Reclaiming Traditions of Igbo Education and the Legacy of the Holy Ghost Missionaries: Towards a Philosophy of Wholeness for Christian Religious Education in Africa

By Okonkwo Remigius Nwabichie

WHAT IMPACT HAS CHURCH MISSIONARY EDUCATION (CME) HAD IN AFRICA, ESPECIALLY SINCE THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES?
Reclaiming Traditions of Igbo Education and the Legacy of the Holy Ghost Missionaries finds answers to that question. This book critically assesses the benefits and burdens of the Church Missionary Education (CME) of the Holy Ghost Missionaries among nd’Igbo in southeastern Nigeria. It interrogates the propriety of its philosophy and reviews the adequacy of the methods used to promote it.
While critics lament the damage done by European explorers, merchants, colonialists, and missionaries to the educational traditions of Africa, apologists who defend them suggest that they did their best under prevailing circumstances. They ask, “Instead of revisit the past, why not get on with the business of modern times?” But the impact of the European presence in Africa is not a thing of the past. It is part of “Africa’s current and existential socioeconomic, political, religious, and educational struggles today. 1
This book describes the limitations of the neo-colonizing educational philosophy of the missionaries and calls for an alternative. A philosophy of wholeness is proposed as an alternative that would transition Africans to a liberating and liberatory Christian Religious Education (CRE) of the gospels. Such, it is argued, would better serve their needs and aspirations, and better heal the wounds of their colonial past.

About the Author
OKONKWO REMIGIUS NWABICHIE is a priest of Orlu diocese. He holds degrees in Philosophy, Theology, Administration, and Religious Education. He is the author of Religion for Morality in Education, Self-Reliant African Churches, and a forthcoming volume, Methods for Promoting Christian Religious Education in Africa. A lively discussant in Igbo/African affairs, and curriculum development, he can be reached at: [e-mail] or [e-mail].

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: May 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889257615

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DEDICATED

To MONSIGNOR ALPHONSUS AGHAIZU

who spent fourteen years in self-confinement in defense of the ideals of Igbo Traditions of Education, and his contemporaries:

MONSIGNOR JOSEPH NWANEGBO

MONSIGNOR MARTIN MADUKA

MONSIGNOR STEPHEN EZEANYA

MONSIGNOR FRANCIS UGWUEZE

MONSIGNOR CYRIL EZENDUKA

BEDE ENYERIBE ONUOHA

PREFACE

Reclaiming Traditions of Igbo Education is a book on how Igbo customs, traditions, and institutions of education served the needs and aspirations of nd’Igbo¹ before their encounter with European influences. Although their deep and rich meanings of education have endured throughout the history of their encounter with European explorers, merchants, colonialists, and Church missionaries, their forms and contexts have evolved under those influences. Nd’Igbo are among the ethnic peoples in Nigeria who embraced the education and evangelism of the Church missionaries. The Irish Holy Ghost missionaries evangelized nd’Igbo and left them a legacy of a Church Missionary Education (CME) which benefitted but also damaged their indigenous educational forms and traditions.

Historically Christian (Church) Education, as John Elias surmises, is a component of the Renaissance humanism that shaped education in Europe and in those parts of the world where Europe colonized—the Americas, Africa, and Asia.² Church Missionary Education, the term used in this book, refers to the use made of all subjects, including the Christian religion, by Church missionaries to engender the European way of life and bring indigenous peoples under Church influences.

Critics lament the damage visited on the cultural and educational traditions of the peoples of Africa by European influences. The critics agonize over the educational philosophy that the Europeans promoted among the people. How sound was the educational philosophy the Spiritans promoted among nd’Igbo? And how adequate were their methods in addressing the needs and aspirations of the people? For the critics, the ideological closeness between the European colonial administrators and their Church missionary compatriots in the educational sector is very worrisome.³

Apologists who defend the European explorers, merchants, colonialists, and Church missionaries argue that they did their best under the prevailing circumstances of their time, and wonder, why re-visit and re-litigate the past? Instead of revisiting the past, why not get on with the business of modern times? Like most African peoples, the neo-colonizing impacts of the colonial and the missionary legacies on nd’Igbo, as Laurenti Magesa observes, are not things of the past.⁴ They are part of their current and existential socioeconomic, political, religious, and educational struggles today.

