IGBO Religion, Social Life & Other Essays by Simon Ottenberg by Toyin Falola

In this volume Emeritus Professor Simon Ottenberg presents a number of detailed essays on the religious life of the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria and on the Limba of northern Sierra Leone, based on extensive anthropological field research over many years. Ottenberg stresses the important of looking at African religious life in terms of ritual activity and change over time. There are also chapters on the growth of Abakaliki, an Igbo town, and essays reflecting on the author’s field experiences in Africa over time. The volume concludes with two general papers, one on the question of peasantry in Africa and the other a survey of anthropological and historical research in southeastern Nigeria. This two-volume collection of essays is a significant milestone in the discourse of African Studies and an insightful summation of the career of a distinguished scholar of African anthropology and art history.

The books testify to the originality of Ottenberg's insights and chronicle his transformation from a young anthropologist observer to a valued member of the Afikpo-Igbo society. -Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, art historian, University of California, Santa Barbara

This book presents us with an invaluable snapshot of the emergence of a uniquely innovative approach to the study of African cultures, peoples, and histories, an approach which privileges the sensibilities, priorities, and changing social dynamics of the African people without casting their universe in the language of insular exceptionalism. -Ebe M. Ochonu, Vanderbilt University