CROSS CULTURE QUESTION; How has your hometown changed in your lifetime? How has it changed since your parents were young?

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I've always been a young lad that stays far from home and this adventurous movement of mine started from when I was 9 years old. I have been spending at least, 9 months away from home each year since my 9th birthday but each time l find my way back to my hometown usually presents a new normal to me.

It's either l'm faced with an addition of something new to the already existing norms in the town or l will be informed of something that was subtracted from our usual way of life.

Some call it change
Some say that we are evolving
Others say that we are developing

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In all, Ogidi is a town that is located in Anambra state which is in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. The town itself have really changed alot from what it used to be some decades ago and l'm sure that l will be seeing more changes there once l complete my one year national service and travel back home in few weeks to come.

It is also a town that my parents have been living in since when they were teenagers so, l will be giving you a good blend of folktales from their lips and my lifetime experience which will help to iron out the series of changes that have happened in Ogidi.

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How Ogidi have changed since the younger age of my parents till today
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Some of these are seen as a positive change while some are nothing to write home about so, get ready to feed your eyes and mind.

  • DEITIES: In the late 80s, Ogidi was well known for the way they uphold their cultural beliefs and also for the popular deity (python) which they all treated as a god.

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Stories have it that anyone that kills a python in Ogidi will host a burial ceremony for it just like how it would have been done for a human corpse. The person will also have to do some purification in a shrine/river else, the deity will take his life and that of his current and upcoming generation.

Many people reading this will probably see it as a folktale but these people do not take it lightly. I have also seen them on several occasions when they are pampering and caressing pythons.

This Current trend

This particular culture is the type that is no longer as outspoken as it used to be because the Ogidi that used to be populated by the indigens is now filled with a mixture of people from other tribes of Nigeria. The python is also not as visible as it used to be in the past.

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  • INFRASTRUCTURES: Just like many other place in Nigeria and in different parts of the world, Ogidi have also experience some level of infrastructural development. According to my parents, most of the bushes that were used as a hunting ground for antelope 😋 and rabbit are no longer in existence at the moment while most of the empty lands are now occupied with buildings.

Below is a taste of what l'm saying 👇

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1980s

That looks pretty acient so, l will allow you to paint mental pictures of what their medium of transportation would have been like.

They also faced a very interesting level of development since then till date.

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Anyone that is comparing the two pictures may still say that Ogidi experienced an epileptic growth but l know that some people will think otherwise so, you can comment your opinion below.

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There have also been other series of changes that can be noticed about Ogidi but not all these changes can be seen as a positive change.

They include;

  • Misuse of some cultural practices in order to make life uncomfortable to people. This is majorly focused on some masquerade festivals that are still being organized.

The youths that put on the costume (🤐) usually use the opportunity to hunt down the female folks and give them some lashes of their cane. In most cases, this leaves an eternal injury on the skin of their victims.

  • Cultism and their endless threat to the society: The Ogidi that I knew while growing up was completely free from any act of cultism but the current Ogidi that I'm hearing it's stories is filled with endless bloodshed for no just cause.

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I hope that the negative changes that l'm seeing and hearing of would be totally stopped so that my hometown would be a safe place for all.

Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop Or Comma

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  • This is my entry to a contest organised by Hive Cross Culture! community. Today is already the deadline but you can still CLICK HERE to be more informed about this contest and the community.

  • All unsourced images were take and edited by me using my phone camera.



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15 comments
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In all sincerity friend, I was delighted with your story, because I enjoy these issues, the deity seemed super interesting to me, surely these traditions had a lot of value when the elders preached them, from your story I see that unscrupulous people are taking advantage of It bothers me that these things happen that damage cultures so much. Undoubtedly your community has evolved in the infrastructure part but those behaviors do it terrible damage. Very good post.

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My community have really evolved and have faced a lot of changes within the last few years and I'm just hoping that we will see more changes because it is still very much an undeveloped area in comparison to many other towns in my countries

The unemployment in Nigeria is also affecting my community so I wish that it will experience a speedy delevopment

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Well it's a nice question. I'm from Imo state but i grew up in Lagos and i've been finding it difficult to speak my dialect fluently. But when i relocated to the east. Bro everything changed totally, i was forced to speak my dialect and now I'm proud to be an Igbo man.

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Yeah... Nigeria is really a place that have different languages so growing outside the community will make it hard to know how to Express herself in your language.

It's good to see that you learnt the language later and I'm sure that you are enjoying knowing how to communicate in Igbo Language

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Yeah, it was difficult, but now i'm so much enjoying it and i can feel the connection.

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By living daily in a place one is not aware of the changes, that photograph allows us to see the children who have suffered

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That's the true

photography currently makes it easier for us to have a faint idea of what is going on in different part of the world.

Thanks Dear

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This is such a cool post! This is exactly why i started Cross Culture! :-D I love learning the details about daily life and how it is changing and varies from region to region. Especially things like unique beliefs or family or romantic relationships, and seeing pictures too :-)

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I've also been able to learn a lot while reading through some of the posts that were made in response to your initiative and I have used the opportunity to understand the laws about different cultures and while some people adopt the current trends in their locality

I'm also very happy because I was able to bring back memories of my childhood while trying to write this post. I will try to be more involved in the things that are going on in this community.

Well Done Bro

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Wait what? How did I miss that initiative?
And it been since three days. I can't believe I missed a chance to also tell people about my locality 😁
Your place had really changed a lot compared to what it was before.
The two photos you shared, is it the same place or location? Or different places?

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Hahah... I'm sure that you would have used this opportunity to tell us alot about your community. You can still do it I'm pushed for our viewing pleasure.

They also released another cross-culture Question so, check it out https://ecency.com/hive-181017/@crossculture/curation-post-18-01-2020

As for those pictures, it was from different locations.

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Oh I thought as much that it's from different p
Location. I will check it out now thanks

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