Today, Igboland appears as a predominantly, if not entirely, Christian region— the only one among the three major ethnic-regional groupings of Nigeria. While figures are difficult to come by and, in any case, an individual's religious affiliation cannot always be classified unambiguously, the profound impact of Christianity on Igbo society cannot be overlooked by even the most casual visitor. Large church buildings, belonging to the old-established denominations whose European missionaries arrived early in the colonial period, constitute landmarks at central places in cities and villages; in addition there are numerous less elaborate structures, erected by less wealthy congregations. The signboards and loudspeaker-equipped vans of numerous Pentecostal churches, “healing ministries” and other “mushroom churches” maintain a high profile on the roads and roadsides all over southeastern Nigeria. By the late 1990s it had become an everyday experience, on entering a public transport vehicle, to encounter a lay preacher calling on his fellow passengers to “return to Jesus.” Christianity—in its various and often competing versions—had achieved hegemonic status in Igboland's public sphere. The Igbo intellectual elite regarded the success of Christianity as so pervasive that it began—increasingly after the end of the Civil War—to ask what losses this success may have meant for Igbo cultural identity, and to search for ways to reconcile Christianity and “Igbo tradition.”

Despite the hegemony of Christian religion in the public sphere, shrines belonging to the deities and spirits of Igbo traditional religion continue to exist and are attended to in many places. Usually, their priests and adherents neither advertise themselves nor proselytize. But at public events in the community, such as the periodic festivals when masquerades appear, the deities and spirits may play a public role, at least for those among the public who do not simply regard such events as manifestations of “Igbo traditional culture” without religious significance for themselves. Also, there are numerous people who attend church but also turn to the institutions of traditional religion if in distress. At times, this continuing copresence of Christianity and the “unconquered spirits” (Kalu 1996b: 307) has brought about manifest conflict.

A tension between Igbo traditional religion and Christianity has existed all through the twentieth century and, despite Christianity's overwhelming dominance, continues to exist today. It has had manifold repercussions, on the level of individual religious identity as well as in communal life.