Migrant Groups and Inter-Group Relations in Tiv Society of Central Nigeria: Pre to Post Colonial Era

Abstract

Societies and groups in Africa were mutually inter-dependent and coexisted as a whole in the pre-colonial era. This is contrary to Eurocentric views which regarded African societies as “tribes” which were isolated and antagonistic to each other in their co-existence. This paper shows that societies in Africa had series of network of relationship that bonded them to together. This existing pre-colonial network became the foundation upon which European imperialism by the 20th century wielded these Africans together into a common nationhood. This paper adopts the methodology of using oral traditions as well as archival sources in looking at the experience of the Tiv people and her neighbours, Jukun, Hausa and Alago of central Nigeria in their intergroup relationship from the colonial period to the post-colonial era.