₦airaland Forum

Ray Wilkins may be replaced by Arsene Wenger.

ifyalways:
i think most ppl dont use diviners cos of their modus operandi amongst other things.any diff. btw herbalist n diviner?

Just the same.
Those who do not use diviners use christianity as an excuse. They will choose to use the bible to prove their innocence, yet we all know that the bible does not strike guilty people down. But with the diviners or at some shrines like Kamalu, Ala ogbaga etc, it does not spare the wicked.

After determining the cause of the problem, the diviner then prescribes remedies which more often than not are sacrifices to be made to the ancestors or to the spirits believed to be angry about something.

The diviner (DIBIA-AFA) is thus a busy person among the adherent of Igbo religion. He is consulted for practically all problems, sicknesses and failure in business or failure to have a male child, boundary disputes, sudden deaths etc.

Igbo worldview relies on a diviner a divination to provide answers to problems and puzzles of daily life-experiences.
In other words, the essence of divination in Igbo culture is the provision for resolving one difficulty or the other that the individual or the community encounters as he attempts to understand the world around him.

Introduction to Igbo Medicine

IGBO MODES OF MOBILIZING EXTRAHUMAN FORCES TO RESPOND TO ILLNESS AND PROBLEMS IN SOCIETY - IGA N’AJUJU
(Part 1)



NOBODY WANTS TO WRITE IN THIS AREA; WHY?
I have had a long standing interest in exploring African medical systems. As such, I introduce to you a course in African medicine and the perspectives of its practitioners. I am calling this course “Igbo Medicine” (IGBOMED 101). This way, I anticipate that readers will gain insights and stand up for Igbo medical heritage – therefore align it with vision in a changing global health care and development.

So, what is Igbo Medicine? This course will engage readers in the exploration of African ways of inquiry and discovery when it comes to finding the causes of illnesses and suffering, and the ritualistic and therapeutic remedies that follow. It is my hope that one day an in-depth and expanded edition of “Introduction to Igbo Medicine” (Ogwu Igbo) will emerge, adding to the awareness of indigenous practices of healing and their relevance in the modern world.

There is a need to give philosophical attention and meaning to culture and healing as they are seen by the practitioners in this area. In other words, understanding the principles around which illness is conceived of, explained, and used at cross-points of a knowledge system is necessary.

  Figure 1: Diviner’s Consultation Hut
Basically, related case studies of illnesses in Igboland, how they are explained, and how healing is dispensed by Igbo healers and their counterparts in other African countries should command greater attention than they do currently. In order to get to the root of the matter in a meaningful way, use of personal and related experiences should also be encouraged in the studies of African healing systems and the institution of African medicine. This pertains not only to the wide range of forms of illnesses and social problems that indigenous healers address, but also to the changing patterns in relationship with biomedical sphere, or so-called orthodox, medicine.

In this work, I wish to discuss, specifically, Igbo divination systems. First, I want to question the composition of our knowledge that leads us to believe that the realm of the seen is more real than the realm of the unseen. Festus Adedayo’s (2005) The Dilemma of a Snake[1] points out that

“to establish the possibility of any knowledge, such knowledge has to be founded on some assumptions whose truth has to be guaranteed and to judge a specific knowledge process would be dependent on a knowledge already known to be certain and true as a standard. But obviously the need to ‘prove the reliability of knowledge always poses a problem.’”         
     
While consummation with other cultures has broadened the Igbo cosmology of knowledge transmission, patterns of life, and worldviews, traditional values and practices have endured in the imbrications and realms of knowledge systems. Consulting superhuman forces in matters of healing, rather than throwing the Igbo into an epistemological dilemma, enables them to reach beyond the endless limitations of the human mind. In a serious sense, it allows them to engage in the symbolic and intellectual pursuit of resolving the dilemma of achieving true knowledge in regard to suffering and cures.
  http://www.kwenu.com/publications/iroegbu/igbomed/introduction1.htm

EzeUche0:
Agreed. If the language is completely different, then they are not part of the same group. I share this view when it comes to all ethnic groups. The same goes for Ikwerre who clearly speak Igbo and the Efik, Ukwa and Annang who clearly speak Ibibio

I hope you do not mean the UKWA in Abia state.

chyz:
Eze Chima was not Bini. Hence, "Eze"=King, "Chima"= "God Knows". There is no Bini name that is Chima or Eze. It was proven that Eze Chima was Aro man who was a big trader in that area along the River Niger. I'm even starting question the name because I don't think Igbos were christians at his time so names like Chi-,Chukwu- were not used as such. Names like Taagbo and Dikeanyi and other strong names were used. It would have made more sense to me if his name was "Ndichima"= "The gods know". Just my thoughts.

