Igbo (African Studies)

Igbo (Ibo) refers to a language and a group of people. Numbering over 30 million, Ndi Igbo or the Igbo people live in autonomous independent communities mainly in Nigeria, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, and São Tomé. In Nigeria, they are bordered by the Ibibio-, Ijo-, Ekoi-, Igala-, Idoma-, and Nupe-speaking peoples and share linguistic ties with the Bini, Igala, Yoruba, and Idoma. They are not a monolithic group but rather manifest differences in culture, tradition, and dialects. The origin of the Igbo people is largely speculative. Traditions of creation trace their origins to particular ancestral founders, after whom villages generally take their names. They further suggest that there exists a core area of Igboland—Owerri, Orlu, Awka, Okigwe—to which waves of people coming from the north and west migrated and settled starting as early as the 9th century. From this area, Igbos then spread out in all directions. Donald Hartle’s excavation of Nsukka and Ibagwa provides the earliest evidence of a complex, settled agricultural Igbo society with a pottery-making industry of between 4,500 and 6,000 years old. Similar excavations in Igbo Ukwu uncovered hundreds of ritual bronze pots and copper artifacts dating back to 820 CE and revealed an Igbo civilization which had developed a highly sophisticated bronze metal-working and material culture. This Nri area is believed to be the foundation of much of Igbo culture, customs, and religious practices. The first contact between Igbos and Europe occurred in the mid-15th century and was fueled by a trade in human beings. The abolition of the slave trade ushered in a new era of legitimate trade and the subsequent European scramble for, partition of, and colonization of the territory known as Nigeria. British attempts to colonize Igboland, however, met with great resistance. The British introduced a system of indirect rule in which colonial administrators ruled through existing indigenous authorities. The policy, however, assumed that all Nigerian governing systems were hierarchical and centralized. This was not so. Thus, the British attempt to rule indirectly bred divisions and confusion that did not previously exist. The Igbo Women’s War of 1929 highlights the disastrous consequences of imposing an indirect rule on communities that do not have kings. Like most colonies, Nigeria was the creation of imperial draftsmen and thus a country of over 512 ethnic nations with little national consciousness. Six years after Nigeria’s 1960 independence, ethnic tensions broke out in the country and Igbo people attempted to head a succession from Nigeria. Two-and-a-half years later and millions of lives lost from fighting and famine, Biafra was crushed by federal troops and eventually reabsorbed into Nigeria. In the early 21st century, the causes of the Biafran conflict—ethnocentrism and mistrust—are still present realities.

General Overviews

Igbo historiography has a long and distinguished history. Investigators of the Igbo world have focused primarily on the precolonial and colonial periods and have mainly centered on the following areas of historical inquiry: the peopling of Igboland (see Precolonial Igboland), the nature of Igbo interaction with their non-Igbo neighbors (see the Igbo and Their Neighbors), and the Igbo cultural, political, and religious environment (see Social Histories, Political Histories, and Religion). In Igboland, as well as most other colonized entities, the first major body of writing appeared during the colonial period, when government-appointed anthropologists and missionaries like C. K. Meek (see Precolonial Igboland), George T. Basden (see Precolonial Igboland), and Northcote Whitridge Thomas (see Regional Overviews) worked tirelessly to “save” Igbo souls and effectively bring them under British colonial rule. These overviews, written in the somewhat condescending tones of the time, tended to be descriptive, rather than analytical. Their main aim was to document the ways of life of the people, thereby furthering the colonizing and Christianizing missions of colonial governments. The next body of literature on the Igbo to emerge was produced mainly by indigenous scholars, as well as some expatriate wives of Igbo men, who, utilizing oral traditions and archival documentation, attempted to trace the political and social history of the Igbo from its earliest times to the colonial present. Following Nigerian independence in 1960, a spurt of new materials on Igboland emerged. Most were written by Igbo scholars, were nationalist in nature, and would pave the way for later historians to produce more varied and nuanced studies of Igbo people in all of their complexity.

Precolonial Igboland

The worlds of the precolonial Igbo were first documented by European missionaries (Basden 1921, Basden 1938) and government anthropologists (Green 1947) and other foreign anthropologists (Bleeker 1969). They provided broad overviews of Igbo culture, religion, politics, and history. A marked drawback of these texts, however, was the inability of the authors to separate their own religious beliefs and value judgments from those of their subjects, thus leading to exaggerated claims about Igbo people. Uchendu 1966 essentially talked back to these early writers by providing the first anthropological overview of Igbo people from an indigenous point of view. This work paved the way for more studies by Igbo scholars, like Afigbo 1981 and Afigbo 1983, in which the author shows an Igboland of great variance, both geographically and religiously, and attempts to answer one of the most vexing questions in the historiography of Igboland, that of origins. Isichei 1976 assesses Igbo contact with Europeans and the eventual onset of colonialism from a markedly Igbo point of view and offers insight on how Igbos perceived these events. The book, like Bleeker 1969, also deals with the rather turbulent era that followed independence and saw the onset of the Biafran War.

Afigbo, A. E. Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture. London: Oxford, 1981.
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In this collection of essays, Afigbo calls upon Igbo scholars to engage more deeply in the construction of their own history. Specifically, he explores topics as varied as the origins of the Igbo people, the impact of slavery and colonialism on the Igbo, and the histories of select Igbo subgroups.
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Afigbo, A. E. “Traditions of Igbo Origins: A Comment.” History in Africa 10 (1983): 1–11.
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In this article, Afigbo distinguishes three traditions of Igbo origins: 1) traditions of oriental origins, 2) traditions of origin that make connections to a powerful neighboring state, 3) traditions of origin purporting autochthony. Afigbo raises useful questions and challenges to all three traditions and grapples with the internal and external construction of each category.
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Basden, George T. Among the Ibos of Nigeria: An Account of the Curious and Interesting Habits, Customs, and Beliefs of a Little Known African People. London: F. Cass, 1921.
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This text was published by Basden after spending seventeen years as a missionary for the Church Missionary Society in Onitsha. It represents one of the earliest ethnographic texts published about Igbo people. The book provides a useful entry point in understanding the precolonial organization of labor and agriculture among the Igbo people.
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Basden, George T. Niger Ibos: A Description of the Primitive Life, Customs, and Animistic Beliefs of the Ibo People of Nigeria. London: Barnes and Noble, 1938.
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Published seventeen years after his Among the Ibos of Nigeria (Basden 1921), Niger Ibos remains a fundamental study of many aspects of Igbo life and culture. Basden provides detailed descriptions of the observed life experiences of the Igbo. The book covers such topics as the Igbo people, home life, birth customs, childhood, marriage, polygamy, oru and osu, women’s work, etc.
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Bleeker, Sonia. The Ibo of Biafra. New York: William Morrow, 1969.
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Published in the midst of the Biafran War, anthropologist Sonia Bleeker’s text addresses the habits, customs, traditions, organization, and religious beliefs of the Igbo people in the early part of the 20th century. The bulk of the book is dedicated to Bleeker’s anthropological examination of Igbo people in 1925, while the final chapter highlights the devastating impact of the ongoing civil war on the Igbo people.
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Green, M. M. Ibo Village Affairs. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1947.
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This book is an anthropological assessment of one Igbo village, Umueke. Green carried out her research as an untrained anthropologist in the mid-1930s. The book provides lengthy discussions of the village’s legal system and the dual-sex division of labor. It also includes a rather useful section on women’s organizations and activities.
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Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of Igbo People. London: Macmillan, 1976.
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A comprehensive history of Igboland that focuses heavily on the precolonial period, discussing issues such as traditions of origin for the Igbo, the impact of the Atlantic slave trade, and the relationships between various areas of Igboland during the precolonial period.
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Uchendu, Victor. The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966.
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An anthropological study of the Igbo by an Igbo anthropologist that provides an insider’s perspective on his own culture and people. Such an insider’s account is still uncommon in anthropological literature.
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Colonial Igboland

The Igbo had a checkered relationship with colonialism and Christianization. Jones 1963 explored the efficacy of indirect rule in an Igbo locality. Eight years later, Ekechi 1971 tackled missionary attempts to Christianize the Igbo, highlighting the factors that led up to a mass Christian conversion between the years 1900 and 1915. Afigbo 1972, an important study on local and central colonial administrative history of Nigeria, expanded upon Jones’s earlier study by debunking many of the myths surrounding the warrant chief institution in British colonial Africa. The next year, Afigbo turned his attention to resistance and explored the correlations between the pattern of resistance adopted by individual Igbo communities and the structure of the society (Afigbo 1973). Nwabara 1977 also provided a registry of British colonialism and Igbo reactions, accommodations, and adaptations to it. Isichei 1973 further elaborated on the Igbo experience of colonialism by examining topics ranging from the establishment of Royal Niger Company and Oil Rivers Protectorate to the spread of missionaries into the Igbo interior, a topic that Ekechi had tackled two years before (Ekechi 1971). Colonial histories penned decades after these pioneering studies tend to be more specific in their subject matter, like Ottenberg 2005, which attempts to answer why a particular Igbo locality during the colonial period either diverged from, or conformed to, standards of urban/rural relations in other areas of Africa, or Njoku 2006, which explores the life histories of elite Igbo intellectuals.

Afigbo, A. E. The Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in Southeastern Nigeria 1891–1929. New York: Humanities Press, 1972.
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Examines how local administration developed and evolved in the Eastern Provinces of Nigeria during the early days of the colonial period. Afigbo also documents the events that led up to the abolition of the institution.
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Afigbo, A. E. “Patterns of Igbo Resistance to British Conquest.” Tarikh 4.3 (1973): 14–23.
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Afigbo documents three main patterns of Igbo resistance to British colonial conquest: 1) military confrontation by communities that refused to enter into any kind of diplomatic negotiations with the British; 2) recourse to diplomacy by communities that hoped to keep the British away from their territories by negotiation; 3) a reliance on supernatural intervention from the gods of their communities.
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Ekechi, F. K. “Colonialism and Christianity in West Africa: The Igbo Case, 1900–1915.” Journal of African History 12.1 (January 1971): 103–115.
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700000098Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Ekechi argues that while missionary attempts to convert Igbos to Christianity began in 1857, it would take until the turn of the century for a sizable number of Christian converts to emerge. This was because initially most Igbos treated the message of Christianity with “respectful indifference.”
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Isichei, Elizabeth. The Ibo People and the Europeans: The Genesis of a Relationship—to 1906. London: Macmillan, 1973.
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Isichei’s examination of the relationship between Igbo communities and the British colonial enterprise is based on a close reading of the colonial archives. She discusses topics such as the origins of the Igbo, early migration patterns, and the internal slave trade.
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Jones, G. I. “From Direct to Indirect Rule in Eastern Nigeria.” Odu: Journal of Yoruba and Related Studies 2.2 (1963): 72–80.
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British administrative officer G. I. Jones explores the local government systems of administration in the old Eastern Provinces of Nigeria. He is particularly concerned with the government of Owerri Province, which he brings forward in this discussion of the effectiveness of indirect rule in these decentralized Igbo communities during the period between 1918 and 1940.
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Njoku, C. Raphael. African Cultural Values: Igbo Political Leadership in Colonial Nigeria, 1900–1966. New York: Routledge, 2006.
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Njoku centers on the life histories of four prominent Igbo intellectuals in his engagement of the exchange between Igbo people and colonial missions/mission schools from 1900 to 1966. The author privileges the ways in which Igbo people adopted and adapted to colonial structures. The book argues that while Igbo intellectuals effectively utilized access to Western education, they also incorporated indigenous knowledge systems.
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Nwabara, S. N. Iboland: A Century of Contact with Britain 1860–1960. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977.
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Nwabara explores the changing dynamic of contact between the British and Igbo, starting from Baike’s Niger Expedition in 1857 to Nigeria’s independence in 1960. The book highlights, with particular emphasis, the structure of British colonial rule and Igbo reactions to it, the ways in which the Igbo adopted and adapted elements of Western culture through the colonial contact, and the repeated military conflicts between the two sides.
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Ottenberg, Simon. Farmers and Townspeople in a Changing Nigeria: Abakaliki during Colonial Times, 1905–1960. Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum, 2005.
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Ottenberg focuses on the town and surrounding district of Abakaliki in his exploration of the changing economic modes of production, migration patterns, and relationship between rural and urban areas during the colonial period. Specifically, he examines how the growth of Abakaliki town around the government station spurred an unusually strong pattern of migration into Abakaliki from the surrounding rural district and other distinct areas of Igboland.
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Regional Overviews

Regional overviews of Igbo history can be divided into two broad categories—regional overviews written by non-indigenous government anthropologists and ethnographers; and overviews written by indigenous scholars and amateur researchers. The earliest writers of these overviews, anthropological reports really, tended to be in the employ of the British colonial government (see Thomas 1913, Meek 1931, Forde and Jones 1950). These reports focused almost exclusively on small swaths of Igboland and their articulated purpose was to better understand the unique habits and customs of the areas that the British colonial government was attempting to subjugate and govern. The six-volume anthropological study Thomas 1913 documents the laws, customs, and language of the Asaba and Awka Igbo through the author’s observations and conversations with male members of the communities. The author of Meek 1931, on the other hand, spent two-and-a-half months conducting research in the thirty-three villages of Nsukka Division. His study was however heavily reliant on records accumulated by the Divisional Office, and as a result the opinions, assumptions, and prejudices of colonial officers of the time shone through. Forde and Jones 1950 was an improvement on Meek’s study in its reliance on fieldwork conducted by the two ethnographers. The second category of these regional overviews would come later and was carried out almost exclusively by indigenous historians and anthropologists who built upon the evidence gathered by these early government ethnographers to create micro-studies that highlighted the impact of wider historical events on a single Igbo location. As Igbo scholars became more actively engaged in the production of their own histories around 1960, they tended to identify their own communities and regions as viable subjects for investigation. Nsugbe 1974, Dike and Ekejiuba 1990, and Ohadike 1994, for instance, investigated change over time in various locales of Igboland, revealing the diversity that exists in the many distinct Igbo regions. Nsugbe 1974 juxtaposes the history of Ohafia, a subgroup of the Cross River Igbo, with other Igbo communities in order to highlight the development of a system of lineage unique to this particular area of Igboland. Dike and Ekejiuba 1990 was seminal to our understanding of the complexity of precolonial Igbo identity among the Aro. Ohadike 1994 adds much to our understanding of the western group of Anioma Igbos. After 1967, with the greater awareness of the plight of Igbo people occasioned by the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War, a distinct group of Western scholars continued the task of their forebears to document and bring to the gaze of a Western audience the realities of Igbo people in time and place. Harneit-Sievers 1997 analyzes approximately sixty Igbo community histories in an attempt to explore how these oral histories and traditions deal with a people’s construction of locality, while McCall 2000 offers useful insights into the Ohafia people’s view of the present and past.

