The Christian Village Experiment in South-East, Nigeria and the Challenges of Socio-Cultural Traditions, 1885-1970

Abstract

This study investigated and assessed the Christian village experiment by the early Catholic missionaries in Igboland, south-east Nigeria, with a view to capture the factors that led to its failure, and especially, to find out the role socio-cultural traditions played in bringing an end to the practice. The investigations were done in five towns in Anambra and Imo States, using a descriptive survey design that combined semi-structured interview and a structured and validated questionnaire titled “Factors that affected the successes and failure of the Christian village practice in Igboland”, and randomly administered to selected elders. The presentation of the entire work employed traditional historical narrative method, laid out thematically. The findings of the study which exposed unacceptable social, cultural and traditional conflicts were generalized to the entire south-east, Nigeria.