Religious Movements in Igbo Land: the Place of the Modern Woman
Journal Title: Scholars Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences - Year 2017, Vol 5, Issue 7
Abstract
This paper interrogates the changes that have taken place in the religious sphere among the Igbo people South East Nigeria from the pre colonial to the modern day Nigeria and how this has affected the Igbo woman’s socioeconomic life and the impact of all these on the moral and spiritual life of the people. The area of study is the five Igbo speaking states of South East Nigeria. Stratified random sampling technique is used to sample four women,(two young -one educated and one not so educated- and two elderly- also one educated and one not so educated), two men (one elderly and one young), two clergy men and two traditional religious practitioners (twenty seven in all) from the three representative states of Anambra, Ebonyi and Imo from the research area. The data are gathered using electronically recorded structured oral personal interviews. The analysis is done using descriptive and inferential methods of analysis. In our findings, there have been three major religious movements in Igbo land over time: Igbo Traditional Religion (ITR), Orthodox Christian Religion (OCR) and Penticostal Christian Movement (PCM). Igbo Traditional Religion was the religion of the Igbo people prior to the coming of the Europeans. In that dispensation, women did not feature in any prominent way in formal worship. Socially, the men took all the decisions on behalf of the women either as their fathers or husbands. With the coming of the White man, the Orthodox Christian Religion was introduced to the Igbo society. The lot of the Igbo woman improved greatly with the introduction of Christianity and the accompanying western education. The early 1970s saw the introduction of a new wave of Christian worship known as Christian Penticostalism. It brought a great degree of liberation to the Igbo woman. Many restrictions and inhibitions against women that were prevalent in ITR and OCR were removed to a large extent. Women could participate fully to any capacity in formal worship, church administration and hierarchy. Socially, women attained a level of freedom that allowed them to take decisions of their own. Improvement in civil law also empowered women to own property, file for divorce or seek redress in court of law if they adjudge they have need to do so. The impact of the Christian religion on the life of the Igbo woman is improvement in the overall lot of women in terms of financial empowerment and social upliftment but the overall effect of these on the society is general moral decay and erosion of the Igbo cultural values and tradition of humane living and obedience to elders. Keywords: religious sphere, Igbo people, Christian Penticostalism.
Authors and Affiliations
Chinwe Obianika
Keywords
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