Gregory Ikechukwu Nworie, PhD
Sydney College of Divinity, Australia.
nworiegia@gmail.com
Abstract
The European missionaries came to civilize and Christianize Igbo people. In the course of
carrying out their work, they employed several evangelization strategies. Some of these
strategies were successful and many others were unsuccessful. For long, many authors have
given undue emphasis on these strategies without giving adequate consideration to the
contributions of some Igbo cultural values as essential factors in the success of their work.
This article seeks to fill such gap by considering the pivotal roles played by the Igbo cultural
values of community, solidarity, respect for elders, and sense of the sacred in the success of
evangelization and societal development of Igbo people.
Introduction
The European missionary came to Igboland to civilize and Christianize Igbo people
(Okwu 2010: 84). The success of evangelizing and Christianizing any people depends on the
fruitful interaction between the evangelizer who brings the good news and the audience who
receives the good news. In this interaction, the missionary is always influenced by his or her
culture in the interpretation and transmission of the gospel, and the receiver of evangelization
equally depends on certain cultural values in the reception of the same gospel. To achieve any
meaningful result in their work, missionaries need to recognize the cultural values of the
people they seek to evangelize. The Catholic missionaries, for example, who tried to
evangelize Igbo people without any recourse to their culture toiled for fifteen years and could
not get up to 2000 converts (Congregation of Holy Ghost Province 1996: 27).
However, the missionaries began to gain more converts under the leadership of Bishop
Shanahan who adopted a method that recognized the place of Igbo culture in his missionary
work. Francis Arinze, the first indigenous Archbishop of Onitsha who took over from Bishop
Charles Heerey the co-adjutor of Bishop Shanahan, praised Shanahan’s method of
evangelization. He praised his recognition of Igbo “religious beliefs and practices, social and
cultural values” as God’s gifts to the people for the reception of the Catholic faith (Arinze
1973: 14). While some cultural values can be at odds with the gospel, some others serve as a
good preparation for its reception and subsequent growth. Relying on the testimonies of the
72
missionaries themselves and those of early converts to Christianity in Igbo land, this article
seeks to show how the cultural values like sense of the sacred, community, solidarity,
sacredness of life, respect for authority and elders helped in civilizing and Christianizing Igbo
people. It insists that cultural values more than their evangelization strategies helped them
achieve the measure of success they had in Igboland.
For long, scholars have simply rehearsed the strategies which the missionaries
employed in their work whenever they examined factors that drive the growth of Christianity
and societal development in Igboland. They attribute the missionaries’ success in their
evangelization work to such factors as their use of “education as a veritable tool for
evangelization” (Ekechi 1971:106-107;Ekechi 1972:186;Okorocha 1987:238; Udeani
2007:103;Ejiogu 2011:151), or through “proper planning”(Chigere 2000: 168) or through the
given of gifts to the poverty stricken Africans (Ejizu 1988:30-41), or even through the
establishment of hospitals where the sick and infirm are healed (Chigere 2000:270). It is true
that these factors contribute to the success of missionaries in their work. However, the history
of evangelization must not be written with undue emphasis on the activities of the European
missionaries while discounting the receiving culture’s response to the work of the
missionaries. This way of presenting the history of Christianity in Igboland entrenches
colonial historiography in a post-colonial time. There is hardly any doubt that a receiving
culture does contribute to the work of civilizing or Christianizing Igbo people. Let us
introduce Igbo people and their place among other tribes in Nigeria.
- Introducing Igbo People
Igbo people are among the three major ethnic groups out of many ethnic nationalities,
language groups and cultures in Nigeria (Okoro 2009: 170). Among these ethnic groups,
Igboland is unique especially because political authority is not centralized but rather diffused
according to villages, towns, and communities (Ohadike 1988: 437). As a result, there is no
one central myth of origin that unites Igbo people as a homogenous social group.
Nevertheless, common cultural values, tradition and language are the known uniting factors
of Igbo people. There are no doubts that most countries of sub-Saharan Africa share common
cultural values and what is said of Igbo people could also be said of them. In this essay, the
use of Igbo/African cultural values almost interchangeably is done on purpose. It recognizes
like Wiredu did earlier in his Philosophy and an African Culture that although Ghana has
varying ethnic groups with certain differences in culture, “there are deep underlying affinities
73
running through these cultures which justify speaking of a Ghanaian traditional culture”
(Wiredu 1980:6-7). What Wiredu says of Ghana can also be said of the whole of sub-Saharan
Africa.
