Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

No serious reflection on community life could be made without a copious reference on the lives and activities of individuals and people living in a particular geographical location. Community as such has been defined as a group of people leaving in one place, district or country, having common practices, ideological principles, and life styles as well as interests. It is therefore expected that these communal life styles should reflect in every other activities such as religion, politics, etc. Oraifite is a small community of people in the South East region of Nigeria in West Africa. Instead of being communal in their value system, culture, and political ideology, they were influenced by their colonizers. Respect for human values, cultures, and individual interests have been thrown to the winds. Reconciliation as a political word, used between individuals and communities has become an instrument to be adopted in this comparative analytic critical study of the African communities of old and the contemporary Africans with Oraifite community as a case study. The aim of this work is to re-adopt a new African communal life that will be very conscious of not only the individual welfare but also have regard and respect for humanity, African value system and culture as well as respect for the opinions of the less privileged members of the community. This work will be of immense benefit to most African communities that may have lost or are at the verge of losing their vital heritage following colonial influences.