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THE ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS ON THEATRE AND TOURISM IN THE IGBO CULTURE AREA

The essay attempts a critical understanding of the history and nature of the conflict. It evaluates the economic implications of this conflict to theatre and tourism. Lastly, it attempts a review of the role of the theatre in addressing this conflict and broadening opportunities for tourism, vis-à-vis revenue generation. Chidozie Chukwubuike (talk) 20:31, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Introduction: The conflict between the adherents of the traditional Igbo religion and those of the Christian religion in Nigeria dates back to the early days of colonialism. The colonial government, made up of predominantly Christians, attacked whatever they felt posed a threat to the propagation of their imperialist agenda; and the traditional Igbo cultural and religious practices, in their opinion, qualified as culprit. Elizabeth Isichei’s description of the destruction of the Oracle of Igwe-Ka-Ala at Umunoha in 1903 and the shrine at the source of the Imo river at Opobo in 1906 (279-280) is instructive. In Things Fall Apart, which has assumed the status of an Igbo epic, the story is told of how Enoch tore off the mask of an egwugwu, an ancestral spirit (149). The rise of Pentecostalism in the mid twentieth century aggravated the already existing tension between the adherents of the two religions. All around, shrines are being vandalized, sacred totems desecrated, and ancient artefacts destroyed by these overzealous Christians in Pentecostal frenzy. In all these, theatre practitioners in Igbo land seem helpless and unsure of their responsibility in this quagmire. This paper therefore addresses itself to the following: (i) To attempt a critical understanding of the history and nature of the conflict, (ii) To evaluate the economic implications of this conflict to theatre and tourism, and (III) To attempt a review of the role of the theatre in addressing this conflict and broadening opportunities for tourism, vis-a-vis revenue generation.

Brief Description of the Igbo Culture Area: The Igbo culture area, occupies the region known today as the south-eastern Nigeria, and some parts of the south-south. The area is densely populated. It has boundary in the north by the Igala, Idoma, and Ogoja peoples, in the east by the Ibibio, on the south by the Ijaw, and on the west by the Edo. According to Chidi G. Osuagwu, “the Igbo people are an ancient mixed, Bantoid and Sudanoid, African people, whose demographic character has been modified by time; from the stone age through iron age (sprout from ground, autochthonous people) to the modern (drop from sky, immigrants and others)” (21). This description of the Igbo shows that they are a product of different civilizations that have evolved over time, dating back to antiquity. Professor John A. Umeh observes, in his book, that the Igbo believe that they are the first human beings created by God (64). A quick glance at perspectives on the Igbo character reveals that the culture traits of the Igbo have remained fairly consistent. In 1792, an Igbo freed slave, observed, “Thus we are habituated to labour from our earliest years. Everyone contributes something to the common stock; and as we are unacquainted with idleness, we have no beggars’ (28). W. B. Baikie, in 1854, as quoted by J. A. Umeh, observed that, “In Igbo each person hails, as a sailor would say, from the district where he was born, but when away from home all are Igbo” (7). In 1930, G. T. Basden, also quoted by J. A. Umeh, thus: “Their (Igbo) readiness to travel and tenacity of purpose, especially when seeking employment, have carried many of them far beyond their native environment (4). And in 2012, Chinua Achebe, observed, “This kind of creature, fearing no god or man, was custom-made to grasp the opportunities, such as they were, of the white man’s dispensations. And the Igbo did so with both hands. Although the Yoruba had a huge historical and geographical head start, the Igbo wiped out their handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty years between 1930 and 1950 (74). Some of these character traits spanning almost three centuries are however being lost among the contemporary Igbo through the pervasive influence of the new wave of Pentecostal Christianity and unexamined desire to imitate alien cultures.

