Ethnography

Among its objectives, the Institute is dedicated to gathering oral histories and artifacts that document both enduring and vanishing traditions of the Igbo culture, as well as those from other Nigerian and African cultures. Through ethnography, the Institute connects closely with the grassroots people to collect invaluable data in diverse areas such as the humanities, social sciences, medicine, science, and technology – especially of cultural phenomena, ranging from individual cultural traits to cultural institutions, languages and whole ethnolinguistic groups. In 1982/83, the 1st Igbo Salvage Ethnography Project was collected, which provided the impetus for Professor D.I. Nwaoga’s “…a Dictionary of Igbo Proverbs…”.Prof. Nwoga remarked that the project aimed to provide “…a proper understanding of the working of the Igbo mind and a study of Igbo proverbs is crucial” (Nwoga, 1984, p. 28). Initiated by Prof. D. I. Nwoga, the 1st Igbo Salvage Ethnography study was meant to document the oral tradition of Igbo people and their ways of life. The documentation was conducted in Eastern Nigeria, then comprising Anambra, Rivers, and Bendel States, and resulted in the collection of between two thousand five hundred (2,500) and three thousand (3,000) audio recordings. These recordings, stored in cassettes, included Igbo folklore on Igbo masquerades, Igbo proverbs, Igbo women, Igbo worldview, Igbo politics, Igbo community planning, indigenous engineering, ethnomedicine, marriage, burial, and other aspects of Igbo culture.
Under the directorship of Professor Ozioma Onuzulike, the transcription, transcoding, and translation of the cassettes started and has resulted in over 700 pages of translated documents. The project remains in progress and is being facilitated by the University of Chicago in collaboration with the Institute. Together, both institutions are formulating methodologies to integrate typeset data into a unified database comprising essential information on Igbo culture. This extensive data repository concerning the Igbo people will be maintained at both the Institute’s library and the University of Chicago library. The resource aims to serve the needs of current and future researchers.
The Institute has seasoned ethnographers who provide support and guidance to research fellows during their fieldwork activities, as well as assist international researchers in collecting data at designated research sites. Accordingly, the Institute offers data collection and fieldwork support to researchers interested in Igbo society, as well as to non-researchers visiting local Igbo communities in a guiding capacity.