Axel Harneit-Sievers. Constructions of Belonging: Igbo Communities and the Nigerian State in the Twentieth Century. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2006. ix + 388 pp. Photographs. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $75.00. Cloth.

Abstract

Axel Harneit-Sievers. Constructions of Belonging: Igbo Communities and the Nigerian State in the Twentieth Century. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2006. ix + 388 pp. Photographs. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $75,00, Cloth. The Igbo of southeastern Nigeria have become something of a archetype in contemporary debates on African modernity. While some regard them as icons of ethnic entrepreneurship and indigenous democracy, others represent them as culturally disposed to criminality and violent vigilantism. Axel Harneit-Sievers cuts through these divergent perspectives in an insightful and historically detailed examination of Igbo identity formation from pre colonial times to the present. His new book, Constructions of Belonging, considers how precolonial social organization has intersected with colonialism, Christianity, postcolonial state formation, and the legacy of defeat in the Nigerian Civil War to shape the fractious dynamism of contemporary Igbo society. Focusing on the interplay of culture, agency, and historical change, the author traces the ways in which the segmentary institutions of a stateless society have responded to the imposition of a modern state by appropriating it in their own way to achieve a form of autonomous integration. Following the lead of Peter Little's analysis of Somalia, this book argues that, in an era of authoritarian and nonperforming states, segmentary societies can provide valuable institutional resources for the development of a resilient and democratic civil society. Complex questions of culture, political intervention, and institutional change are dealt with in a clear, meticulously researched, and well-structured narrative. In four sections the book covers the nature of precolonial organization; the external influences generated by colonialism, Christianity, and the postcolonial state; the internal transformations wrought through hometown associations and chieftaincy institutions; and a set of case studies of different Igbo communities that illustrate the complex and varied ways in which historical and contemporary influences have been woven together in the construction of Igbo identity. The case studies offer rich accounts of the interaction of institutional dynamism, political opportunism, and organizational fragmentation, which have underpinned the contemporary history of the Igbo. Throughout the book, the institutions of Igbo society are treated as changing historical artifacts that have arisen in varied forms, have been altered, created, or abolished by colonial administrations, and have remained sites of struggle among Igbo politicians, historians, and a variety of cultural workers. …