka, and Afikpo regions of Igboland in the 1970s along with pottery and tools at nearby Ibagwa; the
traditions of the Umueri clan have as their source the Anambra valley. In the 1970s the Owerri, Okigwe,
Orlu, Awgu, Udi and Awka divisions were determined to constitute “an Igbo heartland” from the
linguistic and cultural evidence In the Nsukka region of Igboland, evidence of early iron smelting has
been excavated, dating to 750 BC at the site of Opi and 2,000 BC at the site of Lejja.

ECONOMY
The majority of Igbo are farmers. Their staple crop is yam, and its harvesting is a time for great
celebration. They are able to produce yam efficiently enough to export it to their neighbors. With the
assistance of migrant labor, they also harvest the fruit of the palm tree, which is processed into palm oil,
and exported to Europe in large quantities, making it a fairly profitable cash crop.

POLITICAL SYSTEMS
The Igbo are a politically fragmented group, with numerous divisions resulting from geographic
differences. There are also various subgroups delineated in accordance with clan, lineage, and village
affiliations. They have no centralized chieftaincy, hereditary aristocracy, or kingship customs, as can be
found among their neighbors. Instead, the responsibility of leadership has traditionally been left to the
village councils, which include the heads of lineages, elders, titled men, and men who have established
themselves economically within the community. It is possible for an Igbo man, through personal success,
to become the nominal leader of the council.

RELIGION
As a result of regional and political fragmentation, which is mirrored in the several distinct languages
traditionally spoken by the hundreds of different village groups, it would be reductionist to attempt to
illustrate the traditional religious practices of the Igbo as a whole. Before the influence of Europeans and
Christian missions, however, most Igbo practiced some form of ancestor worship, which held that in
order to gain success in this world, one must appease of the spirits of the deceased. This might be
accomplished in any number of ways. One of the primary ways of showing respect for the dead was
through participation in the secret men’s society, Mmo, which is the name used only in the northern
part of Igbo land. In other parts, similar societies exist under different names. The second level of
initiates was responsible for carrying out the funeral ceremonies for the deceased and inducting the
departed spirits into the ebe mmo, so that they would no longer cause mischief in the village.
THE NRI KINGDOM

The Nri people of Igbo land have a creation myth which is one of the many creation myths that exist in
various parts of Igbo land. The Nri and Aguleri people are in the territory of the Umueri clan who trace
their lineages back to the patriarchal king-figure Eri. Eri’s origins are unclear, though he has been
described as a “sky being” sent by Chukwu (God). He has been characterized as having first given
societal order to the people of Anambra. The historian Elizabeth Allo Isichei says “Nri and Aguleri and
part of the Umueri clan, [are] a cluster of Igbo village groups which traces its origins to a sky being called
Eri.

Archaeological evidence suggests that Nri influence in Igboland may go back as far as the 9th century,
and royal burials have been unearthed dating to at least the 10th century. Eri, the god-like founder of
Nri, is believed to have settled the region around 948 with other related Igbo cultures following after in
the 13th century. The first Eze Nri (King of Nri) Ìfikuánim followed directly after him. According to Igbo
oral tradition, his reign started in 1043. At least one historian puts Ìfikuánim’s reign much later, around
1225 AD.

Each king traces his origin back to the founding ancestor, Eri. Each king is a ritual reproduction of Eri. The
initiation rite of a new king shows that the ritual process of becoming Ezenri (Nri priest-king) follows
closely the path traced by the hero in establishing the Nri kingdom.

— E. Elochukwu Uzukwu

The Kingdom of Nri was a religio-polity, a sort of theocratic state, that developed in the central
heartland of the Igbo region. The Nri had seven types of taboos which included human (such as the birth
of twins), animal (such as killing or eating of pythons), object, temporal, behavioral, speech and place
taboos. The rules regarding these taboos were used to educate and govern Nri’s subjects. This meant
that, while certain Igbo may have lived under different formal administration, all followers of the Igbo
religion had to abide by the rules of the faith and obey its representative on earth, the Eze Nri.

