“Ebira Culture And The Modern Civilization”

Ebira people are an ethno -linguistic group  consisting of Ebira Toa,  Ebira Koto,   Ebira Mozum,  Ebira Panda, Ebira Toto,  Ebira Etunu, Ebira Agatu,  and Ebira Oloko, which spread across 8 states in Nigeria.

Culture is a way of life of a group of people such as behavior,  beliefs,  values,  and symbols that they accept generally without thinking about them and are passed along by communication and initiation from one generation to the next while civilization is an advanced stage of human society.

 Culture such as values and goals is an end itself while civilization such as tools and techniques is a means to an end.

Over some years back,  Ebira culture has suffered encroachment,  as other peoples’ way of life is existing side-by-side our culture.  Today, we witnessed two examples of these. First, the  brutal killing of AMINCO is an example of an imported culture while the selfless and peaceful demonstration by our youths to demand improved service for our people is a good reminder of who we truly are.

Civilization is using technology to drive culture to improve the quality of life but when we use other peoples way of  life to undermine our way of life,  that is not civilization. In the past,  we read about kidnapping in James Hadley Chase etc but today,  kidnapping is right here with us.

In my opinion,  our culture are those cloth weaving,  farming, hunting,  traditional ceremonies,  etc.  Civilization is desirable if technology is used to modernize our culture to derive the greatest good for our people. This includes everything we are known for,  cloth weaving, farming,  hunting, blacksmith work, traditional ceremonies etc

The name Ebira means good manner, which is an expression of who we are and,  by extension,  out culture.  There was a time in history,  when people of all persuasions were comfortable with everything Ebira man or woman,  just for being Ane-Ebira,  but today the Ebiras are suffering from serious societal and cultural infections such as kidnapping,  armed robbery, westernization of many aspects of our lives etc. These are coming  at heavy costs,  which we are paying for very painfully.

What is wrong with us?

Traditional festivals. The sweet memories of them are almost gone. The idea behind them was to help foster reunion, friendship, correcting societal ills, celebrations,  funs etc but they are part of avoidable societal difficulties and have helped to deepen crisis in our land rather than solve them

Clan: Clan itself is an important part of Ebira culture. As Ebiras  we have common source before we started to multiply into clans etc.  The idea of having common source,  been brothers and sisters is to leverage it to make us better but our people have a different interpretation. The Clans that are supposed to be source of our unity, strength,  growth and development are actually the source of our disunity,  underdevelopment, in-fighting etc.

Family : There are too many broken homes in Ebiraland.  Our forefathers had multiple wives and large family but they loved,  supported,  and sustained them but  today such large families are rejected or abandoned or neglected or under-supported.  This why it is possible to have kidnappers, armed robbers, thugs,  etc among us.  If the kidnappers who brutally took the life of AMINCO in the early hours of today are not our children,  they are probably insider supporters

What we can do?

We need to reinvent the will and spirit of our forefathers,  by doing and encouraging what is right and avoiding and discouraging what is wrong/evil

The family is the basis of society,  therefore, we must take it seriously and take deliberate steps to ensure that every member of the family is nurtured to project the family in good light

We must work together to uphold the Ebira value rather clan values

Conclusion

Ebiraland is a great land,  Ebira people are great people,  our capacity and opportunities are being underutilised,  we must harvest our opportunities and strengths to make the right choices,. We can convert our weaknesses to opportunities, so that Ebiira man and woman that were once loved and treasured everywhere , can bounce to greatness again. Our culture is our pride, we can improve our way of life by applying technology to drive our culture for the overall good of our people.