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“A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama “African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe.” —Toni Morrison Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.
Published for the Centre for Igbo Studies at Abia State University, this study is the first book from the Centre. Aspects of the tradition of politics among the Igbo are examined, including religion, age, economy, history, leadership, structures, institutions, values, sex and gender. The twenty-six papers published here were presented at the First Annual Conference of the Centre, and are arranged in five parts: Theoretical Perspectives covering the meaning, content, style, purpose and values of Igbo political tradition; Political Systems focussing on case studies; Cultural Perspectives including Onomastics, patterns of religious influence, celebration of tradition of politics in Chinua Achebe's novels, gender, traditional communication and the oratorical co-efficient; Economic Perspectives; and the Contemporary Situation.
The author presented his book "Igbo Culture" in a most convincing way by quoting expert opinions on most of the issues he discussed in the book. Through his carefully researched work and detailed analysis of facts, he showed in the book that Igbo youths working hard like their ancestors can reform Igboland into a new and better civilization by sifting the good aspects of Igbo culture into today's way of life. He started his book by making a brief reference to the possible migration route of Igbo ancestors from their earliest settlements in the forest region of Central Africa to their present-day settlement in Southeastern Nigeria of West Africa. He also made a brief reference to the development of the Igbo civilization through the period covering the Stone Age and Iron Age civilizations (pages 1-14). He painted a clear picture of the cultural background of the community where he was born and brought up and lived in for more than sixty years before he traveled to the United States of America. He traced the more than twenty-six generations-deep lineages, beliefs, concepts, customs, and history of Ihe Shikeaguma in Ntuegbe clan of Enugu State in Southeastern Nigeria as a sample core Igbo culture community. He also delved into the historical links and social formation of this community, with emphasis on genealogy, religion, settlement, language, government, law enforcement, defense, seasons, festivals, and residential structures (pages 15-83). He took his readers to Igbo thought on God, self, family, human life, birth, death, spirit, human mind, and reincarnation (pages 85-113). He clearly documented the cultural products of Igbo thought, which can be seen in the formulation of Igbo institutions with special reference to marriage, the extended family system, the social status structure and title system, festivals, informal education, traditional law, community service, religion, divination, and health-care services (pages 114-202). He explained that the symbolism of various articles and some spoken words in Igbo culture are products of Igbo thought. He referred to ofo stick, kola nut, alligator pepper, spears, tribal face marks, body paint, white chalk, and the young palm frond as symbols or instruments of Igbo philosophical expressions and concepts (pages 203-214). He showed how Igbo culture and philosophy have been affected by the cultures of Igbo neighbors in Nigeria and by other foreign cultures with special references to the following: (a)Ugwuele civilization (a Stone Age culture)-1,000,000 BC-500,000 BC (b)Nri civilization (a ritualized kingship system)-AD 800-AD 1700 (c)Aro civilization (slave trade and colonial era)-AD 1700-AD 1850 (d)Border civilization (slave trade and colonial era)-AD 800-AD1900 (e)External civilization (slave trade and colonial era)-AD 1700-AD 2000 (pages 215-238) The author concluded his work by making an evaluation of Igbo culture. He carefully examined the oriented values of the Igbo and highlighted those areas of Igbo culture that should be refurbished and reinfused into Igbo life by the Igbo themselves in order to transform Igboland into a big theater of modern civilization (pages 239-246).
