Abstract:
Human development is one of the Catholic post Vatican II vision in modern
times. Co-incidentally, traditional Idoma society epitomized this vision in the
paradigm of Inyilowo. Unfortunately owing to their negative attitudes to
traditional Idoma society, the early missionaries did not reckon with the
entrenched influence of Inyilowo figure in meaningful talk of human
development. The thesis is an effort in integrating the rich meanings of traditional
Inyilowo into the central Christian vision of Christ as the new Inyilowo of Idoma,
for proper inculturation of Catholic human development in the area. Data for this
thesis are sourced from primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include
oral interviews from randomly selected individuals in (six) selected
circumscriptions of the Diocese, observations and casual discussions with
experienced people within and outside the Diocese. Secondary sources consist in
consulting library and archival materials, books and journal’s articles, newspaper
publications and magazine articles. Data are gained and presented through
descriptive method. The over all findings of this thesis are that the missionaries
bequeathed to us a distorted image of Christ. But the Catholic Church in this
diocese can, through the inception of this new programme on human development
carry the masses along on a positive attitude to their traditional culture using
Christ as the Inyilowo of the people. Secondly, both the elite and educated
illiterates of Idoma avidly desire an integration of the best in their traditional
culture with the current programme of the Catholic Church in their area. It is
therefore envisaged that the content of this thesis will serve the desired need:
genuine human development based on the model of Christ the Inyilowo in the
light of the findings and suggestions of this thesis.
