Nigeria:Igbo domination fear' of the fifties and sixties

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - Oct. 6, 2016 - PRLog -- Question:  So much has been said about the 'Igbo domination fear' of the fifties and sixties, which to a certain extent was one of the accelerants of the Nigerian-Biafran civil war. From where did this sentiment come, who were these Igbos who dominated Nigeria, and on what basis did other tribes think the Igbos dominated them?

Answer: 'Again, another excellent question, and I love that you brought this up.' Then a pause, shorter in time but, going by the level of focus, deeper in thought than the pause in the first answer.

The domination fear was a mixed bag in which one can find errors of perception and errors of unrestrained emotion, but of course also some undeniable reality. The country was fearful of two categories of Igbos; those in private enterprises and those in the federal civil service.

Igbos are great travelers, traveling to the northern and the western parts of Nigeria. Out of necessity the Igbos travel.  We have a large population but a smaller land mass, and our soil is not as fertile as in other parts of Nigeria. However, shops prosper when our people set them up. Life blossoms when our people move into communities.

Under small shanties, the Igbos sell leather, turn into merchants, trade in palm kernels and weave baskets to sell, set up bicycle and shoe repair services, and open barber shops and hair weaving shops.

What the Igbos saw as versatility at handiwork, other tribes saw as evidence of domination.

Thinking for a few seconds and remembering the civil service sector of that era, he said, 'Yes, there is no denying it - our people were plentiful at the federal level.'

The Igbos are pragmatists.  At one level they led the national fight to wrestle power away from the colonialists, yet at another level they imitated the white man's mode of life, assisting them with governance, attending their schools, cooking for them, cleaning their houses and tending their gardens.

Yorubas, the other major tribe, were less enchanted, and were very suspicious and contemptuous of the white man. They consulted their gods, and assailed the white man with phantom punches, talismans and seven serpentine witches.

Because of the Igbo's ongoing relationship with the white colonialists, upon the latter's departure more Igbos stepped into their roles as federal civil servants and law-enforcement officers.

Envy, resentment, and paranoia grew from the other major Nigerian tribes against the Igbos and their kin, lamented the professor.

Smelling bloodshed, I shifted uneasily.  Where my right palm had been soothing my cheek a temperature had developed, hotter than on day three of malaria fever.

Nothing new: the devil in man will always find reasons to brutalize another man.

Many Nigerians joined the mob mentality of the sixties with the Igbos as scapegoats. Vilification is the fuel from which mayhem erupts; in this case, the Nigerian –Biafran war, which lasted from 1967 to 1970.

End.

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