Research
Conflict Resolution in Pre-Colonial Benin
This study examines the context of conflict resolution in Benin during the pre-colonial period. It seeks to transcend the often emphasised explanation concerning conflicts in Africa in terms of social antagonism, rather, it examines the political, social and economic institutions of pre-colonial Benin to demonstrate the point that development in Africa as emphasised by some European writers were not the product of European presence in the continent of Africa. The study employed the historical method of collection and interpretation of data in its analysis. The study found that prior to the coming of Europeans, Benin like other states of West Africa, had its indigenous mechanisms for conflict resolution and thus contributes to the debate as to whether African states owed their existence with regards to socio-political and economic organisation to European presence or not.
Cultural Ties and the Challenge of Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Nigeria; A Study in Historical Origins
The Challenges of conducting and having a free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria have become daunting. The issue of ethnic politics is undoubtedly, one of these challenges. Thus, the concept of ethnicity and politics in Nigeria is crucial in the analysis of Nigeria’s political development in the colonial and post-colonial period. The character of the nationalist movements which later lost its initial unity of direction to factional pressures and the emergence of the Federal principle that was reinforced by the evolution of separatist and regional outlooks had their foundations in the intrusion of ethnic considerations into practical politics. This paper examines the beginnings of the politicization of ethnicity in Nigeria and the role that cultural ties can play in improving it. The work relies on primary and secondary data for its analysis. The secondary data were subjected to textual and contextual analysis albeit adopting the historical method that involves the collection and interpretation of data. The study shows that ethnicisation of politics in Nigeria predates the often emphasized crisis within the Nigerian Youth Movement in 1941 by scholars and that cultural ties and even organisations like mosques, churches and officials of different religious and belief systems working together, could be used to integrate the various ethnic groups while maintaining their identities, as ways out of the ethnic politics ‘nightmare’.
The Travails of African Women in a Globalized Economic System: Glimpse from Pottery Industry of Oto-Edo and Ughevbughe, Western Delta, Nigeria
This paper is an interrogation of the link between the social crisis extantly experienced by modern African women and the change that occurred in the economic system within the first six decades of the twentieth century. It examines the social basis of Oto-Edo and Ughevbughe women involvement in the pottery industry as a way of demonstrating the nexus between production activities and the needs of Ughievwen society under the indigenous economic system. In the conclusion, the paper posits that efforts shouldnot only be geared at evolving developmental programmes that will extricate us from dependence on monocultural economy (dependence on crude oil), but also, a re-orientation and aggressive implementation of policies that would show case the productive capacities of women albeit integrating same in our educational curriculum. Empowering women as “mothers†of the society is one sure way of solidifying the society and engendering peace and progress.