The Catholic missionarys’ work among Igbo people in the context of Nigeria and
West Africa is significant in view of the fact that Igbo priests constitute more than 54% of all
the Catholic priests of Nigeria (CSN website 2011). Thus, the Catholic Church in Igboland
contributes a large number of priests and religious working as missionaries in different parts
of the world (Ebelebe 2009: 203). Let us explore the meaning of cultural values and how five
of such values helped in the growth of Christianity and societal development in Igboland. - The Meaning of Cultural Values:
“Cultural Values” according to Pope Paul VI, “belong in a way to the natural laws
which are implanted in the heart of every person and are the foundation for a well-ordered
life with his/her fellow human beings in every generation”(Pope Paul VI, Africae Terrarum #
7) The Pope sees values as what refines society and cannot be attacked without undermining
human development. And every integral human development impacts positively on the
overall development of society. Values constantly help in forming human beings. Tanye
believes that human beings hold on to them as a moral guide in determining right behaviour
from wrong one (Tanye 2010:26). Society adopts values like community, solidarity, respect
for life, respect for elders because they have been tested and shown to be effective in
harnessing ethical and interpersonal relations and wellbeing between the individual and the
society(Tanye 2010:26).
Values are categorized broadly as either intrinsic or extrinsic depending on whether it
is an end in itself or serves as a means to an end (Curtler 1997: 79). Extrinsic values are
valuable as a means to an end whereas intrinsic values are always valuable irrespective of its
acknowledgement. For instance, human life is inherently valuable and so God endows the
human person with the instinct of self-preservation. On the contrary, the extrinsic material
value like money is not as inherently valuable for human existence since people have lived
during the barter system without money.
Some values are inculcated by parents through imposed or imbibed standards.
According to T. Lidz, children imitate their parents and also integrate into their lives some
aspects of life in the society. Parental orders become for children the point of reference for
74
approved, acceptable or forbidden behaviour in the society (Lidz 1983: 251). Not only does
the family guide and nurture children’s behaviour, the society also draws children into the
complex relationships that continue to grow over time. Thus, children affect and are affected
by the people they relate with all through their lives (Goodman 1967:102). - The indispensability of Cultural Values in Societal development of Igboland.
Cultural values are among the many but primary factors that contributed not only to
the acceptance and growth of Christianity but also to societal development of Igbo people.
The work of the missionaries predisposed Igbo people to embrace several aspects of
development in Igbo society. This is based on the testimony of the early missionaries as they
evaluated the Igbo people’s response to the Christian message and the emerging new way of
life in Igbo society. Also, Igbo people’s actions or inactions in accord with the cultural values
such as sense of sacred, community, solidarity and respect for elders corroborate this view.
We do not intend to discount completely the evangelization strategies employed by the
missionary group. Nonetheless, looking closely at the cultural values of the people one can
confidently conclude that these values helped in the acceptance of Christianity and the new
way of life that accompanied the Christian message.
i. Family, Community and Human relations
African people have a strong sense of family lived in the context of the community.
The community is the guardian of the individual, and so the rights individuals have are
always in relation to the obligation they fulfil to the community (Onwubiko 1991: 14-15).
The Community provides security and also the social, political, judicial and religions centres
that cater for the needs of the individuals (Emeakaroha 2012). According to Gerald Tanye,
“community life is the soul of African society” (Tanye 2010: 55). One of the European
missionaries confirmed that Igbo people have “a deep sense of kinship” exemplified in their
treatment of each other as “brothers” and in the offering of accommodation to each other in
foreign lands on account of sharing the same village of origin (Jordan 1971:152). Igbo
people, according to Anthony O. Nwachukwu, value human relationships as both sacred and
life (Nwachukwu 2010: 87). Any Igbo missionary succeeds to the measure he/she takes
seriously the Igbo attachment to the family and community.
