The Appropriation of Difference: State and the Construction of Ethnic Identities in Nigeria
Author(s)
Okolie, Andrew C.
Abstract
I show that ethnic identities in postcolonial, multicultural societies are often constructed by the state and the elites that control it and use state power for accumulation and to maintain distributional inequities. With its roots in the character of colonial rule, this construction has been an important strategy of Nigeria’s elites and the state in political struggles, and competition over power, economic resources, and prestige. In Nigeria’s case, state managers, under pressure from domestic groups, international financial institutions, and governments, engage in contradictory processes of trying to promote a ‘national’ identity while also promoting ethnic/regional identities, which subvert the former. Perspectives, which only stress the primordiality of ethnic identity and struggles or see ethnicity as merely a reflection of class struggles or merely the result of the nature of colonial oppression, are seen to be inadequate.
