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A Philosophical Appraisal On The Igbo Traditional System Of Child Upbringing, Vis-À-vis The Contemporary System
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1.4 THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The
emergence of Western cum American cultures had brought a great change
in the cultures of the Africans especially the Igbos. These Western and
American ways of life have permeated all the nooks and crannies of Igbo
culture and ways of life. The Igbos are now ‘copy cats’. In this
project therefore, we are using the method of raising up children as a
case study. Through this, we will be able to evaluate the Igbo
traditional method and the contemporary.
The culture of the Igbo is
in the crossroad. They (Igbo) take themselves as inferiors to the white
in all things. They now dress, laugh, speak, and train their children
like the whites do. The women neither breast-feed their children, carry
them on their back, sleep with their children nor inculcate in their
children those ethoses which Igbos are known for. These corrosion and
erosion of Igbo culture and tradition have made it completely difficult
to distinguish Igbo culture from the White culture. The Igbos have lost
their culture and are in a social mess. They are not truly Igbos; they
are not truly Whites. In this regard therefore, something must be done
and quickly too, to revive the bastardized old Igbo culture and the
tradition of the Igbo nation, especially as they pertain raising up
children.
1.5 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The findings of
this study will go a long way into enhancing the life of mankind as it
involves imbibing other people’s cultures, just as the Africans
especifically the Igbo people had done. This will make the Igbos to
cherish with jealousy, their traditional culture and thereby stop
imitating the White in all areas.
The government in its policy and
adjustment to foreign cultures will then consider the culture of the
individual nations under its jurisdiction, and this will open the eyes
of the government concerning the positive sides of the peoples’
traditional culture. The church in her campaign for ecumenism will
equally know how to mediate with peoples’ ways of life and the Church
teachings. It will equally juxtapose and strike a balance between Igbo
traditional culture and the contemporary from the stand point of raising
up children.
1 S.C. Ilo, Child Upbringing, (Enugu: Asomog Press, 1994), p. 46.
2 Ibid., p. 17.
3 A.E. Onyeocha, Family Apostolate in Igbo land, (Rome: Academia Alfonsianae,1983), p. 9.
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