TRADITIONS OF ORIGINS OF AFRICAN COMMUNITIES AS INDICATORS OF INTER-GROUP RELATIONS: THE EXAMPLE OF OGONI AND HER NEIGHBOURS IN THE NIGER DELTA, NIGERIA
Abstract
It is an acknowledged historical fact that Africa is the most ethnically heterogeneous continent in the global village while Nigeria is the topmost country in Africa with much diverse ethnic nationalities. Evidently, despite the variegated nature of their ethnic composition, arrays of disparate cultures, languages, power, sizes, influence, resources, and so on, African communities are intricately linked together by critical integrative variables. One of these ancient links is their traditions of origins. It is against this backdrop that this paper takes a critical look at how traditions of origins foster inter-group relations among African communities with special reference to Ogoni and her neighbours. This paper argues that it is instructive to study the roots of connections, which may be peaceful or war-like, between African ethnic groups as a means of providing answer to societies affected by the rising tide of centrifugal forces of inter-ethnic violence, sanguinary conflicts and keen inter-ethnic competitions. This work, which adopts combined evidence in addition with historical methods in its analysis, maintains that as their traditions of origins do not separate them from their neighbours. The work contends that the knowledge of their past historic interactions will continue to forge more intricate linkages and result-oriented connections between African ethnic nationalities.
Keywords:
Nigeria, Ethnic Nationality, Neighbours, Traditions of Origins, Inter-group RelationsDownloads
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