Pre-colonial Religious Observances in Igbo Land: Writing about the role of religion in developing cultures, N.S.S. Iwe describes religion as a spiritual pilgrimage characterized by the quest for and recognition of some supra-human power, achievement of man’s limitation as self insufficiency and formulation of answers, in the form of doctrines, to fundamental issues and problems of human existence (48). It appears the Odinala or the Igbo traditional religion satisfies all the above requirements of religion. Before the advent of colonialism the Igbo practised Odinala and within that Odinala also lies a plurality of denominations just as in the Christian religion. However, the difference between Odinala and Christianity is while there is complementarity in the pluralism of Odinala, there is intolerance in that of Christianity. Again, Odinala does not have the ambition to proselytize; it does not have a jealous God like the Jehovah of the Judeo-Christian sect which the colonialists brought with them. The Igbo is by nature accommodating. This is reflected in their world view in which far reaching freedoms are expressed, including freedom of thought, onye na uche ya, and freedom to religious persuasion, onye na chi ya. The Igbo have an avalanche of deities to which they venerate according to individual choices. The interesting thing to note is that they also have the choice to confront and, in some cases, even destroy any of these deities whenever they are found to be useless to them. A. E. Afigbo seemingly perplexed by this phenomenon observes, “the fact that a living man can destroy his Ikenga and that a dead man’s Ikenga would usually be destroyed do not make it easy for us to choose between the idea of Ikenga as a free floating force and the idea of the Ikenga as a specially assembled parcel of destiny which each male soul has to seek to live out in full” (9). M. J. C. Echeruo’s thoughts that suicide among the Igbo sometimes could be creating a chance to re-negotiate a new lease of life(21), takes the liberal cosmology of the Igbo to another complex dimension. While the Igbo may be intolerant with himself and his God, he does not interfere in another person’s faith. At the community level this phenomenon played out in Emeka Nwabueze’s play, When the Arrow Rebounds, where Ezeulu failed to eat up the sacred yam and the Umuaro people abandoned him to his god and instead took their harvest to a strange new god (66-73). When, in Chinua Achebe’s fiction, Arrow of God, Akukalia in extreme provocation split Ebo’s Ikenga into two, he paid with his life. And in spite of the extremity of murder, Umuaro was reluctant to go to war (Arrow, chapter two). This shows the extent to which the Igbo frowns at interference in another person’s faith. It is therefore clear that the meddlesomeness of contemporary Igbo Pentecostal Christians, hewing down ancient symbolic trees and burning down ancient shrines, is not in tandem with true Igbo nature and culture. It is very provocative and an economic sabotage.

Tourism Potentials of the Igbo Cultural Heritage Here it is important to look at the Igbo cultural heritage from both the tangible and the intangible. Igbo land is full of potential tourist sites, albeit unharnessed. Among the tangible cultural heritage, there are ancient caves (Ogbunike cave, Arochukwu cave, Ahabaimenyi cave, etc), shrines (Okija shrine, Umuonyo shrine, Umunoha shrine, etc), waterfalls (Ohum waterfall, Uzii Obowu waterfall, etc), archaeological excavation sites (Ugwuele sites, Lejja sites, etc), Mbari art houses (Owere Mbari, etc), lakes (Oguta lake, Umungwa-Obowu Oxbow lake, Abadaba lake, etc) slave routes (Arochukwu), etc. These tangible cultural heritages also have some intangible cultural heritages either derived from them or celebrated around them. They can be in the form of masquerade festivals, traditional dance and drumming, rituals, and all kinds of traditional theatrical performances. All these are potential huge revenue generators. L. C. Ekechukwu, talking about archaeological sites, supports the above assertion by observing that archaeological sites wield a pull on tourists due to the immense economic and other benefits derivable there from (45). Emeka E. Okonkwo and E. I. Itanyi, using traditional dance in Ukpor suggest that non tangible cultural heritages are equally potential huge revenue earners for the tourism industry. The Igbo culture comprises the Igbo knowledge system, the Igbo justice system, the Igbo marriage system, the Igbo political system, the Igbo diplomatic system, the Igbo religious system, the Igbo esoteric system, the Igbo language system, the Igbo dressing system, etc. In fact, the Igbo culture is the sum total of the Igbo human behaviour patterns and technology communicated from generation to generation.

