User:Sowhat21

Ibo Cultural Comparison

Religion and Law

All members of the Ibo up to the Colombian Exchange worshiped multiple Gods and were polytheistic. In America we have dozens of religions: Christianity has so many denominations, Islam, Scientology, and Atheism. Some of our religions aren't even religions.... We have religion separated from state whereas their government is based on religion and is a theocracy. They have a council of religious figures that can banish you from the villages where we have a law system that would more likely put you to death rather than exile you. In the book "Thinks Fall Apart" Okonkwo, the main character, was banished for seven years because he killed a fellow clansmen at Ezeudu's funeral because his gun explodes. In our world there would have been a lengthy trial, possible death penalty, or a much longer time in prison. Two very different systems of law.

Food

In America and most other places in the world we have very diverse selection of foods. In the Ibo culture their food selection is rather bland; they have palm wine, yams, and kola nuts. One of their delicacies were the locusts which came every seven years. To us that's a gross and disgusting bug that many refuse to even look upon. We may debate about what to have for dinner with our families while they lived on mainly yams because that was something that they could grow a lot of and store for a long time. Everyone farmed or did some sort of job to find food whereas in our society the majority of us do not find food and just live in urbanized towns. A minority of Americans actually grow food the rest of us eat. In the book "Things Fall Apart" they start eating kola nuts and palm wine within the first chapter and continue to eat throughout the entire book as a main source of food.

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  A tree they used to get the palm wine.

Gender Roles

In America both men and women do similar jobs whether it's banking, accounting, law, etc. In the Ibo culture women are more in the profession of home making or a housewife. They farm, cook, clean, etc. While the men primarily protected the women and children. If a man was unable to rule over his women and children then he was deemed to be no better than a woman himself. A woman in our culture could provide for a family while the man stays home and takes care of the children but in the Ibo culture things were quite the opposite and always had the man at the head of the family. Men are constantly having their manhood challenged. In the book "Things Fall Apart" Okonkwo earns his wives by earning titles. One was beating Amalinze the Cat; who was a fierce wrestler at the time.

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  Three Ibo People in Nigeria

Holidays

Our society holds many, many holidays including Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc. The Ibo have few holidays compared to us. They have the week of peace and the locusts. The locusts is like our Thanksgiving but only happens every seven years compared to ours being annually. They celebrate the locusts because they're a nutritious and tasty delicacy much like our turkey. Their Week of Peace can sort of be related to Christmas. A forced gathering of family in which you have to behave and set a course of non-violence with your family and friends, ending in a large feast kicking off harvest season.

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  A Delicious Locust Buffet on its Way!

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kcsa101