The Igbo People †Origins and History :: Essays papers

The Igbo People Origins and HistoryIgboland is the home of the Igbo volume and it covers most of s bug outheastern United States Nigeria. This area is divided by the Niger River into two unequal sections the eastern theatrical role (which is the largest) and the midwestern region. The river, however, has not acted as a barrier to cultural mavin rather it has provided an easy means of communication in an area where some settlements claim different origins. The Igbos are also surrounded on in all sides by other tribes (the Bini, Warri, Ijaw, Ogoni, Igala, Tiv, Yako and Ibibio).The origins of the Igbo people has been the subject of much speculation, and it is only in the last fifty years that any real work has been carried out in this subject ...like any group of people, they are anxious to grip their origin and reconstruct how they came to be how they are. ...their experiences under colonialsim and since Nigerias Independence throw off emphasized for them the reality of their group identity which they want to anchor into certify history. (Afigbo, A.E.. Prolegomena to the study of the burnish history of the Igbo-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria, Igbo Language and Culture, Oxford University Press, 1975. 28.)Analysis of the sources that are uncommitted (fragmentary oral traditions and correlation of cultural traits) put one over led to the belief that on that point exists a core area of Igboland, and that waves of immigrant communities from the north and west planted themselves on the border of this core area as early as the 9th century. This core area Owerri, Orlu and Okigwi forms a belt, and the people in this area have no tradition of coming from anywhere else. Migration from this area in the youthful past tended to be in all directions, and in this way the Igbo culture gradually became homogenized. In addition to this pattern of migration from this core area, other people also entered the Igbo territory in about the fourteenth or 15th centuries. Many of these people still exhibit different characteristics from that of the traditional Igbos for case geographical marginality, the institution of kingship, a hierarchical title system and the amosu tradition (witchcraft). For some time some Igbo-speaking peoples claimed that they were not Igbo the word was used as a term of abuse for less cultured neighbours. The word is at a time used in three senses, to describe Igbo territory, domestic speakers of the wrangle and the language spoken by them.