Our Igbo Culture
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Igbo Community Association of Nigeria, DFW (ICAN) is an association which brings together persons and groups of persons who are Igbo by birth, marriage, naturalization or adoption, within a Metroplex or geographical area. Our purpose is to promote and maintain Igbo heritage while enhancing a smooth cultural infusion in recognition of other cultures. Membership is open to all Igbo organizations in the geographical area as defined in our constitution.
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Igbo culture (Igbo: Omenala ndi Igbo) are the customs, practices and traditions of the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria. It comprises archaic practices as well as new concepts added into the Igbo culture either by cultural evolution or by outside influence. These customs and traditions include the Igbo people's visual art, music and dance forms, as well as their attire, cuisine and language dialects. Because of their various subgroups, the variety of their culture is heightened further.
Igbo Music
The Igbo people have a melodic and symphonic musical style, which they designed from forged iron. Other instruments include opi, a wind instrument similar to the flute, igba, and ichaka. Another popular musical form among the Igbo is Highlife, which is a fusion of jazz and traditional music and widely popular in West Africa. The modern Ibo Highlife is seen in the works of Prince Nico Mbarga Dr Sir Warrior, Oliver De Coque, Bright Chimezie, and Chief Osita Osadebe, who are the some of the greatest Igbo Highlife Musicians of the twentieth century. There are also other notable Highlife artists of igbo extract, like the Mike Ejeagha, Paulson Kalu, Ali Chukwuma, Ozoemena Nwa Nsugbe. 
Igbo Art
Igbo Art is known for various types of masquerade, masks and outfits symbolising people animals or abstract conceptions. Igbo art is also known for its bronze castings found in the town of Igbo Ukwu from the 9th century. Igbo art is any body of visual art originating from the people of the Igbo. 
Yam
The yam is very important to the Igbo as it is their staple crop. There are celebrations such as the New yam festival (Igbo: Iwaji) which are held for the harvesting of the yam. The New Yam festival (Igbo: Iwa ji) is celebrated annually to secure a good harvest of the staple crop. The festival is practiced primarily in Nigeria and other countries in West Africa. 
Kola Nut
Kola nut (Igbo: Ọjị) occupies a unique position in the cultural life of Igbo people. Ọjị is the first thing served to any visitor in an Igbo home. Ọjị is served before an important function begins, be it marriage ceremony, settlement of family disputes or entering into any type of agreement. Ọjị is traditionally broken into pieces by hand, and if the Kola nut breaks into 3 pieces a special celebration is arranged. 
Chieftaincy Title
Nze na Ozo An Igbo man with Ichi marks, a sign of rank as an Ozo Highly accomplished men and women are admitted into orders for people of title such as Ndi Ozo or Ndi Nze. Such individuals receive certain insignia to show their stature. Membership in these orders is highly exclusive, and to qualify an individual needs more than mere material accomplishment or gallantry. They need to be highly regarded and well-spoken of in the community, and most importantly, they must be a person of the greatest integrity, truthfulness and sanity. The slightest impeachment of character is enough to disqualify an individual from becoming a person of title and once admitted into the order, a person of title is forbidden to lie, cheat, climb a tree, covet or strip their neighbor of their belongings, or commit an abomination of a crime. In modern times unfortunately money can buy chieftancy titles in Igbo communities and character is often overlooked. 
Traditional Attire
Traditionally the attire of the Igbo generally consisted of little clothing as the purpose of clothing then was to conceal private parts, although elders were fully clothed. Children were usually nude from birth till their adolescence (the time when they were considered to have something to hide) but sometimes ornaments such as beads were worn around the waist for medical reasons. Uli body art was also used to decorate both men and women in the form of lines forming patterns and shapes on the body. A traditional Igbo hat made entirely from wool. With colonialism and the Westernization of Igbo culture, Western styled clothes such as shirts and trousers over took traditional clothing. Females Women carried their babies on their backs with a strip of clothing binding the two with a knot at her chest. This baby carrying technique was and still is practiced by many people groups across Africa along with the Igbo who still carry their babies this way. This method has been modernized in the form of the child carrier. In most cases Igbo women did not cover their chest areas. Maidens usually wore a short wrapper with beads around their waist with other ornaments such as necklaces and beads. Both men and women wore wrappers. Males Males would wear loin cloths that wrapped around their waist and between their legs to be fastened at their back, the type of clothing appropriate for the intense heat as well as jobs such as farming. Men could also tie a wrapper over their loin cloth. Modern traditional attire: Modern Igbo traditional attire is generally made up, for men, of the Isiagu top which resembles the African Dashiki. Isiagu (or Ishi agu) is usually patterned with lions heads embroidered over the clothing, It can also be plain, (usually black). It is worn with trousers and can be worn with either a traditional title holders hat (a fez named okpu agu or agwu), or with the traditional Igbo stripped men's hat (which resembles the Bobble hat). For women, an embodied puffed sleeve blouse (influenced by European attire) along with two wrappers (usually modern Hollandis material) and a head scarf are worn. Information from Wikipedia |
January 21, 2017
ICAN Meeting Time: 5PM Location Igbo Center 2425 Gus Thomasson Road Mesquite, Texas 75150 March 18, 2017 ICAN Meeting Time: 5PM Location Igbo Center 2425 Gus Thomasson Road Mesquite, Texas 75150 May 20, 2017 ICAN Meeting Time: 5PM Location Igbo Center 2425 Gus Thomasson Road Mesquite, Texas 75150 July 15, 2017 ICAN Meeting Time: 5PM Location Igbo Center 2425 Gus Thomasson Road Mesquite, Texas 75150 September 16, 2017 ICAN Meeting Time: 5PM Location Igbo Center 2425 Gus Thomasson Road Mesquite, Texas 75150 November 18, 2017 ICAN Meeting Time: 5PM Location Igbo Center 2425 Gus Thomasson Road Mesquite, Texas 75150 November 19, 2016 ICAN Meeting Time: 5PM Location Igbo Center 2425 Gus Thomasson Road Mesquite, Texas 75150 |