Dike, K. Onwuka, and Felicia Ekejiuba. The Aro of South-eastern Nigeria, 1650–1980. Ibadan, Nigeria: University Press, 1990.
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This book describes the formation, rise to power, and maintained reputation of the Aro people of Igboland. Dike and Ekejiuba suggest that the various Igbo subgroups never had a unified identity as “Igbo” people. Rather, the authors cite the Aro as a case study to argue that a “pan-Igbo” identity began to form only after the turn of the 20th century.
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Forde, D., and G. I. Jones. The Ibo and Ibibio-Speaking Peoples of Southwestern Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press, 1950.
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This ethnographic overview builds upon the intelligence reports of early colonial officers and ethnographers working with the peoples of the early-20th-century Igbo- and Ibibiolands of Nigeria. While the authors do not explicitly compare the two groups, the book is broken into subsections which deal with patterns of settlement, marriage practices, religious beliefs, social hierarchies, and political and economic organization of both groups of people.
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Harneit-Sievers, Axel. Igbo Community Histories: Locality and History in South-eastern Nigeria. Basel, Switzerland: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1997.
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Harneit-Sievers explores a set of approximately sixty local histories about towns, villages, and clans in southeastern Nigeria and makes the argument that the abundance and proliferation of locally produced histories have led to the production of a genre of “Igbo community histories” which provide a comprehensive picture of each locality from an indigenous point of view.
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McCall, John C. Dancing Histories: Heuristic Ethnography with the Ohafia Igbo. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
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McCall’s text on the Ohafia Igbo is a challenge to anthropologists to move beyond established theories and paradigms to engage in a discourse which acknowledges and centers on the practices of their subjects. He utilizes structuralist theory to analyze the place of Igbo performances—highlighting specifically the roles of masquerades and dibias—in the lives of the living and dead inhabitants of Ohafia.
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Meek, C. K. Anthropological Report on the People of the Nsukka Division. Lagos, Nigeria: Government Printer, 1931.
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Government anthropologist C. K. Meek reports on the peoples of Nsukka Division in northern Igboland, focused on the history and sociopolitical organization of Nsukka peoples; the titles, clubs, age grades they belonged to; rituals surrounding birth, marriage, and death; and the peoples’ religion and material culture.
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Nsugbe, Philip O. Ohaffia: A Matrilineal Ibo People. London: Oxford University Press, 1974.
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Nsugbe describes how the double-descent system of the Cross River Igbo is manifested in Ohaffia. He also explores the social structures that helped maintain this matrilineal descent system. In addition to addressing Ohafia lifestyles and customs, the author centers on the relationships which developed between the Ohafia and their Igbo neighbors like the Aro.
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Ohadike, Don C. Anioma: A Social History of the Western Igbo People. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1994.
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Ohadike investigates the long history of the Western Anioma Igbo. He explores issues surrounding the origin of the Western Igbo, their modes of economic production, their social, religious, and political structure, and their relationship with their neighbors over a roughly 400-year period.
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Thomas, Northcote Whitridge. Anthropological Report on the Ibo-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria. 6 vols. London: Harrison, 1913.
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Government anthropologist documents the law and custom of two Igbo groups through personal observations and discussions with elders. A major idea that runs through his report is one of a shared Igbo culture. Volume 1 documents the law and custom of the Igbo of the Awka region, and Volume 4, the law and custom of the Igbo of the Asaba district.
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Anthologies and Bibliographies

Anthologies about the Igbo are diverse and vary in the types of topics they cover. They have been produced in both the English Language and the Igbo Language (some Igbo anthologies are also discussed in the Literature in Igbo section). Bibliographies, on the other hand, are organized listings of books and sources. These listings are often accompanied by a description of these sources geared toward identifying all publications in a specific discipline, by author, publisher, and year of publication. Published bibliographic texts on the Igbo are unfortunately few and far between and for the most part are extremely dated.

English Language

While some anthologies, such as Afigbo 1991, are intended to promote discourse and highlight discussions about Igbo history, others make use of culturally bound materials like poems, myths, oral histories, cosmologies, and worldviews to give readers insight into how the Igbo view the world around them, as is the case with Isichei 1978, Nwadike 1990, Onunwa 1992, and Opata 1998. Still others seek to highlight the work of individual Igbo scholars and their contributions or to assess the historiography of the same group of people. Only two books of A. E. Afigbo, arguably the most renowned and influential historian of eastern Nigeria, are readily available. A product of the celebrated Ibadan School of History, Afigbo wrote articles that are scattered variously in peer-reviewed journals and several local publications, which also makes access to them limited. The collection of essays pulled together in Falola 2005 aims to right this neglect and highlights, in one of two accessible volumes, Afigbo’s trailblazing contributions to Igbo and Nigerian scholarship over more than forty years. The bibliographies available on Igbo-speaking people are compilations of the various sources for the study of Igbo people in an accessible form. Afulezi and Afulezi 2000 is a guide to the many doctoral, masters, and BA theses on Igbo people. While the writings selected for inclusion in the bibliography Anafulu 1981 illustrate markedly changing trends on how Igbo life and customs were recorded, the bibliographer also highlights the importance of who was producing the literature.

Afigbo, A. E. Groundwork of Igbo History. Lagos, Nigeria: Vista, 1991.
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This collection of articles from leading scholars of Nigerian history examines a wide array of topics pertinent to Igbo history, as well as the context in which those histories were produced. Several chapters focus on economic change, while others incorporate a sociocultural approach to Igbo history, engaging past ethnographies produced by non-Igbo anthropologists.
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Afulezi, Uju Nkwocha, and Ijeoma Ogwogo Afulezi. African (Igbo) Scholarship. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000.
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This bibliographic reference is a guide to finding the many doctoral, masters, and BA theses on the Igbo people. This bibliography includes theses produced from 1945 to 1999 in universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. While the bibliography is useful in identifying these often-untapped resources, the detail provided about each thesis varies from source to source.
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Anafulu, Joseph C. The Ibo-Speaking Peoples of Southern Nigeria: A Selected Annotated List of Writings, 1627–1970. Munich: Kraus International, 1981.
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In this bibliographic collection, Anafulu compiles some of the most important writings on Igbo people and society, beginning with late-19th-century European travelers’ accounts that described their first contact with Igbo peoples, up to the late 1970s. Anafulu divides Igbo historiography into several categories, including narratives of European traders from precolonial times, government documents, and selected writings about the Biafran War.
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Falola, Toyin, ed. Igbo History and Society: The Essays of Adiele Afigbo. Trenton, NJ: Africa World, 2005.
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The essays range in scope and are divided thematically to address the major trends of Igbo history. Moreover, Igbo History and Society places Afigbo’s contributions to the writing and conceptualization of history—including the methods, sources, place, and purpose of history—as well as his contributions as an economic, political, and social historian of importance in their rightful place.
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Isichei, Elizabeth. Igbo Worlds: An Anthology of Oral Histories and Historical Descriptions. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1978.
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Broken into seven sections, Isichei’s book utilizes a wide variety of sources to tease out oral histories of specific groups of Igbo people. Travelogues, officers’ reports, and mission papers are juxtaposed with indigenous knowledge to produce an edited collection of oral histories that deal with a wide variety of subjects. The book also includes a short collection of Igbo proverbs, Igbo words, and a treatise on how the budding historian can collect oral histories in Igboland.
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Nwadike, Inno Uzoma. Nri Uche: An Anthology of Igbo Poems. Owerri, Nigeria: Total, 1990.
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Nwadike compiles a number of Igbo poems, translates them, and discusses the meaning of these poems to Igbo people. This anthology gives the reader a unique glimpse into the social fabric that binds Igbo people together through an examination of Igbo creative writing. These poems, which are loaded with cultural meaning and relevance, can be enjoyed for their aesthetic value as well as employed by the astute researcher to shed light on Igbo worldviews.
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Onunwa, Udobata. African Spirituality: An Anthology of Igbo Religious Myths. Darmstadt: Thesen, 1992.
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Collects a series of Igbo religious stories which serve as a mirror through which the complexities and nature of Igbo spirituality are viewed. He argues that myths are important because they express a people’s philosophical, theological, cosmological, and moral wisdom and values. The author approaches his topic with a deep understanding of the worldview, culture, and religion of the people that he studies.
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Opata, Damian U. Essays on Igbo World View. Enugu, Nigeria: AP Express, 1998.
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In this collection of essays on Igbo worldview and cosmology, Opata draws on ethereal Igbo concepts such as time and space, life and death, truth and morality, in his exploration of non-Western philosophical thought. His purpose is twofold: first, to analyze the sensibilities that the Igbo ascribe to these concepts by looking at language; and second, to explore how these notions have impacted the life of this eastern Nigerian people.
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Igbo Language

As early as the 1500s, the Igbo and their neighbors developed a unique writing form called nsibidi, which utilized formalized pictograms. However, nsibidi would eventually die out, perhaps because of its popularity among secret societies whose aim was to keep this writing form secret. Linguists of the Igbo people including Louis Nnamdi Oraka have divided the history of the Igbo language into five epochs; see Oraka 1983. The first, starting around 1766 and ending around 1900, was the Isoama Igbo Studies period. According to these linguists, this period took its name from the dialect used by emancipated slaves of Igbo origin settled in Sierra Leone and Fernando Po in the 1800s. It was also the dialect of the Igbo used in the publication of the first Igbo primer, Crowther 1859. This Isoama-Igbo primer was seventeen pages in length and contained the Igbo alphabet, words, phrases, sentence patterns, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and translations of the first chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. Taylor 1871 was the first translation into Isoama-Igbo of portions of the Book of Common Prayer. The second epoch of Igbo language studies was the Union Igbo Studies period, which was aimed at combining and documenting various Igbo dialects—specifically, Onitsha, Owerri, Unwana, Arochukwu, and Bonny dialects—into one written Igbo language. Starting around 1900, the Church Missionary Society developed Union Igbo as a literary medium, a central or compromise Igbo. The most prominent work published in Union Igbo was the Holy Bible or Bible Nso, published as Dennis 1910. The Union Igbo period saw the publication of major translations. Missionaries collected materials on Igbo culture, including proverbs, folktales, riddles, and customs. During this Union Igbo period, Rev. Thomas J. Dennis used an Igbo Language Translation Committee, which included Igbo indigenes, to translate Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan n.d.) and some catechisms into Igbo. In 1927, the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (IIALC) published a pamphlet, Practical Orthography of African Languages, which ushered in the period of the Great Orthography Controversy. Then, in 1949, the Society for Promoting African Heritage (SPILC) was formally inaugurated by a large percentage of the educated Igbo men at the time and would come up with a compromise Igbo orthography. This is the compromise Igbo that the Welmerses adopted in their work Igbo: A Learner’s Manual (Welmers and Welmers 1968). Nwana 1963 was the first fiction published in Igbo language by an Igbo person. The original edition was written in the Protestant Orthography and then issued in other orthographies. The last phase of Igbo study is the Standard Igbo period, starting from around 1972 and continuing into the early 21st century. Between 1973 and 1976, SPILC approved the recommendation of its standardization committee about the spelling of Igbo words and the rearrangement of the Igbo alphabet. This attempt to standardize the Igbo language has met with serious challenge from distinguished Igbo writer and critic Chinua Achebe (Achebe 1999).

