The
Traditional Political Institution in Nigeria
The first well documented state in
the northern region was the kingdom of Kanem Bornu, which emerged east of Lake
Chad in what is now southwestern Chad by the 9th century ad. Kanem profited from trade ties with
North Africa and the Nile Valley, from which it also received Islam. The
Saifawas, Kanem’s ruling dynasty, periodically enlarged their holdings by
conquest and marriage into the ruling families of vassal states. The empire, however,
failed to sustain a lasting peace. During one conflict-ridden period sometime
between the 12th and 14th centuries, the Saifawas were forced to move across
Lake Chad into Bornu, in what is now far northeastern Nigeria. There, the Kanem
intermarried with the native peoples, and the new group became known as the
Kanuri. The Kanuri state centered first in Kanem and then in Bornu, is known as
the Kanem-Bornu Empire, hereafter referred to as Bornu.
The Kanuri eventually
returned to Chad and conquered the empire lost by the Saifawas. Its dominance
thus assured, Bornu became a flourishing center of Islamic culture that rivaled
Mali to the far west. The kingdom also grew rich in trade, which focused on
salt from the Sahara and locally produced textiles. In the late 16th century,
the Bornu king Idris Alooma expanded the kingdom again, and although the full
extent of the expansion is not clear, Bornu exerted considerable political
influence over Hausa land to the west. In the mid- and late 18th century,
severe droughts and famines weakened the kingdom, but in the early 19th century
Bornu enjoyed a brief revival under al-Kanemi, a shrewd military leader who
resisted a Fulani revolution that swept over much of Nigeria. Al-Kanemi’s
descendants continue as traditional rulers within Borno State. The Kanem-Bornu
Empire ceased to exist in 1846 when it was absorbed into the Wadai sultanate to
the east.
PRE-COLONIAL
HISTORY OF THE FOREST AND COAST (YORUBA)
Nigeria’s oldest archaeological
site lies in its forested region, at Iwo Eleru near Akure in southwestern
Nigeria. Stone tools and human remains at the site date from 9000 bc. The first well-documented
kingdom in what is now southwestern Nigeria was centered at Ife, which was
established as the first of the Yoruba kingdoms in the 11th or 12th century.
Over the next few centuries, the Ife spread their political and spiritual
influence beyond the borders of its small city-state. Ife artisans were highly
skilled, producing, among other things, bronze castings of heads in a highly
naturalistic style. Terra-cotta, wood, and ivory were also common media.
Shortly after the rise
of Ife, the kingdom of Benin emerged to the east. Although it was separate from
the Yoruba kingdoms, Benin legends claim that the kingdom’s first rulers were
descended from an Ife prince. By the 15th century, Benin was a large,
well-designed city sustained by trade (both within the region and, later, with
Europe). Its cultural legacy includes a wealth of elaborate bronze plaques and
statues recording the nation’s history and glorifying its rulers.
At about the same time
as Benin’s ascendance, the major Yoruba city-state of Oyo arose. Situated
northwest of Ife, Oyo used its powerful cavalry to replace Ife as Yoruba land’s
political center. (Ife, however, continued to serve as the spiritual center of
Yoruba land.) When the Portuguese first arrived in the late 15th century, it
was the Oyo who controlled trade with them, first in goods such as peppers,
which they secured from the northern interior lands and transferred to the
southern coast, and later in slaves. In Oyo, as elsewhere throughout coastal
West Africa, the traffic in slaves had disastrous results not just on those
traded, who were largely from the interior, but also on the traders. As African
nations vied for the lucrative commerce, conflicts increased, and other forms
of advancement, both agricultural and economic, fell by the wayside. As a
result, when Britain banned the slave trade in the early 19th century, Oyo was
hard-pressed to maintain its prosperity. The Oyo state of Ilorin broke away
from the empire in 1796, then joined the northern Sokoto caliphate in 1831
after Fulani residing in Ilorin seized power. The Oyo empire collapsed,
plunging all of Yoruba land—Oyo, Ife, and other areas into a bloody civil war
that lasted for decades.
THE
IGBO
The igbo people live in the area
between Benin and Igala, the Cross-River and Niger Delta city-sistates. They
were divided into five major cultural groups: the western or Rivera in,
northern or Awka, Owerri, Cross River and Ogoja Igbo. These cultural groups
could be considered the ‘tribes’ of the Igbo nation but since they did not
possess a central government nor act together politically they were not
‘tribes’ in the sense in which that word is used to describe for example ithe
Egba or Ijebu ‘tribes’ of the Yoruba people.
Regardless of cultural differences
between the groups there were certain characteristics typical of Igbo society.
The igbo respected age and leadership came from the elders. Respect was not
servility and was balanced by the belief that birth did not confer advantage on
any man. The Ibos/Igbos were individualistic and egalitarian, every man
considering himself as good as everyone else and demanding a voice in his local
affairs. In Igbo land everyone has a right to rise in the society thus their
culture emphasize competitions in every aspects of their lives.
They are not unique in the type of
government they created. In West Africa some community like Liberia, Konkomba
of Togo land, Talensi of Ghana, Tiv in Benue etc. possessed closely political
organization closer to those of the Ibo/Igbo than the Yoruba, Dahomey, Mossey
Assente systems. The political
organization without a central government is described as segmentary system. It is headed by single person (King,
Emperor, Almami, Sultan etc.)
In southeastern Nigeria,
archaeological sites confirm sophisticated civilizations dating from at least ad 900, when fine bronze statues were
crafted by predecessors of the modern-day Igbo people. These early peoples, who
almost certainly had well-developed trade links, were followed by the Nri of
northern Igbo land. With these exceptions, Igbo land did not have the large,
centralized kingdoms that characterized other parts of Nigeria. A few clans
maintained power, perhaps the strongest of which was the Aro; the Aro lived
west of the Cross River, near present-day Nigeria’s southeastern border, and
rose to prominence in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Aro were oracular
priests for the region and used this role to secure large numbers of slaves.
The slaves were sold in coastal ports controlled by other groups such as the
Ijo.
The Onitsha Kingdom, which was originally
inhabited by Igbo, was founded in the 16th century by Igbo migrants from Benin.
Later groups like the Igala, and Igbo traders from the hinterland, settled in
Onitsha in the 18th century. Another Igbo kingdom to form was the Arochukwu
kingdom, which emerged after the Aro-Ibibio wars from 1630-1720. The Aro
Confederacy dominated southeastern Nigeria with pockets of influence in
Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon.
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