According to Theophilus Okere, “This Igbo culture is an amalgam of the sum total of all its parts: the Pre-colonial ancient past; the experience of slave trade, colonization and independence; the present multi-lingual, multi-ethnic form of political co-existence; the massive urbanization and new colonial exploitation; the religious pluralism and exposure to modern education and growing capitalism; the growing mass poverty, the consumerism and corruption; the mass urban unemployment and the “deserted village syndrome (34)”. Most of the contemporary Igbo cultural traits enumerated by Theophilus Okere are negative. They go to prove his point that culture is in a continuous state of change. However, there are equally many good parts of our culture especially from the past, we can borrow from. For instance, talking about the Igbo knowledge transfer system, U.D. Anyanwu, in a paper titled, Western Education and Social Change in Nigeria: The Igbo Example, said, “Education was a total package of cultural transmission in which all shared for the common good of the society, being designed to develop totally the whole being for optimum positive impact on the society”. He went further to say that “Education in indigenous Etiti (a microcosm of Igbo society) was a life-long affair, which prepared both men and women (or males and females) to play distinct roles in the life of the various levels of society”. Even in the contemporary Igbo society, there are still aspects of good Igbo cultures that have comfortably survived and only need to be continuously re-emphasized. They include the kola nut ritual, the Igbo kwenu concept, the famed hospitality of the Igbo, etc. The marriage institution is one of the Igbo cultural heritages. However, contemporary events show that marriage in the traditional sense (pertaining to rites and customs) shall soon be extinct if nothing is done about it. Some over-zealous ‘Christians’ even go to the extent of challenging its validity. It is part of the western influences on our culture. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa writing in the foreword to Emeka Iwuji’s book – Customary-Law Marriage in Nigeria said: “In the field of marriage some English judges were not prepared to regard a customary-law marriage as a marriage; but as “a curious union which for lack of better expression has been described as marriage”. One can imagine the fate of the traditional marriage institution in a society where, from one angle, it is being labelled fetish and, from another angle, its legality is being called to question. The Igbo people have an indigenous justice system that needs to be revived and exploited for greater good. Scholars have dwelt on different aspects of this system over time. It may not necessarily be a perfect system but good enough to be improved upon. There are the Nze institution, the Age Grade, the Ụmụnna, the Ụmụada, the masquerade cult, etc. All these participate complementarily in the delivery of justice. Theophilus Okere in his paper, “Law Making in Traditional Igbo Society”, exclaimed: “the spirit of Igbo law must be salvaged; it is fiercely republican and democratic spirit which can revolutionalize our social life from within”. In recent times, there is a fierce re-awakening of Igbo consciousness. This is allegedly attributed to the supposed threat of extinction of the Igbo language. The place of language in the general development of a people cannot be over-emphasized. It is the gain of Europe and the African loss in language that has kept Africa continuously subordinated to Europe so many years after she claimed to have gained independence.

More Igbo people shun the Igbo language on daily basis opting for the ‘more fashionable’ English language. When a people lose pride in what belongs to them, that thing is doomed. In his 2007 Ahiajoku lecture, Theophilus Okere bemoaned the fate of the Igbo language thus: “The Igbo language is vigorous, wide ranging in vocabulary (thanks to its richness in dialects) and endowed with a power and mastery of tonality, it is a language with a lot of promise. Curiously, it is this language so richly endowed, so full of promise and given to a dynamic people of millions that, we are being warned now on daily basis, is threatened with extinction” (49). The Igbo like most other African nations lost their indigenous religion to the European proselytizers. The Igbo people are the worst hit because unlike other parts of Africa, traditional Igbo religion seems to be totally going extinct. The imperialist agents came to Africa and made Africans to feel ashamed of whatever art and civilization they had before colonialism. Even the invading Arabs also did the same to black Africans in Egypt.

Henry Louis Gates (Snr) an African-American, in an interview with a Nubian woman was told this:

“They do not need a dam. It will not benefit our people. They just want to wipe us out. We will not move, we will die here. We are proud black people who have an ancient history, but the government wants to pretend there was nothing before Islam. Rubbish!”

The western and oriental religions came to Africa and used everything within its disposal – intimidation, blackmail, treachery, bribery, magic, and medicine to impose themselves on Africans. However there is a greater awareness of the truth now than before. For instance, Chancellor Williams, in his book, The Rebirth of African Civilization observed: “We had thought that (African) “Pagan” religion was nothing but the magic beliefs and rites of savages; we found, to our infinite surprise that it is hardly more “Pagan” than our own religion, has same fundamental beliefs, and many rites and ceremonies exactly paralleling our own in important respects… Before sailing for Africa we attended service in St. Mary’s at Oxford, England. During the service, the priest passed down the aisle sprinkling us with holy water, right and left, blessing us. Six weeks later at a “Pagan” religious service in Odomase, the native priest, dressed in a white robe, passed down the paths between the seated open-air audience, sprinkling us with millet seeds, right and left, blessing us. Both “Pagan” priest and Christian priest were solemn, dignified. The sprinkling ceremony meant essentially the same thing in both religions”.