In this "Second Edition" of the Igbo Culture, the author has granted a significant upgrade, done with love and appreciation for the blessing of being a son of the Igbo Nation. He has greatly upgraded the book, after years of new and careful research work, and collection of readers' opinions on some of the issues in the book. Additional information on some of the issues discussed has been included to assist the reader understand the message of the author and to better accommodate the readers' views. The book has its grammar and punctuation reedited with dates and periods of events updated. Most of the Igbo vernacular words are in bold print, so that non-Igbo readers can distinguish between English and vernacular words.In the first edition, the author presented his book "Igbo Culture" in a most convincing way by quoting expert opinions on most of the issues he discussed in the book. Through his carefully researched work and detailed analysis of facts, he showed in the book that Igbo youths working hard like their ancestors can reform Igboland into a new and better civilization by sifting the good aspects of Igbo culture into today's way of life. He started his book by making a brief reference to the possible migration route of Igbo ancestors from their earliest settlements in the forest region of Central Africa to their present-day settlement in Southeastern Nigeria of West Africa. He also made a brief reference to the development of the Igbo civilization through the period covering the Stone Age and Iron Age civilizations. He painted a clear picture of the cultural background of the community where he was born and brought up and lived in for more than sixty years before he traveled to the United States of America. He traced the more than twenty-six generations-deep lineages, beliefs, concepts, customs, and history of Ihe Shikeaguma in Ntuegbe clan of Enugu State in Southeastern Nigeria as a sample core Igbo culture community. He also delved into the historical links and social formation of this community, with emphasis on genealogy, religion, settlement, language, government, law enforcement, defense, seasons, festivals, and residential structures. He took his readers to Igbo thought on God, self, family, human life, birth, death, spirit, human mind, and reincarnation. He clearly documented the cultural products of Igbo thought, which can be seen in the formulation of Igbo institutions with special reference to marriage, the extended family system, the social status structure and title system, festivals, informal education, traditional law, community service, religion, divination, and health-care services. He explained that the symbolism of various articles and some spoken words in Igbo culture are products of Igbo thought. He referred to ofo stick, kola nut, alligator pepper, spears, tribal face marks, body paint, white chalk, and the young palm frond as symbols or instruments of Igbo philosophical expressions and concepts. He showed how Igbo culture and philosophy have been affected by the cultures of Igbo neighbors in Nigeria and by other foreign cultures with special references to the following: (a) Ugwuele civilization (a Stone Age culture)-1,000,000 BC-500,000 BC (b) Nri civilization (a ritualized kingship system)-AD 800-AD 1700 (c) Aro civilization (slave trade and colonial era)-AD 1700-AD 1850 (d) Border civilization (slave trade and colonial era)-AD 800-AD1900 (e) External civilization (slave trade and colonial era)-AD 1700-AD 2000. The author concluded his work by making an evaluation of Igbo culture. He carefully examined the oriented values of the Igbo and highlighted those areas of Igbo culture that should be refurbished and re-infused into Igbo life by the Igbo themselves in order to transform Igboland into a big theater of modern civilization.
The author gives a brief insight into the family formation and social protection of the Igbo people. He maintains that the Igbo family system was instituted several centuries B.C., by Igbo ancestors as a social security system; and was charged with the social obligation to establish cultural measures that would among other things: a) Supervise and protect the marriage institution through inbuilt fundamental traditional safeguards to avoid marriage breakups and the consequent exposure of children to parental abuses.b) Provide through the marriage institution a legitimate and socially secure home for every child in his/her father's home where adequate parental upbringing would be assured.c) Ensure that through the marriage institution there was an alternative but temporal home in the maternal ancestral family for every person in case of a serious social misunderstanding, dispute or social disturbance in his/her paternal family.d) Provide humanitarian assistance through family connections to all members of the extended family faced with the problems of bereavement, orphanhood, poverty, disability, illness, old age or retirement.e) Provide physical protection and economic assistance to all through community service.The author made brief comments on the ethnic orientation and civilization of the Igbo people of Southern Nigeria.
In this groundbreaking collection, leading historians, Africanists, and other scholars document the life and work of twelve Igbo intellectuals who, educated within European traditions, came to terms with the dominance of European thought while making significant contributions to African intellectual traditions.
Appearing in 1966, Efuru was the first internationally published book, in English, by a Nigerian woman. Flora Nwapa (1931–1993) sets her story in a small village in colonial West Africa as she describes the youth, marriage, motherhood, and eventual personal epiphany of a young woman in rural Nigeria. The respected and beautiful protagonist, an independent-minded Ibo woman named Efuru, wishes to be a mother. Her eventual tragedy is that she is not able to marry or raise children successfully. Alone and childless, Efuru realizes she surely must have a higher calling and goes to the lake goddess of her tribe, Uhamiri, to discover the path she must follow. The work, a rich exploration of Nigerian village life and values, offers a realistic picture of gender issues in a patriarchal society as well as the struggles of a nation exploited by colonialism.