Achebe, Chinua. Echi Di Ime: Taa Bu Gboo. Odenigbo Lecture. Owerri, Nigeria: Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, 1999.
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In this 1999 lecture, Echi Di Ime, which was sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Owerri, internationally acclaimed Igbo writer and critic Chinua Achebe passionately discusses his strong aversion to the push to standardize the Igbo language.
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Bunyan, John. Ije Nke Onye Kraist Mbe O Naga Si N’uwa Nka Rue Ala-Eze Elu Igwe. Translated by Thomas J. Dennis. London: Christian Literature Society, n.d.
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This Igbo translation of The Pilgrim’s Progress tells the story of Christian and Christiana and their travels to the “Celestial City.” The book was intended to show Christians how to deal with crises of faith and stay true to their religion. This story was instrumental to the spread of Christianity in the area.
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Crowther, Samuel. Isoama-Ibo Primer. London: Printed for the Church Missionary Society [by W. M. Watts], 1859.
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This seventeen-page Isoama-Igbo primer contains the Igbo alphabet, words, phrases, sentence patterns, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and translations of the first chapters of Matthew’s Gospel.
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Dennis, Thomas J. Bible Nso. Onitsha, Nigeria: Church Missionary Society, 1910.
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Bible Nso is a translation of the King James Version of the Bible into the Igbo language. Translated by Rev. Dennis and his team of native Igbo speakers, this Bible, like the Book of Common Prayer before it (see Taylor 1871), was critical to the spread of Christianity, while also contributing to the formalization of written Igbo.
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International Institute of African Languages and Cultures. Practical Orthography of African Languages. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1927.
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The pamphlet adopted certain international phonetic symbols and recommended that eight vowels and twenty-eight consonants, including “ch,” “gb,” “gw,” “kw,” “kp,” and “nw,” be added to the Igbo orthography. This was a radical change from the Lepsius orthography used by the Church Missionary Society for nearly seventy years. It started a heated controversy that suspended serious study of the Igbo language for more than thirty years.
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Nwana, Pita. Omenuko. Lagos, Nigeria: Longman Nigeria, 1963.
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Omenuko follows the life of Omenuko as he runs into good and bad fortune on his journeys as a trader. Omenuko lived as a petty trader but eventually rises to chieftaincy. This story is rich in Igbo oral traditions, touching upon issues such as kinship, the will of gods, the abuse of power, and contentment with one’s condition.
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Oraka, Louis Nnamdi. The Foundations of Igbo Studies: A Short History of the Study of Igbo Language and Culture. Onitsha, Nigeria: University Publishing, 1983.
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The author divides the history of Igbo language into five epochs. The first, 1766–1900, was the Isoama Igbo Studies period. The second, 1900–1927, was the Union Igbo Studies period. The third, 1927–1948, was the period of the Great Orthography Controversy. The fourth, 1948–1972, was the Society for Promoting Igbo Language and Culture (SPILC) period; and the last phase, 1972–, is the Standard Igbo period.
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Taylor, John Christopher. Akukwo Ekpére Isúama-Ibo. London: Church Missionary Society, 1871.
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A selection from the Book of Common Prayer, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland. It was translated into Igbo by John Christopher Taylor, an indigenous missionary of the Church Missionary Society. This work drastically increased the relatability of Christianity to Igbo-speaking people in the early 20th century and greatly facilitated the spread of Christianity in Igboland.
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Welmers, William E., and Beatrice F. Welmers. Igbo: A Learner’s Manual, Los Angeles: Wm. E. Welmers, 1968.
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The authors utilize “compromise Igbo” in an attempt to prepare US Peace Corps candidates for work in Igboland. The manual comprises a comprehensive presentation of Igbo in graded lessons, including tests, suggestions for teachers, and a lot of cultural material.
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Occasional Papers, Dictionaries, and Language Studies

The texts in this section represent meaningful contributions to the study of Igbo life and culture in the broadest sense. While some of the works are centered on the grammar and construction of the Igbo language (Penfield 1983, Carrell 2011), others deal with contemporary affairs that impact the Igbo and the tenuous relationship between tradition and modernity in Igboland (Ahiajioku Lectures, Ogbalu and Emenanjo 1975). This section also provides a list of reputable Igbo-English dictionaries (Welmers and Welmers 1968, Williamson 1972, Echeruo 1998, Igwe 1999) that can be used as resources for individuals wanting to learn the Igbo language on their own, or in a formalized classroom setting. These texts are important because Igbo language courses are few and far between; therefore, they represent an access point for non-Igbo speakers to begin engaging the Igbo language.

Ahiajioku Lectures. Owerri, Nigeria: Culture Division, Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth & Sports, 1979–2003.
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Documents annual lectures given by esteemed figures of Igboland in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. The inaugural lecture was delivered in 1979 and has continued into the early 21st century. Lecture topics have ranged from issues concerning Igbo identity, the maintenance of Igbo language, the importance of oral traditions in Igboland, and much more. These lectures represent an opportunity for leading Igbo thinkers to come together and engage in contemporary issues and crises that face the Igbo people.
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Carrell, Patricia. A Transformational Grammar of Igbo. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
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Carrell’s text, originally published in 1970, is a comprehensive examination of the structures that drive the construction of the Igbo language. By working with one Owerri Igbo speaker and an Umuahia speaker, Carrell juxtaposes differences and similarities in their speech patterns and applies an analytic lens of transformational linguistics to create theories about the structural underpinnings of the Igbo language.
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Echeruo, Michael. Igbo-English Dictionary: A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Igbo Language. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.
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Echeruo’s comprehensive Igbo-English dictionary is a useful resource for individuals attempting to learn Igbo. The Igbo-to-English section is far better constructed than the English-to-Igbo section, making it more useful for translation than for constructing works in Igbo. It is important to note that Echeruo’s word lists are not in “central Igbo,” the dialect of Igbo most often taught to foreign language learners.
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Igwe, Egemba G. Igbo-English Dictionary. Ibadan, Nigeria: University Press, 1999.
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Igwe’s Igbo-English dictionary is not as thorough as Echeruo’s but is a worthy contribution to Igbo language study. While Echeruo’s work draws words from across Igboland’s many dialects, Igwe stays grounded in central Igbo more often than not.
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Ogbalu, F. Chidozie, and E. Nolue Emenanjo, eds. Igbo Language and Culture. Vols. 1 and 2. Ibadan, Nigeria: Oxford University Press, 1975.
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These edited volumes bring together essays intended to generate discussion around the documentation and enshrining of Igbo cultural values, highlighting the critical role of Igbo people in Nigeria’s history and promoting new scholarship to ensure the survival of Igbo language and culture in an age when many young Igbo people are discarding their heritage. Taken together, these essays weigh in heavily on the past and current state of Igbo culture and language.
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Penfield, Joyce. Communicating with Quotes: The Igbo Case. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1983.
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The Igbo have a highly developed system of transmitting culture and history through idioms and proverbs. Penfield’s text examines the importance of these quotes or proverbs in the everyday spoken language of the Igbo. The author analyzes many of these proverbs, while contextualizing the central role they play in communication among the Igbo.
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Welmers, William E., and Beatrice F. Welmers. Igbo: A Learner’s Dictionary, Los Angeles: Wm. E. Welmers, 1968.
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A two-part Igbo/English-English/Igbo dictionary prepared by University of California, Los Angeles professor of linguistics William E. Welmers and his wife, Beatrice F. Welmers, primarily for English speakers of Igbo who already possess a smattering of the major structural patterns in the language.
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Williamson, Kay. Igbo-English Dictionary. Benin City, Nigeria: Ethiope, 1972.
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This Igbo-English dictionary is a compilation of Igbo words in the Onitsha dialect. It represents a meaningful resource for individuals planning to live or carry out research among the Onitsha Igbo primarily or the southern Igbo more generally.
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Autobiographies and Biographies

The first autobiography published by an Igbo man, Olaudah Equiano, was published in 1789. Entitled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or Gustavus Vassa, the African (Equiano 1789), Equiano’s account was a poignant description of the atrocities of the slave trade and slavery. He takes his readers through his interior passage—from his childhood home in Igboland, where he was kidnapped at age eleven with his sister—to his Middle Passage voyage across the Atlantic to the Americas and England. An important theme that appears time and time again in The Interesting Narrative is the author’s journey from enslavement to freedom. Published biographies and autobiographies were few and far between following the publication of The Interesting Narrative, that is, until the late colonial period. These publications tended to focus more intently on the lives and times of notable Igbo men living in the 20th century (Ojukwu 1969 and Azikiwe 1970). It is important to note that with the exception of Cookey 1974, a biography of King Jaja of Opobo, the bulk of the publications have immortalized the lives of Igbo people who were directly or indirectly related to the secessionist state of Biafra. In fact, one can argue that the Biafran War was the most defining episode in the lives of Igbo peoples of the 20th century; therefore, it is hardly surprising that an explosion of writing by both amateur Igbo authors and professional scholars would emerge after this war. The biography of King Jaja of Opobo (Cookey 1974) is also unique in that it is one of few biographies about an Igbo person that is written by a non-Igbo scholar. Cookey, who hails from Opobo, wrote his biographical text as a memorial to the Igbo ex-slave turned king who founded Opobo and has been a central figure in the wider history of West Africa. Numerous self-published narratives of varying quality exist from almost every corner of Igboland and have systematically documented the lives and times of men who deem themselves worth immortalizing. The more scholarly works that have appeared have explored the lives of prominent Igbo figures such as the internationally acclaimed father of modern African literature, Chinua Achebe (Ohaeto 1997 and Achebe 2009); Christopher Okigbo (Nwakanma 2009), arguably one of Africa’s finest poets; and the leader of the defunct Biafra secessionist state, Odumegwu Ojukwu (Obienyem 2005). Nwando Achebe offered a long-overdue addition and corrective to these male-centered narratives with the publication of her biography on the only female warrant chief and king in colonial Nigeria, Ahebi Ugbabe (Achebe 2011, cited under Women).

Achebe, Chinua. The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
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In seventeen chapters, Chinua Achebe paints a vivid portrait of growing up in colonial Nigeria and inhabiting what he calls the middle ground. This is Achebe at his most intimate. He provides a glimpse into his extraordinary childhood, reminisces about raising two daughters, and speaks about his homecoming during Things Fall Apart’s fiftieth year, as well as the tragic accident that left him paralyzed.
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Azikiwe, Nnamdi. My Odyssey: An Autobiography. New York: Praeger, 1970.
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This autobiography, penned by Nigeria’s first president, offers a rare glimpse into the formative life experiences of the trailblazing statesman. The book follows Zik’s early life in Northern Nigeria, his early education in Calabar and Lagos, his experiences as a student and teacher in the United States, his career as a journalist, his entrance into politics, and his rise to become the first president of Nigeria.
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Cookey, S. J. S. King Jaja of the Niger Delta: His Life and Times, 1821–1891. New York: NOK, 1974.
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Building upon archival evidence and oral narratives from Opobo, this biography of King Jaja of Opobo tells the story of how Jaja, then Ozurumba Mbanaso, rose to become one of the most recognized political figures in Nigeria.
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Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself. Vol. 1. London: Olaudah Equiano, 1789.
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One of the few surviving narratives of Atlantic slavery written by an African who had been enslaved. The early part of the text describes the author’s natal home in Igboland and tells the story of how he was captured and sold into slavery. It also provides a description of his horrendous experiences of the Middle Passage and experiences of slavery in the New World.
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Nwakanma, Obi. Christopher Okigbo, 1930–67: Thirsting for Sunlight. Woodbridge, UK: James Currey, 2009.
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Explores the life of one of Africa’s finest poets, Christopher Okigbo, who was killed fighting for Biafra in Nigeria’s Civil War. It chronicles Okigbo’s short life from childhood, to his entrance into the prestigious Government College Umuahia. His work in the Nigerian colonial service is highlighted; so also, his death at the hands of federal troops in Nsukka.
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Obienyem, Val. Ojukwu: The Last Patriot. Ibadan, Nigeria: Wisdom, 2005.
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Biography of General Odumegwu Ojukwu details his life from early childhood to his education abroad. It explores his life in the Nigerian military—particularly his relationship with Nigeria’s short-lived head of state Aguiyi-Ironsi—and his eventual rise to become commander of the secessionist state of Biafra. This intimate look into Ojukwu’s life also contextualizes his role in Nigeria’s most devastating civil war.
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Ohaeto, Ezenwa. Chinua Achebe: A Biography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.
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In this biography, penned by one of Achebe’s former students, Ohaeto, readers gain a new understanding of the private world of the man who is considered the father of the African novel. Ohaeto chronicles Achebe’s life from his youth up to the year 1993.
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Ojukwu, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu. Biafra: Random Thoughts of C. Odumegwu Ojukwu. New York: Perennial Library, 1969.
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This text, compiled by Ojukwu himself, relates the story of the Biafran War through the general’s eyes. Readers catch glimpses of Ojukwu’s perspectives on a variety of important topics: from neocolonialism, to good governance, to the massacre of over three million Igbo people. This text is not an autobiography in the regular sense but rather details the many statements made by Biafra’s embattled leader.
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Journals

The journals that detail Igbo life, customs, history, art, and literature contribute to the ongoing discourse on the place of Igbo people in Nigeria, Africa, and the world. These journals can be divided into Igbo Language journals and journals in the English Language. However, the Igbo-language journals are drastically outnumbered by those produced in English. This is reflective of a number of interrelated factors which affect decision-making processes on whether or not to publish in the Igbo language. Central to these discussions is whether or not to engage the tensions that exist still among scholars of the Igbo language about which form of Igbo—standardized or central Igbo, or simply writing in any of the Igbo dialects—to produce academic scholarship in. The narrowness of the scope of these Igbo journals, as well as the fact that most Igbo scholars have been trained to use English in academic writing, both inside and outside Nigeria, might also be a determining factor in the scant number of journal publications in Igbo. To these real issues must be added a lack of viable and continuing funding for Igbo-language journals—an issue which also affects the continuing publication of journals dedicated exclusively to Igbo themes in English as well. It is these factors that have caused the vast majority of Igbo-language and subject journals to have either short or sporadic runs. Despite this fact, this body of literature, taken collectively, is a useful base of knowledge and forum for ongoing debates about the Igbo.

