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