It is sad to observe that most priests of the Christian religion know this truth about the evil done to indigenous religions by visiting religions but would not do anything to redeem the damage. Instead, the native successors of the departed European priests continued to perpetuate the demonization of everything indigenous, perhaps, in order to maintain the mind control architecture.

On the political scene, the colonialists disturbed the political structure in place in Igbo land. But the Igbo did not fold their arms and watched them. In the words of Adiele Afigbo, the Igbo “Bent on preserving their culture intact, they fought the British with every means at their disposal – military, diplomatic and magical. Eventually, the British won but not before they had learnt the sobering lesson that to rule Igbo land, they had to fight and conquer, cajole and bribe every autonomous village group in turn”. This observation is very true as the case of the 1929 Aba women’s revolution comes handy to corroborate it. The remote cause of that revolution has been traced to the imposition of warrant chiefs on the natives. Even today, a greater percentage of the political leaders within the Igbo sub-region are a regeneration of the warrant chief monstrosity. And until that artificial structure is totally dismantled, the Igbo nation will continue to suffer a chequered existence. This is what Okpoko and Ezeadiche are saying when they called on African nations to “reorder their developmental ideals and concepts in order to explore the usefulness of such indigenous cultural institutions as kinship and family, creative and artistic techniques, justice and discipline, traditional architecture and settlement patterns as well as land use methods, among others” (2). Having been convinced that the traditional Igbo culture is faced with life threatening challenges, this paper now addresses itself to the role of the theatre in surmounting these challenges and in projecting the relatively unexplored tourism potentials of these cultural heritages and highlighting the economic disadvantage of abandoning this aspect of the Igbo life. Theatre as a Valid Tool for Cultural Re-orientation Emeka Nwabueze, in his inaugural lecture, asserted that “All aspects of life, including History, Politics, Philosophy, Psychology, and Ideology, commingle in one manner or another to form the woof of theatre. It is therefore, a veritable weapon that would help us to grapple with our problems and lead us to that “no man’s land” called national integration”. If in Nwabueze’s view theatre can help one to grapple with existential problems then it is not out of order to deploy the theatre to the search for a way out of the damage done to the Igbo cultural heritage through Christian demonization of everything native. As has been shown earlier in this paper, the Christian priests, for selfish reasons, engaged in centuries of negative orientation and some times direct physical assault against everything indigenous, from the food the people eat to the God they worship. The brain-washing was deep and total. The effect of this negative orientation continues to be felt. In Imo state for instance, the government once uprooted the Ikenga, the traditional symbol of strength and upright endeavour, and replaced it with the Christian cross. Recently, the government demolished the only surviving Mbari art house in Owerri, snd the only reason is that they think the Mbari ideology is fetish. That Mbari was the major center of tourism in that state! Nnamdi Anumihe advocates the exploitation of traditional Igbo music in battling this menace. He says, “For ndi Igbo to retain their cultural identity in this quagmire, we need to protect those aspects of our heritage that make us unique as Ndigbo. And because Igbo traditional music is rich in projecting didactic imperatives that guide society as beacons of good living, it is the answer of Ndigbo to the tsunamic neo-cultural colonization of the world by western culture” (46). Theatre scholars and practitioners have enormous role to play in this mission of cultural reorientation. To project and promote the Igbo cultural heritages for tourism, there is work for everyone in the theatre industry; documentaries of the tangible heritage sites need to be produced, scripts for community theatre need to be written and performed, traditional festivals have to be professionally repackaged, the ancient art of the griots has to be resurrected or its modern equivalent promoted and deployed to this task of reorientation. Emeka Nwabueze reminds us that “the role of the griot is to preserve the geneaologies and the oral traditions of the tribe as cultural guardian of the people” (22). Conclusion Igbo land has been shown to be blessed with a preponderance of potential tourist sites in the form of tangible and intangible cultural heritages. However, while other people have polished, packaged and promoted such sites in their places, ndi Igbo are still mired in fetish mentality and, instead, destroying the very heritage they are supposed to preserve. This is retrogressive and must be checked. It is economic suicide.The theatre practitioners in the Igbo culture area need get to work as a matter of urgency. The relationship between theatre and tourism is symbiotic in the sense that while theatre promotes tourism, it also enjoys the patronage of tourists. There is need to take community theatre to the Igbo hinterlands with propaganda plays that tackle negative religious indoctrinations, and perhaps help communities to repackage their traditional festivals to meet up with the demands of the modern age.