TRADITIONAL SOCIETY

Traditional Igbo political organization was based on a quasi-democratic republican system of

government. In tight knit communities, this system guaranteed its citizens equality, as opposed to a
feudalist system with a king ruling over subjects. This government system was witnessed by the
Portuguese who first arrived and met with the Igbo people in the 15th century. With the exception of a
few notable Igbo towns such as Onitsha, which had kings called Obi and places like the Nri Kingdom and
Arochukwu, which had priest kings; Igbo communities and area governments were overwhelmingly
ruled by a republican consultative assembly of the common people. Communities were usually governed
and administered by a council of elders.

Although title holders were respected because of their accomplishments and capabilities, they were not
revered as kings but often performed special functions given to them by such assemblies. This way of
governing was different from most other communities of Western Africa and only shared by the Ewe of
Ghana. Umunna are a form of patrilineage maintained by the Igbo. Law starts with the Umunna which is
a male line of descent from a founding ancestor (who the line is sometimes named after) with groups of
compounds containing closely related families headed by the eldest male member. The Umunna can be
seen as the most important pillar of Igbo society. It was also a culture in which gender was re-
constructed and performed according to social need, “where gender and sex did not coincide. Instead,
gender was flexible and fluid, allowing women to become men and men to become women”

Mathematics in indigenous Igbo society is evident in their calendar, banking system and strategic betting
game called Okwe. In their indigenous calendar, a week had four days, a month consisted of seven
weeks, and 13 months made a year. In the last month, an extra day was added. This calendar is still used
in indigenous Igbo villages and towns to determine market days. They settled law matters via mediators,
and their banking system for loans and savings, called Isusu, is also still used. The Igbo new year, starting
with the month Ọ́ nwạ́ M̀ bụ́ (Igbo: First Moon) occurs on the third week of February, although the
traditional start of the year for many Igbo communities is around springtime in Ọ́ nwạ́ Ágwụ́ (June). Used
as a ceremonial script by secret societies, the Igbo have an indigenous ideographic set of symbols called
Nsibidi, originating from the neighboring Ejagham people. Igbo people produced bronzes from as early
as the 9th century, some of which have been found at the town of Igbo Ukwu, Anambra State.

A system of indentured servitude existed among the Igbo before and after the encounter with
Europeans. Indentured service in Igbo areas was described by Olaudah Equiano in his memoir. He
describes the conditions of the slaves in his community of Essaka and points out the difference between
the treatment of slaves under the Igbo in Essaka and those in the custody of Europeans in West Indies:

…but how different was their condition from that of the slaves in the West Indies! With us, they do no
more work than other members of the community,… even their master;… (except that they were not
permitted to eat with those… free-born;) and there was scarce any other difference between them,…
Some of these slaves have… slaves under them as their own property… for their own use.

The Niger coast was the scene of contact between European merchants and the local African kingdoms
beginning in 1n 1434 with the arrival of the Portuguese. Portuguese slave traders established factories
and started to purchase enslaved Africans from the region, transporting them across the Atlantic to their
colonies in the Americas, in particular Brazil. Slave traders from other European nations soon followed,
and the region became a vital hub of the Atlantic slave trade. European involvement in the Atlantic slave
trade was gradually outlawed during the 19th century, and as such Europeans in the region started to
shift their focus away from trade and into colonialism. Prior to European contact, Igbo trade routes
stretched as far as Mecca, Medina and Jeddah on the African continent and the Middle East.

TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND DIASPORA

Chambers (2002) argues that many of the slaves taken from the Bight of Biafra across the Middle
Passage would have been Igbo. These slaves were usually sold to Europeans by the Aro
Confederacy, who kidnapped or bought slaves from Igbo villages in the
hinterland. Igbo slaves may have not been victims of slave-raiding wars or expeditions but
perhaps debtors or Igbo people who committed within their communities alleged crimes. With
the goal for freedom, enslaved Igbo people were known to European planters as being
rebellious and having a high rate of suicide to escape slavery. There is evidence that traders
sought Igbo women. Igbo women were paired with Coromantee (Akan) men to subdue the men
because of the belief that the women were bound to their first-born sons’ birthplace.

