Download - Nigerian History & Culture
Nigerian History & Culture
Slave Trade• 1400’s – 1807• Africans sell other Africans• Trade for alcohol, weapons & goods• Many Igbo get rich
Strategy Change• Slave trade abolished in 1807• Europeans change strategy• Use Africa for natural resources• Carve continent up into colonies
– The Berlin Conference
Strategy Change• Great Britain
claims area around Niger River
“Civilizing” Africa• Many Europeans see “civilizing” the
Africans as a duty• Claim they are bringing religion and
the modern way to justify the greed
3-Prong Attack• Missionaries
– Convert outcasts (osu)– Convert women
• Trade– British trade palm oil in exchange for goods
• Government– Bring in District Commissioners– Set up own police and courts
Igbo Culture• Agricultural community
– Yams = men– Cassava, beans, other crops = women
• Family Units– Multiple wives– Each family has own compound
• Patriarchal Society– Men have power & women are
property– Wife-beating is common
• Democratic Government– Ruled by elders (ndichie) and men
chosen to receive titles– Decisions made by clansmen
• Gods– Animist: recognize a number of gods
that embody the forces of nature– Oracles: priestesses whose job it is to
speak for a god
• Ancestors– Though dead, they have voices– Egwugwu: men disguised by mask and
costumes that embody the spirits of the ancestors