Beliefs, geography, and contact in the forging of traditional polities in pre-colonial Nigeria

Abstract EN

Pre-colonial Nigeria was the home of a great variety of ethnic groups that exhibited striking cultural and historical differences.

Throughout time, those peoples had evolved a number of socio-political organizations that displayed disparities in the size and form of government.

Prior to the nineteenth century, three polities, that could be classified into centralized and decentralized, could be distinguished.

These were the Yoruba kingdoms to the west, the Sokoto Empire to the north, and the Ibo villages to the east.

The urge behind doing this research is to enquire into pre-colonial socio-political organizations with a view to demystifying the form and nature of their government, and unravel the differences/similarities.

This investigation relied on a descriptive-analytical method, adopting the chronological thematic approach as a hallmark tool for the scrutinization of data.

Three themes have, hence, been selected for that sake: the origin of the polity, the machinery of government and the army.

The findings reveal that the three pre-colonial polities were basically inspired by their system of beliefs, and geographical conditions as well.

Thus, the centralized/ decentralized paradigms in the three polities were in a proportionate relationship with that parameter.

The Yoruba States and the Ibo egalitarian villages pictured, for instance, a deep impress of ancestor worship, but disparate systems of government; while the Sokoto Empire epitomized the influence of Islamic law in shaping a centralized state.

The paper argues that beliefs are an essential factor impacting the thought of people, but external contact impresses them deeply, nurturing new ideas, and new modes of organization and space management.