Igbo is the language spoken in Ala Igbo
or Ani Igbo (Igboland) by the people who are collectively referred to as
"Ndi Igbo"; their community is known as "Olu no Igbo"
("those in the lowlands and uplands"). Before European colonialism,
the Igbo-speaking peoples, who shared similarities in culture, lived in
localized communities and were not unified under a single cultural identity or
political framework, although unifying processes were present via expansion,
ritual subordination, intermarriage, trade, cultural exchange, migration, war,
and conquest. Villages and village groups were generally identified by distinct
names of their ancestral founders or by specific names such as Umuleri, Nri,
Ogidi, Nnobi, Orlu, Ngwa, Ezza, and Ohaffia.
There are several theories concerning
the etymology of the word "Igbo" (wrongly spelled "Ibo" by
British colonialists). Eighteenth-century texts had the word as
"Heebo" or "Eboe," which was thought to be a corruption of
"Hebrew." "Igbo" is commonly presumed to mean "the
people." The root -bo is judged to be of Sudanic origin;
some scholars think that the word is derived from the verb gboo and
therefore has connotations of "to protect," "to shelter,"
or "to prevent"—hence the notion of a protected people or a community
of peace. According to other theorists, it may also be traced to the Igala,
among whom onigbo is the word for "slave," oni meaning
"people."
Marriage. Marriage is not a matter for the man
and woman alone; it concerns the close kin of both. Marriage arrangements are
negotiated between the families of the prospective bride and groom. With regard
to the paternity of the wife's children, they belong to the lineage of the
husband. When a woman has children out of wedlock, however, they belong to her
natal lineage, and not to that of the children's father. Igbo have also
institutionalized marriage options permitting "female husbands" in
woman-to-woman marriages, in special circumstances. Some daughters with a male
status (i.e., "male daughters") do not even have to marry to
procreate.
Although females are brought up looking
forward to this dual role, it would be misleading to think that the major roles
of women in Igbo society are as wife and mother, since Igbo women are prominent
in public life as an organized force in both economics and politics. A
significant part of a young girl's or a young man's childhood training is
geared toward their future roles in the family and as useful and responsible
citizens. Women are fully involved in matchmaking and usually participate
directly or indirectly in the actual negotiations of marital arrangements for
their sons or their daughters, in cooperation with the male members of the families
concerned. Women have powerful and active behind-the-scene roles in seeking out
the girls they would like their sons to marry. The approval of the mother is
vital because the young bride is generally expected to live with her
mother-in-law and to serve her for the first few months of marriage, until the
new couple can set up an independent household and farmland.
Most Igbo lived in villages made up of
dispersed compounds. A compound was typically a cluster of huts belonging to
individual household units. The typical Igbo village consisted of loose
clusters of homesteads scattered along cleared paths that radiated from a
central meeting place. The village meeting place usually contained the shrines
or temples and groves of the local earth goddess and also served as the market.
Large communities often had two such units. Most local communities contained
anywhere between 40 and 8,000 residents. Homesteads were generally comprised of
the houses of a man, his wives, his children, and sometimes his patrilineal
cousins. They were often surrounded by mud walls and were nearly always
separated from neighboring homesteads by undergrowth or women's gardens.
Northern Igbo women normally decorated the mud walls of their houses with
artwork. In the south, houses were made of mud on a stick framework; usually
either circular or rectangular, the houses were thatched with either palm
leaves or grass and were floored with beaten mud. Co-wives had their own rooms,
kitchens, and storerooms. Young children and daughters usually stayed with
their mothers, whereas the males lived in separate houses. Population pressure
and European architecture has forced significant changes in these old
settlement ideals, introducing (cement) brick houses lacking aesthetic appeal.
The bulk of inheritance allotments are
granted to the eldest son, who, at the time of the inheritance, becomes
responsible for the welfare of his younger siblings. If the eldest son is a
minor at the time of his father's death, a paternal uncle will take charge of
the property and provide for the deceased brother's family. There is also
marriage by inheritance, or levirate—a widow may become the wife of her
brother-in-law. In some localities, widows may become the wives of the deceased
father's sons by another wife.
-SAM S. STEPHEN
KUW/U14/SLG/2032
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