It is alleged that European slave traders were fairly well informed about various African
ethnicities, leading to slavers targeting certain ethnic groups which plantation owners
preferred. Particular desired ethnic groups consequently became fairly concentrated in
certain parts of the Americas. The Igbo were dispersed to colonies such
as Jamaica, Cuba, Colonial America, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, among others.
Elements of Igbo culture can still be found in these places. For example, in Jamaican
Patois, the Igbo word unu, meaning "you" plural, is still used. "Red Ibo" (or "red eboe")
describes a black person with fair or "yellowish" skin. This term had originated from the
reported prevalence of these skin tones among the Igbo, but eastern Nigerian influences
may not be strictly Igbo. The word Bim, a colloquial term for Barbados, was commonly
used among enslaved Barbadians (Bajans). This word is said to have derived from bém in
the Igbo language meaning 'my place or people', but may have other origins
(see: Barbados etymology). A section of Belize City was named Eboe Town after its Igbo
inhabitants. In the United States, the Igbo were imported to the Chesapeake Bay
colonies and states of Maryland and Virginia, where they constituted the largest group
of Africans. Since the late 20th century, a wave of Nigerian immigrants, mostly English
and Igbo-speaking, have settled in Maryland, attracted to its strong professional job
market. They were also imported to the southern borders of Georgia and South
Carolina considered the low country and where Gulluh culture still preserves African
traditions of its ancestors. Today, there is an area called Igbo Landing, where a group of
Igbo had tried to drown themselves, rather than become slaves, when they disembarked
the slave ship.

COLONIAL PERIOD
The establishment of British colonial rule in present-day Nigeria and increased
encounters between the Igbo and other ethnicities near the Niger River led to a
deepening sense of a distinct Igbo ethnic identity. The Igbo proved decisive and
enthusiastic in their embrace of Christianity and Western-style education. Because of the
incompatibility of the Igbo decentralized style of government and the centralized
system including the appointment of warrant chiefs required for British system
of indirect rule, the period colonial rule was marked with numerous conflicts and
tension. During the colonial era, the diversity within each of Nigeria's major ethnic
groups slowly decreased, and distinctions between the Igbo and other large ethnic
groups, such as the Hausa and the Yoruba, became sharper.
The establishment of British colonial rule transformed Igbo society, as portrayed
in Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart. Colonial rule brought about changes in
culture, such as the introduction of warrant chiefs as Eze (indigenous rulers) where there
were no such monarchies. Christian missionaries introduced aspects of European
ideology into Igbo society and culture, sometimes shunning parts of the culture. The
rumours that the Igbo women were being assessed for taxation sparked off the
1929 Igbo Women's War in Aba (also known as the 1929 Aba Riots), a massive revolt of
women never encountered before in Igbo history.
Aspects of Igbo culture such as construction of houses, education and religion changed
following colonialism. The tradition of building houses out of mud walls
and thatched roofs ended as the people shifted to materials such as concrete blocks for
houses and metal roofs. Roads for vehicles were built. Buildings such as hospitals and
schools were erected in many parts of Igboland. Along with these changes, electricity
and running water were installed in the early 20th century. With electricity, new
technology such as radios and televisions were adopted, and have become
commonplace in most Igbo households.
A series of black and white, silent films about the Igbo people made by George Basden in
the 1920s and 1930s are held in the British Empire and Commonwealth
Collection at Bristol Archives (Ref. 2006/070).

THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR

A series of ethnic clashes between Northern Muslims and the Igbo, and other ethnic
groups of Eastern Nigeria Region living in Northern Nigeria took place between 1966
and 1967. Elements in the army had assassinated the Nigerian military head of state
General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi on 29 July 1966, and peace negotiations failed between
the military government that deposed Ironsi and the regional government of Eastern
Nigeria at the Aburi Talks in Ghana in 1967. These events led to a regional council of the
peoples of Eastern Nigeria deciding that the region should secede and proclaim the
Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967. General Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu made this
declaration and became the head of state of the new republic.

The resultant war, which became known as the Nigerian Civil War or the Nigerian-
Biafran War, lasted from 6 July 1967 until 15 January 1970, after which the federal
government re-absorbed Biafra into Nigeria. Several million Eastern Nigerians died from
the pogroms against them, such as the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom where between 10,000
and 30,000 Igbo people were killed. Many homes, schools, and hospitals were destroyed
in the conflict. The federal government of Nigeria denied Igbo people access to their
savings placed in Nigerian banks and provided them with little compensation. The war
also led to a great deal of discrimination against the Igbo people at the hands of other
ethnic groups.
In their struggle, the people of Biafra earned the respect of figures such as Jean-Paul
Sartre and John Lennon, who returned his MBE, partly in protest against British support
for the Nigerian government in the Biafran War. Odumegwu-Ojukwu, stated that the
three years of freedom allowed his people to become the most civilized and most
technologically-advanced black people in the war In July 2007, Odumegwu-Ojukwu
renewed calls for the secession of the Biafran state as a sovereign entity.

