THE PERSISTENCE OF IGBO INDEGENOUS TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS PRACTICES IN THIS ERA OF GLOBALIZATION

Abstract

This study explores the resilience and continuity of Igbo Indigenous Traditional Religion (ITR) amidst the expansive forces of globalization. Despite the widespread influence of modernity, Christianity, Islam, Western education, and mass media, which have significantly altered cultural and religious landscapes across Africa, the traditional religious practices of the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria have shown remarkable persistence. Again, the various cries of woes painted by some scholars concerning the Igbo traditional religious practices being down and out, gave rise to the examination of these religious practices which were believed to be already heading to total extinction. These panic cries about the extinction of African/Igbo religious practices caused panic, confusion, and misrepresentation of realities among the Igbo of South-East Nigeria. The paper also examines the socio-cultural, spiritual, and philosophical underpinnings that sustain Igbo traditional religious beliefs, including the centrality of divinities (alusi), the role of rituals and festivals, and the importance of sacred spaces. It further investigates how globalization has both threatened and, paradoxically, facilitated the preservation of these traditions through cultural revivalism, and digital media. These hypotheses created by some scholars are the subject matter of this paper, to examine the veracity of these claims through the method of the culture-area approach to know how they stand the test of time. It was discovered that these claims are mere semantics, but in reality, Igbo traditional religious practices are only modified and sustained ensuring its survival and relevance in the contemporary modern Igbo society.