Igbo Language

Uwa Ndi Igbo or The World of the Igbo is the brainchild of Chinua Achebe. Published in both Igbo and English, the interdisciplinary journal, which first came out in 1984, married the publication of creative work—short stories, poems, and art—with linguistic and historical scholarship. The journal featured essays by well-known academics, including Achebe himself and Okewho, and poets like Anyanyu and Ogbuotobo.

Uwa Ndi Igbo: Journal of Igbo Life and Culture. 1984–.
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A bilingual semiannual journal in Igbo and English, Uwa Ndi Igbo was broad in scope. It covered topics relating to the state of Igbo studies and published new creative writing in Igbo, poems in Igbo, book reviews, conversations and research on Igbo linguistics, and oral literature in Igbo. This interdisciplinary journal was unfortunately short-lived.
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English Language

The Igbo Studies Review, published annually, is a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal. Ikenga features articles by leading scholars in the fields of African history, anthropology, economics, and political science. Ikoro is dedicated entirely to Igbo history, archaeology, and anthropology. Mbari is an interdisciplinary journal which publishes articles on all aspects of Igbo life in Nigeria and its diaspora. The short-lived Odinani published articles mainly on Nri civilizations. Okike began amid the Nigerian-Biafran War and was published to document the vitality of the Igbo people and their culture. Okikpe focused mainly on the Nsukka Igbo and published creative works and histories. Published by the Historical Society of Nigeria, Tarikh included numerous articles on Igbo history, culture, and economy.

Igbo Studies Review. 2012–.
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It is dedicated to producing scholarly articles about the Igbo and the Igbo Diaspora. It is run out of Marquette University and has been in circulation since 2012.
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Ikenga: Journal of African Studies and International Journal of African Studies. 1972–2007.
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While the name of the biannual journal suggests that it is meant to cover the entire breadth of the African continent, the contributions from this journal are largely centered on Nigeria and Igboland. However, the journal also features a handful of poignant articles that detail the history and politics of other West African locales.
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Ikoro: Bulletin of the Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka Studies. 1976–1992.
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Ikoro published articles about various Igbo subgroups and communities while also examining relations between Igbo peoples and their neighbors. Moreover, Ikoro often published articles that considered the place of African Studies and African historiography both in Nigeria and abroad. There are a total of twelve volumes, and the journal ran semiannually until 1992.
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Mbari: The International Journal of Igbo Studies. 2008–.
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Mbari is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that is dedicated to documenting all aspects of Igbo life, past and present. This interdisciplinary journal is published biannually and seeks to publish innovative pieces of original scholarship about Igbo life in Nigeria and the Diaspora.
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Odinani: The Journal of the Odinani Museum, Nri. 1972–.
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Odinani was first published in 1972 and has, to date, produced only two volumes (the second was published in 1977). The contributions are heavily skewed toward the Nri area of Igboland, with many dealing with the unique institution of kingship in this area of Igboland. While volumes were intended to be published semiannually, the journal has run quite infrequently.
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Ohafia Review. 1982–.
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The Ohafia Review is a periodical that has run annually since 1982. This journal dedicates itself to matters of Ohafia history, culture, economy, politics, and society.
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Okike: An African Journal of New Writing. 1971–.
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Edited by Chinua Achebe, the first issue was entitled Okike: A Nigerian Journal of New Writing. It featured poems and short stories by Achebe himself, Wole Soyinka, Gabirel Okara, Cyprain Ekwensi, and Dennis Brutus. Achebe expanded the subtitle of the journal starting with the second issue to “An African Journal of New Writing” and from that point on included works by writers throughout the African Diaspora.
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Okikpe: Journal of the Diewa Writers’ Club. 1974–1997.
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This journal is dedicated to reviewing the literary works of Igbo writers and discussing issues facing scholars of Igbo literature. It also published editions dedicated to Igbo history. Okikpe appeared between 1994 and 1997, publishing only three volumes throughout its run.
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Tarikh. 1965–1982.
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The first volume of Tarikh appeared in 1965. The journal documented a variety of issues relevant to African history, with many articles focusing on Igbo society, culture, economy, and politics. It was published for the Historical Society of Nigeria by Longmans Publishers.
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The Igbo and Their Neighbors

The territory of Nigeria identified as Igboland is surrounded by a number of much smaller ethnic nations to the immediate south and east, and bordered by the powerful kingdom of Igala to the north. As such, the Igbo have had a long and varied history of relations with these groups, including the Efik, Ibibio, Ogoni, Annang, Idong, Ijaw, and many more. Many of the texts that deal with the Igbo and their neighbors focus on the critical economic networks that tied Igboland to her neighbors. Shelton 1971 provides insight into how borderland Igbo communities relate to their immediate neighbors. Afigbo 1977 and Afigbo 1987 offer a reading of hitherto-unanalyzed primary sources, while privileging structures in Nigerian society through which the various ethnic groups interacted and collaborated peacefully. Others have examined episodes of conflict and power over certain regions. Amazee 1990 examines the Igbo Scare in the British Cameroons. Ijeaku 2009 centers on the Biafran War as a challenge to the Nigerian state to institute fundamental changes in the Niger Delta. The sources used to reconstruct these histories are diverse, ranging from archaeological evidence to shared linguistic patterns. Oguagha and Okpoko 1984 explores the early archaeology and ethnoarchaeology of the Anambra Valley in an attempt to make connections between Igboland and Igalaland. Much of the literature on the Igbo and their neighbors examines the precolonial period, perhaps in its attempt to challenge the myth that the peoples inhabiting the regions in and around Igboland before the coming of the British lived ahistorical lives. Nair 1972 offers up a challenge to the view of Igbos as a complacent people, only capable of reacting to external change occasioned by colonialism.

Afigbo, A. E. “Precolonial Trade Links between Southeastern Nigeria and the Benue Valley.” Journal of African Studies 4.2 (1977): 119–139.
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Afigbo explores the precolonial trade links which connected the eastern region of Nigeria to the territory on the left bank of the Benue River, a territory now inhabited by the Igala, Tiv, and Jukun peoples. He examines the nature of these trade relationships as an entry point into a wider discussion of precolonial interactions between the Igbo and other ethnic groups in the area.
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Afigbo, A. E. The Igbo and Their Neighbours. Ibadan, Nigeria: University Press, 1987.
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Explores the relationship of Igbos to other Nigerian ethnic groups from precolonial times to independence. Part 1 explores the methods and shortcomings of Igbo historiography. Afigbo’s main concern is to challenge the validity of 19th-century intelligence reports produced by Europeans. Part 2 examines Igbo social structure. The final chapters deal with how the Igbo and their neighbors related to one another during the colonial period.
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Amazee, Victor B. “The ‘Igbo Scare’ in the British Cameroons, c. 1945–1961.” Journal of African History 31.2 (1990): 281–293.
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Investigates the history of Igbo migration to western Cameroon, particularly the “Igbo Scare” in British Southern Cameroons following WWII, which influenced the 1961 plebiscite to join former French Cameroun. Amazee’s article documents the local resentment, as well as Cameroonian politicians’ exploitation of ethnic stereotypes, both of which fueled the Cameroonian locals’ demands to rid themselves of the undesirable Igbo.
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Ijeaku, Nnamdi J. O. The Igbo and Their Niger Delta Neighbors: We Are No Second Fools. Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2009.
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Focusing on Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region, the book centers on the Igbo people in its exploration of how the Igbo, Ijaw, Ibibio, Efik, Ogoni, and Annang inhabitants interacted. It highlights the ethnic and regional rivalries which led to Biafra, and how greed and the gross abuse of state power by a Northern Nigerian–controlled military turned the once-prosperous region into a state of total disorder.
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Nair, K. Kannan. Politics and Society in South Eastern Nigeria, 1841–1906. London: Frank Cass, 1972.
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First offers a general introduction to Igboland, and then assesses how the Igbo acted and reacted to the world around them in the late precolonial period. By situating Igbo religious, economic, and political structures, Nair is able to show that external forces were limited in the degree to which they could impact Igbo people.
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Oguagha, Philip A., and Alex I. Okpoko. History and Ethnoarchaeology in Eastern Nigeria: A Study of Igbo-Igala Relations with Special Reference to the Anambra Valley. Cambridge Monographs in Anambra Archeology 7, BAR International Series 195. Oxford: BAR, 1984.
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In the first section of the book, Oguagha discusses archaeology and ethnoarchaeology in the Anambra Valley. The second section, penned by Okpoko, deals with the historical and traditional evidence used to reconstruct the Anambra Valley’s past. The authors are concerned with unearthing evidence that speaks to settlement patterns and relations between various communities, as well as describing the various styles of architecture and pottery used in the area.
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Shelton, Austin J. The Igbo-Igala Borderland: Religion and Social Control in Indigenous African Colonialism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1971.
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Shelton’s book explores the longstanding relationship between the centralized kingdom of Igala and its southern neighbor, the Nsukka Igbo. Citing crossovers and similarities in linguistic structures as evidence, Shelton argues that the Nsukka Igbo were effectively colonized by their Igala neighbors. He further postulates that this indigenous colonization happened through a process of instituting Igala deities and priests in Nsukka.
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Religion

Religion in Igboland forms the basis of everyday life. Traditional Igbo cosmology views the world of the spirits as being innately linked to the human world through nature. The literature in this section deals equally with the tenets of traditional Igbo religion and the spread of Christianity in Igboland, beginning in the late 19th century and growing exponentially in the early 20th century. Many texts focus on the nature and role of Chukwu, or Chineke, the Igbo High or Creator God (Metuh 1981, Umeh 1997). Others examine the role of human intermediaries whose job it is to interpret the will of the deities. Arinze 1970 for instance explores the role of the priest, priestesses, diviners, and dibias who prescribe sacrifices for the wellness of the Igbo community. Achebe 1975 focuses on the Igbo personal god, chi, in his examination of Igbo cosmology, while Achebe 1986 explores the phenomenon of ogbanje—children tied to the spirit world by their iyi uwas—and the traditional practitioners who heal them. Still other books on Igbo religion focus on the connection between the Igbo Creator God and the spread of Christianity in the area (Ekechi 1972, Ilogu 1974, Kalu 1996). It is worth noting that many Igbo scholars, who now identify as Christian, have tried to reconcile the beliefs of their ancestors with their own understanding of modern Igbo Christianity. Throughout the 20th century, Igbo Christians have Africanized Christianity so that it became more compatible with their indigenous modes of worship, an issue discussed eloquently in Ilogu 1974.

Achebe, Chinua. “Chi” in Igbo Cosmology.” In Morning Yet on Creation Day. By Chinua Achebe, 93–103. New York: Anchor, 1975.
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Chi is a person’s divine self, one’s personal god, a being of great power that each Igbo individual enters into a pact with. This concept is beautifully presented in Chinua Achebe’s “Chi in Igbo Cosmology.” The author argues that an Igbo conception of the world and of human beings’ place in it is not rigidly defined.
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Achebe, Chinwe. The World of Ogbanje. Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension, 1986.
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Provides only in-depth investigation into Igbo phenomenon of ogbanje—in which a child is born, dies shortly afterward, and then is reborn to the same mother. In the Igbo worldview, ogbanjes are children tied to the spirit world by their iyi uwas, connections that must be broken in order for the children to continue to inhabit the world of the living.
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Arinze, Francis A. Sacrifice in Ibo Religion. Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibadan University Press, 1970.
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In an overview of the holistic nature of Igbo religion, the author adopts a structural approach in his explanation of the hierarchy of deities that existed in Igbo religious systems. He also examines the processes through which Igbo people made sacrifices to their gods, goddesses, and ancestors. Arinze ends his study with an examination of the emergence of Christianity.
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Ekechi, F. K. Missionary Enterprise and Rivalry in Igboland 1857–1914. London: Routledge, 1972.
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Based on the archival sources of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Paris, this book examines the struggle between the Church Missionary Society (which first reached Igboland in 1857) and the Roman Catholic Church (which reached Igboland two years earlier) for evangelical supersedence among the Igbo people.
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Ilogu, Edmund. Christianity and Ibo Culture. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1974.
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Outlines Igbo people’s introduction and reactions to Western culture, particularly Christianity. The book also examines the Africanization of Christianity; the processes of religious syncretism in Igboland and the variety of ways in which Christianity was adopted and adapted within specific African, in this case Igbo, contexts.
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Kalu, Ogbu. The Embattled Gods: Christianization of Igboland, 1841–1991. Lagos, Nigeria: Minaj, 1996.
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Ogbu’s text provides a comprehensive overview of how Christianity spread throughout Igboland. Starting with a discussion of traditional Igbo religion, Ogbu then shows how missionaries, in essence, agents of British imperialism, spread the message of the Bible from the coast to the Igbo hinterland.
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Metuh, Emefie Ikenga. God and Man in African Religion. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1981.
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Metuh’s book examines the role and place of the Igbo High or Creator God, Chukwu. He argues that the Igbo were inherently conditioned to believe in this supreme deity, an argument that he extends to African religions across the continent. The book grapples with the relationship between Christian and Igbo traditional religion, providing insight into how Christianity eventually spread in Igboland.
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Umeh, John Anenechukwu. After God Is Dibia: Igbo Cosmology, Divination and Sacred Science in Nigeria. Vol. 1. London: Karnak House, 1997.
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Explains the Igbo concept of God, Chukwu; personal god, chi; and man and how they are interrelated. Umeh centers on the dibia, who functions in traditional Igbo religion as an intermediary between the human world and the world of the spirits. Umeh also relates concepts in traditional Igbo religion to other non-Western practices and credits ancient Egyptian beliefs as being the source of Igbo cosmology.
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Slavery

