CHANGING NATURE OF CONFLICT IN IGBO COMMUNITIES: A STUDY OF CONFLICTS IN NAWFIA SINCE THE PRE-COLONIAL TIMES TO 2000

  • Nwachukwu J. Obiakor, PhD
  • Francis E. Okafor

Abstract

Conflict has been a conspicuous item of inter-group relations among Igbo communities sine the pre-colonial times. It has had different dimensions and it was either intercommunal or intra-communal. This study explicates the nature of conflict in Nawfia both in the times before contact with Europe and the periods after the Europeans had left. Empirical observations have shown that conflicts have continued to inform the dynamics of relationship between Nawfia and its neighbours, even up till the recent times. With the adoption of the eclectic method of research and the historical approach of documentation and analysis, this study finds that there have been elaborate military alliance system adopted by Igbo communities during warfare, and this alliance system had gone a long way to determine the outcome of conflicts. The Amakom War, which was a war between Nawfia and an alliance of several neighbouring communities, underscores the foregoing. The study also finds other causes of conflict in the contemporary Igbo society through the study of the leadership debacle in Ozo title institution and the kingship tussle in Nawfia.

Published
2021-05-24
Section
Articles