The Igbo spirit of human relations draws them to rejoice and appreciate any good
done to her members. Thus, the community appreciated the missionaries’ strategy of
75
introducing schools as a means of saving children from slavery. John Jordan articulated the
many advantages achieved through the schools for children. Children were free to engage or
not to engage in sacrifice to idols, immodest dancing, and pagan rituals. They could freely
practice their Christian faith, and because they now speak English, slave dealers fear them
enormously(Jordan 1971: 90). Igbo children attuned themselves to learning from the
missionaries in keeping with their educational development plan for Igbo people. This
yielded fruits such that E. A. Ayandele, affirmed that Igbo people “achieved quantitative
parity with the Yoruba, their rival who had had two generations of opportunities before the
Igbo”(Ayandele 1979: 170). Although it was the children who were the immediate
beneficiaries of education, the freedom enjoyed by the children of the community is
considered as the freedom of the community.
Bishop Shanahan recognized the Igbo love for family and good human relations and
so very early in his missionary work endeavoured to be part of the community. The people
confessed their intimate relationship with this great apostle of Igboland thus:
He is no longer a stranger, but a member of a family. This fact alone makes what
he can effect, and what he can prevent really incalculable. He is known
everywhere, and he alone can go through the country without danger. Other
Europeans dare not move about the country unescorted” (Jordan 1971: 90).
The dangers of not identifying with the family are enormous and can often be tragic. John
Jordan, the biographer of Bishop Shanahan, told a story of how
as late as 1907, some cannibals about seventy miles from Onitsha way-laid a
European who was making his way through their town on a bicycle. After tying
him up for the pot, they next tied his bicycle securely to a palm tree so that it
would not ‘run back and report to Government’ (Jordan 1971: 75).
The Igbo sense of community implies that the individual has rights only in relation to the
community. Unfortunately in Igboland, only the free born (Diala) has rights, the Osu (those
ritually offered to the deities) and the slave have no rights in the community(Ihenacho 2004:
100). When the early missionaries wanted to establish Christianity based on the redemption
of slaves and outcasts and creating Christian villages for them, Igbo people were really
appalled by such a decision (Ejizu 2010). Bishop Shanahan had to abandon the slave method
76
because according to him Igbo people abhor slaves, and to continue with the slave method
would make Christianity an unpopular religion among Igbo people (Jordan 1971: 30). This
candid confession of Bishop Shanahan shows that the first strategy was unacceptable in a
community-oriented Igbo context.
The sense of community and solidarity extends to the living dead. Igbo people were
not willing to enter into heaven preached by the missionaries without their kith and kin. An
Igbo chief emphatically told the missionary that he would like to go to heaven only if his
“brother-chiefs” would be there (Obi 1985: 120). Bishop Shanahan was surprised and
shocked by such an answer and from then onwards became ever determined to evangelize the
children through the provision of many schools where the children could learn the faith and
subsequently evangelize their parents (Obi 1985: 120). Indeed, it became clear to him that
seeking to convert those already formed in the traditional faith would be a herculean task.
ii. Success through Community’s Competition
Igbo people exhibit a strong sense of competition as individuals or as a community.
Being an egalitarian society where success is achieved through hard work and not by sheer
inheritance, people endeavour to be outstanding in what they do; communities try to compete
and outdo each other in certain trades or professions. When, therefore, the European
missionaries introduced schools and Churches as a means of evangelization, no community
wanted to be left out of the advantages accruable from having a school, a church or even from
associating with the missionaries. Communities were proud to build a school because they
considered achieving such a feat over and above another community as a new way a
community could “get up”(Ekechi 1971: 104). Elizabeth Isichei is right when she says that
Igbo people simply transferred to education the equivalent prominence of competitiveness
that made them put a lot of effort into the cultivation of sufficient yams in order to take yam
title. She went on to say that Bishop Shanahan fully exploited the people’s love for education
(Isichei 1976: 168). The people’s love for education, according to Clarke, transformed it into
the most suitable way of evangelizing Igbo people (Clarke 1974: 101).
The people’s love for education made them partners with the missionaries in
establishing schools for their communities. In the spirit of competition, the people built
and cherished the schools because it was both the fruit of their labour and the means of
educating their children (Jordan 1971: 96). Education succeeded as an instrument of
evangelization in most part because the local community bore the operational cost of
77
administering the schools. They helped in building and providing materials for the
schools, and also in paying the teachers’ salaries. The Christian community and the pupils
all contributed in paying the day to day cost of running the schools (Isichei 1976: 172).
