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Introduction
| The
Past | Contemporary
Diversity | Emerging
National Culture | Tribes In Nigeria
INTRODUCTION
Nigeria's social boundaries are often described as artificial.
This characterisation is generally acceptable in the sense
that certain ethnic groups and governmental societies were
split and located within the colonial state territories of
different European powers, following the 1884 Berlin Conference
and the subsequent legal instruments. Thus, although Nigeria
formally became one entity in 1914 after the amalgamation
of the then northern and
southern protectorates along with Lagos, many members of different
social groups found their kinsmen and friendly neighbours
just outside Nigeria's political boundaries. Yet, peoples
in the pre-colonial geographical region now occupied by Nigeria
and her neighbours such as the Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Benin
Republics, were not only linked by blood or descent but also
by trade and commerce, as well as by relations of friendship
and conflict. The above factors defined the nature of international relations
in the region. People of the different nationalities were
not totally strange to each other. Instead, there was something
natural and common to most of the people found in this pre-colonial
region. Thus, Chief Obafemi Awolowo's viewpoint that Nigeria
is "a mere geographical expression" (Awolowo, 1947)
can only still mean that one could not speak of Nigeria as
a society with a national identification in the same sense
as one could speak of say the Katsina emirate, or the kingdom
of Benin or lfe. Awolowo argued that Nigeria, being a multi-national
or polyethnic society, could not be regarded as one nation.
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THE PAST
In the very distant past, many of the peoples now located
in Nigeria shared many social values and cultural traits.
In this connection, Hambly (1935) refers to a substratum of
African culture shared in common by peoples in the region
of present-day Nigeria, particularly in its southern part.
This suggests that many of these peoples main tained a high
degree of homogeneity. Within the Nigerian region, there was
also a history of long migrations and settlements with such
a mixture of social and cultural relationships that it often
became difficult to separate the people within these settlements
into neat socio-cuttural groups.
In recognition of the above feature of the
social-cultural arrangement in the region, Arikpo (1957) I
asserted that early and long contacts between
peoples in the region promoted common understanding,
shared fate and common commitments, it was I therefore possible
for him to suggest the conclusion that "Nigeria is not
an accident ... (and) not an artificial creation."
This perspective of a high degree of homogeneity and oneness
in the region is further butttressed by the language argument.
It should be noted that language is a critical part of a people's
culture and a powerful instrument for preserving and transmitting
values and systems from one generation to another.
Most Nigerian languages belong to three main language families.
The first is the , Niger-Congo, with its subgroups, which
include such languages as the Bariba, Birom, Busa, Chamba,
Edo (including Bini and Urhobo), Efik (including Ibibio),
Fulani, Idoma, lgbo, ljo (ljaw), Jukun, Kambari, Nupe, Tiv,
Vere and Yoruba. The second major language family, the Afro-Asiatic,
consists of Angas, Bachama, Bura, Hausa, Higi, Mergi, Shuwa
and others. The third major language group is the Nilo-Saharan.
It includes Dendi and Kanuri, among others. People who speak
the different languages belonging to the Nigerian language
families have lived together as neighbours for long periods
under mutual socio-economic and ) socio-political influences
as well as under language and cultural borrowing. This language
classification , is important in postulating the universality
of Nigeria's peoples. The acceptance of this kind of argument
must modify any contention that Nigeria's past breaks up into
many "pasts," since the distinction between such
"pasts" would then be a superficial and comparatively
recent one. Any pluralisation of the "past" may
well apply to all old or new states that are plural societies
(Otite, 1975). ' Nigeria's three language families or sociocultural
units evolved, over centuries of diverse historical experiences
in different geographical regions, into the more recent and
complex heterogeneity of nations and cultures. At some point
in time, states, ) empires and complex societies, developed.
As Hodgkin (1960) points out,
a variety of links existed between the various states
and people which were the predecessors of modern Nigeria:
between Kanem-Bomu, the Hausa states, Nupe, the Jukun
kingdom, the Emirates of Oyo and Benin, the Delta states
and the loosely associated lbo communities. These relationship
sometimes took the form of war and enslavement. But they
expressed themselves also through diplomacy, the visits
of wondering scholars, the diffusion of political and
religious ideas, the borrowing of techniques and above
all trade.
Hodgkin also analysed the rise and expansion of states,
foreign religious incursions, slave trade and European political
and economic activities, following a chronological order of
seven historical periods from the eleventh to the nineteenth
centuries. He argued that the societies and states which
dominated the pre-colonial region of Nigeria communicated
amongst themselves and also depended on one another. None
was self-sufficient. In addition to their relations with one
another, they were exposed, in varying degrees at different
periods, to influences from farther afield including Mali
and Gao, Egypt and the Maghreb, western Europe and North America.
