Bude: Systematic Cultural and Religious Transformation of a Nation

By Daniel Iyeks

"Bude" describes the interactions of two different cultures and religions not only separated by the ocean but also by distance.

Polar, a character in "Bude" depicts the culture and the religion of the Igodo people prior to an external cultural and religious influences while Bude the main character of the book depicts the transformation process of the culture and religion of the same Igodo people during the external cultural and religious interactions.

"Bude" shows that the original culture and religion of a people are dependent on the peoples environment and experience and should not be judged by others but respected. The Igodo people were aware that their culture and religion were under attack in the name of education and religion but their desire for education without the necessary funding made them vulnerable to the external cultural and religious influences. The book concluded that a more financially stable culture and religion will dominate others after interactions.

"Bude" is original and the contents are actual events of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries colonization of an ancient nation and it is based on actual people and places with the names changed. Daniel Iyeks, the author of this book was an observer at the time and he was also a part of that transformation.

It is memorable because "Bude" depicts how most of the world was colonized by the western powers without the use of any weapons and that the approach could be applied in most of the world volatile places today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503539747

Daniel Iyeks

Daniel Iyeks was born into a traditional religion and culture, quite different from the European culture. He was raised by his father, a teacher, who established numerous schools and churches in many West African villages under the British colonial powers. Daniel Iyeks, a professional engineer, migrated to the United States in the seventies and obtained his BS and MS degrees from two American universities. Over the years, Daniel worked for various companies and organizations in Texas, New York, and Georgia.

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Copyright © 2015 by Daniel Iyeks.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015901831

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5035-3972-3

                Softcover        978-1-5035-3973-0

                eBook            978-1-5035-3974-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/05/2015

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Contents

Life at Obagie before Transformation

A Teaching Missionary Is Born

Igue Festival/Thanksgiving

Search for Education Led into Servitude

A Missionary and a Teaching Life Began

Polar’s Traditional Burial Ceremony

Bude’s Educational and Missionary Service at Ehor

The Spread of Christianity to Ugia

Bude’s Last Established Church and School

A Missionary Foot Soldier Retires

Life at Obagie before Transformation

I nside a well-built thatched house surrounded by large ebony, mahogany, and iroko trees, which shaded the entire village of about sixty two houses, lived Omole and his wife, Idi, in their forties, raising a son called Polar. Polar had recently turned fifteen and needed to be initiated into manhood by the village elders, his peers, and his parents, as was the custom of the village Obagie in the nation of I godo.

Polar went to his father after an evening meal of pounded yam and bitter leaves soup heavily laden with smoked and dried porcupine’s meat during the storytelling period outside the palm fronds of the thatched house. Some of the adults in the village were sitting on the woody chairs at the front porch of the thatched home, watching the full moon and the children singing to the moon and the stars to deliver their prayers and wishes to the Almighty God. The song to the moon and the stars that night was neither the youths nor the elders were ready to retire from the earth for they were not old enough, that they still had more to do on earth, and that their salt-and-pepper hairs were not yet completely gray.

Polar told his father that he was ready to be initiated into manhood and to gain the independence that goes with it. With the manhood, he would also join the other young men (Igbamans) between the ages of fifteen and eighteen to serve as the policemen and the eyes of the village. The young men of this age-group in almost all cultures of the world are restless, adventurous, and inquisitive. In Polar’s culture, in addition to being restless, inquisitive, and the most destructive, they served as policemen, and by so doing, the most destructive age-group of the society was made to keep safety and protect the properties of the people. They were actually made to watch themselves from destroying the properties of the village. The youth being made the policemen of the village was the easiest way to teach them the differences between the wrongs and the rights of life and also to teach them to respect the other citizens of the village.

For Polar to gain his manhood, the elders of the village required him to go into the thick tropical forest at night with his machete and homemade bows and arrows to hunt a nocturnal animal of not less than sixty pounds in weight. Most animals of such sizes wandering in the thick tropical forest were usually carnivorous and dangerous to confront. The young Igbamans were trained in the construction of bows and arrows and their safe use. Prior to being sent to the thick tropical forest, the young Igbamans of the village were trained in the use of bows and arrows and, at the same time, trained to be aware of other hunters that were likely to be in the same forest.

The Igbaman was also required to be proficient in farming and be able to protect the fruits and the crops in the farm from the wild animals that were likely to destroy or feed on them. Polar was to know how to set traps that could capture or kill these large wild animals, such as the antelopes and the hogs. These killings by the Igbamans were also expected to be taken home, cooked, and served as food for his future family.

The elders, Polar, and the other fifteen-year-old young adults in the village visited the young Polar’s farm, surrounded by wild and dangerous animals that infested the thick tropical forest, and they found out that the crops in the farm and the farming methods were up to acceptable standards and also that the various crops in the farm were properly protected from serving as food to the wild animals. The flying insects and birds were treated to the grains, like rice and corn, unfortunately, except when the children were in the farm, drumming to scare them off. The people of Igodo believed in shifting cultivation, annually clearing, felling the trees, and burning the debris in the new farms, which greatly reduced the presence of insects and fungi in the farms throughout the year. Non-organic fertilizers were unknown just as well as insecticides. Polar passed the first stage of the test, and he was asked to set out for the thick tropical forest at night, hunting, for the next test of the initiation before becoming an adult or an Igbaman.

Polar and seven other men selected by the elders of the village left for the forest at about 8:00 pm with their bows and arrows. The men and the young man, Polar, wanting to be initiated into manhood, walked with their headlamps on for over four miles into the thick tropical forest together before they split up in their different directions and expected to be back at the agreed-upon staging location within the forest in about six hours with their killings. The young adult was also expected to be back with his killings. If any of his killings exceeded the required sixty pounds in weight, the young man would be initiated into adulthood the next day after presenting his killings to the elders of the village. Some of the animals in the category were bear, deer, antelopes, crocodiles, large monkeys, and in some instances, the African elephants. If the killings included an elephant, the Igbaman was expected to report that to the village elders the next morning. The entire village would have to report to the site for a share of the killing.

Polar came across a herd of deer feeding under a fruit tree; there