The Children used whatever means available to them like farming, making mats, keeping
chickens, in order to raise their own contributions (Isichei 1976: 172).
Sometimes, Igbo villages took the initiative of inviting missionaries to establish
school and mission stations in their communities. Those who invited Fr Lutz, according to
Celestine Obi, promised to assist the missionaries provide a shelter for their future apostles
(Obi 1985: 32-33). Several villages like Adazi Ani, Igbariam, Nteje sent delegates who
trekked long distances to invite missionaries to establish the Church in their communities.
The Igbo competitive spirit has been helpful in executing self-help projects in many
Igbo communities. However, Igbo people’s emphasis on fund-raising in carrying out projects
is becoming a growing concern to many people. Sometimes, the fund-raising is done in total
disregard to the poor members of the community. Elizabeth Isichei criticized the ways funds
are raised in most churches in Nigeria. She frowned at the practice of denying penitents the
sacraments because of their inability to pay their dues. She feels that the practice is
deplorable and could be called “simony” (Isichei 1976: 173). Although fund-raising exercises
serve useful purposes in Igboland, the poor should be considered in all fund-raising activity
in every Christian Church in order not to lay an impossible burden on them.
iii. Solidarity and Evangelization Breakthrough in Abakaliki
Igbo people cherish, care and protect whatever belongs to them in keeping with the
Igbo saying: ours is ours, and mine is mine. If they cannot lay claim to the ownership of a
particular church or organization, for instance, they are most likely to exhibit a laissez-faire
attitude towards it. It was this attitude that nearly ruined the progress of a mission centre in
Abakaliki of Northeastern Igboland. This mission centre was not making any headway
despite all the efforts of the missionaries. Indeed, the situation became so worrisome that the
priest-in-charge gave up hope and suggested to Bishop McGetterick as follows: “Better close
Abakaliki; we are getting nowhere” (McGettrick 1988: 133). The despondent words of the
priest-in-charge serve as an example of what could happen if missionaries were to insist only
on their laid out plans or strategies without considering the cultural disposition of the people
they are sent to evangelize.
78
Luckily, Bishop Thomas McGettrick took the advice of a teacher who was a native of
Abakaliki, and this became the turning point of that mission. The teacher advised the bishop
that
the real natives of Abakaliki think the priest is a colonial servant as he lives in
Abakaliki Township. The people in that township are strangers, not real natives of
Abakaliki. It would be better to put a priest living in a town outside the
Government station, among real Abakaliki people (McGettrick 1988: 133).
The Bishop heeded that advice and the result was immediately evident. The bishop confessed
that as a result of that advice, he posted a priest to Ezza in 1949 and that led to the miraculous
opening up and development of the bush areas of Abakaliki. The opening up of the rural areas
of Abakaliki almost always began with infrastructural development in the form of building a
Father’s house and a school. Such buildings usually serve both as classrooms and for Sunday
liturgical celebrations or other community activities (Nworie 2018: 78). Consequently, he was
able to open several stations in 1zzi, Ishielu, Mgbo, and Umezeoka in subsequent years
(McGettrick 1988: 133). They took these stations as theirs and so sacrificed and looked after it.
iv. Life: Sacred and Everlasting
Igbo people love life and seek to preserve it from conception to natural death.
Moreover, they believe that life does not end in earthly existence. They call their ancestors
the “living-dead” because they consider them alive in the spirit world. Igbo people show their
love for life in the giving of names associated with life (ndu) such as Nduka (life is greater),
Ndukaihe (Life surpasses all things), Ndubisi (Life is primary), Ndukaku (Life is superior to
wealth). They acknowledge God to be the source of life by names like as Chibundu (God is life),
Chinwendu (God owns life), Chinenyendu (God gives life). They show their love for life
through songs, through prayers, and in welcoming of visitors during the rite of giving and
breaking of kolanuts(Uchem 2001: 60).