The Igbo, perhaps more than any other group, were deeply impacted by the emergence and expansion of the transatlantic slave trade. During this time, they were shipped in great numbers—some estimate as many as 712,600 to the British Caribbean—across the seas to the New World. Taken mostly from the port cities of Bonny and Calabar, by slaving ships arriving from Bristol and Liverpool, Igbo people were dispersed to the colonies far and wide, including Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola, Barbados, the United States, Belize, and Trinidad and Tobago. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that this forced mass-migration of Igbo people across the seas has produced an important body of literature (Oriji 1985, Chambers 2005, Nwokeji 2001, Nwokeji 2010). In addition to this forced movement of Igbo people to the New World, they were also taken as slaves in southern Nigeria’s internal slave trade. This internal movement of people has also captured the interest of scholars. Cookey 1972 uses the narrative of a young Igbo slave girl to highlight a longstanding trade relationship between the Igbo hinterland and the Delta, much of which was driven by slavery. Furthermore, as a result of the abolition of the international slave trades, the very nature of slavery in the Igbo hinterland changed, as there emerged new systems of “slavery” that bound individuals to certain deities in marriage, thus limiting their freedom of movement, as can be seen in Nwando Achebe’s work on indigenous “slavery” in Igboland (Achebe 2003, Achebe 2010). From the impact of the Atlantic slavery on the Igbo (Oriji 1985, Nwokeji 2001, Nwokeji 2010), to the uneasy balance between internal slavery and abolition (Afigbo 2006), to the creation of an Atlantic Igbo identity in a New World setting (Chambers 2005), the literature in this section brings all of these themes to the fore.

Achebe, Nwando. “Igo Mma Ogo: The Adoro Goddess, Her Wives and Challengers—Influences on the Reconstruction of Alor-Uno, Northern Igboland, 1890–1994.” Journal of Women’s History 14.4 (Winter 2003): 83–104.
DOI: 10.1353/jowh.2003.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article addresses the collaboration of the Aro and Nike subgroups in procuring slaves from surrounding Igbo villages. Achebe examines the unique response to this crisis by one of the devastated groups, Alor-Uno, which created a protective medicine, Adoro, which the people used to fend off slave raids. Adoro would eventually become deified into a goddess, who helped in rebuilding the devastated town.
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Achebe, Nwando. “When Deities Marry: Indigenous ‘Slave’ Systems Expanding and Metamorphosing in the Igbo Hinterland.” In African Systems of Slavery. Edited by Stephanie Beswick and Jay Spaulding, 105–133. Trenton, NJ: Africa World, 2010.
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The procurement of human beings for the Atlantic slave trade led to an unimaginable insecurity for settlements in the Igbo heartland. Entire communities were devastated, including the town of Idoha, whose people created a new deity, Efuru, to help fight the slave trade and defend the people who were left behind. “When Deities Marry” centers on this autonomous community of Efuru goddess devotees.
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Afigbo, A. E. The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria, 1885–1950. New York: University of Rochester Press, 2006.
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This book examines the flourishing local slave trade in southeastern Nigeria, as well as British attempts to suppress it from the precolonial to the colonial period. Afigbo discusses the internal factors that informed Igbo reluctance to end slave trading during this period and expounds upon the conversations that emerged between the Igbo and the colonial state about the slave trading in colonial Nigeria.
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Chambers, Douglas B. Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.
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Recounts the circumstances surrounding the formation of an Igbo community and identity in colonial America. While Chambers uses the poisoning murder of Ambrose Madison, father of President Madison, as a point of entry into his discussion of slavery and Igbo community identity in colonial Virginia, the focus and relevancy of his text casts a much wider net.
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Cookey, S. J. S. “An Igbo Slave Story of the Late Nineteenth Century and Its Implications.” Ikenga: Journal of African Studies 1.2 (July 1972): 1–9.
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Article centers on the narrative of an Igbo slave girl, which was recorded by Bishop D. C. Crowther in 1880. She was taken from Onitsha and absorbed into an Ijo community in the Eastern Delta. The author shows that, despite the trade in Atlantic slaves coming to a halt by the mid-to-late 19th century, the supply and demand of enslaved peoples changed very little.
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Nwokeji, Ugo G. “African Conceptions of Gender and the Slave Traffic.” William and Mary Quarterly 58.1 (January 2001): 47–68.
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This article attempts to revise the understanding of the gendered dimensions of the Atlantic slave trade by shifting focus from the Euro-American demand side of the trade to an Igbo supply side of the trade. Nwokeji attempts to debunk the long-held notion that labor demands and the economic structure in the Americas alone dictated who was taken from Africa’s coast.
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Nwokeji, Ugo G. The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra: An African Society in the Atlantic World. London: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511781384Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Nwokeji’s book examines the structure of the Atlantic slave trade in the Bight of Biafra, noting its explosive expansion and the many roles that Igbo people played in the trade. The book tries to reconcile how such a well-defined and sophisticated process and network of slaving emerged in an area with little to no centralized system of government.
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Oriji, J. N. “Warfare, the Overseas Slave Trade and Aro Expansion in the Igbo Hinterland.” Ikenga 7.1–2 (1985): 156–166.
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Oriji’s article juxtaposes the expansion of the Aro alongside the growing demand for slaves in the markets of the Atlantic world. The article makes the argument that as the Atlantic trade in slaves grew, the Aro responded by expanding their political and religious ties in order to procure more slaves.
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Oral Histories

One of the central features of Igbo historiography has been the fact that Igbos produced fewer of the documents that historians have traditionally considered to be “evidence”—letters, diaries, travel logs, wills, property records, organizational papers, and government reports—than outsiders writing about Igboland. What this has meant is that until recently the voices and worldview of Igbos were completely excluded from major works of Igbo history. Without access to the traditional sources that scholars typically use to document their work, these new-wave Igbo-centered academics (Oriji 1990, Afigbo 2006, Korieh 2006, Achebe 2002, Achebe 2008) have had to find new methods to explore the voices of people who have historically been denied a voice. One source they looked to was oral histories or traditions—songs, folktales, proverbs, traditions of creation, articles of clothing—which allowed them to record the worldview and experiences of Igbo people who had not left written evidence of their lives in their own voices. Oriji 1990 collects the traditions of creation of numerous communities of Igbo origin. Arndt 1998 highlights the uneasy balancing act produced when a scholar attempts to convert an inherently Igbo genre of storytelling, rooted in the oral storytelling culture, into an accessible work of English literature. Achebe 2002 delves into the applicability of feminist oral history fieldwork to uncovering Igbo women’s worlds. Korieh 2006 explores the various approaches adopted by Igbo historians to give voice to the voiceless. Achebe 2008 juxtaposes colonial memory with indigenous memory of the murder of a British colonial major. Afigbo 2006 privileges oral history in a study of political power in a northern Igbo community. And last but not least, Ogbalu 1974 documents a collection of Igbo poetry and song for posterity. This accounting has made it difficult to ignore the role of Igbos in shaping Igbo culture and history and provides a counter-narrative to the ubiquitous European point of view.

Achebe, Nwando. “Nwando Achebe—Daughter, Wife, and Guest—A Researcher at the Crossroads.” Journal of Women’s History 14.3 (Autumn 2002): 9–31.
DOI: 10.1353/jowh.2002.0063Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article investigates the historical oral fieldwork experience in Igbo country—its methods, and the problems, contradictions, and dilemmas inherent in such an encounter. In addition, it evaluates Igbo personhood and the intersection between the political, intellectual, and cultural nexus of being an insider/outsider researcher. The author also critically explores the implication of identity creation and negotiation for our understanding of Igbo/African women’s and gendered histories.
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Achebe, Nwando. “Murder in Ochima: Priestess Mgbafor-Ezira, Nwachukwu, and the Circumstances Leading Up to the Death of Major G. L. D. Rewcastle.” In Emergent Themes and Methods in African Studies: Essays in Honor of Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo. Edited by Toyin Falola and Adam Paddock, 249–279. Trenton, NJ: Africa World, 2008.
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Drawing on oral evidence, as well as the particularly rich and somewhat dense colonial sources on these histories, “Murder in Ochima” details the life and times of Priestess Mgbafor-Ezira and the workings of her deity Onyiliora, a.k.a. Nwachukwu, and unpacks the events that led up to the death of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Major G. L. D. Rewcastle.
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Afigbo, A. E. “The Spell of Oral History: A Case Study from Northern Igboland.” History in Africa 33 (2006): 39–52.
DOI: 10.1353/hia.2006.0003Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Addresses the power of oral history in northern Igboland. With the imposition of colonial rule, a warrant chief was appointed by the British. The situation came to a head when members of the group maintained two oral histories that placed different lineages as heads of the community. Afigbo examines the construction of these oral histories as well as the disputed claims to traditional leadership.
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Arndt, Susan. African Women’s Literature, Orature, and Intertextuality: Igbo Oral Narratives as Nigerian Women Writers’ Models and Objects of Writing Back. Bayreuth, Germany: Bayreuth University, 1998.
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This book discusses fifteen novels and short stories by Igbo women writers in an attempt to better understand the relationship between oral narratives and written literature. At the heart of Arndt’s discussion is the longstanding debate surrounding who the authentic African author is. Arndt argues for wresting control of this definition away from outside observers and centering it within a more localized context.
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Korieh, Chima J. “Voices from Within and Without: Sources, Methods, and Problematics in the Recovery of the Agrarian History of the Igbo (Southeastern Nigeria).” History in Africa 33 (2006): 231–253.
DOI: 10.1353/hia.2006.0015Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Korieh’s article discusses the methodological approaches used by researchers to uncover voices of people that historical documentation often overlooks. Using a rural Igbo agrarian class as a case study, Korieh identifies the various means of giving voice to the voiceless, as well as the pitfalls that attend these methods. He specifically centers on the collection of oral narratives maintained by these agrarian communities to rectify shortcomings in the historiography of Igboland.
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Ogbalu, F. Chidozie. Igbo Poems and Songs. Onitsha, Nigeria: University Publishing, 1974.
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In this book, Ogbalu compiles traditional Igbo songs and poems into one concise collection. In doing so, the author offers a portal into the oral tradition of Igboland. This text is useful in contextualizing Igbo culture and the aesthetic elements of language that inform it.
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Oriji, John N. Traditions of Igbo Origin: A Study of Pre-colonial Population Movements in Africa. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.
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Brings together diverse accounts of community origins documented by University of Nigeria, Nsukka students in their BA and masters theses, as well as narratives that he collected himself. The first few chapters of the book offer a general history of Igboland.
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Political Histories

The Igbo lived in small-scale communities and therefore had no centralized government, chieftaincy, or kingship as their neighbors did. The village was the largest unit of government. As a result, leadership was left in the hands of the heads of various village councils, kindreds, and titled people. Dine 1983 is on the structure of governance in precolonial Igboland. Political organization was community based, democratic, and gerontocratic (Ottenberg 1971, Nzimiro 1972, Oriji 2011). Ottenberg 1971 provides an in-depth treatment of politics in an Afikpo village group. Nzimiro 1972, an expansive study of the Onitsha, Abo, Oguta, and Osomari Igbos, documents their political structures and organization. Oriji 2011 explores the roots of Igbo political organization before the upheaval occasioned by the Atlantic slave trade. The Igbo system of governance was complementary, with male and female elders working together for the good of their communities in a dual-sex political system (see Okonjo 1976, Achebe 2005 (both cited under Women), and Achebe 2010, cited under Slavery). Moreover, the political life and the religious life of the Igbos were closely bound together, giving rise to governmental structures that centered upon the worship of deities and the veneration of ancestors (Oriji 1989). These institutions would, however, change drastically during the 20th century with the introduction of British colonial rule and the establishment of the modern Nigerian political state (Henderson 1972, Njaka 1974, Hahn-Waanders 1990). Henderson 1972 centers on the Onitsha Igbo in an exploration of the changing concepts of power in Igboland. Njaka 1974 explores change over time in Igbo political cultures, while Hahn-Waanders 1990 explores evolutions in the institution of king among the Onitsha Igbos.

