Something about the little things

 Funny enough only Achebe's Things fall apart talks about the coming of Christianity to the Igbo people.

For those familiar with Igbo stories and those who read Chinua Achebe's books, you will discover that there was a shift in storyline. Times changed. There was a new dispensation of people. 

His books brings alive the continuity of stories. The fact that stories have no end.

A new era of people from "Things fall Apart" to "Arrow of God" to "No longer at ease", you name them, emerged. From a time where people saw the coming of the white man as an evil omen to the time when everyone wanted to have a member of his family amongst them. From a time where people fought for their religion and beliefs to have a chance of existence to a time where this religion was seen as 'idolatry' and the practice of the heathen. From a time where people argued and disagreed about all of it,Christainity, to the latter where it was a mark of how intellectually advanced a man was from amongst his peers.

More than just to fit the religious rites but also for the pride and thrill that came with having someone who ate and drank from the cup of the strange man. The white man. Men seen as spirits.Men who could read and write.People who spoke from their nostrils. Language that trailed off like incantations.

Chief Priests. Worshippers of ágbàrà. Men who consulted the oracle áfà 'divination'- the one who heard and spoke to the dead. Status was no barrier.

An Igbo proverb says "a disease that has never been seen before cannot be cured with everyday herb".

It was expected that you needed to eat of the plate of the ones who knew the cure, men who had an idea of the new era,men who understood the times.

.... For a man dances the dance prevalent in his time.

So Christainity was accepted more because of the ego that came with it.

And the fact that it was the new dance.

After reading "Things fall apart" I had this reasoning of the White Men as sinister people, hostile people, people who replaced our traditions with Bible, who made us say prayers with a gun to our head. Which in many cases still reflect truth, but somehow I also discovered that they were two categories of the 'white man'. The missionaries and the British colonial masters.They came with missionaries to reform the people after they had colonized them. To make them organized and proper after taking away the things that made for their sense of reasoning. 

Maybe we all did translate the book to our own taste. Some articles still talk about the colonization and christainity as a selling away of our freedom. The very basis of the Igbo people. Culture.

Personally, I think Christainity was a personal decision of ours. It was our decision to serve what we serve, in as much as they were guns to our heads and matchettes to our throats we wanted what we wanted. it was a moment of experience. We wanted to know the thrill that came with being amongst this people.

Does it make us loose ourselves completely? I doubt.

Igbo people love adventures and this seemed like just another adventure. 

The Christain adventure of an Igbo Man.

Would you agree with me, that anything you called continually answered to you?. Did their gods not answer them when they prayed?

Did their gods not bless their yams and harvest?

But how could a man who had dined and wined with civilization go back to a shrine with stone and bricks at the front?

How could he say prayers and make offerings to a man who tied wrapper and had no money for a top. A man who didn't know the white man's language, Men who had no idea or clue about the new era?

It was more like the new advent of people.

Does this make Christainity take over culture? No.

Does this mean Culture and Christainity can't be placed side by side. I'll say no too.

I'm still greatly marvelled by the 'New yam festival( ìwà jí)', maybe masquerades scare me still, but still why can't we mix them up?

Maybe we do not break kola nuts and offer them to the original misconception of the  bringer of life but to the particular God a man was equally yoked with. The God that brought about your own existence. The God you believe in. Because in all its sense a man who brings kola nuts, brings life.

Is it not possible that we bring a modernized culture?

one were ilu -proverbs should be said as normal. I'm thrilled every single time I hear a new one.

Shouldn't we weigh our language, our culture, our values? cos of all Nigerian people, Igbos seem to be the only ones civilization and modernization cheated off these things. How many Igbos still speak their language? like fluently without the whole cut-and-join. Engl-igbo. Me including.

Maybe we could all bring a theory of why Igbo people behave the way they do?

why they feel the way they do?

the real reasons behind the creation of Biafra.

List them, I'll count with you.

Can I be very interested in culture and still be a fireful Christain?

Does being a Christian make me boring and unsociable? 

Can I not be deeply marvelled about the people I belong to, their gods and culture without having to be of it?

You know that Igbo saying about kindred spirits, that a man would always have traces of his people wherever he is found. That spirit that talked about familiarity and bond with someone and something you hadn't particularly remembered meeting in reality. Overtime as a result of the African trade slave, a number of our traditions can be traced to the Carribeans and North Americans. I'll say most definitely, if you ask me. 

This blog is created to answer your questions, clear your thoughts, show you of a people we all strongly relate too. 

I am Ada Ezenani. PreciousManuelblogs.

And this is culture meets christianity