Igbos: Origin and Tradition

Even though not much was known of the Igbos speaking people, before the advent of Europeans into the west coast of Africa, history has revealed that they migrated into their present location hundreds of years ago, it has been suggested that they migrated with the Ibibio but soon became the dominant tribe in Eastern Nigeria, due to their dogged industry, they overshadowed the Ibibio and others that arrived later.

The Igbo are close neighbors of the Ibibio who migrated with them to thei present location, along with the ijaw and the itsekiri of the NIGER delta,

THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES OF THE IGBO.

one of the developments that distinguished the Igbo in the pre-colonial era was that while states and empire already discussed had people who lived in large and urban communities, the Igbo had scattered pattern of settlements [i.e.they lived in villages and villages groups]

also, unlike other states and empire, the Igbo had no traditional rulers or kings, this was why they were referred to as ‘stateless society’’

The political structure of the Igbo was regarded as subtle and complex, this is because it was based on the principle of village democracy, it is democratic because every male adult had the right to the decision making process, each village was architect of own fortune, members of each village were bound together in their strict belief in the common descendant or ancestor [i.e Umunna]

The village council: The actual organ of government at the village was level the village council consisting of leaders of the various families.These elders were their compound:s mouthpiece as well as the earthly representative of each family ancestor.the village council was responsible for voicing out laws already sanctioned by the ancestors.These included laws for misbehavior which were accompanied by the highest punishment in the land.

In the southern part of the Igboland, there were villages and villages councils that comprised of heads of the different lineage and some wealthy individuals, for examples the Okpara [the head of a lineage] kept the ofo title which represented the symbol of their common ancestor,

Age Group:: The system of government recognized the institution of the age group social life, each age group was responsible for certain duties as stipulated by law, for example, the senior age group looked after the maintenance of peace and order as well as providing army commander off external aggressions.the junior age-group took care of the sanitation related matters, while the most junior age group catered for other issues not mentioned above,

CLASSWORK:

1] Locate the position of the Igbo on the map of Nigeria

2] why were the Igbo regarded as a stateless society

ASSIGNMENT:

NARRATE THE HISTORY OF URHOBO