Similarly, it has been pointed out that until the arrival
of the British, northern Nigeria was economically oriented
towards Libya and Egypt.
Thus, while some peoples were brought together culturally
and socially to look inward, others found it necessary to
move outside the region now occupied by Nigeria for purposes
mainly of trade and commerce. When universal religions such
as Christianity and Islam were introduced into the Nigerian
societies, other kinds of religio-cultural interests emerged
which tended to incline the vari- ous peoples towards the
organisation of new identities with others within and outside
the region of Nigeria.
The preceding paragraphs indicate that societies and social
groups within the Nigeria region were dynamic. None was static
and none was an isolate unto itself. The peoples that shared
in the oneness resulting from the original three language
family groups have evolved, under different environments and
changing circumstances, into diverse distinct groups in contemporary
Nigeria.
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CONTEMPORARY DIVERSITY: DISTINGUISHING
CRITERIA
Each of the culturally distinct groups in Nigeria today
is an ethnic group. Ethnic groups are categories of people
characterised by cultural criteria of symbols including language,
value systems and normative behaviour, and whose members are
anchored in a particular part of the new state territory (Otite,
1990). It is pertinent to bring out a few distinct features
of this definition. The first is that an ethnic group is identified
with a particular geographical part of the country; for example,
the Ibibio of the south-eastern part, the ljo ((ljaw) and
Urhobo of the delta area, the Kanuri of the north-eastern
part and the Tiv of the middle belt area. Non-the- less, members
of the ethnic groups concerned also live and possess landed-property,
among other things, in territories outside their own.
Second, culture provides the main social marker of ethnic
groups. Members of one ethnic group, for example the Bachama
of Adamawa State or the Bini of Edo State, do things and organise
their lives in a way that is different from those of the Kagoro
of Kaduna State or the Fulani (Fulbe) who inhabit many of
the northern States.
Certain components of culture, such as language and organisational
forms, do overlap (examples are the languages of the Edo speaking
peoples in the Delta, Edo and Rivers States, and the languages
derived from Efik or Ibibio language in the Cross River and
Akwa lbom States. Such groups of languages have many corresponding
items. Yet, language is not a sole maker of an ethnic group.
Speakers and non speakers of a language may or may not necessarily
belong to the same ethnic group. The Yoruba speakers of the
Igbo or Hausa language do not necessarily belong to the lgbo
or Hausa ethnic group, and vice versa. But the lgbo non-speakers
of the lgbo language still belong to the lgbo ethnic group.
Third, ail the distinct ethnic groups form inextricable
parts of Nigeria. Each is encapsulated in a wider network
of social relations provided by the new state. Within this
framework, each group develops and manipulates its own mythology
of descent, ritual beliefs and moral practices, while its
members share an exclusive culture and normative behaviour.
Members of each group share an identity which they use as
a means of forging relationship within the political and economic
spheres and in accessing resources in the new state. Thus,
each group devices means of consolidating its boundaries sustained
by myths and symbolism. Since each group co-exists with others
in the new state, its 'social and cultural boundaries are
frequently broken through interactions. Finally, each ethnic
group in Nigeria is an interest group . It is a cultural expression
of its projected kith-and-kin ideology.
Hence, members of one group regard themselves as "brothers"
and "sisters," as members of the same "family,"
with the implied trust, reliability, mutual assistance, and
defence whenever needed or solicited. , However, ethnic boundaries
in Nigeria, as elsewhere, can be confusing and are manipulable.
Thus, as Otite, (1990) noted, whereas most Nigerians from
the northern parts of the country can speak the Hausa language
and, therefore, pose and pass as Hausa in the southern parts,
they resort to their ethnic identifications as Bassa, Kwanka,
Migili, Ningi, Rurnada, Waja, Yergarn and Physical And Human
Characteristics
lgbo or Hausa, or Yoruba, and appear in the appro- priate
dress form, saved many Nigerians during the last civil war.
In such cases, ethnic-symbolic markers become assets both
for members and non members alike and, thereby, dilute the
ethnic boundaries. Two other features need to be noted about
the people of Nigeria. First, there are marginal people who
are sandwiched between two larger ethnic groups. Such marginal
societies, usually found in shatter belts, adopt cultural
elements from both ethnic groups, for example in the mixture
of con- cepts and language.
