Culture: The Identity and History of Every Tribe

Abstract

Our culture is our way of life. No race can exist without culture. Any race that does not have culture cannot boast of any history of their own. It is disheartening that today, Africans have relinquished and traded their culture to promote alien cultures. The evil seed was planted by the colonial masters who tried and succeeded in promoting their culture to the detriment of Africans and African culture. Religion plays a major role to this effect because promoters of alien religion will always try to trace almost all African cultural behaviour to idolatry, paganism and fetishism. It is against this misinterpretation that this kind of study is necessary in other to unveil the relationship between culture, and identity or history as it affects the Igbo culture. The objective of this study is to analyse the role of Western colonization towards the neglect of African culture by Africans. The study is also purposed to call Africans back to their cultural identity as it is the foundation on which other boundaries are established. It is a descriptive study. The data collection was through observation and relevant literature sources. The theory used is the theory of Behaviorism. Among the findings of this study is that African culture and Igbo culture in particular is not devilish rather it has been wrongly interpreted by those that wanted to promote theirs. It is advised that Africans go back to history and embrace their cultural identity as it is the bed-rock of the present and posterity vision and heritage.