Effectiveness of Incantations as a Mode of Communication in the Traditional Igbo Society

The Igbos are an indigenous linguistic and cultural people of southern Nigeria. This paper examines the Effectiveness of Incantations as a Mode of Communication in the Traditional Igbo Society. Incantation or enchantment is a charm or spell created using words. Incantations are given force by oral tradition- a practice whereby the social, political, economic, and cultural heritage of the people is communicated by word of mouth from one generation to another. It was the most predominant part of communication in many parts of Africa. Prior to colonialism, the African society, including the Igbo, used oral tradition as a veritable tool in information gathering, sharing/dissemination and indeed worship. They lived normal and satisfactory lives, cultivated, built, ate, sang, danced, healed their sick, created and communicated. Incantation is one of the modes of communication in the traditional Igbo society. In an incantation, all words stand for something and are meaningful. Most of the cultural displays of the Igbo society employ incantations in communicating with spirits. While some aspects of the practice may appear fetish and obsolete, several others are purely traditional and, destroying it out-rightly amounts to throwing away a baby with the dirty water. This article traces the effectiveness of incantation as a mode of communication and examines its uses and purposes, while highlighting the implications of allowing it to go into extinction. The Igbo race is therefore endangered, and something must be done very urgently to save the situation. There is the need for a state of emergency to be declared by the political, traditional class and elites of Igbo extraction on the restoration of Igbo traditional practices. It also recommends that the people’s way of life should not be extinguished but preserved.