Cultural interfaces of self-determination and the rise of the neo-Biafran movement in Nigeria
SOURCE: Review of African Political Economy
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2013
TITLE AUTHOR(S): G.Onuoha
KEYWORDS: CULTURAL PLURALISM, ETHNIC GROUPS, IDENTITY, NEO-BIAFRAN MOVEMENT, NIGERIA, POLITICS
DEPARTMENT: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 7860
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/2847
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/2847
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2013
TITLE AUTHOR(S): G.Onuoha
KEYWORDS: CULTURAL PLURALISM, ETHNIC GROUPS, IDENTITY, NEO-BIAFRAN MOVEMENT, NIGERIA, POLITICS
DEPARTMENT: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 7860
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/2847
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/2847
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
This article examines the 'cultural repertoires' of neo-Biafran separatist Igbo groups in south-eastern Nigeria, pointing to the ways in which cultural repertoires, narratives and emblems are deployed to forge a separatist ethno-political project in a multi-ethnic state. The neo-Biafran movement reveals the robustness of political resistance and the existence of multiple frameworks through which ethno-nationalist groups resist and challenge extant power structures of the state in the quest for self-determination. The article argues that ethnic groups have the capacity to initiate their own 'cultural repertories' in order to construct group identity forms of external identity the other boundaries of their own collective group identity. Myths of origin, narratives of the past, images and symbols are rooted in certain cultural repertoires, and are elaborated, interpreted, invented and reinvented to produce political identities that are complex and fluid in the struggle for political power.-
Related Research Outputs:
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- The fractured multi-ethnic state: contemporary Igbo quest for self-determination in Nigeria
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