RECENT HISTORY (1970 TILL PRESENT)

Some Igbo subgroups, such as the Ikwerre, started dissociating themselves from the
larger Igbo population after the war. In the post-war era, people of eastern Nigeria
changed the names of both people and places to non-Igbo-sounding words. For
instance, the town of Igbo-uzo was anglicized to Ibusa. Because of discrimination, many
Igbo had trouble finding employment, and during the early 1970s, the Igbo became one
of the poorest ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Igbo rebuilt their cities by themselves without any contribution from the federal
government of Nigeria. This led to the establishment of new factories in southern
Nigeria. Many Igbo people eventually took government positions, although many were
engaged in private business. Since the early 21st century, there has been a wave of
Nigerian Igbo immigration to other African countries, Europe, and the Americas.

Igbo culture includes the various customs, practices and traditions of the people. It comprises archaic
practices as well as new concepts added into the Igbo culture either through evolution or outside
influences. These customs and traditions include the Igbo people’s visual art, use of language, music and
dance forms, as well as their attire, cuisine and language dialects. Because of their various subgroups,
the variety of their culture is heightened further.

The Igbo language was used by John Goldsmith as an example to justify deviating from the classical
linear model of phonology as laid out in The Sound Pattern of English. It is written in the Roman script as
well as the Nsibidi formalized ideograms, which is used by the Ekpe society and Okonko fraternity but is
no longer widely used. Nsibidi ideography existed among the Igbo before the 16th century but died out
after it became popular among secret societies, who made Nsibidi a secret form of communication.[154]
Igbo language is difficult because of the huge number of dialects, its richness in prefixes and suffixes and
its heavy intonation. Igbo is a tonal language, and there are hundreds of different Igbo dialects and
Igboid languages, such as the Ikwerre and Ekpeye languages. In 1939, Dr. Ida C. Ward led a research
expedition on Igbo dialects which could possibly be used as a basis of a standard Igbo dialect, also
known as Central Igbo. This dialect included that of the Owerri and Umuahia groups, including the
Ohuhu dialect. This proposed dialect was gradually accepted by missionaries, writers, publishers, and
Cambridge University.

In 1789, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was published in London, England,
written by Olaudah Equiano, a former slave. The book features 79 Igbo words. In the first and second
chapter, the book illustrates various aspects of Igbo life based on Olaudah Equiano’s life in his
hometown of Essaka. Although the book was one of the first books published to include Igbo material,
Geschichte der Mission der evangelischen Brüder auf den caraibischen Inseln St. Thomas, St. Croix und
S. Jan (German: History of the Evangelical Brothers’ Mission in the Caribbean Islands St. Thomas, St.
Croix and St. John), published in 1777, written by the German missionary C. G. A. Oldendorp, was the
first book to publish any Igbo material.

Perhaps the most popular and renowned novel that deals with the Igbo and their traditional life was the
1959 book by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. The novel concerns the influence of British colonial rule
and Christian missionaries on a traditional Igbo community during an unspecified time in the late
nineteenth or early 20th century. Most of the novel is set in Iguedo, one of nine villages on the lower
Niger.

PERFORMING ARTS
The Igbo people have a musical style into which they incorporate various percussion instruments: the
udu, which is essentially designed from a clay jug; an ekwe, which is formed from a hollowed log; and
the ogene, a hand bell designed from forged iron. Other instruments include opi, a wind instrument
similar to the flute, igba, and ichaka. Another popular musical form among the Igbo is highlife. A widely
popular musical genre in West Africa, highlife is a fusion of jazz and traditional music. The modern Igbo
highlife is seen in the works of Dr Sir Warrior, Oliver De Coque, Bright Chimezie and Chief Osita Osadebe,
who were among the most popular Igbo highlife musicians of the 20 th century.

