The introduction of a foreign concept into an area with a deep-rooted history has a tendency to create tumultuous and longstanding problems. For instance, when you take a complex religion such as Christianity and mix it into an inherently different culture such as that of the Igbo, you end up with conflict and turmoil. The traditional Igbo religion, or Odinani, was historically a large part of igbo society—the traditions of the religion were integrated and intertwined in the daily lives of the Igbo people. Odinani had ideas, beliefs, and practices unique to the Igbo people. When Nigeria began to be colonized, this brought along the various ideas and values of the colonizers—Great Britain. Among these ideas and values was the Christian faith.
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When the Igbo people and missionaries began to live side by side, it was not long before dissension arose. The English missionaries came off as short-sighted—and to the practicers of Odinani, Christian beliefs were flat out false and difficult to contend with. Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, illustrates the hostile atmosphere between Christian Igbo and non-Christian Igbo through dialogue that displays the reactions of the non-converts towards those that joined the Church. One example being in an assembly to discuss the Christian missionaries, a man who remains a practicer of the traditional religion says of the Christians, “We should do something. But let us ostracize these men. We would then not be held accountable for their abominations.”1 The Odinani traditions, beliefs, and customs are intrinsic to the fundamental Igbo society. To see their fellow men and women shun those practices goes against what the Igbo, particularly those in the assembly, stand for. If the Odinani rituals that had bound Igbo society together are not practiced by all, then it stands to reason that the Igbo are not as connected a group as they had originally been before Christianity divided
When the Igbo people and missionaries began to live side by side, it was not long before dissension arose. The English missionaries came off as short-sighted—and to the practicers of Odinani, Christian beliefs were flat out false and difficult to contend with. Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, illustrates the hostile atmosphere between Christian Igbo and non-Christian Igbo through dialogue that displays the reactions of the non-converts towards those that joined the Church. One example being in an assembly to discuss the Christian missionaries, a man who remains a practicer of the traditional religion says of the Christians, “We should do something. But let us ostracize these men. We would then not be held accountable for their abominations.”1 The Odinani traditions, beliefs, and customs are intrinsic to the fundamental Igbo society. To see their fellow men and women shun those practices goes against what the Igbo, particularly those in the assembly, stand for. If the Odinani rituals that had bound Igbo society together are not practiced by all, then it stands to reason that the Igbo are not as connected a group as they had originally been before Christianity divided