Colonialism, as used in this book, has several meanings, which include the physical domination by one powerful country over a less powerful country or territory; it means the abuse of power that upholds the oppression and exploitation of people. In this book, however, colonialism (and neo-colonialism) will include the subtle ways the colonized are impelled to concede sociocultural, economic, political, religious, educational, and psychological advantages to the colonizer. As a system that unabashedly encourages the exploitation of the weak by the strong and powerful, colonialism (neo-colonialism) exists as a force that influences and dominates over the affairs of life of the oppressed and exploited people, albeit, by proxy, through their successors, agents, and stooges.

While a blanket condemnation of the impacts of the European presence among nd’Igbo is not intended here, efforts in this book, however, aim to review the history and the consequences of their presence. The soundness of their educational philosophy will be critically reviewed, and the adequacy of the methods used to promote that philosophy will be described and evaluated. While the arguments assembled in this book are dated, their relevance remains valid today because of their ongoing neo-colonizing effects. An alternative educational philosophy is proposed as a path to solutions.

The impetus for writing this book was especially driven by the cynicism of some who minimize or rationalize the injustices of Euro-African race relations during and after the colonial and the missionary era. Such cynicism overlooks the moral impropriety of the Europeans and the Church missionaries’ failure to promote universal and equal humanity of all, including the equal humanity of nd’Igbo. Such cynicism is called out and denounced in this book as a hindrance to addressing the limitations of the colonial and missionary educational heritage in the region.

The views expressed in this book are hardly original to this writer. Perhaps, the only credit due this writer is the insistence that Africans can, by an honest acknowledgment and condemnation of the mistakes of their colonial and missionary ancestors, and the mistakes of their contemporary indigenous collaborators, achieve healing and closure from their colonial and missionary past. This writer also calls for an intentional transition from the neo-colonizing effects of Church Missionary Education (CME) to a liberating and liberatory post-independence and post-missionary Christian Religious Education (CRE) of the gospels.

And what is Christian Religious Education? This is an interdisciplinary specialty in the science of education that takes seriously how to educate in the message of the gospels without necessarily, as Thomas Groome opines, shoving religion down their throats anymore. ⁵ It is a field in the modern progressive education movement of the twentieth century whose methods are still evolving. My expertise in this field is in describing the philosophy for, not philosophy of. As will be shown throughout this book, I will use historical methods to distill and describe the philosophy, the roadmap, or guidebook for Christian religious education for nd’Igbo in the contemporary era. Apparently, in a work of this nature, little, if anything, is left to the invention or ingenuity of the writer.

This book is offered as a resource in this burgeoning field of Christian Religious Education. Teachers and students of Igbo Church history, researchers in religious studies, education, psychology, sociology, politics, theology, and especially, philosophy, will find this book a useful companion. Policymakers and church leaders, priests, seminarians, and the public will benefit from the materials, insights, and perspectives assembled and illustrated in this book.

The African tone used in this book indicates that its contents can apply to Africans equally anywhere. Just as Magesa insists that the different expressions of religious belief among Africans cannot prevent the claim for a unitive African spirituality, so it is with this book. Although the colonial and missionary experiences of Africans may differ, there exists an underlying similarity or sameness of spirit and intention⁶ as exhibited both by the colonialists in perpetuating their exploitation of Africa, as well as by the Africans in their united resolve to resist their oppression.

As a repository of extant (Igbo) customs and traditions for education, it is hoped that this book can serve as a compendium and fountain that contributes to and renews the impulses for a genuine (Igbo) African socio-cultural, religious, political, ethical, and educational renaissance.

Chapter 1 of this book provides a background knowledge of the Igbo conceptions of education before their encounter with European influences.  Included in the chapter is a summary of who nd’Igbo are, and their recent struggles for survival in a perennially politically problematic Nigerian state. The goals and ideals of their traditions of education are highlighted in Chapter 2. Turning out well-formed individuals who hold their own and uphold the welfare of their communities are some of the greatest ideals of their citizens’ education.

In Chapter 3, a theory of the origins of European ideas about African and Asian peoples was traced to the writings of European explorers and anthropologists. The theory exposes the false ideas that Africans were unequal human beings, poor, pre-logical, and powerless, and their religions, cultures, and traditions inferior. The educational philosophy the Holy Ghost missionaries promoted among nd’Igbo was sketched in Chapter 4. And I argue that the philosophical anthropology Church missionaries adopted was unsound and could not adequately educate anyone, both nd’Igbo and the Europeans.

