Colonialism may have brought some good to the Ibos, such as formal education and the ushering of Ibo men and women into the realm of world affairs and economy. But it threw traditional Ibo society and its system of thought into a state of disequilibrium. As one Ibo man states, "The white man took a relatively functional world and turned it upside down. The society which our ancestors had created worked for us. The new one created by the British simply does not work." Modern Ibo society is simply a world of confusion, of conflicting ideals and beliefs. "The people's ultimate aim, it seems, has become a quest for individual survival," notes Ibo historian Felix Ekechi.

Political Changes

One important legacy of colonization that affects the lives of women is what the historian Nkiru Nzegwu describes as "the apathy of modern Igbo...