Masking is one of the most common art styles in Igboland and is linked strongly with Igbo traditional
music. A mask can be made of wood or fabric, along with other materials including iron and vegetation.
Masks have a variety of uses, mainly in social satires, religious rituals, secret society initiations (such as
the Ekpe society) and public festivals, which now include Christmas time celebrations. Some of the best
known include the Agbogho Mmuo (Igbo: Maiden spirit) masks of the northern Igbo which represent the
spirits of deceased maidens and their mothers with masks symbolizing beauty. Other impressive masks
include northern Igbo Ijele masks. At 12 feet (3.7 m) high, Ijele masks consist of platforms 6 feet (1.8 m)
in diameter, supporting figures made of coloured cloth and representing everyday scenes with objects
such as leopards. Ijele masks are used for honoring the dead to ensure the continuity and well-being of
the community and are only seen on rare occasions such as the death of a prominent figure in the
community.

There are many Igbo dance styles, but perhaps, Igbo dance is best known for its atilogwu dance troops.
These performances include acrobatic stunts such as high kicks and cartwheels, with each rhythm from
the indigenous instruments indicating a movement to the dancer. The Egedege Dance is an Igbo
traditional Royal-styled cultural dance of South Eastern Nigeria.

VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE

There is such variety among Igbo groups that it is not possible to define a general Igbo art style. Bronze
castings found in the town of Igbo Ukwu from the 9 th century, constitute the earliest sculptures
discovered in Igboland. Here, the grave of a well-established man of distinction and a ritual store, dating
from the 9th century AD, contained both chased copper objects and elaborate castings of leaded bronze.
Along with these bronzes were 165,000 glass beads said to have originated in Egypt, Venice and India.
Some popular Igbo art styles include Uli designs. The majority of the Igbo carve and use masks, although
the function of masks vary by community.
Igbo art is noted for Mbari architecture. Mbari houses of the Owerri-Igbo are large opened-sided square
planned shelters. They house many life-sized, painted figures (sculpted in mud to appease the Alusi
(deity) and Ala, the earth goddess, with other deities of thunder and water). Other sculptures are of
officials, craftsmen, foreigners (mainly Europeans), animals, legendary creatures and ancestors. Mbari
houses take years to build in what is regarded as a sacred process. When new ones are constructed, old
ones are left to decay. Everyday houses were made of mud with thatched roofs and bare earth floors
with carved design doors. Some houses had elaborate designs both in the interior and exterior. These
designs could include Uli art designed by Igbo women.

One of the unique structures of Igbo culture was the Nsude Pyramids, at the town of Nsude, in Abaja,
northern Igboland. Ten pyramidal structures were built of clay/mud. The first base section was 60 ft. in
circumference and 3 ft. in height. The next stack was 45 ft. in circumference. Circular stacks continued,
till it reached the top. The structures were temples for the god Ala/Uto, who was believed to reside at
the top. A stick was placed at the top to represent the god’s residence. The structures were laid in
groups of five parallel to each other. Because it was built of clay/mud like the Deffufa of Nubia, time has
taken its toll requiring periodic reconstruction.

RELIGION AND RITES OF PASSAGE

The Igbo traditional religion is known as Odinani. The supreme deity is called Chukwu (“great spirit”);
Chukwu created the world and everything in it and is associated with all things on Earth. They believe
the cosmos is divided into four complex parts: creation, known as Okike; supernatural forces or deities
called Alusi; Mmuo, which are spirits; and Uwa, the world.

Chukwu is the supreme deity in Odinani as he is the creator, and the Igbo people believe that all things
come from him and that everything on earth, heaven and the rest of the spiritual world is under his
control. Linguistic studies of the Igbo language suggest that the name Chukwu is a compound of the Igbo
words Chi (spiritual being) and Ukwu (great in size). Each individual is born with a spiritual
guide/guardian angel or guardian principle, “Chi”, unique to each individual and the individual’s fate and
destiny is determined by their Chi. Thus the Igbos say that the siblings may come of the same mother
but no two people have the same Chi and thus different destinies for all. Alusi, alternatively known as
Arusi or Arushi (depending on dialect), are minor deities that are worshiped and served in Odinani.
There are many different Alusi, each with its own purpose. When an individual deity is no longer
needed, or becomes too violent, it is discarded.

The Igbo have traditionally believed in reincarnation. People are believed to reincarnate into families
that they were part of while alive. Before a relative dies, it is said that the soon to be deceased relative
sometimes give clues of who they will reincarnate as in the family. Once a child is born, he or she is
believed to give signs of who they have reincarnated from. This can be through behavior, physical traits
and statements by the child. A diviner can help in detecting who the child has reincarnated from. It is
considered an insult if a male is said to have reincarnated as a female.

