Igbo Religion

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Igbo Religion

IGBO RELIGION. The Igbo are the largest ethnic group of southeastern Nigeria, numbering about fifteen million people in 2000. Until the mid-twentieth century the overwhelming majority of Igbo were farmers, raising yams as their staple crop. Traditionally, the Igbo lived in villages or village-groups surrounded by their farms. The village-group was the primary unit of political authority; there was no sustained tradition of centralized states within Igbo society. Rather, there were strong ties of the village community, the extended family system, age-group associations, and the various religious organizations that were important to community life. The Igbo have been exposed to Christian missionary activity since 1841; in 1857 an Anglican mission was opened at the important town of Onitsha along the Niger River. The Roman Catholics came in 1885. By the mid-twentieth century most Igbo had adopted Christianity, though the tensile strength of Igbo traditional religion sustained millions of devotees.

Igbo religion distinguishes between three types of supernatural beings: God, the spirits, and the ancestors. Ndigbo believe that there is only one supreme being, who is variously known in different parts of Igboland as Chukwu, Chineke, Ezechitoke, Osebuluwa or Obasi di n'elu. Each name privileges certain attributes. He created the world and sustains it from above, and one of his praise names is "the one who is known but never fully known." Igbo parents honor Chukwu by naming their children in praise of his power: Chuk-wudi ("God lives"), Chukwu nyelu ("God gave"), Chuk-wuneke ("God creates"), Chukwuma ("God knows"), Chukwuka ("God is greater"), Ifeanyichukwu ("nothing impossible with God"), Chukwuemeka ("God has been very kind"), Kenechukwu ("thank God"), Ngozichukwu ("blessing of God"), Chukwumailo ("God knows my enemies"), and Chukwujioke ("God is the sharer").

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