Original Research

The post-war era in Nigeria and the resilience of Igbo communal system

Lawrence Okwuosa, Chinyere T. Nwaoga, Favour Uroko
Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies | Vol 13, No 1 | a867 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v13i1.867 | © 2021 Lawrence Okwuosa, Chinyere T. Nwaoga, Favour Uroko | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 14 July 2019 | Published: 19 April 2021

About the author(s)

Lawrence Okwuosa, Department of Religion and Cultural Studies, The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
Chinyere T. Nwaoga, Department of Religion and Cultural Studies, The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
Favour Uroko, Department of Religion and Cultural Studies, The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

Abstract

The Igbo people survived a civil war that raged between 1967 and 1970 and that devastated their land and reduced their population because of more than three million deaths. They were confronted with the challenges of beginning life afresh from scratch with almost nothing. Since then, they have allegedly been marginalised on a continuous basis by the Nigerian government. This notwithstanding the people with their communal spirit, which saw them through the civil war, have continued to cement their survival resolve in the post-war era. The aim of this article was to study the Igbo communal system as the bedrock of Igbo progress, especially in the past 50 years and recommends it as the basic principle of Igbo survival in Nigeria. It considers Igbo communal spirit as a veritable panacea against the recent agitations for secession by the people as that would guarantee Igbo people an ample space to operate in Nigeria. The methodology used in this article is a qualitative phenomenological method. This was carried out by interviewing some members of Igbo society, observing and interpreting events in Igbo society and as documented in literatures. It was found that Igbo people have really done well for themselves despite the seeming marginalisation by sticking to their resilient spirit. This study concluded that instead of seeking for independence from Nigeria, the Igbo people need to be mindful of their resilient communal spirit and reinforce it in all spheres of life. This would make them more relevant in the country’s affairs than they are currently.

Keywords

Igbo; Biafra war; communal system; values; resilience.

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Crossref Citations

1. The First Indigenous Anglican Diocese of Western Africa: Contested Legacy of the Diocese on the Niger and CMS Mission in Igboland
Owen C. Nwokolo, Victor Counted
Journal of Anglican Studies  first page: 1  year: 2023  
doi: 10.1017/S1740355323000219