Dine, George Uchechukwu. Traditional Leadership as Service among the Igbo of Nigeria. Rome: Universita Lateranense, 1983.
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Dine’s book focuses on the structures and functions of leadership among the largely decentralized Igbo in the precolonial period. Additionally, the book assesses the traditional Igbo conception of service to one’s community, centering on the role of age grades and title taking. Dine highlights the changing nature of these indigenous institutions during the colonial era and especially considers the new offices of warrant chief and church leader that emerged during this period.
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Hahn-Waanders, Hanny. Eze Institution in Igboland: A Study of an Igbo Political System in Social Change. Nimo, Nigeria: Documentation Centre, Asele Institute, 1990.
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Focusing on the Obi of Onitsha and Oba of Benin, Hahn-Waanders’s book examines the eze (king or chief) institution in Igboland as it adapted to periods of great social change. Hahn-Waanders traces how the coming of the colonial government impacted the authority and place of these traditional rulers in their respective Igbo communities.
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Henderson, Richard N. The King in Every Man: Evolutionary Trends in Onitsha Ibo Society and Culture. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 1972.
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Employing an anthropological lens to examine linguistic constructions and tangible symbols of status among the Onitsha Igbo, Henderson’s book discusses the changing conceptions of power and authority in Igboland. The book highlights the meaning and symbolism of the ozo title in Onitsha as well as the ofo staff.
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Njaka, Elechukwu Nnadibuagha. Igbo Political Culture. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1974.
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Njaka’s book seeks to reconstruct traditional Igbo political structures from an indigenous Igbo perspective. In establishing a baseline political culture, the author shows how this culture changed over time. What separates this text from other books on the subject is the careful attention Njaka pays to what was then the current (i.e., mid-1970s) political culture of Igboland.
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Nzimiro, Ikenna. Studies in Ibo Political Systems. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972.
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The author examines the early history and ancestry of the four Niger states—Onitsha, Abo, Oguta, and Osomari. He describes their social and political structure and kinship and concludes with a comparative analysis of the four Igbo states.
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Oriji, John N. “Sacred Authority in Igbo Society.” Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions 34, 68.1 (July–September 1989): 113–123.
DOI: 10.3406/assr.1989.1400Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Oriji undertakes a study of the relationship between religious and political culture in Igboland. The article shows the influence of sacred authority in precolonial Igboland’s political mechanisms. The author also examines how the coming of secular authority occasioned by colonialism disrupted the role of these indigenous religious leaders.
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Oriji, John N. Political Organization in Nigeria since the Late Stone Age: A History of the Igbo People. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230116689Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Oriji’s text examines Igbo political organization prior to the emergence of the transatlantic trade in slaves. While most scholars who examine Igbo political structures tend to focus on reconstructing Igbo political systems in the late 19th century just prior to the onset of colonialism, Oriji searches out the roots of Igbo political organization before the disruptions incumbent on heavy slaving practices in the region.
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Ottenberg, Simon. Leadership and Authority in an African Society: The Afikpo Village-Group. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1971.
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Ottenberg’s work offers an in-depth analysis of the Afikpo village group, which is situated along the Cross River in Igboland. This book offers a reconstruction of the political institutions that underpinned Afikpo society. While the text offers little value to understanding current Afikpo politics, Ottenberg does offer useful analyses of how Afikpo political culture relates to wider institutions across Igboland.
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Social Histories

Social history highlights the experiences of ordinary people in the past. As a field of study, its golden age of major growth was in the 1960s and 1970s. Studies that appeared after this time are classified as new social histories. Social historians tend to explore major issues of public interest. As a field of study, social history is concerned with real life, rather than abstractions; ordinary people, rather than the privileged class; everyday happenings, rather than sensational events. Its preference is to showcase and analyze human documents and to present in-depth constructions of its human subjects. Social historians of the Igbo have mined the archives and collected oral interviews and traditions—songs, folktales, proverbs, traditions of creation, religious traditions and rituals (Aligwekwe 2008), agriculture and farming techniques (Korieh 2010, Nwonwu 2011), art (Cole 1982)—which have allowed them to record the worldview and experiences of ordinary Igbo people who left no written evidence of their lives in their own voices. Aligwekwe 2008 explores the conflicts inherent in the expansion of Christianity and Igbo people’s devotion to their ancestors; Korieh 2010 and Nwonwu 2011 center on agriculture and farming techniques as a means through which to explore indigenous knowledge surrounding agriculture and socioeconomic and cultural changes in the Igbo hinterland. Cole 1982 explores the religious worlds and worldviews of the everyday Igbo people who produced art in Mbari houses. These social historians have done this in an effort to cast light on actors of history who are often overlooked; they have done this to witness, and have the past speak on its own terms, rather than impose the values of today in viewing these times. Harneit-Sievers 2006 centers on the lives of ordinary Igbo people to explore how their precolonial organization intersected with colonialism. This field of study has led to an explosion of important studies on agrarian Igbo workers (Korieh 2010), Igbo Women, ethnic minorities (Anthony 2002), and coming-of-age rituals (Ottenberg 1989), etc.

Aligwekwe, Alice E. The Continuity of Traditional Values in the African Society: The Igbo of Nigeria. Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2008.
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Aligwekwe’s book provides a fascinating narrative of how the Igbo have maintained elements of their traditional religion despite the aggressive expansion of Christianity. Specifically, it explores Igbo devotion to their ancestors, and how they absorbed this time-honored tradition into their newly acquired Christian belief systems. Aligwekwe contends that the flexibility evident in Igbo traditional values functioned to preserve ancestral worship.
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Anthony, Douglas A. Poison and Medicine: Ethnicity, Power, and Violence in a Nigerian City, 1966 to 1986. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002.
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Douglas’s book employs the metaphor of ethnicity as both a poison and a medicine to explore the plight of Igbo communities living in the predominantly Hausa and Muslim city of Kano, Northern Nigeria. Specifically, he examines the political, economic, and psychological circumstances surrounding violence against these Igbo migrants following the Biafran War and reveals how these Kano Igbos not only coped with the violence but negotiated their ethnicity.
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Cole, Herbert M. Mbari, Art and Life among the Owerri Igbo. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982.
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Discusses the traditions and rituals that surround the construction of Mbari houses in the Owerri area of Igboland. Mbari houses were constructed over a long period and the construction was marked by ritual dancing and singing, performed to honor the gods. Cole’s book not only reveals the aesthetic value of these elaborately constructed houses but also grounds their construction in the traditional belief systems of the Owerri Igbo.
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Harneit-Sievers, Axel. Constructions of Belonging: Igbo Communities and the Nigerian State in the Twentieth Century. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2006.
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The author traces the origins, development, and changing definitions of belonging and identity in three Igbo communities in eastern Nigeria. He concerns himself with how precolonial social organization in the communities intersected with colonialism, Christianity, and the postcolonial state. Marrying archival and oral sources, the author also explores how the Igbo defeat during the civil war shaped contemporary Igbo society.
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Korieh, Chima J. The Land Has Changed: History, Society and Gender in Colonial Eastern Nigeria. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press, 2010.
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Korieh centers on agriculture as a lens through which to view the challenges that Igbo people faced in their engagement with the British colonial state. Specifically, the author explores British attempts to impose men as chief cultivators of palm tree cash cropping, and the resultant collision with traditional Igbo sensibilities—which placed women as important actors in economics, specifically farming—that the imposition engendered.
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Nwonwu, Francis O. C. Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Igbo Traditional Agriculture. Milton Keynes, UK: Authorhouse, 2011.
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Nwonwu’s book documents indigenous knowledge surrounding Igbo farming techniques and crop cultivation. The author argues that Igbo people have traditionally kept their systems of farming private, in close-knit circles, usually among members of a given family. With younger generations of Igbo people favoring urban lifestyles and abandoning the old ways of agriculture, Nwonwu attempts to document these time-honored traditions in order to help preserve them into the future.
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Ottenberg, Simon. Boyhood Rituals in an African Society: An Interpretation. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989.
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Ottenberg, who has worked diligently on the Afikpo village group for numerous years, returns to this area to examine the coming-of-age rituals among Afikpo boys. Afikpo people, like most Igbo people, celebrate a boy’s transition from childhood to manhood communally. Ottenberg meticulously details the process, while also contextualizing the wider meaning of these rituals.
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Economic Histories

The economic history of Igboland has often focused on issues of trade and the intergroup relations that facilitated it (Ekechi 1981, Ekechi 1995, Martin 1988). It has also placed this economic structure in relation to changing trends in the Atlantic world (Northrup 1978, Dike and Ekejiuba 1990, Oriji 1991, Njoku 2008). Northrup 1978 answers why the Igbo were able to support large population densities and establish strong economic ties with the Atlantic world. Dike and Ekejiuba 1990 shows how the Aro adapted to the changing demands for human beings occasioned by the Atlantic slave trade. Oriji 1991 continues where Dike and Ekejiuba left off by examining the relationship between Ngwa traders and a distinctly Aro religious, political, and economic entity, Ibiniukpabi or the Arochukwu Long Juju, which led to an increased involvement in the international slave trade for both communities. Njoku 2008 focuses on the political evolutions following abolition which led to the creation of a new “wealthy man” class in an Igbo community. The mainstay of Igbo economy was agriculture, and every able-bodied man, woman, and child was engaged in some aspect of agriculture. Martin 1988 explores Ngwa production of palm oil for export during the colonial period. Trade was as important, and both men and women were involved in local and long-distance trade (Ekechi 1981 and Ekechi 1995). As Afigbo and Okeke 1985 has documented, Igboland has one of the oldest traditions of weaving in Nigeria, and women were the chief weavers. However, with the coming of colonialism women were overlooked, as men were favored by the colonialists to replace these traditional women weavers. This happened also in agriculture (Martin 1988). And while Igbos were actively involved in the aforementioned three areas of economic production, the published literature on Igbo economy has however focused primarily on trade, and to a lesser degree on agriculture, to the detriment of manufacturing—an omission that sorely needs to be corrected.

Afigbo, Adiele, and C. S. Okeke. Weaving Tradition in Igboland: History and Mechanism of Igbo Textile Industry. Lagos, Nigeria: Nigeria Magazine, Dept. of Culture, Federal Ministry of Information, Social Development, Youth, Sports & Culture, 1985.
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In nine chapters, authors Afigbo and Okeke explore the history of weaving in Igboland. They document weaving traditions from four distinct Igbo zones—Abakaliki, Nsukka, Aniocha/Oshimili, and Akwete—in their exploration of how Igbo weaving traditions have evolved. They also look at the impact of colonialism on Igbo textile industry.
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Dike, K. Onwuka, and Felicia Ifeoma Ekejiuba. The Aro of South-eastern Nigeria, 1650–1980: A Study of Socio-economic Formation and Transformation in Nigeria. Ibadan, Nigeria: University Press, 1990.
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Dike and Ekejiuba explore how the Aro Igbo adapted to changing demands in the Atlantic markets for slaves by evolving the religious practices in the region and developing intricate and sophisticated trade networks and communal partnerships. The text also highlights the impact of the abolition of the slave trade on the Aro and their adaptations to the socioeconomic norms of the colonial period.
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Ekechi, Felix K. “Aspects of Palm Oil Trade at Oguta (Eastern Nigeria), 1900–1950.” African Economic History 10 (1981): 35–65.
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This article focuses on the capital resources, canoes, and adroit political manipulation that permitted the Kalabari traders to displace the indigenous middlemen in the palm oil trade of Oguta. But this commercial dominance as well as Kalabari appeal to Igbo market women aroused intense local hostility, which combined with the poor markets of the 1930s to eventually drive them from the area. This article is anchored on oral traditions and written colonial sources.
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Ekechi, Felix K. “Gender and Economic Power: The Case of Igbo Market Women in Eastern Nigeria.” In African Market Women and Economic Power: The Role of Women in African Economic Development. Edited by Bessie House-Midamba and Felix K. Ekechi, 41–57. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995.
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Ekechi’s article examines the role of market women in the overall economy of Igboland. The market is the heart of economic culture in Igboland, and women controlled these markets almost entirely, dictating prices, weights and measurements, and practices of trading. They were also invaluable in mediating disputes that arose in the market. This article firmly places women in the center of the market-driven Igbo economy.
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Martin, Susan M. Palm Oil and Protest: An Economic History of the Ngwa Region, South-eastern Nigeria, 1800–1980. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511521591Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Martin’s book explores how the production of palm oil for export from the Ngwa region of Igboland was driven by the changing patterns in food production in the area. She also examines the participation of Ngwa women during the 1929 Women’s War as a reaction to falling prices for palm oil worldwide.
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Njoku, Raphael Chijoke. “‘Ọgaranya’ (Wealthy Men) in Late Nineteenth Century Igboland: Chief Igwebe Ọdum of Arondizuogu, c.1860–1940.” African Economic History 36 (2008): 27–52.
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Njoku’s article is a life history of Chief Igwebe Odum. Odum is used as a lens through which to view how the newly emerging cash economy brought about by colonialism, the slow decline of the internal slave trade, and the transition to legitimate commerce allowed men like him to become part of a newly formed economic class, ogaranya or “wealthy men.”
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Northrup, David. Trade without Rulers: Pre-colonial Economic Development in South-eastern Nigeria. Oxford: Clarendon, 1978.
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Northrup’s book explains how the Igbo heartland of southeastern Nigeria was able to support massive population densities, develop strong intra-regional trade links, and establish strong economic ties with the Atlantic world in the absence of centralized political organizations. His focus is on the 19th-century communities of Igboland, and he emphasizes overseas trade as the primary factor that drove economic development in the region.
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Oriji, John Nwachimereze. Ngwa History: A Study of Social and Economic Changes in Igbo Mini-States in Time Perspective. New York: P. Lang, 1991.
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Oriji explores Ngwa’s sociopolitical organization and development of regional trade networks. The author’s interests lay in highlighting the important relationship between Ngwa traders and the Arochukwu Long Juju, which not only encouraged a more articulated involvement in overseas trade—both the slave trade and legitimate trade—but sustained general growth in the Ngwa area.
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Women

