In all the manifestations of culture across the globe, there exist practices which celebrate life circle transitions especially from birth until the termination of human life. One of such practices is the rite of passage. One of such rites of passage is the 'ibe-ugwu' (circumcision) among the Ukawu people of Ebonyi State, Southeast Nigeria. 'Ibe-ugwu' witness the preparation and equipping of females adolescents to assume the roles of wives, mothers, and women in the society. It is the contention of this work, that the continued neglect of such cultural heritage is one of the major reasons for seeming African Igbo loss of identity, moral decadence and social vices amongst her youths today. The work advocates for a revival of such African Igbo cultural heritage. It further provides more exposition of an African Igbo culture to the wider audience and additional literature on culture, religion and law in Igboland. This research makes use of documental and interview methods of data gathering while deploying the sociological (structural functionalist) approach in its data analysis.
| Published in | Science Development (Volume 7, Issue 3) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.scidev.20260703.12 |
| Page(s) | 126-132 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Rites, Rituals, Gateway, Womanhood, IgboIand
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APA Style
Okeke, J. I. (2026). Rites and Rituals of ‘ibe-ugwu’ as the Gateway to Womanhood in Igboland: The Ukawu Example. Science Development, 7(3), 126-132. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.scidev.20260703.12
ACS Style
Okeke, J. I. Rites and Rituals of ‘ibe-ugwu’ as the Gateway to Womanhood in Igboland: The Ukawu Example. Sci. Dev. 2026, 7(3), 126-132. doi: 10.11648/j.scidev.20260703.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.scidev.20260703.12,
author = {Johnson Ifeanyi Okeke},
title = {Rites and Rituals of ‘ibe-ugwu’ as the Gateway to Womanhood in Igboland: The Ukawu Example},
journal = {Science Development},
volume = {7},
number = {3},
pages = {126-132},
doi = {10.11648/j.scidev.20260703.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.scidev.20260703.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.scidev.20260703.12},
abstract = {In all the manifestations of culture across the globe, there exist practices which celebrate life circle transitions especially from birth until the termination of human life. One of such practices is the rite of passage. One of such rites of passage is the 'ibe-ugwu' (circumcision) among the Ukawu people of Ebonyi State, Southeast Nigeria. 'Ibe-ugwu' witness the preparation and equipping of females adolescents to assume the roles of wives, mothers, and women in the society. It is the contention of this work, that the continued neglect of such cultural heritage is one of the major reasons for seeming African Igbo loss of identity, moral decadence and social vices amongst her youths today. The work advocates for a revival of such African Igbo cultural heritage. It further provides more exposition of an African Igbo culture to the wider audience and additional literature on culture, religion and law in Igboland. This research makes use of documental and interview methods of data gathering while deploying the sociological (structural functionalist) approach in its data analysis.},
year = {2026}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Rites and Rituals of ‘ibe-ugwu’ as the Gateway to Womanhood in Igboland: The Ukawu Example AU - Johnson Ifeanyi Okeke Y1 - 2026/09/29 PY - 2026 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.scidev.20260703.12 DO - 10.11648/j.scidev.20260703.12 T2 - Science Development JF - Science Development JO - Science Development SP - 126 EP - 132 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2994-7154 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.scidev.20260703.12 AB - In all the manifestations of culture across the globe, there exist practices which celebrate life circle transitions especially from birth until the termination of human life. One of such practices is the rite of passage. One of such rites of passage is the 'ibe-ugwu' (circumcision) among the Ukawu people of Ebonyi State, Southeast Nigeria. 'Ibe-ugwu' witness the preparation and equipping of females adolescents to assume the roles of wives, mothers, and women in the society. It is the contention of this work, that the continued neglect of such cultural heritage is one of the major reasons for seeming African Igbo loss of identity, moral decadence and social vices amongst her youths today. The work advocates for a revival of such African Igbo cultural heritage. It further provides more exposition of an African Igbo culture to the wider audience and additional literature on culture, religion and law in Igboland. This research makes use of documental and interview methods of data gathering while deploying the sociological (structural functionalist) approach in its data analysis. VL - 7 IS - 3 ER -
Department of Religion & Cultural Studies, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ikwo, Nigeria
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