Works cited: Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann: England, 2008. Afigbo, A. E. “Speculations on Ikenga” . In a Lecture. ISCAC: Owerri, 1990. Anumihe, Nnamdi. “Didactic Imperatives of Igbo Traditional Music”. In Ahiajoku Colloquium Paper. Owerri: Imo State Ministry of Culture Government Press, 2005: 29 – 48.

Anyanwu, U. D. “Western Education and Social Change in Nigeria: The Igbo Example”. In Ahiajoku lecture Coloquium. Owerri: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Government Printer, 1986: 12 – 27. Echeruo, M. J. C. “Religion, Imperialism, and the Question of World Order”. In RELIGION IN A WORLD OF CHANGE: AFRICAN ANCESTRAL RELIGION, ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY. ed. Okere, T. I. Owerri: WRARCS, 2002: 14 – 25. Ekechukwu, L. C. “Archaeological Sites As Visitor Attractions: Towards Preserving And Presenting Nigeria’s Archaeological Heritage”. In IKENGA. Nsukka: International Journal of Institute of African Studies, 2011: 44 – 58. Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano. ABIC Books & Equip. LTD: Enugu, 2007. Gates, Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. London: Oxford University Press, 1988. Itanyi, E. I. and Okonkwo, Emeka E. Isichei, Elizabeth. IGBO WORLDS: An Anthology of Oral Histories

	and Historical Descriptions. Macmillan Education Limited: London, 1977. 
Iwe, Nwachukwu Sonde S. CHRISTIANITY, CULTURE AND COLONIALISM IN AFRICA. RSNC: Portharcourt, Rivers State,1985.

Nwabueze, Emeka. “IN THE SPIRIT OF THESPIS: THE THEATRE ARTS AND NATIONAL INTEGRATION”. In University of Nigeria Inaugural Lecture. Nsukka: University Press Ltd., 2005.

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. “The Griot As Solo Artiste: Aesthetics of Performance in African Folk Art: 50 YEARS of SOLO PERFORMING ART IN NIGERIAN THEATRE 1966 – 2016. ed. Greg Mbajiorgu & Amanze Akpuda. Ibadan: KRAFT BOOKS LIMITED, 2018:

Okere, Theophilus I. “COMMUNICATION IN IGBO CULTURE”. In AHIAJOKU LECTURE. Owerri: Ministry of Culture and Tourism Government Printer, 2007.

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“Law Making in Traditional Igbo Society”. In Igbo Jurisprudence: Law and Order in Traditional Igbo Society. Owerri: Ahiajoku lecture colloquium, 1986:

Okpoko A. I. And Ezeadichie E. U. “Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development in Africa”. In Nsukka Journal of the Humanities. ed, Njoku, O. N. Nsukka: University Press, 2012: 1- 20 Oputa, Chukwudifu. “Foreword”. In Customary-Law Marriage in Nigeria (Author, Emeka Iwuji). Enugu: Fourth Dimension Books, 1987: iii Osuagwu, Chidi. G. . “THE IGBO ORIGIN QUESTION”. In RELIGION IN A WORLD OF CHANGE: AFRICAN ANCESTRAL RELIGION, ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY. ed. Okere, T. I. Owerri: WRARCS, 2010: 7 – 23.

Umeh, John A. IGBO PEOPLE: Their Origin And Culture Area, Gostak Printing & Publishing Co. Ltd: Enugu, Nigeria, 1999.

William, Chancellor. The Rebirth of African Civilization. Washington DC, USA: Public Allain Press, 2015. ss — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chidozie Chukwubuike (talk • contribs) 20:35, 21 June 2024 (UTC)