Igbo women were among the first African women to gain scholarly recognition as a group distinct from their men. This recognition was due in part to their mass demonstration against the colonial government in 1929. Unsettled by the aftermath of the Igbo Women’s War of 1929, the colonial government sent their officials and ethnographers into the field to study Igbo society and its political systems. These accounts were written almost entirely from a Eurocentric male perspective and tended to be selective, reporting only on occurrences that the ethnographers regarded as important, irrespective of whether African women themselves regarded these events as significant. The result was a grave disservice to Igbo women, who emerged as nameless supporting characters in these texts. Some of these early publications included works by C. K. Meek (see Regional Overviews) and G. T. Basden (see General Overviews). Sylvia Leith-Ross, the wife of a British colonial officer, however, paved the road for her contemporaries by documenting Igbo women’s activities as early as the 1930s under the rather ambitious title of African Women (Leith-Ross 1938). The book, although written in the somewhat condescending tones characteristic of its time, provides a useful source for the study of Igbo women by discussing issues of sisterhood and solidarity. In many ways, Ottenberg 1958 was a corrective to studies like Leith-Ross 1938. The author centered on the economic activities of women in the Igbo community of Afikpo to show how the introduction of a new crop during colonial times led to more economic independence for women. With independence came a proliferation of writing on and by Igbo women. Foremost among this early scholarship was Ekejiuba 1967, whose life history of a merchant queen was in many ways path-breaking. So too was Okonjo 1976, on the dual-sex nature of politics in Igboland. Amadiume 1987 perhaps more than any other scholarly work revolutionized the way in which female-centered Igbo institutions are written about, with the author’s introduction of decidedly Igbo theories that recognized the realities of female husbands and male daughters. Agbasiere 2000 is a general ethnographic study of Igbo women’s sociocultural institutions. Achebe 2005 explores the politics of gender and evolution of female power in northern Igboland, while the author’s award-winning study Achebe 2011 documents the life history of Nigeria’s only female warrant chief and king.

Achebe, Nwando. Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900–1960. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005.
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In Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings Achebe investigates the politics of gender and evolution of female and power and authority over the first six decades of the 20th century. She examines the religious, economic, and political structures that allowed women and the female principle to achieve measures of power, and determines some of the ways that Nsukka women reacted and adjusted to the challenges of European rule.
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Achebe, Nwando. The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011.
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In this monograph, Achebe centers on the life history of Ahebi Ugbabe, the only female warrant chief and king in British colonial Nigeria, and arguably all of British Africa. Marrying oral history, music, geography, and linguistics, the author documents a series of gendered transformations or female masculinities—warrant chief, female husband, female king, and female masked spirit—performed by Ugbabe in her quest to achieve full manhood.
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Agbasiere, Joseph Thérèse. Women in Igbo Life and Thought. London: Routledge, 2000.
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Agbasiere’s ethnographic work on Igbo women lays out the many ways in which women were critical to the maintenance of kinship groups and marriage practices in Igboland. She argues that Igbo women held a great deal of power in dealing with communal issues and public affairs and suggests that the Igbo worldview and women’s place within it allowed women to hold such crucial positions in Igbo societies.
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Amadiume, Ifi. Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society. London: Zed Books, 1987.
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Ifi Amadiume studies the politics of gender in Igbo society and challenges the received orthodoxies of social anthropology that all women in precolonial African societies were subordinate to men. The author argues that sex and gender did not necessarily coincide in precolonial Igbo society and examines the structures that allowed women to achieve the measures of power that they undoubtedly did.
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Ekejiuba, F. Ifeoma. “Omu Okwei, the Merchant Queen of Ossomari: A Biographical Sketch.” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 3.4 (1967): 633–646.
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Ekejiuba presents the life history of Omu Okwei, an astute trader who during the colonial period partnered with the Royal Niger Company. The partnership brought her great wealth and status and allowed her to be crowned Omu or queen of Osomari, a title that has never again been bestowed upon anyone.
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Leith-Ross, Sylvia. African Women: A Study of the Ibo of Nigeria. London: Faber & Faber, 1938.
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Represents the first full-length study of Igbo women. She explores the daily life of Igbo women in four villages in Owerri Province and Port Harcourt. She specifically examines Igbo women’s economic activities, their roles as wives, mothers, and widows, and their reactions to the encroachment of European governmental and economic structures on their lives. African Women is as much about these women’s views on the effect of the 1929 Women’s War.
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Okonjo, Kamene. “The Dual-Sex Political System in Operation: Igbo Women and Community Politics in Midwestern Nigeria.” In Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Economic Change. Edited by Nancy J. Hafkin and Edna G. Bay, 45–58. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1976.
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In this article, Okonjo argues that there existed a dual-sex political system in western Igboland in which each sex managed its own affairs in a complementary fashion. Colonialism and missionary encroachment, however, marked the beginning of the end of any kind of equality between the sexes in politics and society. Igbo women were pushed aside as their political and religious functions were usurped.
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Ottenberg, Phoebe. “The Changing Economic Position of Women among the Afikpo Ibo.” In Continuity and Change in African Cultures. Edited by William R. Bascom and Melville J. Herskovits, 205–223. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.
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The author deals with the traditional economic activities of women in Afikpo—pottery, trade, and agriculture—and analyzes how the introduction of cassava, a crop solely cultivated by women, has enabled them to become economically independent and to extend their activities. Women no longer depend on their husbands for subsistence and make a larger contribution to the family budget. They also assume more authority.
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Igbo Women’s War

The 1929 Women’s War was fought over British colonial policy. Igbo women “made war” in order to call attention to a number of factors that adversely affected their interests as women. They believed that the colonial government would institute direct taxation on them. They also held the colonial government responsible for the dramatic decline of palm oil prices, which in fact was due to world depression. Igbo women were convinced that they were being cheated when the colonial government introduced an inspection of the women’s produce and changed the method of purchase from measure to weight. The women were also enraged at the persecutions, extortions, and corruption of the warrant chiefs and Native Court members. These factors, coupled with the fact that women felt totally disregarded and disrespected by the colonial officials, fueled the women’s anger, presenting a need to put the British colonialists in order. The studies of the Igbo Women’s War all highlight the above-mentioned grievances. Afigbo 1966 rejects the colonial terminology of “women’s riots” and instead frames the Igbo Women’s War as a revolution. Ifeka-Moller 1975 was one of the earliest articles on the war by a woman. She specifically explores women’s militancy in the precolonial and colonial eras. So do Van Allen 1976 and Van Allen 1979. These studies situate a continuum in Igbo women’s strategies of resistance from the precolonial to colonial times, arguing that women evolved their precolonial strategies during the colonial period to punish the colonial government. They also document the ways in which Igbo women lost power during the colonial period. Bastian 2002 centers on the voices of the Igbo women involved in the war in an investigation of the mechanisms that women employed during the war. The conference proceeding Dike 1995, while exploring various aspects of the uprising, commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the Women’s War. Falola and Paddock 2011 is useful in part because it provides its readers with a slew of primary sources and a guide to these sources. Matera, et al. 2012 is the most recent of the studies on the Women’s War. More so than any other text, it is the authors’ intent to present both sides of the war—British and Igbo.

Afigbo, A. E. “Revolution and Reaction in Eastern Nigeria 1900–1929.” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 3.3 (1966): 539–558.
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In this article, A. E. Afigbo frames the Igbo Women’s War as a multifaceted revolution against the discriminatory impositions of the British colonial regime. Perhaps one of the most violent and volatile expressions of anticolonialism in Nigeria, the Igbo Women’s War marked a turning point in colonial relations in Nigeria, leading to the end of the warrant chief position in British colonial Africa.
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Bastian, Misty L. “‘Vultures of the Marketplace’: Southeastern Nigerian Women and Discourses of the Ogu Umunwanyi (Women’s War) of 1929.” In Women in African Colonial Histories. Edited by Jean Allman, Susan Geiger, and Nakanyike Musisi, 260–281. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.
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In “Vultures of the Marketplace,” Bastian centers on the voices of Igbo women, especially in response to the Aba Commission hearings that followed the Women’s War of 1929. She explores the mechanisms of Igbo women’s collaborations to “make war,” while also examining how they viewed themselves and their place in Igbo society. See also Matera, et al. 2012.
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Dike, P. Chike, ed. The Women’s Revolt of 1929: Proceedings of a National Symposium to Mark the 60th Anniversary of the Women’s Uprising in South-eastern Nigeria, December 1989, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Lagos, Nigeria: Nelag, 1995.
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This book is divided into five parts. Three keynote addresses make up Part 1. Part 2 consists of three chapters that explore the women’s revolt as a mass movement. Part 3 delves into an interpretation of the literature on the Women’s War; Part 4 examines the war proper. The final section explores other expressions of women’s protest in Nigeria.
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Falola, Toyin, and Adam Paddock, The Women’s War of 1929: A History of Anti-colonial Resistance in Eastern Nigeria. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2011.
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This book frames the Women’s War in a wider context of failed colonial policies and resistance. It examines the organization of a war that would lead to the abolition of the warrant chief institution in all of British colonial Africa. The book also provides a useful collection of primary documents and a guide to these documents.
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Ifeka-Moller, Caroline. “Female Militancy and Colonial Revolt: The Women’s War of 1929, Eastern Nigeria.” In Perceiving Women. Edited by Shirley Ardener, 127–157. London: Malaby, 1975.
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This article centers on the Women’s War of 1929 in its exploration of anticolonial resistance, fertility, tax revolts, and gendered division of labor. It highlights changes in the gendered division of labor under colonial rule, which hampered Igbo women’s commercial power.
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Matera, Marc, Misty L. Bastian, and Susan Kingsley Kent. The Women’s War of 1929: Gender and Violence in Colonial Nigeria. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
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Examines the violence of a war that sent shock waves across British colonial Africa. At the end of this war, fifty Igbo women were killed, and dozens of others were injured in the fighting. More so than the other texts on this subject, the authors of this book deal intently with perspectives from both sides of the war, Igbo and British. This creates a much more nuanced narrative of Igbo women’s actions against the colonial state.
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Van Allen, Judith. “‘Aba Riots’ or Igbo ‘Women’s War?’ Ideology. Stratification, and the Invisibility of Women.” In Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Economic Change. Edited by Nancy J. Hafkin and Edna G. Bay, 59–85. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1976.
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Judith Van Allen explores how the British applied Victorian stereotypes to their understanding of male and female relationships in Igboland, as well as the place of women within the society, and as a result, were fast to blame Igbo men as the organizers of the 1929 war.
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Van Allen, Judith. “‘Sitting on a Man’: Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women.” In Women and Society: An Anthropological Reader. Edited by Sharon W. Tiffany, 163–187. St. Albans, VT: Eden Press Women’s Publications, 1979.
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In this essay, Judith Van Allen explores the strategies that Igbo women utilized to “make war” on the colonial government during the 1929 Women’s War. She contends that the strategies the women employed were an extension of the traditional methods that Igbo women used to resist or right bad behavior visited upon them by men during the precolonial era.
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Biafran War

The Nigerian-Biafran Civil War was one of post-independence Africa’s first and bloodiest wars, which came close to tearing Africa’s most populous country apart. On 30 May 1967, the eastern Igbo region led by Colonel Emeka Ojukwu declared the independent Republic of Biafra. The war began soon afterwards, with Biafran forces making initial gains. One of the several methods that the Biafrans employed to articulate these gains was the creative control of perceptions through the media and propaganda. Anthony 2010 explores the construction and consumption of pro-Biafran propaganda during the war. Gould 2012 explores the role of international media in dragging out the war. The edited collection Korieh and Ezeonu 2010 presents many of the written and oral narratives about the war from various points of view. However, the Biafrans were soon pushed back by the Nigerian forces and the war dragged on until 1970, when Biafran leadership surrendered to the federal government. When the smoke had cleared, more than three million Igbo had died in fighting, from famine, and in what amounted to one of Africa’s first genocides. While much of the literature on the Nigerian-Biafran War has focused on Igbos in leadership positions, Harneit-Sievers, et al. 1997 focuses on the lives of everyday Biafrans. Okpaku 1972 is one of the earliest accounts of the Nigerian-Biafran war written by a Nigerian. Achebe 2012 provides readers with an intimate look into everyday life in Biafra, including the millions of Igbos fleeing the war zone and becoming targets of the Nigerian war planes; the Biafrans who “walk[ed] seemingly aimlessly on the roads in tattered clothes, in conversation with themselves” (p. 195); and the Nigerian soldier who “wandered into an ambush of young men with machetes” (p. 174) and was summarily murdered. Last but not least, Uchendu 2007 and Achebe 2010 provide a corrective to the male-centered accounts of the Nigerian-Biafran War by centering on Igbo women’s experiences.

