Igwebuike: Creating a Community of Strength

Team building is a backbone of any successful community. According to Pace, Smith, and Mills (1991) individuals who come together with a common agenda, planning, sharing goals, and reporting to a common superordinate, work together in the path of growth. The people of Arochukwu in Southeast Nigeria called this igwebuike. The word igwebuike etymologically came from the three Igbo words Igwe, bu, and ike which mean a community of strength. Arochukwu, an Igbo-speaking community, believes that it is the nature of a community to be strong. This community strength lies in the willingness for all members to play active roles in the community affairs by helping one another in solving problems and achieving success (pp. 130-131 ). This is why it is common in Arochukwu to say "together we stand, divided we lose." To better understand the igwebuike principle, we have to situate it in its social/cultural and traditional religious perspectives. The people ofArochukwu do not have a separation ofpower between politics and religion or economy and culture. Every branch of community life intermingles and interacts with one another and with the spirit to ensure a strong community bond. Mbiti (1969) contended that what makes the Arochukwu community strong and successful within its surrounding communities includes the active participation of the spirits in their human affairs. In fact, there is no distinct spirit world existing somewhere else, or rather outside, Arochukwu traditional culture. "The spiritual universe is a unit with the physical, and these two are intermingled and dovetail into each other so much that it is not easy or even necessary at times to draw the distinction or to separate them" (Mbiti, 1969, p. 75). In this essay, I shall explore the principle ofigwebuike in the Arochukwu traditional concepts of material and spiritual in religious and sociocultural life. Prior to that, I shall succinctly examine the effect of the traditionally inherited leadership conception in the Arochukwu culture. Because the global approach to leadership and followers has continuously failed to satisfy the need for interdependence; the gap of division, mutual fear, and instability widens. I shall examine this in relation to a servant-leadership model that has the potential to ensure peace and progress in our individual and global communities. Next, I shall examine in comparison with the Christian community concept, how igwebuike strengthens and empowers a community in a situation of brokenness. I will conclude with a recommendation of community strength as an integral part of servant-leadership in the twenty-first century.