Children are not allowed to call elders by their names without using an honorific (as this is considered

disrespectful). As a sign of respect, children are required to greet elders when seeing them for the first
time in the day. Children usually add the Igbo honorifics Mazi or Dede before an elder’s name when
addressing them.

CHRISTIANITY
Christianity was first introduced to the Igbo people through European colonization in 1857. The Igbo
people were hesitant to convert to Christianity initially because they believed the gods of their native
religion would bring disaster to them. However, Christianity gradually gained converts in Igbo land,
mainly through the work of church agents. These men built schools and focused on persuading the
youth to adopt Christian values. The Igbo people today are known as the ethnic group that has adopted
Christianity the most in all of Africa.

The Igbo people were unaffected by the Islamic jihad waged in Nigeria in the 19th century, but a small
minority converted to Islam in the 20th century. There is also a small population of Igbo Jews, some of
whom merely identifying as Jews, while others having converted to Judaism. These draw their
inspiration from Olaudah Equiano, a Christian-educated freed slave who remarked in his autobiography
of 1789 on “the strong analogy which… appears to prevail in the manners and customs of my
countrymen and those of the Jews, before they reached the Land of Promise, and particularly the
patriarchs while they were yet in that pastoral state which is described in Genesis—an analogy, which
alone would induce me to think that the one people had sprung from the other.” Equiano’s speculation
has given rise to a great debate on the origins of the Igbo.

BURIALS
After a death, the body of a prominent member of society is placed on a stool in a sitting posture and is
clothed in the deceased’s finest garments. Animal sacrifices may be offered and the dead person is well
perfumed. Burial usually follows within 24 hours of death. In the 21st century, the head of a home is
usually buried within the compound of his residence. Different types of deaths warrant different types
of burials. This is determined by an individual’s age, gender and status in society. Children are buried in
hiding and out of sight; their burials usually take place in the early mornings and late nights. A simple
untitled man is buried in front of his house and a simple mother is buried in her place of origin: in a
garden or a farm-area that belonged to her father. In the 21st century, a majority of the Igbo bury their
dead in the western way, although it is not uncommon for burials to be practiced in the traditional Igbo
ways.

MARRIAGE

The process of marrying usually involves asking the young woman’s consent, introducing the woman to
the man’s family and the same for the man to the woman’s family, testing the bride’s character,
checking the woman’s family background, and paying the brides’ wealth. Typically speaking, bride
wealth is more symbolic. Nonetheless, kola nuts, wine, goats, and chickens, among other things, are
listed in the proposal, as well. Negotiating the bride wealth can also take more than one day, giving both
parties time for a ceremonial feast. Marriages were sometimes arranged from birth through negotiation
of the two families. However, after a series of interviews conducted in the 1990s with 250 Igbo women,
it was found that 94.4% of that sample population disapproved of arranged marriages.

In the past, many Igbo men practiced polygamy. The polygamous family is made up of a man and his
wives and all their children. Men sometimes married multiple wives for economic reasons so as to have
more people in the family, including children, to help on farms. Christian and civil marriages have
changed the Igbo family since colonization. Igbo people now tend to enter monogamous courtships and
create nuclear families, mainly because of Western influence. Some Western marriage customs, such as
weddings in a church, take place either before or after the lgbo cultural traditional marriage.
ATTIRE

Traditionally, the attire of the Igbo generally consisted of little clothing, as the purpose of clothing
originally was simply to conceal private parts. Because of this purpose, children were often nude from
birth until the beginning of their adolescence—the time they were considered to have something to
hide. Uli body art was used to decorate both men and women in the form of lines forming patterns and
shapes on the body.

Women traditionally carry their babies on their backs with a strip of clothing binding the two with a knot
at her chest, a practice used by many ethnic groups across Africa. This method has been modernized in
the form of the child carrier. Maidens usually wore a short wrapper with beads around their waist and
other ornaments such as necklaces and beads. Both men and women wore wrappers. Men would wear
loincloths that wrapped round their waist and between their legs to be fastened at their back, the type
of clothing appropriate for the intense heat as well as jobs such as farming.