Achebe, Christie. “Igbo Women in the Nigerian-Biafran War 1967–1970: An Interplay of Control.” Journal of Black Studies 40 (May 2010): 785–811.
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Presents the history of the events of the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War from the perspectives of Igbo women who lived and experienced it. From being involved in warfront marketing, called afia attack, to creating makeshift schools of learning for Biafran children, Igbo women played major roles in attempting to create a semblance of normalcy for their families during the war.
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Achebe, Chinua. There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra. New York: Penguin, 2012.
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Achebe documents his personal experiences before, during, and after the Biafran War. The first few chapters are about the author’s childhood. The middle chapters provide a glimpse of the immense tragedy of life in Biafra during the war which resulted in the killing of over three million Igbos. Achebe argues that Igbos were not mere casualties of war, but victims of a deliberate genocide.
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Anthony, Douglas. “Resourceful and Progressive Blackmen’: Modernity and Race in Biafra, 1967–70.” Journal of African History 51.1 (2010): 41–61.
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Douglas’s article examines the Biafran War from the viewpoint of modernity, race, and rhetoric. The article examines pro-Biafran propaganda, how it was constructed, and its consumption in Nigeria and abroad. The article argues that race became the primary factor propelling the discourse surrounding Biafra after claims of genocide fell on deaf ears.
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Gould, Michael. The Struggle for Modern Nigeria: The Biafran War, 1967–1970. London; New York: I. B. Tauris, 2012.
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Gould’s book challenges many of the preconceived notions about the Biafran War. It examines the role that international media coverage and foreign countries played in dragging the Biafran war out. Gould pays particular attention to the relationship between General Ojukwu of Biafra and the leader of Nigeria’s military government, Yakubu Gowon, viewing their former friendship as reflective of a war in which both sides’ combatants were hesitant to engage in battle.
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Harneit-Sievers, Axel, Jones O. Ahazuem, and Sydney Emezue. A Social History of the Nigerian Civil War: Perspectives from Below. Enugu, Nigeria: Jemezie, 1997.
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While much of the literature surrounding the Biafran War has focused on the individuals who held positions of leadership on both sides, this text seeks to assess the experiences of the war from a bottom-up perspective. The authors do this by looking at the lived experiences of average Biafrans to help complicate the received orthodoxies of this bloody conflict. The text covers the period of the war, as well as postwar efforts at reconstruction.
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Korieh, Chima J., and Ifeanyi Ezeonu, eds. Remembering Biafra: Narrative, History and Memory of the Nigeria-Biafra War. Glassboro, NJ: Goldline & Jacobs, 2010.
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This edited volume brings together the many written and oral narratives that have emerged since the end of the Biafran War. The editors seek to situate the viewpoints of those directly involved in the war in an attempt to show how Nigerians on both sides of the fighting remembered the civil war that nearly split the nation into two.
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Okpaku, Joseph Ohiomogben. Nigeria: Dilemma of Nationhood, an African Analysis of the Biafran Conflict. New York: Third Press, 1972.
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Published in the early 1970s, Okpaku’s book represents one of the earliest books to be written and published about the Biafran War by a Nigerian writer. Much of the literature that immediately followed the cessation of fighting was written by foreign observers from an outsider’s perspective. As such, Okpaku’s book is one of the earliest publications to provide its readers with an insider’s perspective on the Biafran War.
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Uchendu, Egodi. Women and Conflict in the Nigerian Civil War. Trenton, NJ: Africa World, 2007.
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Much of the literature on the Nigerian-Biafran War has been male-centric. Uchendu offers a corrective to this by elaborating on the war from the perspectives of women who experienced it. She presents Igbo women as active participants in the war, focusing on the strategies that they evolved to survive, as well as how they were able in some instances to capitalize from the war.
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Literature in English

According to Philip Gourevitch in The New Yorker, Chinua Achebe “must be remembered as not only the father but the godfather of modern African literature” (“Postscript: Chinua Achebe, 1930–2013,” The New Yorker online, 22 March 2013). This is because he spent decades as the founding editor of Heinemann’s African Writers Series, and in that capacity, “served as the discoverer, mentor, patron, and presenter-to-the-world of so many of the now-classic African authors of the latter half of the twentieth century” (“Postscript: Chinua Achebe, 1930–2013,” The New Yorker online, 22 March 2013). The African Writers Series introduced readers everywhere to works by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Dennis Brutus, Flora Nwapa, Tayeb Salih, Buchi Emecheta, Elechi Amadi, Kenneth Kaunda, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Ousmane Sembene, Wole Soyinka, and Nadine Gordimer, to name a few; and in Gourevitch’s view, this is “an extraordinary legacy.” What Chinua Achebe did for African literature, he also did for Igbo literature in the English language. Things Fall Apart (Achebe 1958) turned the West’s perception of Africa on its head. Before its publication, the received orthodoxy on Africa was based solely on the views of white colonialists, views that were often rabidly racist. Therefore, in Things Fall Apart, we witness an African writer, an Igbo writer, for the first time sharing his story on his own terms. But it was not simply the ownership of the story that made Things Fall Apart groundbreaking; the language in which it was written introduced its readers to a new English. Chinua Achebe in essence had invented a new language, which was part Standard English, and part the flowery language of Igbo folklore and proverbs. Following in Achebe’s footsteps (Achebe 1958 and Achebe 1964) would be such Igbo greats as Elechi Amadi, who centers on the religious Igbo worldview in his book on the marriage of a woman to a spirit (Amadi 1966), and Flora Nwapa (Nwapa 1970 and Nwapa 1978), who emerged as the first female writer to document Igbo women’s worlds by covering such themes as infertility. In her novels Emecheta 1977 and Emecheta 1994, Buchi Emetcheta also writes from a decidedly female perspective about slavery and motherhood. And last but not least, Echewa 1992 provides readers with a fictional depiction of the Igbo Women’s War of 1929.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, 1958.
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This novel tells the story about how things fall apart in the life and world of Okonkwo, a young Igbo man from the fictional village of Umuofia. Torn between traditional Igbo customs and religion and the “modernizing” forces of Christianity and colonialism, the story recounts Okonkwo’s fall from grace, while contextualizing it around the clash of cultures and resultant destruction of Okonwo’s Igbo world.
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Achebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. London: Heinemann, 1964.
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Set in the context of colonial interference in custom and tradition, this novel is an inquiry into the nature and uses of power as well as the personality and responsibility of the person who wields it. Ezeulu, the chief priest of Ulu, enters into a power struggle with his own people and the British which in the end leads to his and his god’s destruction.
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Amadi, Elechi. The Concubine. London: Heinemann, 1966.
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The Concubine follows the life of beautiful Ihuoma, whose husband dies following a fight with their neighbor, Madume, over land. During the course of the novel, Madume suffers a series of misfortunes which lead to his eventual suicide. As more misfortune visits those around Ihuoma, it is revealed that she is betrothed to a deity, who is the source of the troubles occurring in the book.
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Echewa, Obikaram. I Saw the Sky Catch Fire. New York: Dutton, 1992.
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A day before Ajuzia, a young husband and father, leaves his village of Uzemba for the United States to pursue a college education, his grandmother tells him a series of stories about ogu umunwanyi, the Women’s War of 1929. In mesmerizing prose, I Saw the Sky Catch Fire evocatively explores themes of individuality and community, gender, sexuality, and power, and is set against the backdrop of a changing Igbo world.
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Emecheta, Buchi. The Slave Girl: A Novel. London: Heinemann, 1977.
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The Slave Girl follows the trials and tribulations of Ogbanje Ojebeta, a young girl who is sold into slavery by a greedy brother after disease and tragedy leave them orphaned. At the house of her slave masters Ma and Pa Palagada, Ojebeta is able to form a surrogate family with her fellow slaves. Emetcheta’s novel is an intimate look at kinship, slavery, and the world of the deities.
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Emecheta, Buchi. The Joys of Motherhood. London: Heinemann, 1994.
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Emecheta’s Joys of Motherhood explores the overwhelming pressure on young women in Igbo society to bear sons for their husbands. The story follows the tragic fate of Nnu-Ego, who is repeatedly frustrated by her efforts to give birth to a male child and her attempts to cope with the societal pressures that surround her.
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Nwapa, Flora. Idu. London: Heinemann Educational, 1970.
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Flora Nwapa’s Idu tells the story of Idu, an Igbo woman who like Efuru (see Nwapa 1978), struggles with a strong desire to bear children. Idu frets over her infertility until she eventually produces a son. Through Idu’s story, Nwapa portrays the pressures that Igbo women feel to produce children.
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Nwapa, Flora. Efuru. London: Heinemann, 1978.
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In this novel by the first Nigerian female novelist, Nwapa tells the story of Efuru, a strong, beautiful, and independent young Igbo woman who wants nothing more than to bear children. After the death of her first child and two unsuccessful marriages, Efuru becomes a devotee of uhamiri and lives out her life childless. This work of feminist literature touches upon the sensitive theme of female circumcision and devotion to the gods.
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Literature in Igbo

Igbo literature is, in many ways, simply an extension and adaptation of the long-held oral traditions of Igbo people. In these texts, Igbo idioms, folklore (Achara 1963), proverbs (Nzeako 1979), and songs (Ogbalu 1974, Achebe and Udechukwu 1982) are used to express the feelings of the characters in the stories. The themes that are dealt with in these narratives tend to focus on the interconnectivity of the spiritual world with the human as represented in the worship of various deities and the importance of divination. The mediation presented in Gbujie 1979 over land is handled by the world of Igbo spirits. These Igbo stories also deal with the tensions between Igbo religion and Christianity, as is the case in Osuagwu 1977. Others explore the consequences of human failure, as in Achara 1963, which tells the story of a king who is unable to save or marry his princess. Igbo stories also tend to be placed against a backdrop of village life and organization, and issues regarding land and property are frequently discussed, as are the traditional methods Igbo villages used to make decisions and settle disputes. In Gbujie 1979, we are introduced to brothers who are in a bitter dispute over a piece of land. The author also reveals the traditional methods of mediation. Other stories are commentaries on the drastically changing sociopolitical structures of the 20th century, as in the case of Bell-Gam 1963.

Achara, D. N. Ala Bingo: Akuko Aroro Aro. Lagos, Nigeria: Longman Nigeria, 1963.
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This novel tells the story of a mythical king who lives alternatively in the heavens and in paradise on earth. He protects his earthly domain jealously until one day he discovers a beautiful princess, banished from her kingdom by a medicine man. The king becomes enamored with the princess but is unable to save and marry her. This book centers on elements of Igbo folklore to teach the reader about the futility of human desire.
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Achebe, Chinua, and Obiora Udechukwu, eds. Aka Weta: Egwu Aguluagu Egwu Edeluede. Nsukka, Nigeria: Okike, 1982.
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Chinua Achebe and Obiora Udechukwu take the name of their anthology of forty egwu or verses from the Igbo proverb, aka weta, “the mouth fills faster the more hands feed it.” The Igbo poems in this compilation delight in varieties of viewpoints and subject matter.
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Bell-Gam, Leopold. Ije Odumodu Jere. London: Longmans, 1963.
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This book follows the life of Odumodu, an Igbo boy born in the latter half of the 19th century to a poor family. Odumodu works hard to pull himself out of poverty, traveling to both Europe and locations in the New World. Odumodu later returns to his community a rich man, but the reader soon finds out that his travels have changed him. This book deals with issues of tradition and modernity while establishing a rich context of Igbo life against which his journeys play out.
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Gbujie, Chike Osita. Oguamalam. Lagos, Nigeria: Macmillan Nigeria, 1979.
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Gbujie’s novel deals with the issue of land ownership and the settlement of disputes in Igboland. The title character, Oguamalam, and his brother, Ikekwem, are in a bitter dispute over a piece of land left to them. The book follows the brothers as they seek out mediation in the dispute before turning the issue over to the spirit world. Gbujie’s work shows the importance that spirits play in the day-to-day realities of human beings.
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Nzeako, J. U. Tagbo. Chi Ewere Ehihe Jie. Onitsha, Nigeria: University Publishing, 1979.
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Nzeako’s story, told through an abundant use of Igbo proverbs, is about the process of healing and divination in Igboland. Through a series of dramatic events, the only son of the king dies of a scorpion sting, even after seeking out the advice of the diviners. He eventually returns from the dead, and the fortunes of the town change. Chi Ewere Ehihe Jie is deeply rooted in an Igbo worldview and cosmology in which reincarnation is central.
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Ogbalu, F. C. Igbo Poems and Songs. Onitsha, Nigeria: University Publishing, 1974.
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In this book, Ogbalu compiles traditional Igbo songs and poems into one concise collection. The author offers a portal into the oral tradition of Igboland by utilizing the aesthetic elements of language that inform it to contextualize Igbo culture.
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Osuagwu, B. I. N. Akuuwa. Lagos, Nigeria: Macmillan Nigeria, 1977.
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This is a short play about the tensions between Christianity and traditional Igbo religion. The play depicts the destruction of a community leader’s family shrine by new Christian converts and the resultant confrontation with the leader and his wife.