Culture is a very valuable word it is a particular form or stage of a civilization, as that of a certain nation or period. When someone disrespects,or does something abnormal towards any given culture it creates a major culture collision. People oftenly take their culture very personally,and when people invade that space people get furious. The British were a group of people from Britain who colonized Nigeria from 1861 to 1900. A colonizer is a person,or group that establishes somewhere,or takes over a place that doesn’t belong to them. The arrival of the British to Nigeria caused a major culture clash because they disrespected the Nigerian’s religion, they took over their resources,and they messed up the Ibo customs.
The British disrespected the Nigerian’s religion. That is not very nice especially when a village has been very influenced by their religion for so many years. A religion gives meaning to the practitioner’s experiences of life through reference to a higher power of truth,or faith. It may be expressed through ,rituals,and other things. The Ibo people were so fond of their religion. For example they believed in Chi who was their God,also they believed in the sayings of the Oracle which was a wise woman who was a predictor,and spoke through another source of life. When the British conquered they flushed away all of these believes because they brought with them their religion of Christianity. They told the Ibo people that there was only one God of the entire Earth,and that their believes were just a bluff. Nigeria had 9 villages,and there were many being affected by this. Umofia in particular was affected because there was already a church built in that land by the white people. This church taught nothing of the Ibo culture. How would a community feel if one day they woke up,and they couldn’t have faith in their religion because some intruders told them it was all false?
Britain took over the Nigerian resources such as in Umofia,Abame,and Mbanta. These were some of the 9 villages in which these white men took over the great resource of land,and used it for their own benefits. Some of the churches that they builted were not even built with the permission of their people. Although in Mbanta the people did allow the white men to built a church,but they gave them the worst land that thay would think of. They gave the missionaries the land of the Evil forest. The Evil forest was very crusial to the Ibo life because their beliefs were somewhat burried in there. Even though it was not an ideal land it still belonged to the Ibo villages,and they just gave it to expect the white people to leave,but they didn’t. This made the Ibo people question their beliefs. When people who are strong believers start questoning their beliefs it becomes a conflict. The British stood their ground and stood in that land. They had taken over a piece of land,what would be next? This was only the beginning,and ofcourse certain people were already sarting to set their feet on war because they noticed this was ridiculous,and dishonorable.
The lack of respect that the British had towards the Nigerian’s customs was the last,but not least fact that the arrival of the British to Nigeria caused a major conflict. The Ibo people had this like ritual wich was part of their customs,and very personally spiritual. An Egwugwu was a man who disguised himself as an ancestral spirit of the village. Actually a Fanatic christian unmasked one of them in public ,and this was considered a terrible crime for the Ibo,but the fact that the British had no knowledge of that they didn’t care.
In my opinion the Ibo people were so furious,and embarrassed. Their only option was vengance,and that is how the main conflict began.
Disrespectful events towards an individual’s, or a group’s culture can be pardoned,but if they keep occuring constantly people take action regardless. The colonization of the British in Nigeria is an example of other cultural clashes that occur in oure daily lives. They can be very small,but then in a blink of an eye they turn into these big issues that are hard to deal with because a certain group always gains power and dominates the other.
