GETTING WATER FOR THE VILLAGE:
Only if the elder agree that the age grade has performed their task meaningfully with success, and the group is seen as a role model to the community,
the group will be accepted to adulthood and is honoured with a name.
With this name, the age grade will become part of the decision making process in the community and is seen as the protector of societal tradition and culture.
An older age grade can decide to retire,
which is done upon completion and hand-over of a project to the community.
This ceremony, called Igbo-Uche or Otomu, calls for a large celebration,
marking the admission of its members to the elderhood.
No labour can be assigned to them anymore and they become now the most influential and respected members of the community.
From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century,
slavery took toll of many weaker communities in this part of the country.
With the colonisation in the early part of the twentieth century, the British introduced a system based on ‘indirect rule’ in the north of Nigeria, leveraging the existing northern emir hierarchies.
A few years later, the colonial rule decided to introduce this system in the south as well.
They commissioned ‘warrant chiefs’ to rule the districts in Igboland, but due to the lack of social hierarchies, the mandate for their authority did not work out as well as it did in the north.
After the independence, the role of these district officers was quickly transformed and adapted to Igboland’s ‘traditional’ title society, which used to be based on traditional worship titles.
Only if the elder agree that the age grade has performed their task meaningfully with success, and the group is seen as a role model to the community,
the group will be accepted to adulthood and is honoured with a name.
With this name, the age grade will become part of the decision making process in the community and is seen as the protector of societal tradition and culture.
An older age grade can decide to retire,
which is done upon completion and hand-over of a project to the community.
This ceremony, called Igbo-Uche or Otomu, calls for a large celebration,
marking the admission of its members to the elderhood.
No labour can be assigned to them anymore and they become now the most influential and respected members of the community.
From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century,
slavery took toll of many weaker communities in this part of the country.
With the colonisation in the early part of the twentieth century, the British introduced a system based on ‘indirect rule’ in the north of Nigeria, leveraging the existing northern emir hierarchies.
A few years later, the colonial rule decided to introduce this system in the south as well.
They commissioned ‘warrant chiefs’ to rule the districts in Igboland, but due to the lack of social hierarchies, the mandate for their authority did not work out as well as it did in the north.
After the independence, the role of these district officers was quickly transformed and adapted to Igboland’s ‘traditional’ title society, which used to be based on traditional worship titles.
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