ABSTRACT
This research work examined the Ife Ji Oku festival in of Ibusa community in Delta State. It interrogated the chaotic and destabilizing situation of festivals in Africa. To achieve the basic objective of this study, the study was divided into five functionally related chapters. To start with, in chapter one a broad introduction to the study with references to background to the history of Ife Ji Oku festival in Ibusa nation. Following that, the purpose of the study was started, viz to dispel the growing negative perception that Ife Ji Oku festival did not have great impact on Ibusa people. The methodology of study was clearly stated to include archival materials and written materials. The scope of study was noted to be before and after 1900, after which relevant literature relating to the work was thoroughly reviewed. The study also examined historical background of the Ancient Ibusa people, particularly the economic, political and social history of the Ibusa which was reviewed in the chapter. Consequently Ibusa is a community in the present Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State Nigeria. "Ibusa is a dusty, hilly little town", bounded to the North-East by Asaba which hosts the capital of the State, and Ogwashi-Uku to the West, North-West by Azagba, to the North by Okpanam, East by Okwe, South-East by Oko, South by Aballa and South-West by Olodu. 56 In summary, the imposition of colonial rule on Nigeria has given many people that Euro-centric view that there was no socio-political as well as economic development in Nigeria and that festival have never been a part of the development of the society including Ibusa in before the coming of the colonialists.1 The best that can be said here is that this Euro-centric view no longer holds because a close look has been taken into our pre-colonial societies, using Ibusa and their festival as a case study and we have come to realize that this view is false and stereotype, and what colonial rule really did was to destabilize the generality of the pre-colonial societies. Therefore, it becomes evident that the nature of colonialism caused profound structural changes in the traditional Nigerian societies, and from the point of view on the lives of men and women, one cannot out rightly conclude as completely negative or completely positive. With the implementation of the British Colonial System and its Western values, a strong male domination was imposed on all spheres of social life (politics, economy, law, religion and education) in both direct and indirect ways.