Ndigbo might not have been Christians then but that does not translate that the do not worship God. Actually they did worship God but not through Jesus Christ. Because of their belief in God, they had names like Nwachukwu, Ekeh, Nwa-Obasi, Nwaoliseh etc. Even a name of an Igbo group was called Arochukwu and in my village, one kindred is called Umuchukwu.
The british made a similar mistake upon arrival in Igboland but Mr brown learnt better in Things Fall Apart chapter twenty-one. Here the missionaries attempted to refute what they considered idolatory with simplistic argument that the animist gods are only wooden idols, however, the villagers were perfectly aware that the idol is not the god in a literal sense, any more than the sculpture of Christ on the cross in a christian church is God.
Hence the name Chima, Chime could have been possible.

My personal view is that there were Igbo groups in Bini before migrations occured.
This Igbo groups moved eastwards because their roots were in the east.
The case of Igbo groups leaving side by side with Binis is further helped from what we saw during the Bini centennary in 1997. During this period, an elder who witnessed the sack of Oba's palace narrated his account in Igbo. He was 100+ by then.

The Russians had a Czar, but at a point, a popular revolution led by The Bolsheviks ousted the Czar. As a consequence, what stops you from believing that at a point, Ndigbo had ezes.

ChinenyeN:
"Igbo amaghi eze" & "Igbo enweghi eze". . . do these two expressions not have antiquity?
Seriously. .

The word eze, Obi or Igwe does not exist in a vacuum. If Ndigbo had none, those words could not have existed. As I said earlier on, some Igbo communities made it so difficult for any one to be eze then. For example, one has to cook for the entire village for one week before you may be considered as eze.
As a result, ezeship gave way to gerontocracy, theocracy and republicanism.

Ile ajo anya (o na ele ajo anya)---inwe echiche ojoo (ona enwere ya echiche ojoo).

ifyalways:
Youngies na apu ala
@Topic,Okeke foro ntutu ta . . .Okeke refused to have a change of mind/refusing to change ones stance on sumtim.

Ify, akpalaokwu gia kara aka, kajakwa akaja.

calid16:
Yes jonathan can go with the oil together with south east and south west. If they go they wont survive. Even now see how they are fighting and sending daughter to go and do ashewo so that they can build house. They will be worst i tell you, oil has never made anyone rich, even Saudi cannot compare with compare with Singapore. If we in sokoto can sell our diary food and lagos and all the big banks and brilliant business sit up we will pass south africa. See how wild igbo and niger delta are , they are fighting
Everytime even the women, fight fight and kill and cheat without honesty and sell fake drug to innocent people and not care if they survive . Let them go , i bet you they will worse than congo in 2 years killing themselfs with genocide. Congo have over 20 trillion dollars of minerals in the ground, richest country land on this planet, why are they poorer than nigeria beggars ?

@the poster: your post shows that on the day brains were created, you were late. Do you have any evidence of Igbo fighting with Niger-Delta.
Only recently, pollution from zink has killed over 500 people in the old sokoto state, yet you did not comment about that. Why not concentrate on the useless almajiris ravaging your region, pollution and flood disasters instead of typing crap here?.

@physisQED: You are not straightforward here. In Igboland of today, there are no kings. What is obtainable are Ezes, Obis and in some places Igwes. They are traditional rulers who received their staffs of office from government. An Eze is never addressed with the English title of ''chief''.
Igboland is not exceptional on the most powerful wielding power. We are living witnesses to Maccido-Dasuki saga of the Sokoto caliphate. IBB appointed Dasuki but Abacha usurped him with Maccido. Cases like this are bound in the West as well.
Nevertheless, thosands of people do not wield power in Igboland. The Eze and his cabinet are responsible for traditional matters. But to be a member of this team, there might be power struggle, and in this case the most influential becomes victorious.
It is so because the British made it so.

