OF KINGS, CHIEFS, AND TITLES

Igbo Culture deals with certain artifacts and mores by which the Igbos single themselves out from other ethnic groups. The culture of the Igbos finds expressions in their agriculture, intellectual reasoning, moral values, dresses, foods, kinship, marriages and languages. The culture of the Igbos modify the thoughts, speech, actions and artifacts of the Igbos so much that the Igbos are easily distinguished from other ethnic groups. How a culture survives depends on the peoples capacity to learn and transmit it to succeeding generations. The Igbo culture expresses itself in the customs, beliefs, war, burial, social norms, religion, racial, social and material traits of the Igbos

TRADITION

Ulo Akrika

The traditional thatch house is usually made of wooden frame, bamboos, thatch of bamboo or palm frond or straw depending on the locality and finished with red mud (uhie), odo yellow clay and white chalk (nzu) The population of those who still live in this kind of house has dwindled. Contents of the house includes wooden door, veranda, family pallor or family room, bedroom, pantry, kitchen Usokwu which is often an extension of the main house, a backyard which usually has the family home barn for preserving yam tubers, staple crops etc both for feeding and next seasons crops for planting. The bed is made of hardened mud while bed spread is made of mat ute. Fire place of burn fire is a usual feature of the family room for roasting corn, yam, games and fish The mud bed is natural chiropractor. A bank is usually located in a sacred spot, shrine for cauries, money and other valuables

The tradition of pregnancy and childbirth

When a lady goes to her husbands house and become pregnant, there are lots of things that people do. The husbands mother will visit the native doctor several times for findings, just like the woman in American society will pay prenatal visits during which up to ultrasounds will forecast the sex of the child and health status for peaceful delivery. They will not fail to make the sacrifices as prescribed by the doctor, just like a pregnant woman in the western world will follow her doctors instruction to the fullest including medications and healthy practices such as hygiene and self maintenance so. When the pregnancy is advanced the pregnant woman will be provided with beauty aids such as "uhie" red powder and "odo" yellow powder (makeup) and "uri" black powder.