Igbo Background

Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the Royal Colonial Institute. First off, a great thank you to Mr. Chamberlain for sharing his ideas on the Igbo background and colonization and may I say it is an honour to speak in front of such an audience. I am here today to speak about my perspective on colonization, which will be different from Mr. Chamberlain. We as humans tend to be selfish and prioritise our community and/or our country much rather than the places we seem to 'help'. A perfect example of this is the Ibo culture. Igboland is a small section of land in Nigeria that belongs to the Igbo people. It seems to me that colonising such a place has possibly allowed good things to happen such as (improved) education and transportation systems. However, I do not believe that modernizing the community in such a rapid way was right. Even though our knowledge is passed on to certain individuals in the Ibo culture, the complex and traditional way of thinking of these individuals does not occur to some us. It does not seem to matter. It is almost as if their cultural values are being absorbed by us without thinking of the consequences. The Igbo people presented us with knowledge of their culture that is incomparable to ours. Colonization has made a massive impact on the cultural beliefs and values amongst the Igbo men, and in my opinion not a good one. It affected their religion and their language. The Igbo people had beliefs and these were overshadowed by Christianity within a couple of years. Such a cultural group has it's own belief system, which we completely disrespected. It caused the community to be divided because it was so strongly influenced by the British that they have lost connections with their roots. On top of that, the language of the Igbo people, as it were, has been taken away and the majority is replaced with English. These are all factors that play a major role in once culture, and through colonization we have taken away a huge part of their culture. It is extremely important for one to maintain their cultural values and beliefs as it creates unity and peace. To those of you who are listening this, I urge you to become aware of the approach to colonization in the hope you will reconsider it. Thank you all for your attention.