"…TO LIVE OUR SEPARATE LIVES": Politics, Ethnicity and Change among the Igbo of Nigeria
Ogbuagu, Felix
Dalarna University, School of Humanities and Media Studies, History.
Within the theoretical framework of ethnicity, this thesis examines the identity of Ndigbo in the years following the Nigeria-Biafran war. The thesis presents a comparative academic discussions of Igbo ethnic identity from the time of Nigeria's independence in 1960 to the time after the war, a review of the history of Nigeria from 1979 to 2014 – in a timeframe that is based on Nigeria's political/ historical development – with focus on the escalations of religious conflict that have characterized the history of the nation and also speeches and interviews of Biafra protagonists on the reason for the agitation for Biafra. The study suggests that the Igbo identity was first strengthened by the events that preceded the Nigeria-Biafra war and the war itself, and now, the rise of radical, militant and political Islam that has enveloped the history of the nation for the period of over thirty years has resulted in a change of identity of the Igbo to a religious Christian identity.