Given the above disposition about life, therefore, Igbo people accepted Christianity
because it promised to give life everlasting. Msgr Theophilus Okere confirmed this Igbo
disposition about life in his 1997 Odenigbo lecture. According to him,
the real gospel among gospels, that sound clearly in their ears and which caused
their earliest acceptance and trooping en masse to the church of Christ are those
79
few words called ‘life everlasting’ ‘until life everlasting’, ‘and everlasting joy in
the world to come’(Okere 1997: 71).
Okere’s assessment that life everlasting was why Igbo people “trooped en masse” into
Christianity still remains valid even till today.
Igbo people love everlasting life, but even while on earth they continually search for
solutions to life’s problems. This is at the root of the proliferations of healing ministries and
independent churches in Igboland. Maboea calls these churches the “institute of healing”; the
Catholic Church, the “institute of Grace” and the Protestant churches, the “institute of the
Word” (Maboea 1994: 122). Africans cherish both spiritual and physical healing and search
anywhere for healing in order to preserve life. Indeed, one of the foremost qualities of an
ancestor is the openness to life and a natural death after reaching ripe old age (Lumbala 1998:
43). To die young and without children only qualifies one for burial in a bad bush or
Ikirikpo(Echiegu 1998: 66).
In Igboland today, there is a positive cultural development that makes it possible for
people who die young or without children to be given a befitting burial (Nworie 2018:166).
There is an evolving Christian culture that permits the burial of every Christian either at home
or within its immediate Surroundings. Such fundamental cultural change could not have been
possible without Christianity.
Catholic missionaries preached about everlasting life in heaven but supported earthly
life through the establishment of hospitals and dispensaries. The mission hospitals built that
time still remains, even today, the backbone of health delivery in Igboland. New health
facilities are still being built following the tradition of the early missionaries. It can be said
without doubt that there has been continued development in the health sector thanks to the
church missionaries.
Igbo people continue to recognize the role Christianity plays in promoting and
prolonging life here and hereafter. During sickness, the Catholic missionaries cater for the
spiritual and physical needs of the dying person. Families brought their children and loved
ones to the hospitals run by early European missionaries for healing, and also made promises
(often not kept) of leaving their children in the mission if they are healed (Obi 1985: 39).
When medical help failed and the sick person was at the point of death, the people accepted
baptism for the soul of the dying person. Jordan said that Shanahan hardly met any pagan
80
parent who refused the baptism of a dying child. In fact, they frequently brought their
children to receive baptism which Shanahan called the heavenly title (Jordan 1971: 71).
v. The Sacred in Symbols
Igbo people relate to natural and spiritual realities through representing them in
material signs and symbols. For example, Igbo people use kolanut as a symbol of “life and
commensality”; Ofo, as a “symbol of justice” (Uzukwu 1983: 14); Ikenga, as a symbol of
“achievement”(Ejizu 1991: 233). African symbolisms, according to Ekeke, help them to
grasp spiritual realities through visible natural objects of human knowledge and experience
(Ekeke 2012: 11-19). Thus, there are many symbols in Igbo traditional religion. According to
Augustine Okwu, the images made from wood or mud merely represent but are not the actual
supernatural presence in Igbo religious mind (Okwu 2010: 203). Igbo shrines have an
abundance of “anthropomorphic idols” in the form of statues representing the spirit world
(Arinze 2008: 211-212).
These objects of representations or religious icons can become a subject of
disagreement between rival religious groups like Christianity and Igbo traditional religion.
Worshippers see each other’s icon as either incomplete or meaningless, and according to
Elizabeth Isichei, both were perplexed or repulsed by each other’s religious images (Isichei
1970: 213). While the missionaries treated Igbo religious symbols as wooden object devoid
of any spiritual powers, Igbo people were puzzled as to what Christians were worshipping
(in school halls devoid of images) as they kneel, stand, shut their eyes and open them
during Christian worship.
