Igbo Culture Essay

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Culture and religion played a major role in how the Nigerian people accepted and treated the white European missionaries. The form of government that the Igbo people had was different, almost opposing how the European way of governing was. Igbo religion also played a major part in how the white men were perceived by the Igbo people. There were many causes for the problems the Igbo people faced when interacting with the new white people.

One of the biggest conflict creators between the Igbo people and the European missionaries is their two very different governments. The British had a very centralized form of government that was stable and had a defined chain of command, they were very orderly and powerful. The Igbo people had a rocky, decentralized form of government that didn’t really have a leader or defined a ladder of leadership. These led to some conflicts between the leaders of the missionaries and the Igbo people who didn’t understand the organized British government. It is like fascism and democracy, when you have …show more content…
In Igbo religion there are tales of white men and their amazing contraptions that praise them similarly to gods in a way. In a common phrase the Igbo people will say Bekee wu agbara. This means the white man is spirit. This is usually in amazement at the scientific inventions of the white man. Unfortunately because of their old fashioned and barbaric religion practices, the Europeans didn’t get along very well with the Igbo people, especially the leaders or priest type people. In the book, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, it mentions how many of the younger Igbo men quickly turned to Christianity, quite possibly because of these old tales of the white men and their amazing inventions and feats. The Igbo people were very religious and the older people in the tribe didn’t appreciate this new religion trying to force its way into the minds of their young

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