Religion the Opium of the People an Examination of the Igbo Religion in Colonialism

The paper is considering how the religion served as the opiate for the Igbo tribe of Nigeria during the colonial period and the important lessons that we can derive from that. It is true that religion forms the most crucial influence on the individual and social development. The religion and development are termed as the opposite of each other. Since in a developed societies people are so busy to the extents that they don’t have much time to spend together discussing the religious matters, and as results, the society develops much faster when compared to the societies where people have a strong grip on religion. The topic is talking of the way religion is serving as a cheap mechanism for having the rule over the Igbo tribe, and anesthetizing them from such situations, it was a mechanism of allowing people to accept the opinions of the leaders at whatever costs under the garb of religion.

The traditional African religion in Nigeria involved some deities or gods. While some individuals religion does not focus on worshipping any given god or deity (Grano, Daniel A, 2017). 2 The Islamic and Christian religion was never a part of Nigerian or African heritage. The Nigerian population has been growing steadily, and currently, it is approximated to be around 167 million individuals. There have been the tribal or ethnic composition of religion in Nigeria where every tribe there is a religion that they are affiliated to, and they have the feeling that such religions are most dominant or superior to other religion that other tribes should follow. During the colonial era, the British used the divide and rule principle which brought into light the religious and cultural diversity which promoted the ethnoreligious animosity among the society in Nigeria.

The scrambles for resources among the ethnic groups has been very high, and therefore the society has been divided by the political powers such that the religious power could not pursue them otherwise. The religion is indeed the opium of the masses or people since the religion did not make the lives of the Igbo of Nigeria nay better but it resulted in the violence that is based on the religion and the supremacy of each belief or faith. The conviction and faith of the people were used for building walls for the exclusion of others. Most of the multi-religious nations have been experiencing diverse conflicts which were generated by the ethnic tensions. There was an existence of strong ethnic, tribal and religious ties that caused the alienation of the Igbo people from the colonial administrative powers, which later undermined the peace by religious group’s rhetoric.

That is because the religious groups in Nigeria tend to bring some sense of peace among the Igbo tribes, it was never so since local people who were so united with strong affection towards their ethnic religion and the ethnic groups that displaced their love or affections for the central government. We can allude that the ethnic and religious combination in Nigeria during the colonial era resulted in the society underdevelopment, and that confirms the fact that religion and development are stranger terms to each other. The religious beliefs have substantially failed to manifest the sense of unity in the society in that, it can only console the suffering individuals that the suffering is not much, but when the sense of religion leaves the mind of the people, they realize that they are indeed suffering so much.

Religion is just like anesthesia which tends to make people develop the feeling their problem is not much and that they would have a better tomorrow. That supernatural deity could bless them, protect them and enable them to go through life as happy and peaceful people. The person who is walking rightly with God is supposed to be an example for the others in the society. They were to play a significant role in educating society about the importance of religion and how they should perceive some of the goals or objectives. The religion usually tends to color the society. Therefore, they have been able to merge the colonial issues and tries to persuade the society to adopt the religious beliefs which promote peace and unity.

6 The social movements are resulting from the constant interactions that people have together; we cannot allude the fact to the religion in that religion is the only source of unity in the community since there are several groups which were not religious but are united. For instance, the Igbo tribe had social movements which had social values that they were seeking to defends and protect from the interruption of the colonial government. They took advantage of their terrain to organize their resistance group through which they were to fight or conduct their warfare. The social movements were able to grow with the increase in mobilization. The socialization resulted in the colonization of Africa and especially the Igbo tribe of Nigeria. The spirit mediums in the Igbo traditional religion would point to the items such as unexplained deaths, the animal sickness and the droughts among other social calamities as the measures for defining the colonialism and Christianity.

Some of the Igbo chiefs in Nigeria might have realized the injustice frames according to Lugard rule which was so indirect but was paralyzed on the matter of raising the cognitive collection and liberations. The chiefs could lack the moral principles for fighting the status quo. They had fallen prey to the unearned colonial privileges for which their colonial privileges were hanging. The medium in the Igbo religion during the colonial era, therefore, became the ruling factor legitimate rulers and the intellectual authorities who mobilized the masses to join the rebellion and the medium were also able of harmonizing the society (Grano, Daniel, 2017).  The Eternal Present of Sport: Rethinking Sport and Religion. Temple University Press, 2017. Kalu, Ogbu Uke. "Historical strands of religious interaction in Nigeria.