The Sacred Earth Among the Igbo

Photo credit: Herbert Cole

"In some African cultures, the Earth Mother is a divinity. The Earth differs from other nature spirits, being a chthonic force rather than an anthropomorphic figure. Ala or Ana [or Ani] is of central importance in much of Igboland. Many crimes are seen as abominations because they offend her. The whole body of inherited custom is Omenala, and ritual prohibitions are nso Ala. Those who died forbidden deaths, such as suicides or lepers, could not be buried in the earth, and their corpses were cast into the Evil Forest. Missionaries were sometimes given such areas for their churches, as a trial. ... Nri, dedicated to the earth, was one of Igboland's great ritual centers. Ritual specialists from Nri, their faces marked by distinctive scars, traveled from village to village, purifying the earth from abominations. Instead of weapons, they carried a staff of peace.

In the Owerri area, people honored the Earth in a different way, by creating mbari houses, shrines of clay sculpture that were allowed to disintegrate. It was the act of creation itself that honored the Earth. One of Igboland's great oracles was called Igwekala (Heaven Is Greater Than Earth). But in 1966, when village elders debated whether the Earth or Chukwu was supreme, opinion was divided.

The cult of Ala, apparently so universal, illustrates the impossibility of making valid generalizations about the whole Igbo culture area. In the Okigwe area, Ajala (the local form of Ala) was less dominant; in one community, she was recently introduced, and she was often less dominant that the yam god. In a village group south of Owerri, Ala is thought of as male. Ala is clearly linked with the Nri ritual sphere, though her cult is found well beyond it."

Elizabeth Isichei, 2004: 232

The Religious Traditions of Africa: A History

Onitsha, Gift of the Niger, By Chinua Achebe

"Onitsha is such a phenomenon. ...

Onitsha is an Igbo town which claims Benin origin. If we are to believe historians, this claim is not very well founded. But what really matters is that Onitsha feels different from the peoples and places in its vicinity. And it is different. It sits at the crossroads of the world. It has two faces—a Benin face and an Igbo face—and can see the four directions.... Its market, which had assembled originally on one of the four days of the Igbo week, had likewise grown ‘big eyes’ and engulfed every day in the sky....

Because it sees everything, Onitsha has come to distrust single-mindedness. It can be opposite things at once. It was both a cradle of Christianity in Igboland and a veritable fortress of ‘pagan’ revanchism. Many hinterland peoples ... would often say with a sad shake of the head that an Onitsha man had too much of the world in him to make a good Christian.

There is a story about one of the earliest converts in Onitsha at the turn of the century who did so well in the new faith that the Church Missionary Society decided to send him to England for higher studies and ordination. While in England he quickly lost the faith that took him there and returned to Onitsha where he obstructed the work of evangelization by his nefarious example. Why did the church preach so vehemently against heathen titles, he asked? What were all those knights and barons and dukes if not hierarchies of ozo? He took all the titles he could find and died a pagan.

Igbo People and Igbo Land

Olaudah Equina - Jaja of Opobo - Nri Obalike - Chinua Achebe
Philip Emeagwali - Pat Utomi - Chris Abani - Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Chimamanda N. Adichie - Chiwetel Ejiofor - Mikel Obi - Genevieve Nnaji

(From The World Igbo Congress) - Igbo people are among the largest single ethnic groups in Africa. They are based mostly in southeastern Nigeria constituting about 25% of the population of the country. Because the Igbo is daring, competitive, hard-working and enterprising, they can be found doing business in all parts of Nigeria, in Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. 

These attributes brought success, wealth and power… as well as distrust, jealousy and outright hatred within the polity. The mass exodus of Igbo people from their homeland has continued unabated and the Igbo can indeed be found in very significant numbers in all parts of the world. Their language is Igbo. 

Administratively, Igbo people make up 100% of the five states of the southeast zone comprising Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. The contiguous states of Delta and Rivers in the south-south zone also have very significant Igbo populations. Igbo is the language throughout Igbo land. Prominent cities/parts in the Igbo country include Aba, Awka, Owerri, Orlu, Nnewi, Mbaise, Nsukka, Enugu, Onitsha , Afikpo, Okigwe, Umuahia, Asaba, amongst others.