Religion the Opium of the People

An Examination of Religion on the Igbo Tribe Of Nigeria During and After the Colonial Experience ABSTRACT Nigeria was amongst other African nations that were colonized by the West. The British colonialists found it an easy task to impose the indirect rule policy, Christianity and Western education to the Southern part of Nigeria, only indirect rule to the Northerners who had Islam and vehemently rejected Western education and Christianity to the Western Igbo since their culture, egalitarian and individualistic nature made it difficult to introduce their administrative pattern. Withe the aim of suppressing their will for revolution, the British introduced Christianity with its illusory messages of peace and salvation. This paper uses Karl Marx’s concept of the ‘Opium of the People’ from Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right to discuss how religion (Christianity) became an opium to the Igbo tribe and an effective means of control in the administrative system of indirect rule. This was meant to promote cheap form of colonial government, exploitation and discourage resistance. Then this is the feedback for the abstract: m not clear what your argument is here, but it seems to be that religion was a cheap way to rule over the Igbo, to anesthetize them from their situation. Why was this an effective strategy? You seem to hint that religion works as an opiate, after Marx. But here you’re doing more than that: you’re showing it as a tool of oppression inflicted on the colonized subject, not merely the peasants of one’s “own” society. This seems to be a bit of a critique and a confirmation of Marx at the same time. Why wasn’t their own tradition an effective opiate? Why was Christianity a successful one, even if it was imposed by the colonizer? I want to make it just during colonialism not to include the after because the Prof. says it’s too much for a term paper.