Igbo Beliefs

The Igbo women’s war of 1929 was a period where groups of women gathered all over the eastern Nigeria to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the rapid change of their society. These included taxation, women’s power in market place and politics, increasing workload, market prices, roads, etc. During this time, the spread of Christianity was gradually increasing especially among the poor ¬¬ (Matera et al. 38). Igbo Christians lived in a different atmosphere because they understand the traditions of Igbo culture, but also willing to accept new teachings and willing to incorporate the teachings into their lives (Matera et al. 40). when looking at the war in a gendered perspective, we can see that Igbo Christians strives for a new sense of balance
The main creator called Chukwu and deities is prioritized since they are the ones that brings fortune, rain, harvest, health etc. However, some of these beliefs have been criticized by the missionaries. Using a gender perspective while looking at Igbo traditions we can see that a lot of these practices have a negative effect on the female body as well as their mind. For example, twins and their mother are considered “useless” since they spiritually “defiled the land”. So many women abandoned their kids in the forest and let the spirits take them away (Njoku 35). The missionaries however, challenged that belief and start to bring the babies in the forest back to the church and help them with nourishment and provided education as well as shelter. It gave the twins an opportunity to live. Instead of finding balance in the spirit and the cosmos that the Igbo people believes to be the guideline to wealth and peacefulness, the Missionaries as well as Igbo Christians strives to create a new balance to Igbo values and humanity. Many more of the Igbo Christians began to challenge beliefs in their household and under British rule there are a lot less belief on the abandonment of twins and mothers (Chuku
Some of these includes the balance between men and women by introducing men to the marketplace, freedom of marriage, as well as education for men as well as women. Igbo Christians and missionaries also find a way to balance the classes by encouraging freedom among the poor and rich, giving hope and opportunities inside the church through Christian teaching and developing independent churches where women can hold higher leadership positions. Lastly, the Igbo Christians developed a boundaries and cultural balances in Igbo tradition by accepting twins and their mother, creating schools and orphanages for the children. They also discouraged FGM and accepting runaways, and treated different kind of people that are excluded from the culture due to certain religious beliefs such as Osus. Through collective work of all women, including Igbo Christians women, the women’s war of 1929 has led to many more opportunities for women in not only Nigeria but the whole Africa. Because of the war, women’ work in peaceful protest have been recognized in many African and some western texts (Chuku 281). These included the British’s reexamination of the place of women in Igbo society and encourage historians and author to gain a wider perspective of the Igbo language and traditions. The court also reorganized the authority administration to not focus on a few autocrats