Igbo people, according to Celestine Obi, use statues to decorate homes and to
represent deities in their religion. That Christianity uses statues in their worship remains
appealing to converts from Igbo traditional religion. The early missionaries benefited
from that appeal in their work in Igboland (Obi 1985: 79). Missionaries who failed
initially to tap into such appeal quickly reversed their missionary strategy in favour of
statues in Igboland.
vi. Sense of the Sacred extends to the New Religion
The European missionaries sent to evangelize Igboland were insufficiently prepared
for their mission. They neither knew Igbo language nor its cultures. Nevertheless, they met
Igbo people to whom religion is the value. According to Chigere, values in Igboland always
81
have a religious undertone because of the importance of religion in human life (Chigere 2000:
68). The position of religion in Igbo culture is further corroborated by Christopher Ejizu who
calls it “the womb of the culture in the traditional Igbo background. It permeates most aspects
of life, and infuses them with meaning and significance” (Ejizu 2010). Without religion,
therefore, life for the Igbos would be meaningless and of no purpose.
The missionaries came to preach to Igbo people a new religion imbued with the
European way of life and culture. Msgr Theophilus Okere speaking about the acceptance of
Christianity and subsequent growth of the Catholic Church in the first Odenigbo Lecture in
1994 said that “Igbo people themselves after due consideration accepted that the God of our
forefathers is the same God which the missionaries were speaking about. God is Chineke for
the Igbos, Jahweh for the people of Israel, and God for the English people” (Okere 1997: 53).
According to him, the missionaries rejected Igbo traditional worship but acknowledged that
the God being spoken about everywhere in Igboland is the same God whose Gospel they
brought to the people. God’s name, according to Okere, became the only meeting point
between the missionaries’ gospel and the traditional religion of Igbo people.
Moreover, Igbo people were not completely closed to the idea of a new religion. Even
those who were doubtful about adopting Christianity allowed their children to embrace it, and
this is in keeping with the Igbo spirit of keeping up with changing times. Bishop Shanahan,
the first bishop of Igboland, confirms the deep religious sentiment of the pagan people during
the baptism of their children in the school:
All the heads of the village come with the children and their parents to the sacred
ceremony. They assist with sentiments positively akin to piety, and once a child is
publicly made a Christian, he is sacred in the eyes of the town’s people, and no
one dare touch him (Jordan 1971: 91).
The Igbo sense of the sacred was easily extended to this unknown ritual of the Christian
religion. Unlike the Christian missionaries, Igbo people believed that whatever is holy in one
religion should be acknowledged as holy by another religion (Iroegbu 2011).
vii. Conversion of Elders and Authority Figures
Igbo society is both an egalitarian as well as a hierarchically organized society. As an
egalitarian society an individual can acquire or is conferred upon authority status (Green
1964: 186). The actions of those in positions of authority sometimes serve as an influence
82
underpinning the actions of the rest of the community. The elders teach religion and morals
and have the capacity to determine good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable conduct. When
the missionaries came to Igboland they concentrated their efforts on the conversion of slaves
and outcasts of Igbo society. The emphasis on these groups scandalized natives with
freeborn ancestry (Obi 1985: 119). It was only after the conversion of King Idigo of Aguleri
that the missionaries increased their chances of gaining influential people into Christianity.
After his conversion, King Idigo invited the missionaries to establish Christianity in his home
town in 1890. Prior to that time, they had only the station at Onitsha (Obi 1985: 43). Indeed,
the conversion of Joseph Idigo to Christianity in 1891 was a turning point in the missionaries’
work. Nine years later, they evolved a regular strategy aimed at converting chiefs and
influential people (Clarke 1974: 93). Thus, it became clear to all that Christianity is also for
kings and freeborns.
Many other families embraced the Catholic faith because of the example of Idigo and
his family (Obi 1985: 46-49). This new strategy yielded a big catch in the conversion of
Samuel, the Obi of Onitsha. The conversion of influential people in the community
eventually had a flow-on effect on the rest of the members of their family and the community
at large. The conversion into Christianity of prominent Igbo sons, elders, chiefs paved the
way for the entrenchment of Christianity in Igboland. Igbo people insist on not being
separated from their kith and kins especially in matters of religion. An Igbo chief insists, to
the bewilderment of the missionary, that “If I go to heaven and they all, my brother-chiefs
will be down in this other place you speak of, Oh no! I would rather be with my own”(Jordan
1971: 31-32). In fact, Igbo people love being in the religion of their brothers and sisters. - Conclusion
Missionaries engaged in preaching the gospel to any culture are to take seriously the
relationship between the good news and the people’s cultural values. This is most especially
because values determine not only the acceptable way of behaving in a society but also have
an enduring character since they continue to be handed on from generation to generation. In
Africa in general and Igboland in particular, the above values such as sense of community,
solidarity and sense of good human relation, sense of the sacredness of life, sense of the
sacred and of religion, sense of respect for authority and elders continue to remain germane
to the work of evangelization and societal development.
