Cultural Imperitives and the Fates of the People of Northern Nigerian By Tukur Dan-Muazu Forwarded by Ibrahim Waziri BEING
A PAPER PRESENTED AT A WORKSHOP ON STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
IN “People
are no longer willing to submerge their identities or
forego their social and cultural uniqueness for the sake of
achieving unity or National Integration”.
(Steven
Nkom, 1994)
INTRODUCTION
All colonially created
nation-states are artificial in their essence and form.
They were conceived with little if any thought of the best
interest of the peoples cordoned within.
The colonial creators of nation – states-in
Scholars (A.A. Mazrui, 1990;
Basil Davidson, 1992; Walter Rodney, 1972) have found out that the
pre-colonial
There were large social-political formations for eons in
pre-colonial African. Walter
Rodney identifies, at the highest level seven political formations in
the then African. These
comprises of the
This form of socio-political organisation, it should be noted,
were not a matter of chance occurrence.
It is governed by not only the benign matter of geographical
propinquity, but also in the main by the logic of cultural affinity.
As it is said, birds of the same feather flock together.
It must be confessed that these formations and the sub-formations
were not demarcated by razor sharp boarders, as obtainable in today’s
scrambled nations-states. Nevertheless,
the cultural defining lines were known, intuitively felt and respected
by the Africans and those who accorded them respect.
That
The organised culture-based-formations had served Africans so
well. They eschewed the
possibility of total anarchy. They
served as a basis for healthy economic competition.
They served as the basis for consciensious and moral action of
both the community and the individual.
It should be remembered that culture as the basis for
socio-political organisation is a universal fact.
In
In this paper we shall have a glance at the imperative of culture
and how they might serve to shed light on the current upheavals wracking
the Nation-Sate, THE CULTURAL IMPERATIVES AND THEIR INESCAPABLE LOGIC
Before dwelling into the imperative of culture let us see what
culture itself stands for. Culture
is defined as the arts of living as human.
This implies that it is a purely conscious human affair, and
however it affect instinct it is never instinctive.
By further implication, since it is a conscious and
non-instinctive affair, it is subject to variation and change.
This explains its relativity and dynamism.
Functionally, however, culture is seen as those communal stragem
for reconciling man with the complexity of a relatively hostile
universe. It affords man as
a member of a certain community with the basic tools for the
categorisation of phenomena around him in terms of their values and
worth.
Now following this sketch we shall itemise the imperatives of
culture. These imperatives,
and by their very nature, are irreduceable and universal.
Their General political implications are self evident. 1.
Culture
provides the deepest motive for collective actions.
Our collective behaviour whether economic, social, political is
heavily dictated by the culture we adhere to.
Infact culture is at the base of all individual and collective
modes of life (A.A. Muzrui, 1990). 2.
All
cultures are hegemonic, that is to say all cultures seek dominance (N.
Parkinson). 3.
Rivalry
among cultures (a corollary of the second imperative).
The rivalry among culture has some inherent logic:
the further the affinity between two culture the greater the
rivalry leading to conflict. The
intensity of the conflict in turn is governed by the same logic.
To illustrate this let us consider the fact that when two closely
linked cultures are locked in conflict the damage would be limited by
some tacit rules of engagement which erupt from common values.
Whereas the reverse is the case with remotely connected cultures. 4.
The
more the shared values and ethos between cultures the closer their link
(and the less intense and damaging their rivalry) 5.
All
cultures are inimical to change. Cultures
as organic entities, by some inherent mechanism, resist changes to their
core set of values. Despite
the dynamism and adaptability of cultures they do have irreducible core
of value the change of which can only be brought about by force.
For instance the Church centred THE
IMPLICATIONS OF THE CULTURAL IMPERATIVES ON THE NATION-STATE,
This state of many nations dubbed
These processes set the tone and character of the nation-state,
Going by the cultural imperatives it is clear that no nation can
prosper without the
dominance of one guiding cultural spirit.
Unfortunately for this colonial patch-work, there were three
nucleus of cultural formations cordoned in it.
These three nucleus, as it were, had been hitherto providing the
necessary guiding spirit for extensive politico-cultural formations.
To be more clear, in
We should be aware that these facts are applicable throughout
organised human existence, at global level too.
We know of the dominance of such culture cum civilisations such
as Babylonian, Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, Islamic (Arab)------.
Indeed the history of progress is a history of the dominance of
these cultures in the world. Currently
we speak of Western culture. We
got influenced by it willy-nilly. Infact
the world progresses in its charted course, however unwholesome it may
be.
Coming back to
We shall at the point recall some critical incidents in
Shall we also recall the 1966 coup?
Was it compelled by economic motives or cultural?
We shall ask same question about the 70’s civil war. The further the Nigerian strange-bed-fellowship drags on, the more bitter the rivalry. A more blatant cultural acrimony is seen in the Okar coup. THE
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