Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

Culture is the repository of human traditions - long and tested solutions for a harmonious communal living in a meaningful way. It is the core of our humanity and holds some of the secrets to life's purpose. By implication therefore, People, groups or society do not exist in the abstract but are recognized and identified by their shared beliefs, values, customs, arts and most often by their religious inclinations. The embodiments of the aforementioned variables distinguish one ethnic group from the other. Nigeria no doubt is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic configuration that has accepted her fate to co-exist as one “indivisible entity” but over time has been taunted by myriads of ethnic and religious crises. One popular view notes that ethnic conflict is inevitable when different groups are forcibly integrated into one state. The Nigerian 1914 “unholy wedlock” between the northern and the southern protectorates justifies the above view. The paper shall critically examine among other issues the relationship between culture, ethnicity and religious crisis. The researchers shall be relying heavily on secondary sources for generating its data but will also strive to elicit information through oral interview of persons who are direct victims of religious crisis if need be. The paper recommends that it has become imperative to stop playing the ethnic card on sensitive matters that needs to be properly managed in order to preserve this fragile nation.

Open Full Text (PDF)