The Igbo-Hausa Case Study

Returning back to the Igbo-Hausa case in Nigeria, the effects of the British colonial rule in the escalation of ethnic conflict is crystal-clear if the perspective of Horowitz is applied to the case. The British colonial rule had established there an artificial political entity composing of distinct ethnic groups, in 1914, by juxtaposing them into a new country that they have named Nigeria. There were three major ethnic groups which were settled in different parts of the new country. As Horowitz argues for other colonized countries, the colonial rule by putting these groups into a common environment and assigning them new roles in the country altered the group interactions, and facilitated the comparison mechanism between them. That pattern …show more content…
Furthermore, in the early years of the amalgamation, Igbos in the southern parts of the country were having difficulty in feeding its population, hence a considerable amount of Igbos who were educated in general migrated into other regions and got civil service jobs there. The unequal distribution of opportunities led to unequal advantaged groups, as Horowitz suggests. Consequently, a combination of factors like location, education, and migration positioned Igbos as an advanced community, and Northerners as a backward community in Nigeria. According to the literature on stereotyping in Nigeria, Igbos were generally defined as intelligent, resourceful, industrious, tribalistic and nepotistic, whereas Hausa-Fulani people were often defined as inefficient, submissive, dependent and lacking initiative (Collier, 2012). These findings were in line with the Horowitz’ list of adjectives employed by these groups to describe one …show more content…
Applying the theory of Donald L. Horowitz, I have shown that major ethnic groups living under the colonial rule had started to compare their groups with others. The policies of the colonial power, and cultural and environmental factors varying among groups by setting the “differential opportunity structures” affected the way in which each group perceived the other and themselves, these structures also determined the classification of Igbos, Hausas, and Yorubas as “backward” or “advanced communities”. The assessment of relative group worth in the eyes of backward Hausas, or the Northerners as a whole, caused a fear of extinction and a perceived “threat of Southern domination” mounted the tension with the advanced Igbos. The pervasive ethnic violence towards Igbos living in the Northern Region started after the coup led by Igbo army officers in 1966 pogroms, then the heightened hatred consequently caused the secessionist movement of Igbo people led by Colonel Ojukwu. It led to a three-year armed conflict full of bloodshed and massacre, leaving behind the question of genocide with an estimate of three million losses (Falola et al.,