In this first part of an interview with George Dike (FNIQS), who was recently initiated into the OBA Association Urrennebo Community Enugu- Ukwu Anambra State, calls for the Revival of the Ibo Culture.
Excerpt:
In an exclusive interview with First News online Newspaper, George Dike when prompted to explain what the installation of the Oba title means to him, went into memory lane; that the Urrennebo Community had an early cultural heritage as their ancestors were reputed.
There was an “ichi” mark on their faces that distinguished Nri kingdom people and that their ancestors traded with this identity.That is what they called “IJE”, (traveling to teade on divination) throughout the present Enugu, Ebonyi, Kogi and Benue States.
They have always been very cultural people and that there was no level of attainment in life without strutting it with tradition that will make sense to our people. So, in essence, you must come home to establish whatever achievements you made outside.
Culture is a very important aspect of life and people have come to realize that Africans have been marginalized by the erstwhile white Colonial Masters: to abandon our Culture and after attaining Education and necessary Impetus for development and having abandoned our culture we found it very difficult to generate a new source of development from our own endeavors, the development will just fizzle into corruption or buckle at the least stress.
While the white people have a long long rium that nobody tampered with, their developmental strides, marched on in triumphal attainment because they were sustained by their own cultural affinity.
Remember: Prof. Njoku Obi discovered the Anti cholera Vaccine and because Nigeria did not have a cultural Spring board to develop its own intellectual agenda, that is how it ended as was easily sabotaged.
We need to now go back to our culture, especially our immigrant children will tell you that they are from cities where they were born in Europe or in the America as in most cases, there would be no adherence by their parents to make them to become proud of their own ancestry. There’s nothing to show.
This does not happen with the Jews or the Arabs who mixed their development with their religion such that as a Jew you must go to the Synagogue and if you are a Muslim you must pray five times and ypy must go to the mosque as a necessity of life. People are mounded through this process.
But in our own case, if it’s convenient, you will do something similar, if it is not, you skip it. Today, we have lost our Igbo culture: which is no more visible in our Education and Sociology but only seen in our trade and commerce; where we still have this “Boi Boi” system that has generated interest in several schools abroad.
Many Billionaires today in Ibo land went through this System. This is why we must go back to our roots and try to Salvage Certain level of buried culture so that we can have them on hand and they will help us in modern development efforts.