Prior to Republicanism, Ndigbo had Ezes, Igwes and Obis. But the Igbo society attached so many difficult conditions to any aspring Eze. For example in Isinweke areas of Imo state, the man who intends to be the Eze will cook for the entire village for one week as well as other tough conditions. This made the interest in being an Eze to wane. The idea of being an eze withered away and in its place, emerged republican systems.

Chibuike Amaechi will rule Rivers till 2015. After that power should shift from Ndigbo in Rivers to non Igbos either Kalabari, Ogoni etc.

chyz:
The move that Uwechue made by going with jonathan doesn't solely lie on Igbo presidency. What you must understand is his move was more so for Igbo Interest. Uwechue shows pride in the Igbo and hope.He knew along with Ohanaeze members, that by going with jonathan igbo interest would be less far fetch that with an IBB or northern presidency.As far as Presidency, he understands that presidency will not be handed down to the Igbo,he knows we must fight for it through unity and presenting the best candidate. That is what believing in your people is all about and Uwechue proved to be a true leader. As far of the IPF is concerned, their moves suggest that they dont believe in the Igbo, that we cant achieve anything as far as presidency if we dont abide and adhere to the northerners. Are we dogs?!No. The maneuver is well thought out and the best. Remember people like, soludo, nnamani, and ekwueme are just looking to get back into the federal family so they will sell their soul to do so and dont think that there moves are being done for the Igbo.

Word.

Obi Iji Oji (obi ya na eji oji)--inwe ajo obi (onwere ajo obi).

1025:
@andrew,
it is obvious your plan A in london has been defeated hence u are making GEJ campeign your plan B since man must survive. u and your uwaechue have no plans for the igbos not now and not in future. all u and your likes are doing is call "struggling to survive"
GEJ is another name for obsanjo's third term agenda and from 1999 to 2007, we saw obasanjo's likeness for the igbos as was displayed in anambra where he used one of his destructive tool to distablize the state. we also saw how for his personal reasons, refused the ppl's mandate in imo state where ararume was dropped and instead a chronic criminal in the name of ohakim was imposed on the state.
if the igbos can come together and have agreement with the hausas against 2015 then so be it.
personally, i will vote anyone that is not obasanjo oriented.
how come this much talked GEJ has nothing to show so far for his occupation of aso rock?
the much criticized IBB has a landmark in lagos where he built 3rd mainland bridge which used to be the longest bridge in west africa.
have u ever asked urself, if GEJ stop been a president today, what will he be remembered for? maybe facebook.

Shut up your stinking mouth as you do not know my Plan A or B. Anyway, I'm gainfully employed by the govt at Westminster and every other activity is secondary. You have a right to support any candidate of your choice and campaign for him also, likewise myself and any other. Iam heavily involved in Igbo activities in the U.K and since the apex Igbo body has giving us the go ahead to support GEJ, I will do that with all pleasure with even all the website, groups, religious bodies, cultural, political and other medium within my reach. Watch out.

I do understand that some Igbo people want power to shift to the north, but the North has had it for more than 35 years and nothing was achieved in those inglorious years. Thank God for Ohanaeze, because those leaders have misled the Igbo.
What Ohanaeze is saying is that power does not rotate between the north and the south, but between the six geo-political zones.
The Ohanaeze executives have had a very careful study of all the presidential candidates for 2011 elections and have come to the conclusion that GEJ is better.
As it is now, 7 out of every Igbo is in support of GEJ.
Here in the U.K, am in constant touch with Imo state PDP chapter as well as the Chairman of PDP UK chapter who is also from Imo state. I know their opinions.
Am in touch with the president of Central ass of Nig in UK (CANUK) who is a friend and also Igbo and I know his opinion and his flock.
Believe me, Ohanaeze is right with the endorsement.

alj harem:
alh bokoharem was an evil demonic man (Aljannun nan)

he was a man that wanted power at all cost like hitler and wanted to rule and make people suffer

he was a very sadistic man, who did not care if he sacrifice igbos and other people to push his agenda to power

he was and is the greatest coward in the history of mankind till date

he left his people during a war and ran to ivory coast, and left his people to the hands of fate

Castrated maggot, you will die unsong and will never attain his age. Plural fool.