The consequences of the colonial and the missionary educational legacies, especially among nd’Igbo were highlighted in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6 the case was made for a new philosophy of wholeness to educate nd’Igbo in a Christianity that is liberating and liberatory. This philosophy will promote the doctrine of the universal equality and rationality of all, and defend the rigorous, complex, multiple, flexible, relational, and ambiguous Igbo vision of reality as a tenable vision.

The findings on the two questions that drove this study were summarized in the conclusion. The findings suggest reasons why Church missionaries and their successors could hardly promote a modern educational reform that supports a liberating and liberatory Christian religious education of the gospels among the people. And central to Christian religious education of the gospels includes, as Margaret Evening states,

the insistence on the infinite worth and importance of everyone.

a preference for the values that upset the religious folks of Jesus’ day.

a preference for sinners rather than the self-righteous of society.

an emphasis that the sins of the mind are as culpable as the sins of [the] body.

an insistence that motive and action must both come under the same condemnation;

an insistence that in God’s Kingdom "the creed and the colour and the name don’t matter.⁷

Isn’t it time to reclaim, reform, re-tool, and re-purpose our religious and educational inheritance to serve the needs and aspirations of the peoples of Africa, including nd’Igbo?

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¹ Nd’ Igbo is the original and plural word form for Igbo people. This original form is used throughout this book to avoid anglicizing the name.

² John Elias, A History of Christian Education: Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Perspectives, (Florida, Malabar: Krieger Publishing Company, 2002), xii.

³ Mungo Beti, The Poor Christ of Bomba, (Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books, 1971),155.

⁴ Laurenti Magesa, What is Not Sacred? African Spirituality, (New York: Orbis Book, 2013), 18.

⁵ Thomas H. Groome, Christian Religious Education, (San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980), xii.

⁶ Ibid, 5.

⁷ Margaret Evening, Approaches to Religious Education, (London:University of London Press, 1972), 141.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people assisted me in writing this book, which was originally presented as a doctoral dissertation at Fordham University, New York. I would like to begin by thanking my mentor, Dr. Kieran Scott, for supervising my dissertation, and Dr. Harold Horell and Dr. Jude Aguwa for their guidance as members of my dissertation board. I am immensely grateful to Ann Suziedelis, the Vice President of the Ethics Board, and Casimir Onyegwara, the Director of the Spiritual Care Department, both of Holy Cross Health, Silver Spring, Maryland for their immense support when I shuttled from Maryland to New York to conclude my studies at the university.

I owe a debt of gratitude to the priests of Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, class of 1989, whose robust criticisms helped sharpen my perspective on the issues addressed in this book. Their opinions on the subject matter of this book further convinced me that this book might lend a useful perspective to the ongoing discourse on the nature and future of the missionary educational inheritance bequeathed to nd’Igbo by especially, the Holy Ghost missionaries.

My debt of gratitude also goes to my friends and acquaintances whose opinions helped smoothen the rough edges of the historical accounting done in this book. I wish to sincerely thank Deborah Aker, whose perspective on the history of Euro-African and African American race relations, and the implications of that history in geopolitical debates, especially in the wake of the protests after the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis, USA, on May 25, 2020. That conversation ignited an irresistible urge in me to revisit and review the impact of colonial and missionary history on the educational traditions and ideals of African peoples, especially nd’Igbo of southeastern Nigeria.

I thank Charles Ebelebe, whose critique of the mission theology of the Holy Ghost Congregation first caught my attention for the subject matter of this book. I thank Francis Oborji, Edmund Aku, Nicholas Mbogu, Cosmas Ebebe, Hilary Achunike, George Nwachukwu, Emma Okwarocha, Brendan Mbagwu, Joseph Udeze, Anthony Osuji, Mary Liepold, Adam Diamond, Austin Okeke who generously lent their opinions and editorial skills to embellish the quality of this work.

I am immensely grateful to the Most Reverend Gregory Ochiagha, the late Emeritus Bishop of Orlu, and the Most Reverend Augustine T. Ukwuoma, for their support. To my mother, Regina, I cannot thank you enough for giving up the warmth of the Texas weather to live with me in the cold of New England. The diets of both foods and the stories you provided were the shots in the arm that saw me through the toughest times of my sojourn in the United States. May God continue to bless you with good health and long life.

To Jesus and Mother Mary, I pledge my unflinching loyalty.

CHAPTER 1

IGBO TRADITIONS AND CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION  

Introduction

Traditions of Igbo education describe the ways,