The Embers of Tradition, by Chukwudum Okeke

“I couldn’t put down The Embers of Tradition. Just regrettably finished it and still expecting more pages of this treasure of tradition. But who’s best to write about the fate of twins and other brutal conflicts in old Igbo Land than the one who perilously came close to suffering the cruelty of our ancient tradition?
Chukwudum Okeke has weaved a tapestry of intrigue and joy that sustained our people even as crude as such lifestyle seems to us now.”

Bertram Okpokwasili BS. Eng Yale; D Eng.Sci Columbia University
Igbo Traditional Chief, Ichie Onyeogadilinma
Professor of Business and Digital Media
Georgian Court University

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What is birthed from a dead, despised or abandoned culture? What leads to the death of tradition in a society? These are the questions The Embers of Tradition explores with a wide-sweeping look at the effects of colonization on the culture of the Igbo of South-Eastern Nigeria through the events that transpired in one family.

Through Nweke, a respected, hot-tempered and stubborn man, his relationship with his Ikenga, his family, his best friend, and his town, we see the many far-reaching consequences, some good, others devastating, of what rose from the embers of an interrupted cultural system.

The Embers of Tradition illuminates the beauty and gore of foundational Igbo culture, and the changes through the ages, leaving one with a faint nostalgia for an uncolonized evolution. To remain relevant in a changing world, will Nweke do the unthinkable?