This essay has shown the indispensable place of cultural values in the successful
missionary work among Igbo people. It has relied on testimonies of the missionaries
83
especially Bishop Shanahan and some prominent Igbo people to show that these values as
expressed in the people’s day to day lives were responsible in most part for the growth of
Catholic Christianity and societal development. It was the community’s egalitarian spirit, for
example, that made them to be competitive and also to have a strong sense of ownership of
school and mission established in their communities. They funded and adequately looked
after such schools.
Furthermore, through their pragmatic orientation to life, they sought for “what works”
even if it was a new religion: Christianity. The Igbo love for travelling and learning made
them seek modernity and learn a new culture, religion and way of life from the Europeans.
They continued to maintain their sense of being visual which led them to cherish the Catholic
liturgy especially the rich symbolism of its rituals. Indeed, Igbo people celebrated these
rituals always conscious of being part of a community. They love life as lived in solidarity
with each other in the community, and they strive to protect their life of solidarity both in this
world and even in the spirit world. Thus, Igbo people were attracted to Catholic Christianity
even more whenever elements of Igbo values come to the forefront, even if such value is as
simple as a kiss of peace during the Mass.
84
References
Arinze, F. A. (1973). The Church and Nigerian Culture. Onitsha:Tabansi Press,
Arinze, F. A. (2008). Sacrifice in Igbo Traditional Religion. Onitsha: St Stephen’s Press,
2008.
Ayandele, F. A. (1979). “The Collapse of ‘Pagandom’ in Igboland” in Nigerian Historical
Studies. London: Frank and Cass and company Ltd.
Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria http://www.csnigeria.org/csn/index.php [Accessed 14 April,
2011].
Chigere, Nkem Hyginus. (2000). Foreign Missionary Background and Indigenous
Evangelization in igboland. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Clarke, Peter B. (1974) “The Methods and Ideology of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Eastern
Nigeria, 1885-1905.” Journal of Religion in Africa 6: 81-108. Accessed 10 March, - doi: 10.2307/1594882.
Congregation of Holy Ghost Province of Nigeria.(1996). Short Life of Bishop Shanahan,
C.S.Sp. Enugu: Snaap Press.
Curtler, Hugh Mercer. (1997). Rediscovering Values: Coming to Terms with Postmodernism.
Amonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe.
Ebelebe, Charles. (2009). Africa and the New Face of Mission: A Critical Assessment of the
Legacy of the Irish Spiritans Among the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria. Lanham, Merryland:
University Press of America.
Echiegu, Anthony Oliver Uwreh. (1998).Yesterday and Tomorrow in Ezaa and Izii’s Today.
Ibadan, Nigeria: Loyola Books Centre.
Ejizu, Christopher Ifeanyi. (1988). “Christian Evangelism in Nigeria: A Blueprint for the
Future,” Mission Studies 5 no 1: 30-41.
Ejizu, Christopher Ifeanyi. (1991). “Ritual Enactment of Achievement: Ikenga Symbol in
Igboland” Paideuma 37: 233-251.