In Olaudah Equiano’s narrative, Equiano describes fragrances that were used by the Igbo in the
community of Essaka:

Our principal luxury is in perfumes; one sort of these is an odoriferous wood of delicious fragrance: the
other a kind of earth; a small portion of which thrown into the fire diffuses a most powerful odor. We
beat this wood into powder, and mix it with palm oil; with which both men and women perfume
themselves.

— Olaudah Equiano

As colonialism became more influential, the Igbo adapted their dress customs. Clothing worn before
colonialism became “traditional” and worn on cultural occasions. Modern Igbo traditional attire, for
men, is generally made up of the Isiagu top, which resembles the Dashiki worn by other African groups.
Isiagu (or ishi agu) is usually patterned with lions’ heads embroidered over the clothing and can be a
plain colour. It is worn with trousers and can be worn with either a ceremonial title holders hat or with
the conventional striped men’s hat known as okpu agu. For women, a puffed sleeve blouse along with
two wrappers and a head tie are worn.

CUISINES

The yam is very important to the Igbo as the staple crop. It is known for its resiliency (a yam can remain
fully edible for six months without refrigeration), but it can also be very versatile in terms of its
incorporation into different dishes. Yams can be fried, roasted, boiled, or made into a potage with
tomatoes and herbs. The cultivation of yams is most commonly carried out by men, as women tend to
focus on other crops.

There are celebrations such as the New yam festival (Igbo: Iwaji) which are held for the harvesting of the
yam. During the festival, yam is eaten throughout the communities as celebration. Yam tubers are
shown off by individuals as a sign of success and wealth. Rice has replaced yam for many ceremonial
occasions. Other indigenous foods include cassava, garri, maize and plantains. Soups or stews are
included in a typical meal, prepared with a vegetable (such as okra, of which the word derives from the
Igbo language, okwuru) to which pieces of fish, chicken, beef, or goat meat are added. Jollof rice is
popular throughout West Africa, and palm wine is a popular alcoholic traditional beverage.

DEMOGRAPHICS
The Igbo people are natively found in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Delta, and Rivers State. The
Igbo language is predominant throughout these areas, although Nigerian English (the national language)
is spoken as well. Prominent towns and cities in Igboland include Aba, Enugu, Nnewi, Onitsha, Owerri,
Abakaliki, Asaba, and Port Harcourt among others. A significant number of Igbo people have migrated to
other parts of Nigeria, such as the cities of Lagos, Abuja, and Kano.

The official data on the population of ethnic groups in Nigeria continues to be controversial as a minority
of these groups have claimed that the government deliberately deflates the official population of one
group, to give the other numerical superiority. The CIA World Factbook puts the Igbo population of
Nigeria at 15.2% of a total population of 211 million, or approximately 31 million people.

Southeastern Nigeria, which is inhabited primarily by the Igbo, is the most densely populated area in
Nigeria and possibly in all of Africa. Most ethnicities that inhabit southeastern Nigeria, such as the
closely related Efik and Ibibio people, are sometimes regarded as Igbo by other Nigerians and
ethnographers who are not well informed about the southeast.

DIASPORA
After the Nigerian Civil War, many Igbo people emigrated out of the indigenous Igbo homeland in
southeastern Nigeria because of an absence of federal presence, lack of jobs, and poor infrastructure. In
recent decades the Igbo region of Nigeria has suffered from frequent environmental damage mainly
related to the oil industry. Igbo people have moved to both Nigerian cities such as Lagos and Abuja, and
other countries such as Gabon, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Prominent Igbo
communities outside Africa include those of London in the United Kingdom and Houston, Baltimore,
Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. in the United States.

About 21,000 Igbo people were recorded in Ghana in 1969, while as small number (8,680) lived on Bioko
island in 2002. Small numbers live in Japan, making up the majority of the Nigerian immigrant
population based in Tokyo. A large amount of the African population of Guangdong, China, is Igbo-
speaking and are mainly businessmen trading between factories in China and southeastern Nigeria,
particularly Enugu. Other Igbo immigrants are found in the Americas (Igbo Canadian, Igbo American and
elsewhere.

In the 2003 PBS programme African American Lives, Bishop T. D. Jakes had his DNA analyzed; his Y
chromosome showed[dubious – discuss] that he is descended from the Igbo. American actors Forest
Whitaker, Paul Robeson, and Blair Underwood have traced their genealogy back to the Igbo people.