1. Nigerian History & Culture

2. Slave Trade 1400’s – 1807 Africans sell other Africans
Trade for alcohol, weapons & goods
Many Igbo get rich

3. Strategy Change Inter-African slave trade abolished in 1807
Europeans change strategy
Use Africa for natural resources
Carve continent up into colonies
The Berlin Conference in 1885

4. Strategy Change
Great Britain claims area around Niger River

5. “Civilizing” Africa
Many Europeans see “civilizing” the Africans as a duty.
Claim they are bringing religion and the modern way to justify the greed.

6. 3-Prong Attack Missionaries Trade Government Convert outcasts
Convert women
Trade
British trade palm oil in exchange for goods
Government
Bring in District Commissioners
Set up own police and courts

7. Igbo People Ethic Group from Southeast Nigeria
Speak Igbo dialects and Nigerian English
Various Igbo subgroups were organized by clan, lineage, village affiliation, and dialect.

8. Igbo Culture Agricultural community Yams = men
Cassava, beans, other crops = women

9. Family Units Patriarchal Society Multiple wives
Each family has own compound
Patriarchal Society
Men have power & women are property
Wife-beating is common

10. Democratic Government
Ruled by elders (ndichie) and men chosen to receive titles
Decisions made by clansmen
Gods
Animist: recognize a number of gods that embody the forces of nature
Oracles: priestesses whose job it is to speak for a god

11. Ancestors Though dead, they have voices
Egwugwu: men disguised by mask and costumes that embody the spirits of the ancestors

12. Modern Nigeria
Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain on October 1st, 1960.
The Nigerian Civil War began as the Nigerian (Western and Northern) side attacked Biafra (South-eastern) on July 6th, 1967 and ended in January 1970.
Nigeria gained a democratic government in 1999 when it elected Olusegun Obasanjo as the new President of Nigeria, ending almost 33 years of military rule (from 1966 until 1999.)

13. Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart was written by Chinua Achebe in 1958, exposing the culture clash of 19th century colonialism in Nigeria.
Chinua Achebe, born in Nigeria, lived in the U.S.A after the Nigerian Civil War and wrote his novels in English.
Achebe served as a professor at Brown University till his death in 2013.