Religions and superstitions
Karl Marx one commented that "religion is the opium of the people". Do you agree with him? In the case Umuofia, do you think their native religion stunts their development? Is the "new" religion seen as a way of bringing development to Umuofia?
Apart from religion, superstitions play an important part in the Ibo culture. Do you have your own sets of superstitions which you find difficult to discard?
The following points can help you as you write your reflective post on the role of religion and superstition in the novel and in your life:
Analyse how superstitions and religions play in the life described in the novel.
Do superstitious beliefs and religion affect the development of a country? How?
How does one's beliefs affect the nation in terms of politics and culture?
They believe that by being nice to everyone during week of peace will bring good luck for a good crop season. Another superstitions belief is the Evil Forest, for example, if you kill yourself, then your body will be buried in the Evil Forest. This is because they believe all bad spirits live there.
In my opinion, superstitious beliefs and religion have everything to do with the development of a country. In Malaysia for example, Chinese has a lot of beliefs as well as Indian. All their beliefs are a symbol of unity and various races in Malaysia. For example, the Indians celebrate Thaipussam and pierce their whole body during the festival. This is what make Malaysia interesting, the various races and festive season in it. Other than that, the Chinese belief on not to swipe the house during Chinese New Year. Other races need to respect this and live harmoniously. From the religion aspect, we can see Christianity brings both positive and negative changes in Umuofia. A well managed and efficient law system is construct, schools were build and slavery was demolished. For example, the outcast and isolated people in Umuofia finally being recognised by their society. This shows the development of the country has increased.
A superstitious belief do affect the nations in terms of politics and culture. For example, if the beliefs brings nothing but misery, it destroy the whole nation. Beliefs such as dumping baby, kills baby girl because they do not worth. This negative superstitious beliefs will affect them emotionally and spiritually which leads to clash of culture. The people will start to practice evil stuff and do not want to compromise with each other. In terms of culture, a good belief will avoid their culture to extinct. For example, KadazanDusun practice bobohizan during the harvest month. The bobohizan is a spiritual leader to call the ancestor or souls to support them to harvest more paddy during that month. Nowadays, it is rarely practice and near to extinction. The KadazanDusun generation to come will never experience such thing anymore in the future. One of the superstitious beliefs that my ancestor taught and I still practice until today is not to whistle at night. This is because it will invite the ghost or any evil spirits.
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