The Culture and Community of the Igbo People

The Culture and Community of the Igbo People

Chinua Achebe introduced the Igbo culture to the readers of Things Fall Apart .Through multiple descriptions of daily life through Things Fall Apart and other reliable sources, it can be concluded that the traditions of the Igbo tribe was family-community oriented in most aspects of their culture. The Igbo tribe was facilitated upon the interactions between the individual families and the entire village. The community took part in the celebrations and festivals, as much making decisions that would affect the village.

Celebrations and festivals held in the villages of the Igbo people shows how the entire community interacted, not just individual families. The activity filled celebrations highlighted the villages' accomplishments and the uniting of the people. Music and songs were sung as people danced with excitement. A major "...Festival with high social significance carried out by most communities in Igboland is the new Yam (Iri Ji) festival, (Widjaja, 'Traditional Family Ceremonies')". The new Yam Festival celebrates the latest harvesting of the villages' yams, where the community gathers to enjoy all the festivities the festival has to offer.. Also during the new Yam Festival there are wrestling matches for the men to participate in. The winner of the wrestling tournament wins the praise of the community and bragging rights. These celebrations are unique to the Igbo people and involve many families of the community.

In addition, the religion of the Igbo people had different characteristics to it, the people believed in 3 levels of divine beings. However they did not always directly worship those three divine beings, but to their personal deities that focused on certain attributes that the individual desired to obtain. Although the Igbo people worshiped these personal gods, they managed to introduce the importance of family into their spiritual beliefs. The Igbo tribe had deceased ancestors who were able to communicate with in the spiritual world on behalf of their living family members, as well as watch over them. The family of the living-dead attempt to stay in touch with their ancestors by offering meals, prayers and other offerings, so that when their sprit was reincarnated, the ancestor would benefit the family it belonged to. According to an online article, "African Traditional Religion and The Promotion of Community", the Igbo "...prayers contain a lot of references to the community. The elder in most traditional societies begins the day by offering prayer ... for himself... and the entire community. He would pray to the ancestors, divinities and other spiritual beings for ...health... his family... progress of members of the lineage ... peace and harmony...for protection from the attack of evil forces..., and finally for the elimination of his enemies and evil doers in the community, (Ejizu)".In