The Further Mathematics Support Programme

Mbiti (1986) noted that “contact with colonizers from Europe and America with their allies brought about a change and one which affects all spheres of life” (p.218). The burden of globalization has wreaked havoc on Igbo personality. It has constituted the Igbo into a bundle of contradiction. In terms of identity, a person tries to maintain that which he is because he cannot be what he is not. For instance, he cannot be an Igbo and a European or an American at the same time. If this happens, the law of identity is breached. One may bring in the issue of dual citizenship but the fact remains that nature confers on a person the citizenship of a place based on his paternity or parental descent from a father. This is a well-known case in Igboland. The duality as the case may be is only acquired based on birth, marriage, registration or naturalization of a person in another place.

Again, the law or principle of excluded middle must also apply. If this is strictly followed or adhered to, then he cannot be half African and half European or American. So, there is no middle way to it. He is either an African or not an African. However, the Igbo have also breached the law of contradiction by conferring on himself the burden of dual personality. He now tries to copy the Europeans and Americans in his bid to be like them thereby abandoning and deviating from that which makes him distinct from these people. So, the identity crises in which the Igbo has found himself today is as a result of the breach of the laws of thought. And the breach of these laws of thought is the outcome of the influence of globalization on Igbo personality.

Globalization through colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism has brought the Igbo a confused sense of identity. The Igbo now has a split personality. This probably prompted an observation by July (1970) that the modern African is a product of uneasy union of two alien civilizations. He tries to make himself look like “Whiteman in black skin” (p.405). C. Okorie (personal communication, 9^th July, 2017) adds that, perhaps, this is the reason many Igbo men and women wear-off their natural skin colour by bleaching. They perm their hair and perform plastic

surgery in order to look like the Whiteman. In the end, they do not look exactly like the Whiteman rather the figure they cut out is that of someone who has lost his background. At the base of the Igbo being are systems of beliefs, rituals and thinking which are expressive of the sum total of the being, existence and identity of an Igbo.

So, the problem is that Igbo systems of beliefs, rituals and thought have negatively and profusely been globalized. This is probably why Agassiz (cited by Lugira, 2002) said that the

“brain of the Negro is that of the imperfect brain of a seven month infant in the womb of the White” (p. 1). It is the inability of the Igbo to hold onto his own identity by taking in everything thrown at him by the Whiteman that has made him to be viewed in this light. Hence, Ezekwugo (1992) captures the Igbo of Nigeria as a typical African personality who ends up being neither here nor there. He is schizophrenic suffering a sort of neurosis. He is like a man at crossroads whose world is in disarray. (p.249). The Igbo seem to be complacent and careless about the way their children embrace other people‟s cultures without having a grasp of their own. This, according to N. Chukwuma (personal communication, 10^th June, 2016) may spell doom for the children and spark-off revolt by the time they fail to culturally identify themselves which may subject them to be ridiculed and embarrassed as children of no culture, no tradition, no value and no identity. The Igbo has also failed abysmally to pose to himself these questions: who am I?

What kind of being am I? To who exactly does the term I refer? What constitutes my person?

4. 2.2 The Spread of Popular Global Culture.

According to McGaha (2015), popular culture is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of the practices, beliefs and objects that are dominant or ubiquitous in a society at a given point in time. Popular culture also encompasses the activities and feelings produced as a result of interaction with these dominant objects. The most common examples of popular culture are entertainment such as movies, music, television, video games, sports, politics, news, fashion, technology and so forth. Molloy (2010) added that, television, radio, films, airplanes, internet and

satellite system and others are carrying modern urban cultures to all corners of the earth including Igboland. In his reaction to this spread of popular culture, O. Mbazu (personal communication, 20^th June, 2016) says, virtually every home in Igboland is now equipped with some of these electronic gadgets. These gadgets are now aiding and abetting the spread of popular global cultures such as western style of cooking, building, eating, speaking, marrying, dressing, dancing, naming, and burying and so on which have taken over the pure Igbo society. For the past fifty years, these gadgets have enveloped the globe and transformed every aspect of Igbo culture, behaviour and brains. There is also this culture of viewing centres, where people now watch popular world sports like English Premier League, American Wrestling and so on. This has made the Igbo to abandon their own local sports in preference to those popular global sports. According to him, change is also evident in the realm of clothing. In Igboland, traditional clothing began to disappear a century ago as western styles became the standard. Western business wears are now worn in all the world‟s cities including Igboland. Informal clothing like baseball caps and T-shirts are seen everywhere even in Igboland. Despite all these, some cultures are trying to hold on to their traditional clothing especially for formal occasions. This is common in Korea, China, the Philippines and Japan. In the same vain, the Igbo try to encourage their civil servants to dress in native clothes or traditional attire on certain days of the week to underscore their quest for the revival of Igbo culture.

Architecture too is becoming standardized as the international style with its plate glass;

aluminium and concrete is taking the place of traditional styles. As modern urban culture spreads across the earth, it tends to dominate everyone‟s worldview. In Igbo land, it used to be round thatched houses, but now, it is this standardized international style. It would be difficult to convince today‟s young people to undergo the deprivation of a vision quest when all they need to visit other worlds is a television, computer or an airplane ticket. But everywhere we go, we find

hamburgers, pizza, rap, rock and jeans. Some even believe that popular culture is becoming a religion of its own displacing others.

I. Ibe (personal communication, 8^th October, 2017) in his opinion says, in Igboland, we now have Mr Biggs, Shoprites, Crunchies, Plazas and so forth which promote foreign foods and wears; viewing centres which encourage and promote foreign football culture everywhere in Igbo society; birthday parties, child dedication, marriage and burial ceremonies have now taken on the garb of foreign culture so much so that the Igbo are now seen as a people without culture. It has affected the way they think and their general perception or worldview about their culture because they now see their culture as not only inferior but something that should be subsumed in foreign culture.