ABSTRACT
Eidetic images are defined as visual images ‘persisting after stimulation, relatively accurate in detail, coloured positively, and capable of being scanned’. On the basis of quite casual impressions and of astonishing anecdotes, it has long been opined that the incidence of such images among non-literate peoples is likely to be higher than among the literate. This chapter explores the problem among the Ibo of Eastern Nigeria in April 1964. The informants were selected haphazardly, not randomly. For purposes of this analysis, they are divided into two samples, called urban and rural. The urban group comes from in and around Enugu, the capital of the Eastern Region of Nigeria, with an estimated population of more than 60, 000. The chapter demonstrates a high incidence of eidetic imagery in a small, haphazard sample of Ibo. The presence of such imagery decreases slightly with schooling and age but not significantly so from a statistical standpoint.