.“The Influence of African Indigenous Religions on Roman Catholicism, the Igbo Example.” Accessed 29 September, 2010. http://www.afrikaworld.net/afrel /ejizu-atrcath.htm. Ejiogu, E .C. (2011). The Root of Political Instability in Nigeria. Political Evolution and Development in the Niger Basin. Burlington VT: Ashgate Publishers 85 Ekeke, Emeka C. (2012). “The Symbolism of Offor in Igbo Traditional Religion” American Journal of Social Issues and Humanities 2:1:5-9. Accessed 27 May, 2013. http://www.ajsih.org/index.php/ajsih/article/view/30/30. Ekechi, Felix K. (1971). “Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: The Igbo Case, 1900- 1915”. The Journal of African History, 16(1): 106-107. Accessed 24 December, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/180569. Emeakaroha, Emeka. “African Cultural values.” Accessed 10 April, 2012. http://www.emeka.at/afric an_cultural_vaules.pdf . Goodman, M. E.(1967). The Individual and Culture. Homewood Illinois: The Dorsey Press. Ihenacho, David Asonye. (2004). African Christianity Rises, Volume One: A Critical Study of the Catholicism of the Igbo people of Nigeria. Lincoln: iUniverse. Iroegbu, Patrick. “Culture and Heritage: Igbo Chukwu Worship in a Challenging Moment.” Accessed on 16 July 2011. http://www.kwenu.com/publications/iroegbu/2010/ culture_igbo_chukwu_worship.htm. Isichei, Elizabeth. (1976). A History of the Igbo People. New York: St. Martin’s Press. .(1970).“Seven Varities of Ambiguity: Some Pattern of Igbo Response to Christian
Mission”, Journal of Religion in Africa 3, no 3: 209-227. Accessed 16 July, 2011. doi:
10.2307/1594686.
Jordan, John P.(1971) Bishop Shanahan of Southern Nigeria. Dublin: Clonmore & Reynold.
Lidz, Theodore. (1983). The Person, His and Her Development throughout the Life Cycle. New
York: Basic Books.
Lumbala, Francois Kabasele.(1998).Celebrating Jesus Christ in Africa: Liturgy and Inculturation.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.
Maboea, S.I.(1994). “Causes for the Proliferation of the African Independent Churches” In
Afro-Christianity at the Grassroots: Its Dynamics and Strategies. Edited by
G.C.Oosthuizen, M.C. Kitshoff, & S.W.D.Dube. Leiden; New York E.J.Brill: 121-
136.
McGettrick, Thomas.(1988). Mc. Memoirs of Bishop T. Mc Gettrick. Enugu: Cecta
Publishing Division.
Nwachukwu, Anthony O.(2010). Keeping Human Relationship Together: Self Guide to
Healthy Living [Studies in Spiritual Psychology vis-a-vis Human values].
Bloomington IN: iUniverse.
86
Nworie G. I .(2018). Missionary Evangelization and cultural Values: Re-examining the
Growth and Future Challenges of Catholic Christianity in Igboland. Calwell, ACT:
Inspiring Publishers.
Obi, C. A. ed. (1985). A Hundred Years of the Catholic Church in Eastern Nigeria,1885- - Onitsha: Africana-FEP Publishers.
Ohadike, Don.(1988). “The Decline of Slavery among Igbo People” In The End of Slavery in
Africa. Edited by Suzanne Miers & Richard Roberts. Madison, Wisconsin: University of
Wisconsin Press: 437- 461.
Okere, Theophilus.(1997). “Chibundu: Ofufe Chukwu N’etiti Ndi Igbo” Odenigbo 1:14-84.
Okoro, Onyeije Chukwudum.(2009). Nigeria: Her Woes and Their True Remedies
Bloomington IN: Iuniverse.
Okwu, Augustine S.O.(2010). Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions 1857-1957:
Conversion in Theory and Practice. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.
Onwubiko, Oliver A.(1991). African Thought, Religion and Culture. Enugu: Snaap Press.
Pope Paul VI. Africae Terrarum: “Message of Paul VI to the Sacred Hierarchy and all
Peoples of Africa for the Promotion of the Religious, Civil and Social welfare of their
Continent.”In Modern Missionary document and Africa.Edited by Raymond
Hickey.Dubkin:Dominican Publications,1976.
Tanye, G. K.(2010). The Church-as-Family and Ethnocentricism in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Berlin: Lit Verlag.
Uchem, Rose N.(2001). Overcoming Women’s Subordination in the Igbo African Culture and
in the Catholic Church. Parkland, Fla: Dissartation.com.
Udeani, Chibueze C.(2007). Inculturation as Dialogue: The Igbo Culture and the Message of
Christ. NewYork: Rodopi. Accessed 2 February, 2013. https://books.google.com.au/b
ooks?isbn=9042022299
Uzukwu, Elochukwu E.(1983).“Igbo World and Ultimate Meaning” Lucerna 4/1: 9-24.
Wiredu, Kwasi. (1980). Philosophy and an African Culture. London: Cambridge University
Press.