They exist at the periphery of either of the ethnic groups
and their culture, especially language, differs somewhat from
those of the two centres or core cultures. Examples of these
societies are the Obiaruku and Orogun peoples whose cultures
and languages integrate both Urhobo and Ukwani socio-cultural
symbols in the Delta State with their linguistic continuities
and dis- continuities. The second feature relates to the apparent
extinction of some of the Nigerian peoples and their languages.
Examples include the Ashaganna in Plateau State and Bolewa
of Bauchi State. They have been reported to be nearly, if
not totally, extinct, having been culturally absorbed by neighbouring
larger groups. Thus, Nigeria has been characterised by a dynamic
ethnic pluralism, involving the extinction of some groups
and the evolution of new ones over the centuries. Currently,
scholars have identified over 350 ethnic
groups in Nigeria.
EMERGING NATIONAL CULTURE
Each ethnic group has its own identifiable way of life,
mode of dress, values, food and food habits, cultural predispositions
for members to do or not t
o do certain things, and its shared mechanisms or patterns
of socialising its members.
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Each group also has its systems of marriage and family organisation
which are affected by the system of descent and, hence, the
domination or parity of men and women in their societies.
For example, whereas the Afikpo sub-group of the lgbo people
trace descent through the female line, the Bini and Urhobo
recognise the male line as the one through which descent may
be reckoned. The Yakurr people trace descent through both
the male and female lines. These various practices of male
and female dominance and visibility in social organisations
have different implications for the economic and political
life of the people. Similarly, the culture of reverence for
kings and chiefs, which features strongly among the Yoruba,
Kanuri, Hausa and Bini, among other ethnic groups, is generally
absent among the village group arrangement of the lgbo and
others. Among the lgbo, few exceptions to the general rule
are found, for examole. Onitsha. Osamari. Oauta. Aboh and
the ancient Nri kingdoms. However, the feature of a common
pool of cultural traits, which we referred to earlier, is
gradually re-emerging, at least in principle.
There is a surviving practice of respect for parents and
elders in all the cultures found in Nigeria. There is also
the trait of communalism and altruism commonly demonstrated
by most Nigerians. This is particularly in the rural areas
and in places where traditional culture is maintained. Good
examples of these are indigenous enclaves in the urban areas,
such as the Oje of lbadan where the Yoruba culture is kept
strongly, and the Sabo of lbadan and many urban centres in
southern Nigeria where Hausa or Hausanised cultural practices
are maintained. Kindness to others, especially strangers,
and the attributes of hospitality, as well as sharing with
and helping the needy, are also extant in many parts of Nigeria.
Apart from the foregoing cultural practices, which help to
smoothen the hardships of life especially during economic
recessions and inflationary : crises, many Nigerians now share
one another's ethnic cultural practices.
This is one result of a combination of factors brought
about by the inextricable encapsulation of groups in one modem
new state. Such factors include enhanced communication system,
increased frequency of social and cultural interactions, and
common political participation and socialisation within one
country. ' Nigerians from different ethnic groups appreciate
the diversity of cultural dances, dress forms, food, handicrafts,
drumming, songs, farm implements and practices, and other
traits. For example, many Nigerians eat eba, pounded yam,
'amala'and even usi (starch) and akpu that do not traditionally
belong to their cultures. They enjoy the Efik 'Edikang-lkong',
the Hausa and Fulani tuwo, the Urhobo ukodo and the lgbo pepper
soup. Just as many Nigerian men wear the Hausa 'babanriga'
and Yoruba full traditional dress (agbada), so do many Nigerian
women now put on the Urhobo and Itshekiri george wrapper and
blouse. Many Nigerians now speak languages other than their
own and also marry from ethnic groups outside their own. In
addition, theTee is an evolution of neu tral traits adopted
from cultures outside Nigeria, and to which local traits adapted.
For example, many musicians and drummers from different ethnic
groups have adapted themselves and their styles to pop and
disco music and, lately, rap music.
Thus, the emerging national culture in Nigeria is little
more than a rag tag of sorts. Yet, it is still obvious when
you see or meet a Nigerian in the midst of other Africans
and, of course, non-Africans.
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CONCLUSION
Nigerian people and their cultures have common distant
roots. Their "pasts" can be anchored on the heritage
of the three main language families. Yet, subsequent diversities
which resuited from NIGERIA exposures to different social,
politico-economic and environmental circumstances, are now
gradually narrowing, while common traits are evolving, fashioned
by the growing interaction among the various people of Nigeria.
In spite of this homogenising development, ethnic identities
and ethnicity will persist, at least to the foreseeable future,
as the different peoples organise and mobilise their exclusive
cultural symbols as powerful means of gaining access to the
nation's political and economic resources.
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